GEORGE THE POET INTERVIEW

Feb 22, 2016
5 min read

With the Brit Awards around the corner is only seemed fitting to share this interview with spoken word artist George the Poet (George Mpanga). Myself, Sayuri Standing and Ben Jolley had the opportunity to interview George after his performance at Nottingham Trent University. George was promoting his EP, The Chicken or the Egg and had just been nominated for a Brit Award and the BBC Sound of 2015. Below is our interview covering his involvement in social and political issues through his music amongst other topics.

Katie: When did you realise your enjoyment for making music?

George: When I was 14, a lot of people started getting studios in their rooms, and that just changed my life because then I could actually make music, as opposed to singing over songs.

K: A lot of your work is related to society and what is happening in the real world, is this due to our background in Politics or was there another drive behind it?

G: It’s due to my upbringing and the estate, and my journey through education. I went to a grammar school and then to Cambridge University so they always juxtaposed what I saw each day, and I was always interest in why people do the things they do.

K: How has it been for you finding out about your nomination for the Critics Choice Awards at the Brit Awards and most recently the BBC Sound of 2015?

G: Yeah its great to find out about those things because I thought it would take a lot longer to get commercial recognition, but people embracing me know just makes it easier for me to say what I want to say.

K: Where did the idea of using your work to tell a story come from?

G: From Nas and Eminem, I used to listen to them when I was young and they were really great storytellers, I always wanted to do that.

K: Who has inspired you Musically?

G: Nas, Eminem, Tupac, Jay-Z, R-Kelly, big influence by vibes cartel

K: If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?

G: If I could collaborate with anyone it would be… Sam Cook, he’s dead now, but that would be who I would choose.

K: Currently we have your song 1,2,1,2 on our playlist..

G: Aw thanks

K: Could you give a background to it?

G: 1,2,1,2 is all about individuality, and it’s a celebration about that. I think it’s a fundamental truth that you are the only person with your fingerprint in the world, and that does mean something, and I think you just have to figure that out and only you can do that.

K: What are your plans for the foreseeable future?

G: I have got a Europe tour coming up next year, and album, a book in spring, a theatre production.

Ben: Busy!

K: Just a small list!

B: On 1,2,1,2 is the production from Bodhi? How did that come about?

G: Bodhi first took an acapella of My City and made a house remix of it and then we got into the studio. We didn’t have a plan or anything. So the fact that 1,2,1,2 has been received the way it has is really surprising because we made it in 15 minutes.

B: So how has it been hearing it on the radio with Fearne Cotton and that endorsing it?

It’s crazy and it was even weirder to hear it at a big function at quite an upmarket night/place recently.

B: Must’ve been pretty freaky. Do you think it’s difficult for spoken word artists to break into the mainstream culture? Obviously there was Kate Tempest. How do you feel about that?

G: Nah, I mean Kate Tempest is sick. It’s all about communication and if people understand what you’re saying and people understand your style, then it’s no problem.

B: Do you think there’s a different message between your spoken word and rapping?

G: No. People are people. It’s not like rappers are genetically programmed to say anything. I express a lot of the ideas that rappers are expressing about social exclusion and powerlessness and the frustrations that come with it. That’s what they’re saying but it might come with an 808 or a few profanities. It’s received as a way which is unfair because it’s still a form of poetry.

Sayuri: With the way you did your show tonight, most times you go to a gig and there’s usually a sort of fourth wall with perhaps a little bit of dialogue with the audience. But you engaged with the audience the whole way through. Is that the first time you’ve done it like that or have you always performed your live shows like that?

G: I’ve always been a bit interactive but it’s the first time I’ve taken it to that level and I’m glad with how it went.

S: And are you going to take that to your tour next year?

G: Elements, yeah. Just keep building and adapting.

S: I heard that you started off rapping but it was university that made you take it into to a poetic stance. They say that uni changes you in a lot of ways. How else do you think your time there changed you?

G: I understood what it meant to be an ethnic minority when I went to university. I didn’t understand it before because I grew up in a place where the minority was a majority. Even in my secondary school, although it was a grammar school, it was predominantly Asian.

When I went to university, I realised that it was predominantly white middle class and that just made me rethink my message and made me rethink my position, and yeah, I had to grow up and be a lot more mature and mindful of everyone around me.

S: I read that you tried your rapping to your peers at uni but they didn’t really get it and you adapted to poetry?

G: No, it wasn’t that. I always had reservations about rapping before so I never even bothered trying to rap. I rapped without music and as I imagine, they received it and they called it poetry. Then I started adapting and styled it more deliberately to make it conversational and then what you saw tonight is, four years on, what I’ve come up with because it’s just talking to people.

But the fourth wall that you spoke about is even more likely and is an even stronger barrier when you are a rapper, especially in this country, because this country hasn’t grown with rap in that sense. So people hear the beat and they see the style and it comes with all these connotations and assumptions and they glaze over quite quickly. I didn’t want that because I feel like I was saying stuff that deserves a response.

S: And is that why you won a grant to introduce programs into schools to do spoken word workshops? Why is spoken word more beneficial for these young kids than say, music is?

G: I wouldn’t say it’s more beneficial but its easier to teach, definitely. I’m just saying that, you have content. You express the content in a memorable format in a way that works for you. And you’ve now digested the content because you tried to make it fun – as I’ve demonstrated. Then you’ve developed another skill: the performing aspect, the confidence and all of that. I’m all about practical solutions, especially for disadvantaged kids because everyone says it’s really hard to help them and stuff but it can be done. It’s not impossible.

S: What’s the response been so far?

G: It’s been good.

K: Are you concerned that by maybe getting these views across through the poetry/rap style, you might not be taken seriously?

G: Um, nah, because… as I have to explain to my label every other week… it’s just one aspect of what I do.