HIP HOP CONNECTION MAGAZINE (UK)
April  2001

With the pre‑Christmas frenzy in full swing, the meltdown of confidence in the ailing UK rail network is at a new low in the wake of the Hatfield train crash. But hold on, what's this? A foolhardy trio of unhinged hip‑hoppin' Los Angelenos are touring the UK and European mainland by rail. Arriving in Glasgow towards the end of a 12‑date UK tour that's taken them from Portsmouth to Aberdeen and back again, the People Under The Stairs (PUTS) touring party of Double K, Thes One and associate Mr Jazzmak seem blissfully aware of the wholesale chaos they've unwittingly wandered into.

  Celebrated as practitioners of rootsy, 'back to essentials' DIY hip‑hop and with their trademark refusal to build tracks from anything other than the purest retro loops, it seems PUTS are applying the same ethos to their touring arrangements. With no road crew, tour manager, sound man, merchandiser or gear ‑save a solitary record box and some personal effects ‑ PUTS are the essence of DIY hiphop in effect and on the road. Ever since last spring's release of 'Question In The Form Of An Answer'‑ the highly successful follow‑up to their debut LP'The Next Step'‑ PUTS have been riding a tidal wave that's seen them on the road for the last eight months (visiting the UK three times). But that hasn't stopped hip‑hop's most compulsive travellers from having definite opinions about the artform they love and live. As HI‑IC joins them backstage at the Arches club (directly below the southbound tracks of Glasgow Central Station) for a surreal banquet of Heineken and KitKats, it soon becomes clear PUTS are a law unto themselves.

  Why are you touring the UK by train in the midst of our biggest ever rail crisis? THES ONE It's the only way we can do this. We don't have a budget that allows us to get in the tour bus with an entourage, hair stylist and chef... Of course, they didn't tell us about all the shit with the trains before we got here or, for that matter, afterwards. They just said 'Oh yeah, you're taking the train'. When we got here there was suddenly all these train crashes."

Derailments and delays aside, how has It been spreading the gospel by rail? THES ONE "People can't imagine what it's been like trying to get through these narrow train doors with all our bags or being crushed into the back of a cab. Trust me, there have been plenty of times when we've all gone: 'Look at us! We're spending all our days travelling when we've got articles in magazines and our shit playing on MTV!' One day we were on a train at ten in the morning and didn't get there till eight at night ‑ and we had to change trains three fucking times in between! That day 1 was like 'Man, 1 don't wanna do this shit no more. 1 ain't having fun.‑­

Have you managed to amass any raw material for the next LP on the road? THES ONE "We've picked up stuff everywhere we've been. When

'Question...' most of the material came

from LA. But when you're fortunate to

travel like this it's gonna have an effect on

the music. If anything it makes the music

better and more worldwide."

Is there anything you particularly look out for? DOUBLE K "I grew up listening to straightup funky music. 1 can't listen to no bulishit! But 1 won't go spending $100 on a record. 1 just dig up old hip‑hop records wherever 1 can. If I'm digging something and I've got the money to buy it I'm gonna get it no matter what. That's the difference between the two of us. His records are put up all neat but you come round my house and mine are getting fucked all the time. Even if 1 pay loads for a record, 1 gotta go spin it. If it gets scratched it's 'Oh well'." THES ONE "I'm more fanatical about the whole thing, but I'm not a deejay, more a collector. 1 baby my records. This guy [nods towards Double K] racks doubles 'em. Hip‑hop taught us to destroy the things we love ‑ scratch up our records, mark 'em, do whatever. I'm not like that. Sometimes 1 go after records I'll never spin just to have them in the collection. That's where we differ. It's that contrast that makes PUTS ‑ we're both two sides of the same coin."

How did you first get hooked on hip‑hop. DOUBLE K "When I heard 'The Show' by Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick. I'd be listening to music on my porch and when that came on I'd go crazy. 1 loved the Fat Boys too and anything with a beatbox in it. 1 was in a talent show in the third grade where two other fat kids and me did the Fat Boys. After that 1 deejayed my first party when I was aged 12." THES ONE I was always around older guys who were doing graffiti and breakdancing. Hip‑hop was just always there, like part of the surroundings."

How did you first meet? DOUBLE K "Hanging out. 1 was deejaying and making beats and the guy 1 was with introduced us. Thes was rapping in another group when 1 decided to start writing my own rhymes. It happened pretty weird. He got some equipment, we started recording and it was like 'Hell, let's do it'. Once we had our first song done it was like'Damn, this shit is dope!' We knew there was something different about W'

How's the new material shaping up? DOUBLE K 'It's gonna be funkier going by the beats we've got. We're just gonna keep elevating and getting better. The next LP's gonna be a senior ‑ it's gonna wear a varsity sweater and get all the girls!" THES ONE We ain't started yet 'cos we ain't been home, but we're gonna hit you with whatever we've got. We're gonna throw in the kitchen sink but it'll also be a little more laidback. Just typical PUTS stuff ‑ dope loops, old bangin' drums, that elder style of hip‑hop we do. You're not gonna hear us coming with tracks made on keyboards with girls singing and shit like that!"

You've always said your name refers to an attitude, not the old horror film. How would you describe that? DOUBLE K "it's like an abstract, it's just a feeling of what we are. If you know us you'll know why we're called People Under The Stairs. Other groups always want to be in the limelight ‑ we don't care about that. We're just two crazy dudes who want to make the music. The name just fits, but it could just as easily have been People Hiding In Trash Cans."

What's your philosophy for success? THES ONE "When people listen to our music they get a sense of what we're really like. With a lot of albums you never feel like you know the dudes ‑they're just hip‑hop jerks who rap hard and sneak into things. It's all an act. Nowadays rappers are like politicians. They shake hands and put things together. The best way to sell a rap LP is to convince everyone how hip‑hop you are. According to these people we're a bunch of chills 'cos we don't have the medallions and fuckin' this and that. Little do they know we're more hip‑hop than they could ever be. The way to show you're really hip‑hop is by knowing what you are and not sweating it. Dudes need to get over it and rap about what's really going on in their lives. We make mood music. We make music with emotion. That's what hip‑hop is."  PUTS' LIMITED EDITION LP'AMERICAN MEN VOL 1' IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM WWW.PUTSRECORDS.COM

[C] Copyright G-Funk 2001 by Mo