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By Angharad Williams

UK Hip Hop is going to blow. It’s been happening for a while but the talent from the underground is finally having its voice heard by the mainstream. Tesmond Rowe is Def Jam UK’s newest signing under the name of Taz. Some may think he’s ‘made it’ on this factor alone, but as many know Def Jam UK have not got the best reputation when signing artists, so he still has to work to gain his respect. He’s been hard at work on his debut album ‘Analyse This’ which is in the shops now, but as his debut single suggests not even a cold can contain him. Bunged up with a supply of tissues, many of us in his state would have taken to our bed; Taz came to the label to face an onslaught of interviews and had to deal with my outpouring of sympathy in a small meeting room in the labels headquarters.

There is some serious love being shown to the Jamaican born MC. His debut single ‘Can’t Contain Me’ is sharp, witty, catchy and so addictive that it has created quite a buzz in the underground. “The beat was done for Busta Rhymes originally,” he said. “When I came to the record company they was like ‘No, we can’t give that to Busta. You have to take that for yourself.’ It was like [sings] ‘Busta they can’t contain you’ and then I just changed it to ‘T.A.Z they can’t contain me’.”

This is not his first release, his two12” releases ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ and ‘Wish Me Luck’ gained the respect of the streets and brought him to the attention of the music industry. The bouncy sounds of ‘Can’t Contain Me’ are a complete contrast to the hardened beats and harsh rhymes of both his previous releases; “Can’t Contain Me’ has that mad kinda different sound whereas ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ or ‘Wish Me Luck’ have that more hip hop sound - It’s different, but it’s still hip hop.” He continued, “It’s crazy, with 'Can’t Contain Me’, I’m basically sayin’ that it’s been a long time and the industry’s been trying to contain me and now I’m coming out the box.” With the single on constant rotation on stations like 1Xtra and as his name comes up more and more in discussions of whose gonna be big on the UK hip hop scene it seems that nobody can contain this twenty three year old.

"I grew up listening to a lot of Biggie and Tupac. I started DJing in Jamaica, when I was younger and began rapping over other people's songs," he said of his early days. Moving between two very different countries wasn’t easy and he had to learn quickly how to fit into the UK lifestyle when he moved here at 12 years old; “I lived most of my life in the UK. Jamaica’s cool. It’s a cool country, taught me discipline, I went to school there for a while. England is where I feel at home, it’s a nice country…I knew one day I was gonna make it and that kept me going” says Taz who was at one point unemployed and living on benefit. “You have to learn to survive living in a city like London. Y’know you do your little ‘dis hustle ‘dat hustle. I knew a man who used to have catalogues and he used to come and drop me off a little thing, a couple of shirts, jeans, and jumpers. I’d sell them on, make myself a little money, y’know hustlin’. You have to know the London way like Del Boy from what’s its name...?” We reply in unison laughing “Only Fools and Horses!” From the mean streets of London Taz went on to spend six month in the army “I got kicked out early due to bad behaviour” he said proudly. “I was an ‘Unsuitable Soldier’ which means I won’t be going back there again.” Despite the army’s strict regime, Taz kept working on his music, which he was determined to make more then just a dream.

Having left the army Taz began producing as a way to break into the competitive and fickle music industry and it was then he hooked up with Dizzie Rascal's manager and went on to be the co-producer of Dizzee Rascal’s 'Just A Rascal’; “Dizzee heard some of my rhythms and I said ‘I’m gonna make a special rhythm for Dizzee’ and I came up with the ‘Just A Rascal’ sound in my head. I done a chorus showed it to his manager, who is my manager now; they heard it and liked it. Dizzee did the chorus and the verses and its history from that.” These days Dizzee is creating quite a buzz across the Atlantic and is appearing on more and more mixtapes; “I knew Dizzee would blow!” Taz said without a hint of pretension. He is thankful to Dizzee for giving him an insight into the music industry which so many young artists lack; “Before I came in the business I learnt so much from Dizzee. Now that it’s my time to blow, I’ve seen a lot of what the business can throw at you; I’m kinda used to the pedals on the bike.” His Drive and ambition has taken him to where he is “I refuse to be a stereotype.” He said fervently. “I refuse to be what you think I’m gonna be because of my area and surroundings. They think you’re gonna be a thief, a murderer, or gonna be a shooter – I’m just a normal guy.”

Some may be asking why Taz is so special – why did he get signed to Def Jam? He explained, “DJ Semtex [A&R at Def Jam] ask me to do a remix of Ashanti’s ‘Rock With You’ and ‘Rain On Me’ and he gave me a heads up. I used the money from that to do ‘Only God Can Judge Me’. He heard half the verse and chorus and said ‘We gotta get this cracking’. He got in touch with my management and said ‘listen, I wanna give this boy a deal.” After his work with Dizzee it was only a matter of time before a major picked him up. Being a producer and rapper sets him apart from other artists; “With companies in England they don’t like spending money on producers and writers. If you write, rap and produce for yourself it’s so much help for the labels. If you just rap you have to rap tremendously because they’ll still have to spend money on producers.” Although Def Jam are synonymous to artists like Ludacris, Joe Budden and DMX, Def Jam UK does not have the best reputation for signing quality artists nor promoting their high quality artists in a way they deserve. “I think they’re trying to change that now.” the 23 year old said with a knowing look, “There can’t just be Taz, there has to be Skinnyman, there has to be Wiley. It’s like I don’t want it to be just about Taz. The British music scene needs to build up. A lot of people need to come in to increase the scope.”

One way Taz is building up the industry is through his production team Poison Element and his own label R.O.B.E.; “R.O.B.E.: Recognition of British Entertainment, that’s the label that’s coming out in the future. I don’t like to talk about labels now and be like ’we’re gonna be the biggest label’, but look out for things to come from us. We’re gonna keep building, we’re building up artists; developing British artists we reckon are big at the moment. We got Scorpion, Sprakett and some others who are on my album.” Having seen the industry from the wings with Dizzee and now head on as an artists he makes no secret of the fact that the music industry is tough; “This music thing is not a dream life, it’s very hard. You have to do interviews when you do not want to do them [like today when he’d much rather be in bed]; you have to be nice to everyone. It’s the reality it’s not a game where you pop a lot of champagne in the clubs. I hardly get to go to a club; I don’t see no clubs no more.”

Having made it to this point in the interview with only the odd sniffle and coughing session he was ready to head home to bed. As a producer there are a few other producers he’d like to work with “I respect Missy, Timberland, The Neptunes and Kanye West. It will happen, next album, it’s definitely gonna happen. Missy Elliott definitely, it’s in the pipeline. I hope to have many more albums and start acting. I wanna move to Hollywood and do a Will Smith kinda thing [laughs]. Guy Ritchie has my number – I’m a hook up with him. I think I have the potential to do so; I’m the kind of person who can do what ever I wanna do. I wanna do more production with some crazy artists, Kylie Minogue, Ozzy Osborne. Why should I be like the norm? Ozzy and Kelly Osborne here I come!”

www.tazonline.co.uk