What You Write Down

Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 12-02-2000. It ain’t unique to drop a debut release but it’s U-N.I.Q. that dropped ‘Married To Music’. The EP 'Straight Up Raw’ is released with only the hardcore tracks for the underground heads. In the Wow-Pow Studio’s in Rotterdam we sit down with the bridegroom. The Wow-Pow studio’s: in every corner of the building is a studio. You have to go upstairs and downstairs just to get across the same floor. First you walk on a concrete floor, the next step it feels like you’re walking on a mattress. Outside raining inside a small waterfall ending in some buckets. Marriage is something that you build up when you both say yes. Hopefully his marriage has less leakage than the temple that U-N.I.Q. married in.

AQ: Do you have a decent contract with Epic?
U-N.I.Q.: Yes, I can say I have. I think I have one of the better contracts. Not only for Rap but in general.
AQ: In what direction do we have to think?
U-N.I.Q.: A normal artist may expect 4% of the royalties. And I'm far above that level. I don't want to get into it too deep. I'm a respected artist at the record company. People treat me with a lot of respect and love. They have a lot of faith in me while I'm not their 'Spice-Boy', you know. That makes me happy. The Wow-Pow studio's are also very important for me. These studio's are the start of my professional career.

On the 'Nastradamus' lp from Nas he dropped a verse on the 'Hate Me Now' remix. Never ever even noticed it. After hearing the first two tracks of Nas, I thought it was a waste of my money and time to even have made a copy and I threw it in my most effective archive: my jiskefet a.k.a. trashcan. But hey, U-N.I.Q. on a remix version, maybe worth checking. They sent material to Columbia because U-N.I.Q. wanted to do a featuring with Destiny's Child. People from Nas heard it and wanted to use it for a remix for Europe. So U-N.I.Q. did put down some verses, the first take was approved and they used it. Never ever talked about Destiny's Child again. But what is the destiny of this child of music becoming a man?

AQ: So how was your honeymoon?
U-N.I.Q.: I never had a honeymoon. I only did time, fought, worked and I was creative during the trip. To succeed as best as possible. AQ: What kind of influence has music on you?
U-N.I.Q.: I don’t want to bring it too deep… it’s just my life. If you talk about my life you talk about music. Right now it’s only 60 or 70 % of my life. You know social commitments. But I like it when it’s only music and nothing else. Just like now, just woke up, took a shower and got dressed. Now doing an interview. Later on busy with some music. Tonight I will hear if I have to perform tomorrow. On Saturday I have to perform for sure. Saturday, at two in the afternoon, I have a photo shoot. That are things that are important for me. That’s when I feel fine. If I have nothing to do for two or three days, being without music. I will go nuts. And of course I play music at home all day long. And what I listen to? Doesn’t matter that much. A variety of music, as long it’s good music.
AQ: What you just all mentioned are only side effects of music. Photo shoot…
U-N.I.Q.: Well, for me it’s related to music. So it’s just as important as the product itself. Because if you are not taking care of the inessential issues, nobody is going to write a nice piece about you and nobody buys your music. If you have a nice personality than people are more often interested in your music. I experienced it myself. That I thought: "Weird dude, get the fuck out." You don’t like him anymore because he does something that you never had expect from him. And you don’t want to hear his music anymore because it’s his music. So you have always to present yourself in a good way on all fronts. I don’t say that you need to be a saint.
AQ: Professional?
U-N.I.Q.: No, not professional but come as you are. And that is me. I don’t do anything with malice pretence. I don’t plan what I’m going to say in this or that interview. I’m just spontaneous. I’m just me. If I ain't got no answer on a question, I just ain't got no answer.

That makes him universal. We had seen him a couple of times at a party and in a video but never spoke to him. So we were curious what we would get out of him. He surprised us as we came in and asked him one question in device of small social talk in Dutch. Before we could even explain that we would like to do the interview in English (so we didn’t have to translate it) he took the interview on his way like Carl Lewis. From the few times I saw him and what I saw the only opinion that I had of him was 'druk ventje' in a positive way. Translated the best as energetic fellow. Somebody who visited the editorial described him what made a lot more sense after we had this interview: "U-N.I.Q. is hungry." Sonny D, Anonymous Miss and U-N.I.Q. once had a song: 'We Declare', "At that time we were already the Docs Committee. We saw our words as ammo so what followed was Committee Gunmen. That's when we thought, lets keep the crew name, be a crew but also be solo artists." So it started with them together with DJ G-Boah. After that E-Life and Rollarocka joined the crew.

AQ: Music is really your thing.
U-N.I.Q.: Look I'm 23 years old now. Some of my childhood friends have a nine to five job. Some of them are homeless. Some of them hanging around in coffee shops. I don't say that I don't like money, but music is the thing that I love doing the most of all things and I can make some money with it. On school I can't find it, on the streets I can't find it. I get quickly irritated when there are to many people I have to get involved with. Music was my way out and I think it's one of the few ways out.
AQ: One other way was football?
U-N.I.Q.: Yes, I was playing in the national youth league. At that time it was a tight competition that brought forth many great professional players. I played against Patrick Kluivert and Kiki Musampa just to name a few. I'm sure I would have made it if I did put more effort in it. But well, I didn't. I was never at home, I was more a street youngster. Busy with other things. In a coffeeshop playing football (on the football table, ed.), hanging in a studio in some ones basement, writing lyrics. It keeps you from the streets.
AQ: What keeps on amazing me is the power of words. Youngsters being tough on the streets, being fast. Hardcore guys being busy with something so soft as poetry, with words.
U-N.I.Q.: It's exactly not soft because it's the most honestly thing you can do. What you write down is what you write down yourself. If you want to lie to yourself than it's you that has to live the lie. You will keep on hearing it. It will come back and back. It's the most honest way out that you have. If you have a talent to put something on paper and I know I can do it. That is also the reason why I'm doing this. I don't like doing something that I'm not able to do. So the pen and to write ain't soft. It's the reality. The pen writes down what you want, it will never lie to you. If you read it back on paper it will always be the same. Even when you read it back after 25 years. It will always be the same. It's the hardest truth, it keeps on confronting you. It's my talent to have a pen as instrument.
AQ: In daily life people run away and flee in wearing masks. When you start writing, those masks fall away.
U-N.I.Q.: I never wear a mask. What I do have is a thick wall surrounding me. People are not allowed to just cross that wall. I went through al lot of drama. All the men I'm hanging with went through a lot of drama. And you have to arm yourself on the streets. People know me and if they know you, they want to irritate you even more. They want to test you, so you have to arm yourself on the streets. When you take that pen, you are feeling fine and happy…

U-N.I.Q.: But that doesn't mean your mask falls away. Because what is put on paper is still your anger, frustration and your love. If you write honestly, it is you on that paper.
AQ: But on paper you don't have any walls surrounding you to protect you.
U-N.I.Q.: Of course not, it isn't possible. If you keep on having a wall surrounding you on paper it ain't got no effect. It will never be free in the air. You write to get something off your chest. To let it free, you don't write to isolate something. If I made a good song and I'm listening to it, that's when I feel free. So for me it's a liberation to hear my music. I also believe that talent is something you receive from God. If you ain't got it, than you don't have it. A lot of people think they can rap but they just can't. They get respect because they try. They have the access to go places but people don't like them because they can't do it. They spoil it for me because I can do it but people don't listen to you because they think "Oh you are from Europe like them, so it can't be good."
AQ: What can you do about it?
U-N.I.Q.: Nothing… wait till time is ready. God will take care of me, that I'll get to the right place. I work very hard there is nothing more I can do. If the right people hear it, the right people that can do something with it then I shall grow. That's my faith.
AQ: Everybody starts with writing, with rhyming or with doing something. You said that you believe in God and recognize your talent as a gift from God. When and how do you realize that you have a gift from God?
U-N.I.Q.: You're right. It's that you want to see the reaction of the audience at first. To see what you are capable of. If you see it's something positive, then you start sharpening it. At a given time you realize you can do it and you have this level. And I may not come below this level. You don't need anybody else to convince you. You only have to take care that you grow. That is your job, to make better and better rhymes. …I must be free. I can't have a planned life. I need spontaneity, a lot of love. Can't just be on one and the same straight road.

AQ: You realize a gift from God makes you very rich in an immaterial way. How do you feel that responsibility to take care of that gift?
U-N.I.Q.: I feel it very very much. Because if I screw it up for myself, then I screw it up for a lot of other people. If I prove that you can get far with HipHop in English as a man from Rotterdam, if I can use my talent then there will people follow me in using their talent. If I handle it slackly, God will punish me. Because you have to work for what you are worth. Blood, sweat and tears. If you don't do that you can spoil it for others. I think that there are rappers that look up to me and think that I'm not just a commercial rapper. Especially when my album hits the streets, they will hear that I really rap. I don't rap to get famous. I'm not rapping to make a nice tune. Music must be beautiful and real. I don't need to hit the charts. If I have a hit that is just fine. But I make real music, that is important. When people start realizing, they don't dare because they think there is no label that will sign me, when the time is right and that reality is starting to sell, then I was an example that proved them wrong.

Txt and Photo's: AQ (on the road with Stanga)