Linguistics - Free Speech EP & Interview

This is the new EP from UK rapper Linguistics. Currently based in Bristol, he is a regular MC at nights such as Hospitality, and in the past year he has gone from strength to strength. I managed to chat to him about 'Free Speech' - check it out.

First things first, when did you start to mc?
I started when i was about 16 doing grime, but then moved on to hip hop.
Did that for a bit under a different name, but wasn't happy with what I was making.
I stopped for about two years, and just got back into it last year really.

How does it feel to have the EP out?
Yeah man it feels good, nice to finally have it finished.

Who are you signed to?
UK records man, the EP's released on UK. But not really because it's free, but that's who's behind it. Charlie P, the producer,  set the label up.

UK records just you and Charlie at the moment then? Yeah, although he's doing alot of other work with house DJs.. a guy called Timmy P for example.

I'm digging Charlie's production, how much input did you have?
We built a couple of tracks together from scratch, to be honest I can't remember which ones haha.. but Charlie did pretty much all of it. Like we recorded the vocals and we sat and got it sounding nice, both of us had input in that respect.

What track are you happiest with?
Well I really like "lingusitics" because of the punchy chorus. But we both tried to put in a lot of variation from song to song so the tracks  are all different. Can't really choose.

How long had you known Charlie P before starting to do this EP?
I've known Charlie for around 6 years or so now, met him through a friend when I moved from London, and we used to just talk about music and what we wanted to do. Then lost touch for a couple of years, but hooked up again. He's sick man,
so good to work with, really chilled.

In the intro you talk about an album coming out, is that already in the works or..?
Yeah that was always our plan, EP then album. The album will have collaborations on it as well, it'll definitely feature Beatfox and a few others. But yeah Charlie is always making beats and sending them over, so we are going to start on that straight away.

How do you feel about UK hip hop right now? Such a generic question, but does it excite you? Or is it in a state?
I think its exciting but in a state at the same time - there's a lot of good stuff and a lot of shit stuff - but thats just my opinion. I'm not naive enough to think every UK hip hop head will enjoy my music, but there is a good force behind UK hip hop and I think it just takes persistence.

Yeah in a way 'Free Speech' is more of a shout out to old school US hip hop,
especially the production.
Yeah that's what I like. I think me and Charlie have really similar likes and dislikes in terms of the different aspects of hip hop, we both love Big L, Mobb Deep, for example. To us it's all about lyrics and tight beats.

Rokit's beat is mad!
Yeah...when he sent me that track it took me a while to catch my breath haha.

I'm just gonna say... 'something about a cigarette'
haha yeah I fucked up, and then we just thought fuck it lets keep it in. Some people might not get it...

It works really well... I did haha
haha good I'm glad you did!

Your recorded material is obviously so different to what you mc at nights like Dub Politics and Hospitality - are we going to hear free speech live?
Yes! Going to look into getting some gigs just gonna see what happens really, definitely want to do something though no doubt. I would love to do "linguistics" live.

You've had a good year, but what's your favourite memory?
Definitely being on stage stood next to Akil the MC... was one of the highlights in terms of music, so surreal.

'Free Speech' is out now and is available here as a free download. Find Linguistics on Facebook and Twitter