RHYME CUT CORE / RAW BREAK / CROSSROADS



Phase one, let the rhythm explode,
Phase two, give you a lyrical overload,
Just quote some of the rhymes I wrote,
Like a piece of clay I mould
The rhythm, the rhythm I mould
Release stories untold…..


Back in the late eighties,
I was already a regular customer buying vinyl records at Music Mania records at Vooruit,
but also at Music Man records at Steendam,
a store which specialized in early house/club music and US and UK imports.
This record store is where R&S records was born.

As a youth, I came to the store almost every day and it was here that I ran into international legends like Joey Beltram and Derrick May next to Belgian legends like Frank Dewulf and Olivier Abbeloos.

I was digging for seven inches, original breakbeats and underground hip hop tracks.
While Dj Grazhoppa and me were already heavily into UK hip hop,
we already had set up links with Mc Mell’O’ and his producer Sparki in London
via Rollarocca (Maikal X) and Fred Bomber from Amsterdam.

During one of my digging sessions, I stumbled upon a record with an intriguing sleeve.
It was a black and white picture of some raw South London UK hip hop kids
walking through a tunnel, a record by an mc named Blade.
The record was an EP with three solid hardcore UK hip hop tracks with Lyrical Maniac being the main track.

After a quick listen, I bought the record twice and Grazhoppa and me didn’t stop spinning it when we got home.
We also used the instrumentals during our live performances as RCC.
We loved the raw, uncut, hardcore production and the devastating intense lyrics of Blade.

During these days we already travelled to the UK on a monthly or bimonthly basis to buy records at some of the infamous record stores in London’s Soho neighbourhood.

On one of our visits we were walking down Oxford street with our driver Dr; Leejoo (Leo Derijcke) and we ran into a guy selling records in the middle of Oxford street.

Leo looks at Graz and me and enthusiastically screams out….
Hey T and Graz, look it’s Blade who is selling his record to people on Oxford Street.
It made us think of early US rappers like Too Short who started out selling his records from the back of his trunk.

Blade notices us and asks if we want to buy his record, but we immediately responded.
“Man, we already have your record and we are completely mad about it.
What an honour to meet you here on Oxford Street”

We told him we had some links with Mell’o’ and Sparki and we exchanged numbers.
Soon after, we invited him to come perform at Democrazy (at Reinaertstraat) on New Year’s Eve.

When Blade heard our early and legendary RCC demo tapes and heard about our reputation in Belgium and Holland, and after he checked a couple our live performance,
he told us he wanted to cut a record with us, to be released on his independent label
691 Influential.

As 18 years old kids from Tielt/Bruges/Belgium we were blown away by this proposal.
After reaching the finals of Humo’s Rock Rally, most of the Belgian major labels wanted to cut an album deal with us, but they all demanded we would make a radio friendly hip house type of track.

Rhyme Cut Core stood for uncut, undiluted hardcore hip hop so we refused to sign a deal in Belgium and went on to become the first ever Belgian hip hop act to release a record in the UK.
After the release of the legendary BRC album in Brussels,
this was also the 2nd ever REAL HIP HOP record released in Belgium.

The track was recorded at a studio in Clapham Common in London and engineered and mixed down by the legendary No Sleep Nigel.

The experience to record a record in the UK at the age of 18 is still undescribable until this day.
The way Grazhoppa put together both of the tracks and scratched on the tunes was on a level with early independent NYC productions.
Until this day I feel like some of my flows on the a side RAW BREAK could’ve been tighter at certain moments but I’m particularly happy about the way I deliver my rhymes on the ‘Crossroads’ track which had previously been featured as a live recording on the Humo’s Rock Rally compilation.

Both these tracks can only be found on Youtube
but we now make the RCC 12” available as a free digital download for the first time ever on my bandcamp label Stikkezar records.

Thank you, once again, Dj Grazhoppa and Blade for making this amazing record happen. Respect and love always.