Hip Hop Is Eternal: Peace Rowston, thanks for talking to us today. You’ve recently released your single “Doctor Of Dopeness Remix” and previously “Things Have Changed”, can you tell us a bit about the songs?
Rowston: Doctor Of Dopeness Remix features Half Decent and Maya Miko, it’s produced by Xtrasound with cuts and scratching by Vix and Things Have Changed is produced by Sensei Walingh with the cuts and scratching done by Vix too.
I did the original Doctor Of Dopeness song which sampled the Doctor Who theme produced by Sion De Freitas and then we decided to do the remix featuring other artists too. On the remix there’s a lot of the TV series Doctor Who references by all of us but it’s an overall metaphor applying to our music.
Things Have Changed is describing how things are different and have changed from the era of Hip Hop I grew up in.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: I like the artwork for both songs, can you tell us a bit about them?
Rowston: The Doctor Of Dopeness Remix cover is reinforcing the metaphor in the song, in one of the lines I say..
“I’m ahead of my time, the booth is my tardis”
So in the cover artwork the booth is a tardis, there’s speakers, mic, mixer etc and it’s just a metaphor for cooking up dope shit in the lab. It carries on even down to the Sonic Screwdriver that I’m holding in the cover which in Doctor Who is a device that has power over sound waves, frequencies and signals so it all fits in. Check it out and people may pick up on a number of things in the artwork.
On the Things Have Changed cover it has somebody at the front who represents how things have changed in Hip Hop over the years with the more traditional ones looking on in the background. Both covers were done by the same illustrator.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: There’s a lot of content in Things Have Changed, let’s talk about that song, what inspired you to write it?
Rowston: The state of things you listen to on the radio, the everyday shit. On a mainstream level things have changed and are different, how they look, how they sound, just in general. Instead of life experience a lot of people are talking from a hype and clout standpoint.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: One thing I like about the song is how it has scratching and cuts in the chorus, is keeping those traditional elements in some of your songs something that is important to you?
Rowston: Scratching and sampling are elements that are an important part of the culture which sometimes seems like it’s a dying art in the mainstream, it’s just as important as the bars. Some don’t use it anymore and follow a simple formula which gives them the best opportunity to make money, which is their prerogative, but for me I take pride in my work and like to be a bit more creative.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: There’s a lot of potent content and lyrics in the song. When you said…
“Preservation not diminish, start again not finish
And redefine the meaning of what they see as lyrics”
Can you tell us what you meant by that? How would you like to see lyrics within Hip Hop redefined?
Rowston: Preserve not diminish and not devalue the craft and Hip Hop beginning a new chapter to advance the culture, the art and maintain the quality. Quality over quantity with what we do, a certain demographic growing up we were spoilt.
Redefining in the sense some people nowadays are easily pleased with some of these rappers, it’s not necessarily their fault but what they’ve been exposed to and force fed. People have misread in regards to what they think is quality and what is actual quality.
Quality was replaced with quantity over time, so we’re in a time now where the standard has been diminished, at least on a mainstream level. It’s in no way disrespect intended but people will look at certain mainstream rappers like they are God tier but from who I grew up listening to they aren’t to me so I have a different outlook of what a God Tier MC is, to me it’s MC’s like Rakim, Kane, KRS-One, Big Pun, Biggie, Pac.
So I’d say take control, show the courage and bravery, don’t be afraid to not conform and make the shit you want to make, not the shit you think everyone wants to hear, cause people can hear when it’s contrived.
Make the music you want to hear, too many people are scared to be themselves. If you find an authentic working formula for yourself as an artist you can be successful and have longevity, you can create success for yourself by having a lane and not being a fad that comes and goes.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: So you say things have changed, a lot of those changes for the worse. I agree with that even though there’s a lot of great Hip Hop being made currently too, from what you said previously and also in the song you specified “when you mention mainstream names” though which makes sense. So what would you like to see change in Hip Hop? What changes would you like to see to Hip Hop now to change for the better from this point onwards?
Rowston: More of a balance, there’s too much over saturation and dilution so a lot of the quality isn’t being heard and you got to dig in them crates. More control, the wrong people are controlling shit, indoctrinating others to what they think the culture is and isn’t and they don’t give a fuck about the culture. They don’t care, they just know this genre is the most profitable music genre on the planet so they exploit the culture of Hip Hop through the genre of rap.
You want to give people a choice, let people determine what’s sick and what’s not, you’re telling them what’s sick by force feeding them. For every 10 mainstream rappers play at least 2 underground artists, let the people decide what they like and what they don’t, not what the limited radio determine should be played. If the big radio care about what the people want to listen to give them more of a choice and more options.
A lot of the time it’s about politics and who’s friends with someone or not, or taking payments when it should be based off the music. If someone is dropping a quality piece of work you should play it regardless of if they are known or not or how many plays they are getting. They should break records and artists not just follow hype and jump on the bandwagon, that’s a culture vulture.
Legends should be recognized for their work while they are alive, appreciate them while they are still here, give them their flowers. For too long we’ve see many garbage artists who don’t care about the culture get overplayed on the radio cause they know whoever is at the radio station, it should be about the music quality not the connections. Why you in the culture in the first place if not to respect the legends and pioneers that paved the way and help break new artists?
Hip Hop Is Eternal: You’ve made a lot of great points with substance and passion that completely agree with. That’s one of the things we try to do with Hip Hop Is Eternal, make sure that the music is the focal point in terms of the genre side, not about any external factors but promoting based off the quality of the music and skills. Appreciate your words and your passion for the culture, keep doing your thing always and together everyone who cares can make a difference and collectively that makes an impact.
Rowston: Doctor Of Dopeness Remix features Half Decent and Maya Miko, it’s produced by Xtrasound with cuts and scratching by Vix and Things Have Changed is produced by Sensei Walingh with the cuts and scratching done by Vix too.
I did the original Doctor Of Dopeness song which sampled the Doctor Who theme produced by Sion De Freitas and then we decided to do the remix featuring other artists too. On the remix there’s a lot of the TV series Doctor Who references by all of us but it’s an overall metaphor applying to our music.
Things Have Changed is describing how things are different and have changed from the era of Hip Hop I grew up in.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: I like the artwork for both songs, can you tell us a bit about them?
Rowston: The Doctor Of Dopeness Remix cover is reinforcing the metaphor in the song, in one of the lines I say..
“I’m ahead of my time, the booth is my tardis”
So in the cover artwork the booth is a tardis, there’s speakers, mic, mixer etc and it’s just a metaphor for cooking up dope shit in the lab. It carries on even down to the Sonic Screwdriver that I’m holding in the cover which in Doctor Who is a device that has power over sound waves, frequencies and signals so it all fits in. Check it out and people may pick up on a number of things in the artwork.
On the Things Have Changed cover it has somebody at the front who represents how things have changed in Hip Hop over the years with the more traditional ones looking on in the background. Both covers were done by the same illustrator.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: There’s a lot of content in Things Have Changed, let’s talk about that song, what inspired you to write it?
Rowston: The state of things you listen to on the radio, the everyday shit. On a mainstream level things have changed and are different, how they look, how they sound, just in general. Instead of life experience a lot of people are talking from a hype and clout standpoint.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: One thing I like about the song is how it has scratching and cuts in the chorus, is keeping those traditional elements in some of your songs something that is important to you?
Rowston: Scratching and sampling are elements that are an important part of the culture which sometimes seems like it’s a dying art in the mainstream, it’s just as important as the bars. Some don’t use it anymore and follow a simple formula which gives them the best opportunity to make money, which is their prerogative, but for me I take pride in my work and like to be a bit more creative.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: There’s a lot of potent content and lyrics in the song. When you said…
“Preservation not diminish, start again not finish
And redefine the meaning of what they see as lyrics”
Can you tell us what you meant by that? How would you like to see lyrics within Hip Hop redefined?
Rowston: Preserve not diminish and not devalue the craft and Hip Hop beginning a new chapter to advance the culture, the art and maintain the quality. Quality over quantity with what we do, a certain demographic growing up we were spoilt.
Redefining in the sense some people nowadays are easily pleased with some of these rappers, it’s not necessarily their fault but what they’ve been exposed to and force fed. People have misread in regards to what they think is quality and what is actual quality.
Quality was replaced with quantity over time, so we’re in a time now where the standard has been diminished, at least on a mainstream level. It’s in no way disrespect intended but people will look at certain mainstream rappers like they are God tier but from who I grew up listening to they aren’t to me so I have a different outlook of what a God Tier MC is, to me it’s MC’s like Rakim, Kane, KRS-One, Big Pun, Biggie, Pac.
So I’d say take control, show the courage and bravery, don’t be afraid to not conform and make the shit you want to make, not the shit you think everyone wants to hear, cause people can hear when it’s contrived.
Make the music you want to hear, too many people are scared to be themselves. If you find an authentic working formula for yourself as an artist you can be successful and have longevity, you can create success for yourself by having a lane and not being a fad that comes and goes.
Hip Hop Is Eternal: So you say things have changed, a lot of those changes for the worse. I agree with that even though there’s a lot of great Hip Hop being made currently too, from what you said previously and also in the song you specified “when you mention mainstream names” though which makes sense. So what would you like to see change in Hip Hop? What changes would you like to see to Hip Hop now to change for the better from this point onwards?
Rowston: More of a balance, there’s too much over saturation and dilution so a lot of the quality isn’t being heard and you got to dig in them crates. More control, the wrong people are controlling shit, indoctrinating others to what they think the culture is and isn’t and they don’t give a fuck about the culture. They don’t care, they just know this genre is the most profitable music genre on the planet so they exploit the culture of Hip Hop through the genre of rap.
You want to give people a choice, let people determine what’s sick and what’s not, you’re telling them what’s sick by force feeding them. For every 10 mainstream rappers play at least 2 underground artists, let the people decide what they like and what they don’t, not what the limited radio determine should be played. If the big radio care about what the people want to listen to give them more of a choice and more options.
A lot of the time it’s about politics and who’s friends with someone or not, or taking payments when it should be based off the music. If someone is dropping a quality piece of work you should play it regardless of if they are known or not or how many plays they are getting. They should break records and artists not just follow hype and jump on the bandwagon, that’s a culture vulture.
Legends should be recognized for their work while they are alive, appreciate them while they are still here, give them their flowers. For too long we’ve see many garbage artists who don’t care about the culture get overplayed on the radio cause they know whoever is at the radio station, it should be about the music quality not the connections. Why you in the culture in the first place if not to respect the legends and pioneers that paved the way and help break new artists?
Hip Hop Is Eternal: You’ve made a lot of great points with substance and passion that completely agree with. That’s one of the things we try to do with Hip Hop Is Eternal, make sure that the music is the focal point in terms of the genre side, not about any external factors but promoting based off the quality of the music and skills. Appreciate your words and your passion for the culture, keep doing your thing always and together everyone who cares can make a difference and collectively that makes an impact.
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Rowston – Doctor Of Dopeness Remix (feat. Half Decent & Maya Miko)
Purchase:
Amazon Music:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player/albums/B0BRZB5GDP?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=prmocodedisco-20
Stream:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2w5cuklPNUgGxRUHeZb7kQ
Rowston – Things Have Changed
Purchase:
Amazon Music:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Have-Changed-Rowston/dp/B09C5ZR8FH/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=rowston&qid=1630130012&sr=8-3
Stream:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5AnGhAbdlHN0hcDvA1h22b
Rowston Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/therowston
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therowston
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowston_rr
Website: http://www.raskilrecords.com/rowston
Purchase:
Amazon Music:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player/albums/B0BRZB5GDP?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=prmocodedisco-20
Stream:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2w5cuklPNUgGxRUHeZb7kQ
Rowston – Things Have Changed
Purchase:
Amazon Music:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Have-Changed-Rowston/dp/B09C5ZR8FH/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=rowston&qid=1630130012&sr=8-3
Stream:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5AnGhAbdlHN0hcDvA1h22b
Rowston Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/therowston
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therowston
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowston_rr
Website: http://www.raskilrecords.com/rowston
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