Issue 90 / July 2018

MC NELSON
The South Liverpool MC brings a thoughtful approach to the Scouse rap revolution. He talks to us about
kicking down doors and questioning what it means to be British in 2018.
Intent on encapsulating what is to be growing up as a black
person in Liverpool, MC NELSON is a manifestation of the
generation who came of age in the midst of the thwarted
coalition government. Nelson Idama was burgeoning in
a society that was in both parts evolving and cracking under
the social, political and cultural changes that were to follow.
His music became a way of him spreading his message and
commentary of that time, portraying a true reflection of his own
life, in his music. Gently simmering until earlier this year, which
saw the release of his single and accompanying video By The
River – which has amassed over 50,000 YouTube views – he is
now mechanised with the motive of digging into the past and the
present to educate and progress the future of his own music, the
Merseyside rap scene, and of society as a whole.
Growing up in the leafy suburbs of Aigburth, Nelson’s
introduction to and relationship with music started at an early
age. He recalls one of his first musical experiences: his mother
playing early rap, RnB and gospel music laced with “really cheesy
raps, praising god”. But it wasn’t until his brother brought home
burned copies of Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner and Slick
Rick’s The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick that music started to
take over. Nelson immediately took to exercising this newfound
obsession and started, aged nine, to write his own music. “I
had a keyboard in the house where’d I’d write disgraceful raps,
about my nine-year-old self,” he confesses, as we meet after his
performance at Baltic Weekender. He’s relaxed when describing
his first real artistic and creative realisation as a musician, beyond
those baby steps as a nine-year-old: “When I was about 14 me
and a couple of mates formed a grime crew. I was primarily a
grime MC, but that fizzled out as it didn’t match my life at the
time, so I moved to jazzier and more contemplative, lyric-focused
music.” This gradual transition away from grime – which was a
major component of the UK scene at the time – was inspired by
the growing accessibility of other genres and the evolution of the
internet. There he was able to discover De La Soul’s 3 Feet High
And Rising, Nas’ Illmatic and Madvillain’s Madvillainy, albums that
he says truly made sense to him and his existence, and led him to
take a more considered approach and bring lyrics to the forefront
of his music.
It comes naturally for him to talk about his life and the
struggles and challenges that it brings. “Things that I write
about write themselves,” he tells me. “This is my life, now how
do I make it rhyme?” However, the simple nature of his writing
process is not reflected in the depth and acute focus of the
lyrics; the issues covered in his songs are complex and difficult
to portray. “I write about race, the relations between ethnic
minorities, the working class and the police, even international
relations. [Things] that have always been at the forefront of
the news growing up and things that I’ve seen in the world, as
a response to the government.” 2010 saw the start of a new
coalition government that would bring with it new changes and
increased racial tensions within an age of austerity and social
confusion. Nelson marks the riots the following year as a major
turning point in his relationship with social issues, one which
forced him to be more introspective and reflect upon society.
Nelson’s first single, By The River, is an articulate
deconstruction of Liverpool’s dark history with the slave trade,
highlighting the tensions that surrounded the resulting racism
and objectification of the black population. Nelson’s intention
for the songs was to educate, unravel and bring to the surface
forgotten and known unknowns, that are still so evident in
Liverpool today; Penny Lane, a street named after a slave
trader, and even his own school, The Bluecoat, was founded
by and deeply ingrained in the economy of the slave trade. To
Nelson, these things needed to be brought to the forefront of
people’s minds, acknowledged and not swept under the carpet.
He describes a conflicted relationship with the city he loves,
and admits that he’s sensitive to potentially harming the city’s
reputation, acknowledging the press’ tendency to castigate and
harm the reputation of Liverpool. “I do love Liverpool, and have
loved growing up here, and it’s a city that has caught a lot of
flack from the media. I don’t want to compound that reputation,
but it has a history that is so toxic and laced with so many things
that need to be brought to light. But I want to do it in a way
that represents Liverpool well, which is a hard dichotomy, like a
tightrope I’m walking on.”
“Tearing yourself
apart and trying to find
something insightful to
say is exhausting – but
when you get to share
that with the world,
it’s so gratifying”
Shortly after the success of By The River, Nelson revealed
the follow-up track, Step Mother, which delves into his family’s
origins in Nigeria and the complex relationship between Britain
and Africa. Sonically, the track is more uplifting, lighter and not
as musically layered, creating a more relatable vehicle for the
challenging themes and subjects in the lyrics. “By The River is
almost a tough listen, it’s dark. With Step Mother I wanted to
make a tune that tackles big issues, like colonialism and British
history, but I wanted to do it in a way that you could play it in the
summer when you’re chilling in Sefton Park. It’s upbeat, it’s easy
to digest, even if the lyrics are quite heavy.”
Inspiration for the song came from when Nelson visited
Nigeria last year. It provoked deeper thoughts of origin,
the importance of history and the transitioning narrative of
immigration from the time of British colonialism to the current day
in the wake of the Windrush scandal and Brexit. Nigeria also has a
rich musical vein that has run throughout the years of the nation’s
past and has served as a big inspiration for Nelson’s music.
“[There was] a lot of Nigerian music, a lot of Fela Kuti played
growing up, and the lineage of black music, even hip hop, the
really early remnants of it, can be heard in West African music.”
Storytelling is the biggest factor in Nelson’s music, as he
develops ideas that are too complex to nod to in just one bar
of verse. He admits to previously showing little regard for the
live and visual aspect of his music. However, this year, calling
upon childhood friends Leech Video, he has effectively curated
visual journeys with his videos, to amplify the messages hidden
within the words. Using Childish Gambino’s This Is America as
an example of how visuals can be a method of projecting and
amplifying an artist’s message with more power and focus,
Nelson elaborates on the sheer power of deeply layered videos
as a tool. “If you listen to [This Is America] by itself it’s not even
half the experience without the video,” he says. “Similarly, with
the video, if you take the song by itself you only get a slither of
what he’s trying to say. You get a completely different experience
with both mediums. If you have a song that is message-focused,
there is so much you can do visually that underlines the song.”
Nelson says he never intended to play live shows, but has
already supported the likes of Ghostface Killah, The Pharcyde
and Loyle Carner. Performing has helped him develop the way
he projects his music, and his live show is now a major focus
going forward, evidenced by his powerful set on Africa Oyé’s
main stage this year as one of their Oyé Introduces artists. He
speaks glowingly of the gratification of people being receptive
to his music in a live environment. “Tearing yourself apart and
trying to find something insightful to say is exhausting – but
when you get to share that with the world, and people actually
enjoy it, it’s so gratifying.”
Despite a recent move to London, Liverpool will always
remain a major influence on his way of thinking and producing
music. “Even if I don’t write a song about Liverpool, it’s always
going to be Scouse hip hop at the end of the day, it’s always
about Liverpool and a representation of Liverpool in some way.”
Although his move to London wasn’t entirely musically focused,
the advantages of stretching out and interacting with different
cities is one that is unfortunately necessary for a young hip hop
artist from Liverpool.
Although the Liverpool scene is in what he describes as a
healthy position, he believes there is still room for improvement.
“We have Tremz and Aystar, who are definitely doing their
thing in Liverpool, but there’s no reason that Liverpool shouldn’t
have acts that are a national success.” He suggests homegrown
artists moving away can help turn heads elsewhere in
recognising Liverpool’s talent, by spreading the message and
breaking down preconceived barriers around Liverpool, as a
result of the city’s guitar-focused music history and a national
stigma towards the region’s urban scene. There hasn’t been a
rap artist that has come close to the success of Merseyside’s
bands of the past, so nobody looks to Liverpool as an authority
in the rap genre.
Similar prejudices that previously faced UK grime in America,
are still relevant to Scouse rap from those south of the M62. The
Scouse twang is something that needs a bit more exposure in
rap music for people to become for familiar to it, as the dialect,
the hard consonants, the slit t’s and rising vowels are foreign
and unfamiliar, but can offer a distinctiveness, character and a
uniqueness that differs from the now familiar sound of London
grime. Part of Nelson’s vison is to break down these barriers,
and not just for his own success, but for the people around him
and the ones yet to come. “I’d like to kick down some doors, not
just for myself, but there’ll be a kid in school that doesn’t know it
yet – by the time they come of age and start making music it’ll be
even easier for them.”
Energised by the positive reaction that he has been
amassing across the country, Nelson’s not ready to rest on
his recent success. He’s working on his first comprehensive
body of work and, while he remains coy on the format of that
release, he intends to tie a conceptual thread throughout all
the songs, promising to continue pushing boundaries through
his inquisitive tone of voice. Whatever the form his project may
take, he insists it will all be threaded together by some common
themes: immigration, colonialism, Liverpool, growing up black in
the North and, ultimately, asking what it means to be British in
2018. !
Words: Jonny Winship / @jmwinship
Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk
soundcloud.com/mcnels0n
FEATURE
13