Tell me about yourself and how you got involved in the R&B and hip hop scene; how your career has evolved.
I was just a regular kid growing up. Through my years in school, I was slowly exposed to a lot of hip hop. The Internet was everyone’s new hobby and I was easily exposed more as I started to check out what hip hop was all about through this new medium. Music became easy to obtain rather than always depending on the stores. My career has evolved rapidly in these past few years. For a while I was playing at loose gigs, doing small shows, trying to get exposure. But after winning a major DJ contest a few years back, I gained enough recognition to propel me to where I am today.

Why do you think R&B and hip hop are so popular right now? Do you think that the country’s political and social climate has drawn people to this form of music to express that frustration?
R&B and hip hop are popular right now because the music itself is groovy and catchy. People love dancing to it. It has won over everyone locally and abroad because hip hop is now a global culture whereby everyone connects through it. I honestly do not think that Malaysians think that deeply about music and the current social and political state of the country. Malaysians in general love music and have always loved music, no matter what genre, if there even is a genre now, considering everything has all converged together. I think it’s wrong to say that R&B and hip hop are a manner of expressing frustration. It is down to personal preference. Music generally is an art form, individuals or groups put in long hours of hard work to create these masterpieces.

Tell me some of your all time favourite parties.
Definitely the house parties that I throw with my buddies! Personally for me, Sunburst stands out as one of the better events I have attended because it was like a fun fair in there and they had varieties of genres together in one event. By far they have the best acts around.

Who were your influences, who do you respect now?
My first influences for music came from hip hop. Groups like Jurassic 5, Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr and Aesop Rock were were my main preferences come from. But I developed other music as well from sounds of groups like UNKLE, Portishead, Massive Attack, Aphrodite and DJ Shadow; they really opened up a whole new world of what music is really like. I learnt later on that music had so much more sounds to it. Currently I listen to stuff like Kid Cudi, The Bloody Beetroots and the New Boyz.