Interview

So we have recently interviewed Yung Kuma, we spoke to him about his passion and his love for Grime. We met Yung in the place he grew up, Hackney.

So what’s going on in your life fam?

Urrgh I’m just trying to.. I’m not trying, I am maintaining a normal lifestyle, independently at the same time tryna make music that i enjoy and then live the life in order to make the music, soooo.. yeah.

It’s interesting, I’ll tell you why.. Because, it’s funny to me cos i look at a lot of artists who are dying to get a record deal, they're dying to get a major deal. You lot, Boy Better Know, just seem happy being independent, how do you kinda live a certain lifestyle making music you want to do?

Right, at first, it starts off with what you love doin, i love making music, i love drawing, i love painting, i love BMXing and there's loads of other things i like doing yeah? But i LOVE music, i love the feeling music gives me, especially my own music or the music that i like if you get what im saying. So i needed to find a way to make that music and be happy, but in the UK there are certain things you have to do, you have to pay TAX, if i was in New York id be doing music in a different way, so in the UK there are things you have to do, to keep a business running. Luckily i have lots of friends around me that helped me set up my company, set up my website, set up my merch, that has helped me so much up to today.

yeah yeah i feel ya man, i feel ya...Have you ever thought about branching into any other music genres, such as hip-hop?

Listen, I've been making music all my life yeah, i was around before grime was even a thing, i was around when people were calling it House, Jungle or Garage, so people who make that music and listen to that music are scared to produce anything else because the audience is so intense and so protective over it and they will hate anything if it’s not grime. So us grime artists don't like to create any other music than grime. I do have a single that is a bit hip-hop, and it's one of my least popular tracks you get me? But i will never let it bring me down cos i was here before it and I’ll be here after it, sooo nah grime is what i am, what i love, grime is what i live for.

Why do you think your fans are so protective over the Grime scene, why do ya think that?

Cos we are a hybrid sound man! You always here American accents in Grime, cos hip-hop influences us, but now i could be talking normally and you couldn't tell if i was spitting bars or just talking you see what I’m saying, Grime is such a unique sound and that's why people love it and worship it.

How did the name "Yung Kuma"come along?

When you're younger, everyone wanted to be an MC and write lyrics, but first you need a nick name. It was a bit easy for me cos when i first started spitting you know, i was only 14...so i started young, hence "Yung". Kuma came around when i was watching an anime series, and one of the characters was called Kuma, and didn’t know what it meant, so i got on the bus and went to the library so i could find out what this word meant. And when i arrived i found a Japanese to English dictionary, so i found 'Kuma',and i saw it meant "Troll", and this appeals tome cos is see myself as quite a joker, I like to mess about, so yeah... that’s where the name came from.