Ampitupnow Interview: Lukane.

Ampitupnow.com speaks with the Chicago rap evolutionist Lukane, who since now has produced the ingenious twists of his own mixtape 'Phase 1'. 

Whilst pumping out new work by the minute I find out how Lukane isn't just taking Chicago out of its comfort zone but the genre of Hip Hop itself.                 

 

Hello to you Lukane

(Faces the camera, ignoring the busy surroundings and smiles)

 

What’s going on?

-To start off with the fact that you’re from the ever growing scene of Chicago, what sort of ideologies have you pulled out of the city to inspire your incredibly diverse and switchy mix of R n B?

Well you know, jazz was the big influences and the blues, like you know we have artists like Twister. The crucial conflict, and those are the artists I grew up listening to. Also a lot of New York sounds, one of my favourites. It’s a lot of different ideologies.

-So this is all something that can be easily picked up in your ‘Mixtape Phase 1’

 

Right, yeah a lot of it on ‘Phase One’ was written over two years I actually started writing for it back in 2011 and didn’t release it until December of 2013, but a lot of it came from you know me sitting down and talking about a lot of things that went through my life and things that I had seen in the world and it turned out pretty well. I had a lot of songs that didn’t actually make the cut; perhaps 5 or 6 songs that I wanted to put on there, but didn’t want to lose the concentration as far as the content went of what I wanted to address. So I had to push those to the side, hopefully I can let people hear those ones a little later.

-In other words, it’s been a very gradual process for you, that has eventually built up?

Yeah, I worked with a bunch of producers, like 8 producers I got on it. One engineer I worked with was pretty dope; his name is Corey he actually was on a film for MTV UK for a reality Tv show, but he’s pretty dope! We had a real good chemistry together and like you know it all just started from me and a couple of my guys  sitting in a house bouncing ideas of each other and started sharing music.  A few years later we actually began to make a movement.

-And fairly DIY to begin with? Now you've managed to work with well known producers such as Straidnova on your single ‘Go the Distance’ and even J Bada.

Straidnova is pretty dope. I found out about  him on Youtube and was pretty much riding with the beat he gave me and usually it isn't something that I would usually hear on radio or other people produce so I figured  that something original could be done with it, and as far as the content like you see I talk about relationships, to a relationship I had, to personally the history of blacks and a bunch of others things just of how people work so hard for their money and their certain visions. Once they have a bit of money they spend it like it’s never gonna come back .

-And clearly you express that significantly whilst involving your very own element and statement of RnB. I'm talking about the mix of RnB of jazz and soul, (having discussed that whilst on radio too) especially within tracks, lets say ‘To Each His Own’ with a tremendous symphony going on.

That song, you know like you said, before with the jazz feel to it you got the brass instruments in it, the real hard drum kicks the snares in it you know I really like that sound. I’m actually working on a Phase 2 right now, released a couple of songs on Youtube and Soundcloud also, I’ve got one now called ‘Don’t Take It Away’ which was produced by a guy called Identity Withheld and I’ve got another too called ‘Wazzup’.

-I was going onto ‘Wazzup’ ! Since, to the listener it can sound very close up and to the point  (Lukane continues)

It’s a song talking about speaking up to somebody, when you see a lot of people you’ve known from the past or passed or met through a certain situation. When you meet them down the line they don’t have the need to say something to you or it might be visa versa, you might not feel like speaking to them at the time because you don’t have the connection. So in the first verse I talk about this girl who I grew up with whom I was like best friends with growing up, playing house , kiddi boyfiend and girlfriend. And now grown up  she has her own family, I’ve got my own situation going on, so basically it just talks about if we ever ran into each other again don’t be afraid to speak up cos there was a point where we were like brother and sister . The second verse more or less about the people back at home, in Chicago that talk about. Whether it’s negative or not, when you see me you won’t say it so it’s the reference back to that again.

-So many intimate ties within the record, is it something as a personal statement you’d like to continue?

Well, see these songs I write, they all come from the heart. It’s all  real. So it’s either based on a experience I had or it’s based on an idea that I had of what I’ve seen or read. Those those two songs, I don’t know if you’ve heard to ‘Don’t Take It Away yet?

-Yes I have.

Did you like it?

-Very much so, it’s a step away from the consistency of Mixtape 'Phase 1' but it’s still got that sound that you can correlate to yourself which is always great to hear in a progressing artist.

Great, I appreciate it. That song was a little bit more intimate, like we were talking before it goes into detail about relationships I had with somebody and I got a lot more songs like that. I’ve actually got a song I’m working on right now and I don’t know if I’m gonna do an open release of it or if it’s all gonna be released on tape, but ergh it’s crazy, it’s talking about my grandparents, my grandma and her old timers (laughs) and my grandfather, he passed away a few years ago so I go into detail about them. They had 12 kids all together so I have 11 uncles and aunties and they had a whole bunch of kids in their families. So I talk about about the legacy they have. It’s other records on there that talk about my acceptance into society and a lot of that, touching a lot of subjects actually.

-So this is always been something you’ve been keen on?  How long had you realised that you desired to be in the Chicago rap scene?

Well it’s funny because I was always around music, my auntie she was in this singer rnb group called Ask Me back in the 90’s and was signed to C + C Factory music group so  she was going on tour with Russell Simmons and BB and CC Winan, she was a backing singer for them also. I got to see the lifestyle she was living and her love for music. My mum always like put me in for piano lessons and different things like that; I used to play the piano, the trumpet and always wrote poetry. So it just came to a point where I put it down, the music down to a beat. I wrote poetry in my room and then made a beat on the table and record on this old tape disc recorder I had at the house,  I’d just record and play on that then play it back.  I used to like the way I sounded and I just kept going so that  as I grew older I got more access to actual rooms and studios, that’s pretty much where I went from there as far as it went in Chicago I really started taking it seriously two years ago. I had a girl a long time ago and we fell out so I put the music down for a second and I went to school, then college for a year or two and then after that I decided get back to it. Since then it’s been going crazy, got a lot of love from it, a lot of people have given me beats and different studios, different connections.

-I can tell and know from all the instruments you play and produce that your sound is profoundly organic. Do you feel that makes you diverse in the competitive Chicago scene for Rap and RnB music?

Yeah, well I like the fact that people are looking at Chicago definitely cos a few years ago no one was looking at it. We always had people with talent, I think at the moment the sound is very concentrated into one sound. The soulful type of music, that’s what Chicagos basis is from. Jazz blues that all came from Chicago. So I’m just trying to bring that back with a low, original twist to hip-hop.

-Alike a regeneration of hip hop whilst moving forwards with the current aspect of the genre?

Right, a lot of people might view Chicago as if it’s a place where nobody can make their own way, making something that’s original, you know or what everybody else is talking about. That’s what I try to do in my music and it’s not really trying It’s just speaking what’s on my mind. If you have a conversation with me I could talk with you about the same subjects and go into even more detail.

-So looking at the east coast,  if you were to take your music there where artists from home soil such as Chance the Rapper have taken it on and conquered beyond the Chicago, would you consider this as an aspiration?

Well I wanna go everywhere with it, the mixtape out now is called ‘Phase One’ so we’re only in the first phase. As time goes on the music is gonna spread, throughout the US people are listening to it, but we’re gonna get on a much larger platform soon.

-So within the UK ( I mean the reason I found your music was on Soundcloud coincidentally) It’s easy to see your sound overloading the melting pot of the South London sound, this music could have a ripple effect on the industry as a whole. Your music adds in a regenerative statement that no other artists here have taken on that much. Presuming London could be another ambition for you too?

Definitely, we’ve gotta make that happen some day!

-Not that you’re exactly stopping, is the writing a thought-flowing process or something that comes and goes?

Some days I don’t write at all, but some I write 4-5 songs. It all depends on the mood and also it has to do with the actual instrumentals. The other night I was listening to just a bunch of instrumentals to get an idea for some new songs and there was one instrumental and instantly I just found a hooking to it instantly, so I started writing to it instantly. The mood and the instrumental. If those two go together we’ll come out with it.

-Talking of coming out with it, it’s surprising here in the UK of just how many rap and RnB artists we see coming out within both urban and suburban festivals, whereas it wasn’t nearly as publicised as  before. Obviously a great opportunity globally for artists, would you consider taking on that kind of challenge?

Yeah, I would definitely consider festivals actually. Last month I was at this festival in Chicago and they had a bunch of different genres; they had reggae, rock and it was pretty much people who they felt would move the crowd in a certain way. There must have been about 2,000 people out there so it was a pretty good crowd and we had a good time. You know I did a few of my songs like ‘Wazzup’ which they went crazy for. I’ve definitely gotta come out there, I’m gonna need to do that to show me the artists to go to etc!

-With the more underground venues inside cities, perhaps the unique mixture of your music could really uplift an area, a venue and of course new listeners. Over here in Bristol  for example, with its deep roots of experimental triphop which is a great platform. Tell us about your own platform within your ‘NoN’ phenomenon.

NoN is Now or Never. Basically it’s a bunch of guys who I grew up with to take our organisation music-wise. So right now we have 6 people in the group, some of them are still going through development. Like I said I have ‘Phase 1’ out right now, Mike De Mans he has ‘Category NoNe’ EP out right now, coming out of ‘Unplugged’. But basically we all have VERY different sounds, and they’re all very original. I mean I don’t hear anybody elses music sounding like anybody else’s in the group. I’m loving it. So eventually we’re going to come out with a collab mixtape with all the the artists on it. Mike De Mans and just me are the only ones with music out. So I want people to check out my track ‘Long Way’ on my soundcloud featuring Mike De Mans and it’s gonna be on our collab EP, it’s pretty dope.

- To finish off, alongside all your supporting artists who else is filling the speakers right now?

I try not to listen to the radio, because I don’t want to be influenced by mainstream or too much of any other types of current music. I listen to one of my guys, the creator of ‘Category NoNe’ and a lot of his mixtape. Ergh (pauses and laughs) I’m trying to think of someone new! Just a lot of RNB.. I know like 10 $ Sign, a lot of him lately. You know (hints) Chance the Rapper, I try to keep it at a bare minimum as far as the artists I listen to. Most of the conscious artists are the ones I listen to but there’s a lot of good music out right now.

-And by the sounds of it you are one of them, pumping out new songs by the minute. It seems like an upcoming surge, I’m anticipating the airing of your new tracks, ‘Wazzup’ and ‘Don’t Take It Away’ as the regeneration of RNB greatly on my station so all the best Lukane.

Thanks for the love!

-If you want to find out the extensive hype over Lukane head over to https://soundcloud.com/lukane_non to discover his mixtape, 'Phase 1' and new pumped out tracks.