Foreign Beggars

Foreign Beggars are a critically acclaimed Rap, Grime and Dubstep group based in London, UK.

The group consists of MCs Orifice Vulgatron and Metropolis, producer Dag Nabbit and DJ Nonames. Foreign Beggars are renowned for their eclectic and energetic live shows. Currently performing well over a hundred shows a year the group have performed with a number of high profile artists spanning a range of musical genres. Foreign Beggars first three album releases were through Dented Records; a label that is owned by the group and was created to support their own material and a host of UK underground artists.

Today the group line up on stage as Orifice Vulgatron, Metropolis and DJ Nonames often with UK Beatbox Champion MC Zani or THePETEBOX. Guest appearances from long time collaborators of the group and Dented recording artists Kyza and Dr Syntax have also become a regular occurrence.

Having successfully changed the face of UK hip hop in the last decade, Foreign Beggars’ recent output has been a genre-defying blend of their former machinations and speaker-busting, dancefloor rumbling dance music produced by the hottest artists around. 2009’s ‘Contact’ (3,000,000 views on YouTube), taken from their third album, saw them combine furious London-fuelled flows with Noisia’s crunching electro backbone - the start of what has become Foreign Beggars’ new obsession; fusing hip hop with dance music.

Since then Foreign Beggars have delivered a succession of incredible collaborations, while each release seems to bring greater success and critical acclaim; the incredible ‘Beggatron Remixed’ album which featured reworkings and originally produced tracks from Plastician, Bar9, Chasing Shadows, Noisia and more, the Beatport chart topping ‘Scatta’ with Skrillex, the anthem that is ‘Lines In Wax’ with Flux Pavilion and the recent team up with Vato Gonzalez ‘Badman Riddim’ out on Ministry Of Sound seeing Foreign Beggars finally cross over to the mainstream.

This year sees the Beggars releasing ‘The Harder They Fall’ EP, the first in a three part series on Never Say Die Records, produced by some of the most in-demand artists on the planet. Featuring six Foreign Beggars collaborations with Alix Perez, Mensah, Lazer Sword, Medison, Ruckspin, Black Sun Empire and Skrillex, their debut Never Say Die EP hits the 140bpm tempo straight between the eyes, offering a range of styles and flavours that could loosely be described as dubstep, without the superfluous connotations that the mere name of the genre now evokes.

Maxim: First of all, how's 2011 been for you?
DJ No Names: Wow, our busiest year yet… loads of shows, loads of releases, including one that made it to the UK Top Ten. The US tour was next level! Can't wait to get back out there soon; we came straight back from that into the UK Burnout Tour which was great ‘cause we got to go to some places in the UK we never played before, like Dundee. And we're off to Spain and New Zealand before the year’s out. And there are about 15 tracks yet to finish before we even start thinking of our album.

Maxim: What got you guys into music? What were your early influences?
NN: When I was eight years old and my family just moved to America, I got into RUN DMC and Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It was that or country music!
Orifice Vulgatron: I think for me it was how passionate my mother was about rock’n’roll. She got me into Ratt, Motley Crue, Night Ranger, GnR way early in the ‘80s, as well as Michael Jackson, Prince and all the other amazing stuff that was coming out. That coupled with the fact that her best friend did promo for CBS Epic and sent us every single thing they were releasing – literally from Public Enemy to Alice in Chains – I was hooked! I think I was born into an incredible era of music that was so real, it was hard to not be inspired.

Maxim: From the early days of you guys, Task Force, Rodney P, etc. How do you feel the UK hiphop scene has changed?
OV: I think rather than hiphop being a niche scene in the UK, it has blown up and become a widespread culture. Finally, since people started kicking it in their natural accents, we have the first couple of years where the UK has supported its own rap artists enough to get them to Number 1. We're finally seeing the fruits of a generation that have grown up with hiphop and the associated cultures and art forms ingrained since their earliest days. There is also finally the tangible presence of a legitimate opportunity structure where the sky is the limit for these genres of music, as opposed to one set by any given major record label's inability to effectively establish markets, A&R or to promote (for lack of a better word) UK urban artists.

Maxim: Who do you feel is the one to watch for 2012?
NN: MC wise from the UK, look out for Marger and Dot Rotten. From the US Kendrick Lamar. Producer wise I got my eye on Tomba and Mosca.
OV: I would have to agree. Personally, I think the dude Dream Mclean has got potential to go stratospheric in Tinie Tempah's footsteps, and maybe even take it further. I'm curious to see if the Piff Gang pop ‘cause that shit is awesome. I just heard a grip of the new Phoenix Da Icefire's new stuff and definitely felt inspired. Producer wise looks like Knife Party, Porter Robinson and Kill the Noise are about to brutalise it a little. Jacob Plant. I think the Swamp 81 crew have done something amazing with dubstep and cannot wait to hear the new stuff they are coming with.

Maxim: The track you did with Vato Gonzalez got heavy mainstream play. Is this the direction Foreign Beggars is heading for in the future, or will hiphop still be your foundation?
OV: I think hiphop and its values will always remain at the heart of what we do. However, that doesn't mean we are gonna be making 95bpm rap on boom bap. But we also aren't just going to be making electronic music. Frankly we will probably do exactly what we feel like doing when we do it. We have some awesome hiphop coming with Kid Kanevil, and even on the album we are doing with Noisia, however there is a lot of out there electronic dance music and grime with a heap of other artists.

Maxim: What was the turning point for you to focus more on dubstep/dance music?
NN: I think there's just a lot of energy and loads of good (as well as bad) music in the whole kinda 140bpm style of dance music at the moment. Not to say there's not some interesting new boom bap out there. OV and Metropolis can rhyme on anything!
OV: There wasn't a specific turning point. I think we just wanted to diversify the sound after the United Colours of Beggattron album came out, and we started releasing cheeky remixes and pushing the boundaries even before it dropped in 2009. We actually flipped up a Vex'd beat called Canyon from about 2004 which we released a year later on our Bukkake Ski Trip mix CD. Coming from the UK and the circuit we came up on, all these styles have co-existed and all the people who make them get to know each other pretty well. We wanted the music we were releasing to represent the energy of our live show as opposed to them being two very disparate things.

Maxim: How did the collaboration with Noisia come about?
OV: Someone played them our album when they were on tour in France and they put the feelers out to get in touch with us. I think Go from the Mixologists and a couple of other dudes were trying to connect the dots for a while. It was only when we met them at Glastonbury in 2007/08 that we actually formulated a plan to go over there and get busy on the Split the Atom joint.

Maxim: You have the TRIBE (click for more info) night approaching, with Circus and Never Say Die, where two dubstep heavyweights – Skism and Flux Pavilion – go back to back. You've just done a track with both - ‘Jump Back’. Can we expect some more of the same?
OV: Most definitely! Flux is kinda knuckling down on his album, however we do have a serious wedge of stuff of a similar ilk in the pipeline. Please watch this space!

Maxim: Finally, what's next for Foreign Beggars?
NN: 2012 is looking really exciting! We've got a bunch of plans for recording, releases including the Foreign Beggars and Noisia album. Touring, mixes, exclusive merch collaborations… everything! So please follow us on Twitter to get first word on all the good stuff [www.twitter.com/foreignbeggars]. Plus you can hear all sorts and get free downloads at www.soundcloud.com/foreignbeggars.