North Side Stylaz - Interview

He hasn't got a car. Hasn't got a whirlpool. Doesn't have a Tommy or Nike brand new cloth on his body. Does not have a fat paycheck. But he has his cat Dubio, his paint and his music. Those three equals freedom of expression or isn't it? Richness that money can't buy. Let Jah be his witness.

'Some people call me paranoid/but they don't really know me'. PeeWee the Paranoid Wizard, Northside Stylaz, from Duke City, The Netherlands. He bears the scares of his hard times, his struggles in the past and his present. When he says: "I must not pick up to much work. Otherwise I will flip. Go crazy." You see he is not lying or lazy. As a journalist you don't ask him a lot of questions. You listen to his music, watch his paintings and see how he performs. As a true HipHopper you recognize and respect the artist. Sit down, record and observe. Today he's strong, tomorrow maybe gone.

AQ: What do you try to do with "Babylon Vs Inner Strength".
PeeWee: Nothing more, nothing less then expressing myself. The way I feel at the moment at making and composing the music and writing the music. Representing that moment. There are seventeen moments in one line, seventeen moments to tell a short period in my life. You can give thousands of explanations to the meaning of the music. But it is just expressing. Express yourself.
AQ: You also paint. You're a real artist.
PeeWee: ...Yeah, I paint pictures. Write cartoons. Making pieces. Write my rhymes. And all those things I call: Stylaz. And the Northside is the place where it all started. Represents all creativity expressed. There are a lot of ways to express yourself.
AQ: So, why is it strange to be a rapper?
PeeWee: Because it is very difficult to make a living with music, especially in the Flatlands, you know what I'm saying. America it's big business, not saying that it is easy in America. Of course I like to make money. You got to live and make money. But money is not my motivation to make music, like a lot of people in the business. A few true HipHoppers know I got a real heart... Maybe I gonna fall tomorrow, I don't give a fuck, but today I'm strong. Maybe tomorrow I'm strong. But we are just humanoids. I turned myself into a rappanoid. I call my MC's the Rappanoid Species. We're moving. We are going the right way. It is getting better every year. We are making progress but we still have a long way to go. I got a lot to learn by myself. Keeps me going. Believe in your quest and your music. Whatever you do, if you're a mechanic or a magazine owner. Football player, I don't give a fuck. Go for it nigger, know what I'm saying! Believe in it.
AQ: We have the music and the culture. Thus we don't have much money, we still are very rich?
PeeWee: The thing we have in HipHop, what the most B-boys find in HipHop, you can not buy it. It is not for sale. If you got one million dollars you still can't buy what we got. Finding the things in HipHop what HipHop is giving to B-boys like you and me. What it is giving to B-boys in the Flatlands, all over the world. That is it, believing in it, get your satisfaction out of it. Release the gutter out of you. Express yourself.

When PeeWee is performing he becomes totally one with his music. Going buck wild. And he is the only Dutch MC who knows how to deal with a microphone standard. Like Schoolly D. What makes him getting off the way he does?
PeeWee: Get off? Doing the thing I do best, rapping my lyrics. I enjoy when I'm doing my thing. I'm in total concentration. Some time I give more then on another time. Most of the time I enjoy what I'm doing. I like the sound coming out of the speakers, the sound of my music en my voice and the people all those things together.
AQ: You also make your own beats?
PeeWee: No, I work with people. I compose the concept mostly for the music I'm rapping on. The only thing I don't do is touching the buttons. Because I've got a lot of other things that I have to do. I'm involved in the most of the concepts. Working with people you like is a chain reaction; you know what I'm saying.
AQ: What was the concept of the first album, "Escape From The Fridge"?
PeeWee: That is a composition of my brother D.I.C.E. He made up the title. It's a very nice title, which suddenly came to him. Tells the whole story about the way we felt at the period making the record. How we were busy with it and approaching it. I like titles, mostly every line in my rhymes are little titles within it. I like titles. If I made a painting I like to give it a title. It is like your baby, you have to give it a name. It's just our own concept, the Northside Stylaz concept. Expressing the feelings the way we want to. Stylaz creates it's own area. Be yourself. For me it's the only way... we have freedom of speech. Half an hour on stage or one hour on the CD with music, that is our world. That is what I want to accomplish with every record that I make. Doesn't matter if you like the style or not. But I hope that everybody who looks at it, jumps to the conclusion... 'I don't like the music' aha. Some people will like it. But that it sounds original, that is the main thing. But the concept... we can talk about it a really long time. Just listen to the music. Do it with your own interpretation and feeling that you get from the record.
AQ: Do you think that Babylon versus Inner Strength (the second album) needs any explanation?
PeeWee: Let the record speak for it self. When you look at a painting you don't ask the artist, after one minute you looked at it, what it is about. Let your own mind work. Think for yourself. Same thing with watching a movie: take your time. What it means to me never means it to you. I think so. I never gonna say it is this or that. For me it is the top of the world, feeling wise. I'm happy. If you don't enjoy it, you can't other people let enjoy it.
AQ: Steady rocking on. You're already busy with your third record.
Peewee: Yeah, I got the lyrics ready. I got the title already. I'm working on it. I don't know when it is coming out. But it is coming, that is for sure. And it comes when we feel like it.
AQ: What is the name?
PeeWee: No, I wait for a while...
...There is a lot of talent walking around in the Flatlands. I see a lot of things. Sometimes you get angry. All those people... this society tells them hardly nothing. I know a lot of other brothers they know we are minorities and can't talk. And they got talent. You can take a neighborhood like Bijlmer whatever or this neighborhood. A lot of cities all over the country are all little Hollywood's. Know what I'm saying? Fuck them! We are dead, dude! Damn man. What you sow is what you grow, is what your harvest is. Just rapping, keep on rapping.
AQ: Singing songs for survival?
PeeWee: Sing, just sing motherfucker!
AQ: You gave some time at a performance to the old cat LTH.
PeeWee: He did two songs. He didn't have a gig, but I did, so he had a gig. You know what I'm saying. Can't say I'm an ego tripper. You know true HipHoppers. Giving him airplay/hijack the airway/in a positive way. I might look angry but it is just the devotion. It is devotion what you see. Nothing more nothing less.
AQ: Jah in your music?
PeeWee: Jah is always in the music. Jah is always and everywhere. The contact is there. And that is why I don't say anything more about it. I got my own interpretation.

AQ