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By Melisa Tang

'Oi! Who's that More Fire Crew?' was the question on everybody's lips when these guys first hit the big time in early 2002. The fast and furious style of emceeing on their debut single was a surprise hit, seriously denting the UK top ten. Deemed too raw for mainstream radio, support from high profile DJs, like The Dreem Team, Luck and Neat, and Commander B, helped to make their first single, 'Oi!', an anthem for youth everywhere. Now, following the release of their debut album, 'More Fire Crew CV', the group are aiming to take garage back to the top of the charts.

Hailing from various parts of East London, their story begins with members, Ozzie B, 20, and Lethal B, 20, going to secondary school together. "When we were at school we would just freestyle in the classroom whilst we were waiting for the teacher to arrive. After a while, people would listen in to our rhymes and give us respect saying that we were the best MC's in the school." Ozzie and Lethal soon joined up with their friend Shaunie B, who was a DJ on 'Amy FM', and formed a crew called the 'Cream Team'. Meanwhile, More Fire's third prospective member Neeko, 21, was in Chingford Hall Estate, keeping out of trouble by going to sound engineering training. Destiny was written in the summer of 2000, when Ozzie, (who had left the Cream Team for the Mad Dog Crew), and Neeko, also a Mad Dog member, were invited to guest emcee on, 'Amy FM' by Shaunie B. This led to them hooking up with Lethal, who had become a resident MC at the same station. "Since we were in crews that weren't working, we [Ozzie, Lethal, Neeko] thought that we should come together and make a crew that was gonna work."

Continuing as a trio to do weekly slots on the radio, and receiving good responses to their stage performances at nightclubs, they quickly began to establish themselves on the garage circuit. With Lethal B and Neeko naming themselves after their favourite films, ('Lethal Weapon 3' and 'Nico'), and Ozzie using the short-form of his first name, Osmond, the trio needed a moniker for their crew that would stand out from other garage acts already on the scene. The term 'More Fire Crew', according to Neeko, "came from me. 'At the time, we were going through different sorts of politics, because a lot of people had bad attitudes towards us. The name came about when I got fed up of all the negativity and just called the crew More Fire - the target of our fire being all the haters and the bad-minders."
In their struggle to achieve success, the More Fire Crew would find themselves constantly in the studio writing lyrics and trying to put tracks together. It was during one of these sessions that they came up with the lyric that was to be the centre point of their debut release, 'Oi!'. "Ozzie and Neeko would laugh when I would drop it into my rhymes, until someone picked up on it." After working on additional vocals, local producer, Platinum 45, eventually laid the backing track. "At first it was just a quiet underground tune, people might have heard it on the radio or in the club, but that's it. Then all of a sudden, certain DJs got hold of it, really boosting it." The crew knew they had achieved something big when DJ's like Pete Tong and Steve Lamacq from Radio 1 began to play the track, making it a huge crossover success, rarely seen in garage music.
Signed to Polydor Records in 2001, the three began work on their debut LP, during which time many more garage crews surfaced. Yet, Neeko is unfazed by the competition. "A lot of these youngsters grew up roaming the streets, and this music thing is a way of getting out of there. At the end of the day, they're turning a negative into a positive. The talent that's coming through are saying some good stuff, whether it's what they've lived or what they want, it's good for the scene overall."

Despite achieving mainstream success, the More Fire Crew are determined to keep close contact with the underground scene, which supported them from their humble beginnings. One way of ensuring their presence is still heard on the street level is by appearing on two pirate radio stations a week in London, and travelling to Birmingham to do a radio show on Sundays. "If you don't get the underground support, then I don't think you can make it out there. You can't lose their love, because when the over-ground don't want you anymore, what you gonna do? Once we did 'Oi!' we took time out to do the album, but in doing that, we lost the underground. So these past few months, we've just been working our ar$$es off, so that the streets know about More Fire again."
The underground work seems to have paid off in terms of the response to their LP. "A lot of people are feeling the album, even though the promotion surrounding it wasn't that great. It could have been a thousand times better. But yeah, regarding the album, everyone's just been saying that it's good." One particular track that has been causing a stir, is the hip hop/RnB collaboration, 'Fallen Soldier', featuring label-mate, N'Jay. "That track was for two of our friends that we lost in similar car accidents, within two weeks of each other. We did the track for them at first, and as we completed it, we lost someone else. 'Fallen Soldier' - that's just for everyone who's lost anyone. The track's been big, we've gotten a lot of good response from it." More Fire are now contemplating whether to use this as their third single, following the previous release of 'Back Then' in January.

Although the current status of garage music is in debate, Neeko feels that things are starting to grow again. "You've still gotta hear from Dizzy Rascal, Row Deep; Jaimeson doing well, and Asher D's still got a few things to say. Garage is on the up again." With the release of their new material, More Fire intend to resuscitate the genre. When asked about the whole battle aspect of hip hop crossing over to garage, Neeko agreed it was happening 100%. "Yeah, I think the hip hop scene is a bit upset now, because we came and bootlegged their idea, and started battling each other, which is good. It's making everyone write longer, write harder, 'cos you can't get away with what you were doing before. If you were slipping then, no one would tell you, but now there's a battle, you have to keep your game tight." The group also spoke out against the association that has been made between violence and garage music. Lethal B's opinion, "This violence situation has been around for time, before garage was here. Look at what George Bush and Tony Blair are doing, and they wanna talk about violence in garage." They refuse to blame the promoters for the trouble arising in clubs, believing that the responsibility ultimately lies with those who take it upon themselves to go into raves with a gun.

With such a responsible and realistic outlook, it's easy to understand why the More Fire Crew were approached by the local London authorities to front a new campaign encouraging young people to vote in the 2002 May elections. "They liked our track, and wanted us to lay down a little remix version of 'Oi!' to get youngsters to vote." Unlike many, Neeko thinks that voting does make a difference, because it allows people to have their say. "People talk about there not being enough youth clubs, but if a lot of people use their vote to put the right people in power, then things will get done. You can't say nothing's being done if you're not using your vote."
Aware that their proactive stance make them role models, More Fire try to do the right thing, even adopting a 'no swearing' policy on their earlier records. Neeko admits that as a child, he wasn't as focussed on education as he should have been, though he recognises the importance of it. "You won't amount to much without some form of education. You need something to fall back on." If he wasn't an MC, Neeko believes that he would have ended up in college, studying sound engineering before going onto university. Asked about a recent report that monitored GCSE results by race, suggesting that Afro-Caribbean children under-performed more than any other race in education, Neeko was dumbfounded. "That's a tricky one in itself. I really couldn't tell you the reason for that, I really don't know." He is, however, more sure about the crew's future, envisioning a label, a More Fire empire.

More Fire Crew C.V. - The Album Out Now