Photo by Maria Mac
Baishe Kings make scatterbrained hip-hop that reflects their limited attention spans. Their songs are a mix of J Dilla's jumpy beats, De La Soul hippie idealism with the occasional foray into harder edged Wu-Tang posse shouts. Seven members deep, the London-based collective are esoteric individuals, their number including a Brazilian anime fan and a house obsessed body-builder.You need their last two mixtapes (Herdabaishe and Bo Zeus) in your life more than bread or water. Their next mixtape, EOM, is out August 1st.When I visited the group in the studio they were playing around with nunchuks, telling me how they want the language they invented to catch on (Swaishe means anything, Taff means hot girl) and letting me in on their idea of a fat gym and how they want to set up a trust fund for UK Twerkers. We settled down to chat swag, Nollywood and business cards.Noisey: So what’s your big origin story?
F.King Taisho: We hung out, then decided to make music and get high in the studio.
King Toe Knee: Nah, it was the other way around fam.Make your minds up.
Sir Geekus: Some of us were making music way back in the grime days, before we’d even smoked. I recorded my first track back when I was eleven. What MCs in particular have influenced you overall?
Sir Geekus: Ghostface Killah for me, he doesn’t shine as much in Wu-Tang but as a solo artist he’s better. I also grew up on a lot of garage and house.
Shin Tesh: Golden Boy from The Specifics over MF Doom for me, he’s the full package beats and lyrics wise. He really tells a story.
Herdavim?: J Dilla as a lyricist, he always filled in where the beat was missing.
F.King Taisho: Welcome 2 Detroit was a great album.I used to be into your Dooms, Dillas and your Madvillanies and all that, now I’m into straight ratchet music. It’s just Waka and Soulja Boy. Their delivery is so swag. Oh yeah mate. So swag.
Shin Tesh: Doesn’t Swag over here mean it’s shit?
F.King Taisho: Yeah, if you’re swag at FIFA it doesn’t mean your player has a good-looking chain and shit. Exactly. It basically means a bit crappy. Like if a one-night stand stole your iPhone so you had to use a swag 3310. Have there been any incidents with Baishe groupies?
T. Funk: Me and Shin Tesh got in trouble for giving away our business cards. Our business cards have our managers number on it, so some nights she gets a call from these birds. She was like, “stop giving out the business cards to all these random taffs.” When you’re not playing FIFA and chirpsing taffs, what do you like to do?
Sir Geekus: Wrestling is something that bonds us all together. What do you like to do? I’m a big fan of sitting around in my pants watching Nollywood films.
King Toe Knee: Oh mate, the one I watched was so peak, basically this dude he got a curse on him and anyone he sees he has to slap. So he sees his wife and she’s all like “where have you been?” and he’s all like whoo-pow. He goes to church and ends up slapping the pastor. I think that one is called Yellow Fever. Would you ever sample Nollywood in your music?
F.King Taisho: Yeah, especially with the Bo Zeus stuff. I’ve started ripping anything I could find on the internet, random speech texts, porn and random clips. We’re the YouTube era, if we want to sample we won’t go to a record shop, YouTube is the record shop for us now. Do you get on with a lot of other rappers?
F.King Taisho: We hate rappers, we keep to ourselves mostly. We’re very exclusive. Does it make sense to collaborate with other people? Not really at this point.
T.Funk: There’s seven of us, so we do pretty well amongst ourselves.
F.King Taisho: Wu-Tang on their first album you didn’t know who was who because of all like the masks and shit that’s what I want us to be like.
Sir Geekus: People always have an idea of what they think a rapper is and then they stress themselves to fit that criteria.
T.Funk: If you play Pin-Pong with us after this, you’ll get it.I played Ping-Pong with Baishe afterwards and then I totally got it. The way the ball hit the bat I realised that we’re all Swaishe in our own way. After my cosmic revelation the guys took me to Squint Eastwood’s flat (I swear I'm not making this up) and then proceeded to play me some new tracks which included their ode to the Baishe drink of choice: vodka and lemon juice. Bottoms up.
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F.King Taisho: We hung out, then decided to make music and get high in the studio.
King Toe Knee: Nah, it was the other way around fam.Make your minds up.
Sir Geekus: Some of us were making music way back in the grime days, before we’d even smoked. I recorded my first track back when I was eleven. What MCs in particular have influenced you overall?
Sir Geekus: Ghostface Killah for me, he doesn’t shine as much in Wu-Tang but as a solo artist he’s better. I also grew up on a lot of garage and house.
Shin Tesh: Golden Boy from The Specifics over MF Doom for me, he’s the full package beats and lyrics wise. He really tells a story.
Herdavim?: J Dilla as a lyricist, he always filled in where the beat was missing.
F.King Taisho: Welcome 2 Detroit was a great album.I used to be into your Dooms, Dillas and your Madvillanies and all that, now I’m into straight ratchet music. It’s just Waka and Soulja Boy. Their delivery is so swag. Oh yeah mate. So swag.
Shin Tesh: Doesn’t Swag over here mean it’s shit?
F.King Taisho: Yeah, if you’re swag at FIFA it doesn’t mean your player has a good-looking chain and shit. Exactly. It basically means a bit crappy. Like if a one-night stand stole your iPhone so you had to use a swag 3310. Have there been any incidents with Baishe groupies?
T. Funk: Me and Shin Tesh got in trouble for giving away our business cards. Our business cards have our managers number on it, so some nights she gets a call from these birds. She was like, “stop giving out the business cards to all these random taffs.” When you’re not playing FIFA and chirpsing taffs, what do you like to do?
Sir Geekus: Wrestling is something that bonds us all together. What do you like to do? I’m a big fan of sitting around in my pants watching Nollywood films.
King Toe Knee: Oh mate, the one I watched was so peak, basically this dude he got a curse on him and anyone he sees he has to slap. So he sees his wife and she’s all like “where have you been?” and he’s all like whoo-pow. He goes to church and ends up slapping the pastor. I think that one is called Yellow Fever. Would you ever sample Nollywood in your music?
F.King Taisho: Yeah, especially with the Bo Zeus stuff. I’ve started ripping anything I could find on the internet, random speech texts, porn and random clips. We’re the YouTube era, if we want to sample we won’t go to a record shop, YouTube is the record shop for us now. Do you get on with a lot of other rappers?
F.King Taisho: We hate rappers, we keep to ourselves mostly. We’re very exclusive. Does it make sense to collaborate with other people? Not really at this point.
T.Funk: There’s seven of us, so we do pretty well amongst ourselves.
F.King Taisho: Wu-Tang on their first album you didn’t know who was who because of all like the masks and shit that’s what I want us to be like.
Sir Geekus: People always have an idea of what they think a rapper is and then they stress themselves to fit that criteria.
T.Funk: If you play Pin-Pong with us after this, you’ll get it.I played Ping-Pong with Baishe afterwards and then I totally got it. The way the ball hit the bat I realised that we’re all Swaishe in our own way. After my cosmic revelation the guys took me to Squint Eastwood’s flat (I swear I'm not making this up) and then proceeded to play me some new tracks which included their ode to the Baishe drink of choice: vodka and lemon juice. Bottoms up.