Introducing: Mikill Pane

Mikill Pane is rapper from London, who most of you will know from the Little Lady track which featured on Ed Sheeran’s collaboration EP that was released last month. Lyrically, he is streets ahead of most rappers in the world right now, and his unique voice, flow and approach to rapping mean that you can’t mistake him for anyone else, although people have likened him to Mike Skinner. I first came across him because of his Twitter chat, but I’ve become fascinated in his music as time has gone by - he is definitely one of the most under-rated UK artists right now, and I hope he starts to get the recognition he deserves. Below you can hear my favourite track, Golden Times, and after the jump you can hear his thoughts on working with Ed, comparisons with other artists, quitting Uni 4 times and much more. BOOM!

1. So, Mr Pane, for those people who don’t know you - can you give a brief introduction as to who you are and what you do?

My name is Mikill Pane. It’s pronounced ‘Mike-ill’. I was engineered by Justin Smith Uzomba in 2007 as an alternative alter ego to Smife. I wasn’t that good at sharing the limelight back then though, and ended up…let’s say, ‘getting rid of’ Smife.

2. People have described you as part of the new-wave of rappers coming through. I feel as though you have a totally unique flow/approach to rapping, so what are your thoughts on this, and is rapping something that you always wanted to do ever since being a little nipper?
 
I’m being likened to a few artists at the moment and it seems like it’s a natural thing for people to make comparisons.  People saw Nicki Minaj and mentioned Lil Kim.  People saw Chris Brown and mentioned Michael Jackson. I personally said he was more like MJ’s inspiration James Brown, but nobody listened until he beat up his woman. I used to encounter my name being mentioned in the same breath or sentence as Dizzee Rascal’s and although I’m a huge fan, it always confused me. I know all black people apparently look the same but we don’t all sound alike, do we? I’m being compared to Mike Skinner a lot now. That’s flattering too.  I’m a big fan of his lyrics.  I think I have a steadier flow though. Slick Rick’s name has also been brought up, and that will always evoke a fist pump from me.  I didn’t want to rap when I was a kid, no. I’ve always loved playing with words though, so it was either chase my original dream of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of a Scrabble champion, or write poetry, which later evolved into rap.

3. As you well know, I first came across you as a person due to your hilarious ramblings on Twitter, and then discovered your real passion in life. I was surprised to hear that you don’t really incorporate much humour into your music and focus on pressing matters, that can sometimes be very dark. Is this a concious decision as you like to keep them both separate, or something that has just happened naturally?

Twitter is so good for instant venting. You can tell the world your thoughts as they happen. I’d say that there is a balance in my lyrics between more sinister topics and lighthearted ones. If you take my EP ‘Shatter’ for instance, it’s got a more serious feel to it than ‘The Return of Mister Pane’. My music only goes so far as reflecting my personality. Though I write quite witty lines in my songs, laugh-out-loud lyrics are few and far between because I’d rather people listened all the way through and didn’t miss a crucial line because they were cracking up at the last one.
 
4. Who were your main musical inspirations when you were growing up, and how has the music your mum and dad listened to influenced the stuff we hearing from yourself at the moment?

I don’t know who actually inspired me to start making music of my own, if I’m to be honest. When I was a kid I hung out with my big sister, who’s only 2 years my senior. I listened to all the tunes she listened to, from Ace of Base to AZ. My mum and dad listened to a lot of Nigerian church music (especially Voice of the Cross), ABBA, Boney M, Oliver de Coque, Genesis, The Jackson 5, Janet Jackson and Neil Diamond. I found myself drawn more and more to hip-hop, R&B and soul music during my secondary school years though; but when I hit 18, as far as my music taste was concerned, I was like a News of the World journalist: trying to listen to a bit of everything.
 
5. Thinking about Fairytale, what was your aim with it and how important do you feel the video was in helping you put across the message?

With Fairlytale, I wanted to show people that even though I’m not an academic person - I’ve proved this by quitting uni 4 times - I understand the value of being educated. I wanted to express that I think the current pieces of shit that some dumb fuckers put in the cabinet are wrong to increase the price of something so important, so unjustifiably. This feeling was evoked further when Teasers, who produced and also feature on the track, sent the tune to my manager to send to me. Adam Coltman, who’s one of my managers, produced the video himself, using footage of the student protests. After the recent events in Egypt, I feel like I’m exaggerating calling what the UK students did ‘riots’. Don’t get me wrong, the students did well, but the Egyptians made it look like a pillow fight compared to what they’ve done in and around Tahrir Square.
 
6. How was it for you working with someone like Mr. Sheeran on his latest EP, and do you feel that Little Lady is the best thing you’ve written to date, because for me it’s one of the best storytelling tracks I’ve heard for years and years.
 
Working with Ed was cool. It was a random, natural occurence when we collaborated. We’d been hanging out quite a bit anyway, and we literally only planned to do a tune together at around 3am one Monday morning after we decided to grab some beers and walk from Brick Lane to Chalk Farm. The impact of what we had actually done only hit me a few days after the infamous EP got released. Now I have more white fans than a windfarm. It’s funny because I was still Smife when I wrote those verses years ago. I had them recorded over ‘Road to Zion’ by Damien Marley, but it was just a jacked beat and I was a nobody so it didn’t get much exposure. It’s merely a case of a mash-up - my verses from 2006 and his hooks from ‘The A-Team’. I am proud of those verses and I do think it’s up there with the best stuff I’ve written, yeah. I couldn’t pick my best though.

7. As an independent/unsigned artist, how are you finding it being an underground rapper in the current climate, where the competition is tougher than ever and more music is being released than ever before? Also; how do you feel about illegal downloading and how this affects people like yourself?

People are always eventually attracted to talent, I reckon. Sometimes I think I’ve been doing this for ages.  On the other hand, I quite simply don’t work as hard as a lot of other artists. I write songs very carefully and selectively, which is why I don’t have a massive back catalogue, but I do have one of satisfactory quality. I didn’t come up like Wiley, Tinie Tempah, Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Skepta and all the other pirate radio veterans. My story so far hasn’t been one of persistence and perserverance, it’s been one of being in the right place at the right time with the right talent. I’m kind of indifferent towards illegal downloading. Obviously it has an impact on the recording artist but because I don’t sell enough material to live off my music, I don’t know how big it is. People are going to steal anything they can. When I look past that and look at the numbers of people that get an artists’ work legally, it balances out.

8. What music are you listening to at the moment, both artists and genres?
 
At the moment I’m listening to Xfm a hell of a lot during the daytime. When I’m playing tracks, it’s a bit of dubstep from Nero, Skrillex, Joker etc.; folk from Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran and Noah and the Whale; grime from P. Money, JME, Ghetts, Wiley and D Double E; guitar music by The Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Wombats, a band I manage called Mademoiselle Mademoiselle and White Lies; with hip-hop from Jay-Z, Kanye, Biggie and Public Enemy. I’m enjoying the sounds of some of the bands that I’ve only recently heard about, like The Naked and Famous, Chapel Club, The Vaccines and Neon Trees. 

9. What lies ahead for Mikill Pane in 2011 regarding features, EPs and a debut album?

I’m going to attempt to complete my album, and a few more EPs with Will Power, this year.  I’ve done tracks with Black Noise, Ed Sheeran, Darq E Freaker and Teasers already, and I’ve discussed collaborations wth P. Money, Fem Fel, Emeli Sande, Roses Gabor (Rosie Wilson), Ghetts and Mystro. There are some lesser known people that I’ll be working with but fuck it, mentioning this lot will hopefully get my name seen when you Google search them.
 
10. Finally; where do you see Hip-Hop and music on the whole going in the next 5-10 years?

I see it turning into house music. All of it. All that New World Order, one overseer bullshit is going to happen musically. Everything we ever hear will be house music.

LITTLE LADY