11.
Missy Elliot – Supa Dupa Fly
Ahhhhhhhhh, yes. That album… I remember I was in college at the time, and it was something else. The beats were just weird, but sick. I remember the first tune I heard was ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’. And seeing the video – the whole eyes popping out, and the fish lens, and the way she’s dancing, the way she’s popping, it was like, "Yo, I want in on this!" And the beat’s just very effective and trippy. And the one with Lil Kim, ‘Hit ‘Em Wit Da Hee’… that album was crazy.
The one with 702 – ‘Beep Me 911’ – that is grime. That is grime. I took that drum break, and Wiley goes to me, "How did you get it?" I spent time. At the beginning of the track there’s half the break, at the end there’s the other half, and I just took bits and picked them out and spliced them and put it back together. I did that for the ‘We Told U’ remix, the Timbaland kind of thing. Everyone was "How did you get that?” But it was all there, [it just took a bit of work]. I listened to the record back to front, and the instrumental, and any time I heard a gap, I took a slice there, took a slice here, and pieced it back together, and I had the exact full break. I was like "Yeeeeeaaah… I got the break." I’m sure that break’s still somewhere on a zip drive.
So Timbaland’s beats were a big influence on you.
Oh, subconsciously, yeah. I don’t like to admit it, but it’s too apparent, innit?
It’s a bit like what we were talking about with Roni Size before – the way elements move around in very specific ways, cropping up in odd places, surprising and disorienting you.
Yeah, definitely. With the Timbaland stuff, I just can’t explain it… I feel he nicked off jungle though, I heard he used to go to Ministry of Sound and listen to what was going on in the UK. Kanye’s more apparent, he does it as well – but those guys would go into the clubs in the UK, sit in the back of the club next to the speaker box, then go home and create their stuff. He was the closest to what was coming out of the UK. Timbaland liked jungle, you can hear his influence is from jungle, he took the break kind of feeling and regurgitated it back, and made it a hit. And I kind of sensed that and went ‘As much as I hate him, I love him, and I know what he’s doing!’
