“Nemesis – bringer of disaster / with more moves than a Tai Chi master”. Da man først var faldet bagover til lyden af Jeru The Damaja’s mørke vokal fik det hele et ekstra niveau, da den unge energiske Afu-Ra stødte til med endnu mere mental og fysisk stamina. Hans kombination af hæsblæsende staccato flow og et anderledes ordforråd, der indvarslede de kungfu-film Wu-Tang senere skulle tage patent på gjorde ham til en umiddelbar favorit hos mig. Og da Jeru faldt i unåde hos Premier blev Afu-Ra ved med at få beats fra producerguden, så naturligvis lyttede man med når han whirlwind’ede thru cities.

Det er en del år siden, men selvom de meterlange dreads er forsvundet er Afu Ra’s lyriske samuraisværd stadig skarpt. Og så har han fået selskab af en dansker. Niko Yu, kendt som DJ og producer i Alliancen med Patrick Chan er nemlig hooket op med den gamle Perverted Monk. I anledningen af Afu-Ra’s nye single “Cobra Clutch” har jeg haft mulighed for at interviewe begge de to hiphoppere.

Så jeg greb fat i dem, og de forklarer på deres eget sprog (så jeg slipper for at oversætte) om samarbejdet. Først Niko Yu…


Hvad kendte du til Afu-Ra før du mødte ham?
Jeg havde selvfølgelig hørt hans gæstevers på Jeru´s “Mental Stamina”, men kan huske at Henrik / Hennesey (tidl.Rent Mel) arbejdede i Street Dance records og altid var god til at lange anbefalinger over disken når man troppede op Mandag for at få fat på de nye 12″ere. Kan huske at “Whirlwind Thru´Cities” var den først single jeg hørte, og købte med Afu-Ra. Derefter den Premier producerede “Defeat” og D&D Soundclash med Smif´N´Wessun”. Alle tre 12″´ere jeg havde med i pladetasken dengang.
Husker ham også som en del af “Gangstarr Foundation” line up´et (ham med dreads´ne) i Store Vega i 1999 der stadig er een af de bedste koncerter jeg har oplevet.

Hvodan kom jeres samarbejde i stand?
Ret tilfældigt faktisk. Afu-Ra spillede på Loppen i 2013, og Jonatan der stod for koncerten bad mig være show DJ for ham og i løbet af aftenen udvekslede vi også kontaktoplysninger. Da jeg dagen efter vågnede efter utallige opkald fandt jeg ud af at det var Afu-Ra der ringede fra Kastrup lufthavn fordi han var blevet nægtet indrejse i London og var blevet sendt tilbage. Heldigvis kunne han bo hos min kammerat Martin et par dage mens vi forsøgte at få ham tilbage til London hvor hans kæreste boede. Mens han var i Danmark inviterede han mig med til at spille et show i Strasbourg samme uge, fordi han syntes samarbejde havde spillet godt på Loppen.
Jeg havde måske ikke regnet med at høre mere fra ham efterfølgende men da han en måned senere inviterede os til London for at spille et show med ham, Jeru og Beatnuts på plakaten var der ingen tvivl om at det blev til en weekendtur til London.
Vi har efterfølgende holdt kontakten og er i øjeblikket i kontakt dagligt i forbindelse med planlægning af en kommende tour og nye projekter.

Hvad er det vildeste I har oplevet sammen?
Det er svært at sige. For mit vedkommende synes jeg vi har oplevet en del vilde ting. Til at starte med syntes jeg nok det var lidt vildt at stå og spille Premier instrumentaler på Loppen, til nu hvor vi dagligt er i kontakt og udveksler ideér og kritik. For mig har det generelt været fedt at være med rundt og spille for crowds i Europa.
Som gammel fan er det også altid sjovt når Afu-ra disker op med værtshus historier fra “back in the days..”

Og nu over til The Body of The Life Force Afu-Ra himself…

How did you discover hip-hop?

I discovered hip hop for the New York City 80s era when it was still new and becoming. I was a fan . I found myself mimicking fist RUNDMC, later on others until I had this pleasure of knowing many songs of different artists lyrics that I grew in to an MC of my own. 12 years later I started to write my own at around 15 years old.

We heard you first on Jeru The Damaja’s Mental Stamina, how did you guys meet?

I met jeru when we were kids before our music relationship. My street had a football team where I lives in East New York Brooklyn. Fellow school mate Hannibal Staxx also MC though school yard banter challenged each other about who’s team was better . It was at that game I met jeru.
After the game I kinda joined their team and made new friends which would grow into 20 plus years of friendship.. It was much later that our music passions developed.

Thoughts of touring with Gang Starr Foundation, any memories from Denmark?

touring with gangstarr was a blast and life changing exsperience. I had only left my city once or twice in my life so at 20 years of age to travel all around Europe and across Japan was whffff unbelievable. Over that time span of three or four months I think I learned more about life and developed a global view point that I never got fr school . I also soaked up everything from tour life and the creative exchange of everyone’s out out put from jeru to guru to premo to lill dap and big shug I was learning and developing for the stage in currently in now in my still on going exciting life in music .. I love.

You’ve always incorporated an eastern spiritual dimension in your music, where does that come from?

The eastern spirituality comes from Asian Kung fu movies and reading about the inner working of our developed connection with our spirit. spirituality is universal but it was in the Asian Kung fu movies that I studied from a child into adulthood , that I saw the connection mind body an spirit. I love the eastern life living philosophies as they are better suited to having a calm long lasting life
A character within myself I still must urge my self to practice.

The metaphor Cobra Clutch that you use on your new single, is of course a classic pro wrestling hold, why did you chose that as an image?

exsactly the cobra clutch is a classic wrestling hop which sub dues the victim to a state puppet like manipulation, that’s what I do with beats with rhymes. Yet at the same time with the lopsided nature of business vs culture I must wrestle with that reality and use the this cobra clutch to not let the the unbalance push or keep me unbalanced.

The music is produced by PF Cuttin who I seem to recall produced Jeru’s single, what’s your connection to him?

PFCUTTIN, he is the person I trust very much with my own music and we have such a chemistry, yet he is the engineer and mixer of the record and provided the scratches on the chorus, he’s a genius on turntables and mixing records from that bop bap underground polished sound, that why I work with him. The producer is Travis PHILTHYPRO from Canada .
PF and I also go back to our early adult late teen age years from the neighboorhood east New York Brooklyn. he’s the producer of Blah Zay Blah Zay.

You’ve done shows with Copenhagen DJ Niko Yu, how’d that come about?

Niko you, I met Niko when I played label (Loppen, red), after the show we just got to talking and I realize he a very sharp individual and he knows a lot as a person we just clicked, also i found myself stranded in Denmark because UK boarder personnel denied me entry for violating so chengem treat clause me stay there and traveling to work. So at that point I call him when UK kicked me back to Copenhagen and he and his friend both our friend Martin hartvig. Came and gote from the airport and did everything they could for me till I figured out what to do about this mag ration issue. so it all worked out myself an niko continue to work together . I’m indie artist and I can’t do everything alone so I work with niko to do the best to push each other to better. That’s hard to find. so you see I’m thankful to Denmark for many reasons .

What can we expect from Afu Ra from here on out…?
afu-ra is on the verge of furthering my carreer with the release of the Afu-ra 2015 Master Chef LP . “This will be a defining musical statement I shall say prematurely because of how I defined into myself makeing the record. I as well have written a 200 page book which has a secret subject but I can tell you like my music it’s aim ist to help people and can be used as a tool.
I will do everything I can to keep my marriage a success and manage it to be even more.
Let say thank you for this oppurtunity, 1 love to everyone who has supported my music or not and like many great people have fought and died for, let us look at each other as brothers do and change the world.

Hermed det nye nummer “Cobra Clutch” fra Afu-Ra. Og lad os tage og ind og se ham, næste gang ham og Nico Yu rammer København.