Murth The Man-O-Script

"Next to being Murth The Man-O-Script I'm Murth Mossel. Host and stand up comedian. A human like it says in my passport. The dog often only knows one trick. I know more."

At Paradiso we finally sit down for an interview that was a year long on our agenda. How did he become a host? Murth: "Well, KC The Funkaholic wanted to start Bassline again." It stopped for a while. "He wanted to do it more like how it's done in the States. With a DJ and a MC. With an act sometimes. He knew that I know a lot of people in the scene." Bassline is running for a long time, but how long? They had their 7.5 years anniversary. "But we miscalculated it. We were already 9 years running. And that was a year ago." What is Bassline? Murth: "It's a party were you go to, to... well to party! Come as you are". As Genelva says 'it's a party were you can go to in your pajamas'. It is also the party were I once saw a man dressed in a dress made out of an old curtain. Well it's Amsterdam. Bassline was never meant to be a real HipHop party. "We play Funk, Soul and RnB. But the lion share is HipHop. But all the songs are party songs. Bassline is really a party party.." Before it got Paradiso as permanent location, it moved around the city of Amsterdam. At the time we had to leave the Roxy because it became too small. We were looking for a venue we could build on. Paradiso was the right spot." It was also a very good wheelbarrow (=had a lot of pull) to get a job at Paradiso. Murth wont say 'it just so happened'. It sure did help. Murth could not tell how to call his job. "It's not an official profession. I'm co-responsible for Bassline, I'm part of the editorial office and I’m hosting 'ParadisoLife' (with an F)."

B-Hive

B-Hive is a new project that has to fill up the gap that was left after B-Boy Extravaganza stopped. It bled to death. It's a platform for HipHop musicians. "There are a lot people who want to see them. Good shows and good DJ's. But also that people think 'hey what he does I can do too' or 'when is it my turn?'." In the Bassline concept evenings are split up in different sections. There is The Backtrack, for Old School. The Broadcast with New School and Basslove with Soul and RnB. "It's really a chill out." They did it for a while and got experienced with the formula. Now they know what works and works not. The Broadcast is very successful. "We have a whole new generation and it's very popular now. For the Backtrack is an audience but people had to get used to it. It was not all clear to everyone that there were different evenings."

There was Butter. "But it had a sour aftertaste. We brought Butter along from the past. It was the HipHop section. Some people did link it to Fat Beats." Not so strange, the Butter sticker at the office has Fat Beats printed under the Butter logo. And often the DJ's of the evening were employees of Fat Beats. "There were people coming up to us... Everybody got an opinion, and especially in HipHop. So to make a fresh start from ground zero we started B-Hive. We shall see what happens."

Murth’s Lists

Internationally 'Amsterdam' sells. Nationally it's a more complex story. Working with Amsterdam as home base you have to deal with the image that you need to be a friend or connected to get a performance or an interview. How is Murth going to deal with that? Murth: "Well, I always take a neutral and objective position. I met a lot of people throughout the years from all over the country. I have a list with acts that keeps on getting longer and longer. I have a list. It has nothing to do with being friends or not. If I know that you are doing something and you want to do your thing and we can talk about it, there is room for it. I wish the best for all. I still think that we all make it happen together. And if I can arrange acts to perform, well.... In the first place it's my job and on the second place it's something I love doing. So why not?"

Getting older


At the time HipHop grew up, we grew up. Of course and lucky there are a lot of new people, whole new generations. Chilling at a party a youngster comes up and he says sir or mrs., those are funny moments but they do point out that HipHop is getting older. Murth: "All my life I'm listening to music, half of my life to HipHop. And indeed it's not 'just going to leave you cold’. Getting older... I think I became a more wise person. that's why it gives me more energy. In the past you were just 'hype'. Not that I did not think about it. But now you have something to look back on. When I'm talking with youths doing their thing, they don't know the lion share of HipHop's history, sometimes. It was totally different back in the days. You really had to search for it. It was new, fresh and there were only a few things. But now..."

"It's just different, sometimes I think it's sad that youths have a misperception of HipHop. The only thing you can hope for is that they start to look around 'What is this really?'. If you get bizzy with it and want to go forward, you automatically are going to look back. When you start living it, you are going to search for things. Automatically you will find things."

MC Murth

Murth just signed a contract with Top Notch/V2. "With Kees de Koning, the Mental." During November he will go into the studio to record for a compilation that's on Kees mind for a long time: 'All 13 Dope'. After that he will start to record his debut solo album. On the webring of the Nederhop Homepage you can follow discussions. When Def Rhymes came out with 'Doekoe' the discussion was about Def Rhymes to be just some dude that jumped on the bandwagon. With a lot of humor only wanting to make a quick buck. They don't know that he's doing his thing for the last ten years and some. And humor was and has always been his trademark. "I have the same thing. People think I just started to rap because I'm a TMF host."

T.M.F.N.P.S.

Murth Mossel better known as Murth The Man-O-Script. Those who only know him from TMF's The Pitch and from his guest appearance on Extince track 'Zoete Inval' it comes out of the blue that he moves on to the serious broadcast company NPS to host 'ParadisoLife' (with an F).

When Glaze was hosting The Pitch, Murth already offered to help out with the program. After Glaze left he took over. Normally the VJ's have an article in their contract about a percentage for TMF of every Euro made after they leave TMF. Because TMF made them famous! With Mental Theo, Murth was the only VJ who had a freelance contract without this article.

A girlfriend said: "I think he [Murth] is stupid. He announce a video and the video that follows is a totally different one." What about that? "That's not my fault. If they are mixing the show and they have too less time, they cut out a video. But of the three videos in a row they cut out the first one. Without listening to what I'm saying. So the public hears me announcing the first video that is cut out in the mixing."

Does it make sense make videos yourself, does TMF play them? According to Murth it does make sense. "If there is a load of Dutch videos they have to recognize that. I often had a discussion with the program director. Pointing out there is an audience for it and The Pitch is a special program. But he has also agreements with the big labels to push American videos. I think there is at least room for one Dutch video a show. But as a host you are really tight up."

He moved on from TMF to NPS. "My intentions were to stay with TMF, also." As a freelance host TMF could not forbid Murth to do other shows at other stations. The contract ended and they also could not force him to sign a new contract. "I spoke with them, they saw no problem if it did not damage the integrity of TMF and of me as a HipHop host." With that in his mind, he saw no problem to do 'Paradiso Life'. It's a total different program with eight editions, one once a month. But TMF did not like it. So he signed with NPS. "They offer me more opportunities."

In the first place you don't notice it, but then you recognize some racist bullshit by TMF. All the black music programs on TMF are hosted by blacks. Sylvana Soul and the RnB Top 40 were hosted by Sylvana and later on Sonja. The Pitch by Glaze and Murth. All the other programs are done by whites with the lion share that stereotypical type. Being a channel from these days you could at least aspect hosts with Turkish, Moroccan, Antilles or a Surinam etc. roots. But no. "I Thought about it and I know it, it was no surprise to me. You can do two things and that is leaving it or just doing your thing. I rather do just my things. I did point it out. But... well everyday I experience some of that stuff related with my color."

With his move to NPS, I even imagine him doing the '8 Uur Journaal' (8 'o clock news) in some years. Imagine that one of us presenting the '8 'o clock news. And why not?

AQ



© 1999 ART12/VanderHoek Publishing. All rights reserved.