Logan Sama

Kiss 100 FM - London, UK

From seminal pirate Rinse FM to legitimate radio on KISS 100 Logan Sama is always known as the DJ with the latest and greatest from the big boys as well as that tune from the guy you haven't even heard of yet. G Notorious tracked down Logan to get a piece of his mind on this thing they call Grime...

GN - Where are you from originally? What’s your musical background?
LS - Geographically I've lived in Essex for the last 12 years. Musically I used to listen to all sorts. Never really got onto the jungle wagon when it first got big cos I just wasn't exposed to it. In 1996 I was going to watch the Foo Fighters and The Prodigy, not Grooverider. It's amusing that it has come full circle now but I got into "UK Garage" by listening to a guy called Steve Jackson on Kiss 100. Before the station was bought out by EMAP Steve used to do the breakfast show and a UK Garage show. I used to hear him playing Garage Classics on the breakfast show on my way to school, and I just got into it from there. Tuff Jam Smirnoff Experience show. Dream Team on Kiss then on Radio 1. EZ on Freek FM and then Kiss. Then I found Rinse FM on the dial at 100.3FM and it opened up a whole different sound of "garage" that had just cultivated itself on it's own. It was like lifting up the cushion on the sofa and finding you'd been sitting on a 20 pound note and a heap of change without knowing. I ended up going on that station too and that's what made me as a dj.

GN - How long have you been DJing and how did you get into it. Did you play other styles before Grime or was that what made you want to DJ?
LS - I used to just listen to the music on tapes. I discovered pirate radio and I had to buy a big coppper rod to boost the signal strength in my area. Most of the Essex based pirate radio stations were unfortunately blessed with some pretty dreadful MC's. And I couldn't pick up DeJa Vu or Freek FM all too good unless it was a clear day and I stood holding the arial at some weird contorted position. So in the end I just went into HMV and bought a couple of records to listen to on my dad's hi fi system. First Garage record I bought was Artful Dodger ft. Craig David - Rewind on promo. Purple label from Public Demand. That was September 1999. I didn't even own decks for another 18 months. It was only going out to see EZ and Karl Brown that made me want to learn to mix, and when one of my friends upgraded his cheap belt drive turntables for some new ones I offered to buy them for like £100. I got Technics in 2001. Learnt how to mix on them and did a few guest shows on a local pirate station Plush FM. A year later I got invited to send a demo in to Rinse FM and I got given a show prime time on a friday night. Back then I played "UK Garage". The 4/4 style, the 2 step, the "bassline" stuff. Gradually the big names got out of garage when the scene started to fail and the quality of the 2 step and 4/4 stuff went down. At the same time these guys like Dizzee, Nasty Crew and Wiley were just making tunes and not worrying about the bpm or the sound. It was all about the attitude. So instead of continue playing music I wasn't really feeling was still as good as it once was, I decided to focus on promoting these artists that I was working with on Rinse and in East London. From receiving the Boy In Da Corner demo version cd I just promoted vocals and used instrumentals just for the live MCing. That's when I think the music changed from a strain of UK Garage into something new. Grime is what people call it.

GN - How would you describe the music you play to someone who had never heard it before?
LS - That is a good question. I often forget that the music is so small that people often don't know what it is. It depends what sort of person you are. I always ask a few questions to determine how to explain the music. If you know what UK Garage is, then I can explain it one way. If all you know about a bunch of black kids rhyming over a repetitive beat is Hip-Hop then I have to come from another angle. Grime is made up of a number of different influences. It started in the UK Garage scene, but the mentality and attitude was created during the Jungle era. It is to England what Hip-Hop is to the USA and what Reggae Dancehall is to Jamaica. It is an attitude and a lifestyle. To describe the sound would be an exercise in futility as the sound changes more than the tides, but to give an overview it is mainly based on electronic sounds built using low spec home studios. In many ways it's like a modern day punk music. People are more worried about making something they themselves like rather than how technically good it sounds.

GN - You've made the switch from playing pirate radio to your Kiss 100 show. What was that like? How is it different? Do you have a preference? Does your pirate background give you and edge on commercial radio?
LS - My Kiss 100 show is exactly the same as my Rinse FM show apart from I have more technology at my disposal. If i had the money to buy two mics and an FX unit while I was on Rinse it would have been the same. My pirate background means I already know what the people want before I got to Kiss. And it meant that I was all about the music, not just filling up air time. I love pirate radio. Turning up with a huge record bag and a sack of cds and just doing whatever u feel like is very liberating. One week I might be going through someone's demo album and showcasing an artist. I might be doing a war report and spinning the full unedited diss records about at the time. Or the mcs might turn up and we will run the mic for a full hour. Pirate is the backbone of this music. Without pirate radio the attitude and spirit of Grime would die. But doing a weekly show, I prefer Kiss because there is structure and order. It is a professional platform to promote the music. I wish I could do both and just go on Rinse for one off shows and do whatever I wanted on there like the old days, but alas OFCOM wouldn't be too happy about that, and I'd be sacked from Kiss.

GN - Where do you think Grime is going musically?
LS - Grime as a music has a very confused musical identity, so where it is going is EVERYWHERE. People just try stuff out. Anything. 20 tunes built around the same proteus samples and a gliding square bass. Loop up some 80's pop hits and mc over them. People are only limited by their ideas. And if it's good people will feel it. Grime is a real meritocracy in that if you do something people like, you can be big in weeks. But it can take years to be in tune with what people like. I'd like to see the traditional Grime sound move into a big studio environment. Lil Jon makes Hip-Hop tracks that are so simple, but the mixdowns and mastering make them sound wide.

GN - There seems to be a trend of artists releasing more “commercially viable” or “radio friendly” material. On the one side, Grime beats with RnB vocals over the top that people are starting to call “RnG” and on the other Grime artists releasing tunes that are musically more traditional Hip-Hop, for example many of the tunes on the Roll Deep album, and Ruff Sqwad’s tune sampling Billy Joel. How do you see this affecting the music and scene overall? Is Grime going to be less “Grimey” in the future? Do you see it splitting again between the more commercial aspects and the underground Grime sounds?
LS - The thing that separates Grime from Garage and all dance music is it is artist based. The MCs and Singers ultimately hold court. They are the faces of the music, not a bunch of faceless production names. And in Garage you had a situation where big artists came through like So Solid, Craig David and Miss Dynamite but they were in a position that unless their music fitted into the predetermined criteria for what Garage was decreed as being, then their music got no support from the scene. That made So Solid go off and try and make Rap, Craig David leave the Garage sound entirely and make RnB and Miss Dynamite run off and think she was Lauryn Hill. With Grime as long as you retain that british attitude we have and do a track, people can play it and support it.

There are a lot of tracks that if you listen to the instrumentals they are technically Hip-Hop or RnB or whatever, but after they have been vocaled they become Grime. These "poppy commercial" looped tracks are good in that it is helping the music and the artists reach platforms our raw stripped down sound wouldn't have been able to reach in this day and age of music. These days unless it is from "Pop Idol Factor X" or an American artist who has brought his hit tune over here, then most stations won't play it in the daytime. That's a problem with the UK industry, so we just evolved and added this style to our genre. I wasn't a fan of Avenue, but it did the job. There wasn't enough MCing on that track for it to be a true Grime record, but tunes like Shake A Leg and Uptown Girl, when you can get past the beats and listen to he bars the MCs put on them, they are real Grime lyrics. Distinctly british with our Grime attitude still in tact.

A true artist will want to express themselves over different sounding beats, but will maintain their identity. The good "commercial" tracks artists make will do this. But, like with everything that is a success, you will see sub-standard copies trying to copy a formula. I don't see it splitting, but you are going to have a distinct underground sound, and a more polished mainstream sound and a happy medium.

RnG is dead. No one makes RnG. That's Snoop Dogg's album. RnG was a license for people to make dreadful second rate Slow Jams and get poor singers on the tunes hoping to get their tracks played or even signed. RnG started out as a name that was meant to help our music progress from the stigma attached to the Grime or Garage name. It just turned into something that was exploited. The name was an exploitation of RnB anyway, so it got what it deserved. RnG stands for Rhythm and Grime. I like to think that Grime has Rhythm in the first place. I play MC tracks and Vocals. I don't play RnG. And I don't know any big people in the scene that will tell you they make RnG either, Terror Danjah included. Grime is good enough to stand on it's own. We don't need RnG or these looped up pop records. I hope one day our true sound will be accepted as something that people will want to hear as part of their daily radio scheduling.

GN - Where have you played outside the UK? What was the response like? Are you playing anywhere else in the near future?
LS - I've only ever been away once to Brussels. I've got the biggest audience of a Grime show in the world now. The only show on a legal FM station dedicated to Grime. But I've only been on for just over 2 months so I'm sure people will start calling as the promotion and press starts to filter out. That's why I am always happy to sit down and do these interviews properly, not only does it help people understand our music, but it helps spread my name out there. The response I've seen has been really down to the crowd. I know that while this is an "urban" scene when we go to America with the music it's more of a white hipster crowd. And in Europe we get those Electro/Techno ravers coming out for it. The Hip-Hop crowds are starting to trickle in, so I am sure it will change. Those people with open ears and open minds are always the first people to "get it".

GN - What producers and tunes are you feeling right now? Who are your all time favorites?
LS - I'm terrible with lists and top tens and such. I just play whatever I am feeling at the moment and don't really give it much thought. The best and most consistent producers in our scene are Wiley, Dexplicit, Jammer, Skepta, Davinche, Sticky and a few others. Dizzee is in a class of his own obviously. All time Grime classics? Eskimo of course. There's loads. Pulse X brought a new mentality where people believed they could make their own music. I Love U was ahead of it's time. It always reminded me of 80's pop mixed with Happy Hardcore. Dizzee is quite mad in front of a production set up. There's loads of great artists who can perform in their niche. Forward Riddim (Pow) was something which brought a lot of attention onto our scene, I have to respect Lethal B for arranging that. Kano and Ghetto are very good. Trim is a huge talent. Scratchy will do well. Newham Generals. Skepta and Jammer are huge in raves right now. There's more underground mc's like Purple and Faction G with great talent. JME has brought a new style to MCing to Grime. There loads and I will no doubt forget most of them. But there's a huge width to this music where if you want deep lyrics you can get them, if you want feel good party vibes u can get them. It's healthy right now.

GN - Vinyl vs. Digital? How do you think people will buy and play music in say, 5 years, 10 years, etc?
LS - Vinyl and Acetate. Play a record next to a CD and you will tell the difference. CDs sound flat. Fair enough where it is house music and the music has been mastered and compressed to the nth degree. In Grime, if you play CDs your sound quality will be swag. Spend the money and cut dubs and buy records.

GN - Do you ever aspire to write music as well or would you prefer to stay on the DJing side of things?
LS - I'd love to get into Executive Production and help artists realize their potential. But actually programming music? No, that's a whole new discipline I don't have the time to master.

GN - Anything else you would like to tell the world about?
LS - Just make sure you check out the show at least once. You can listen to it on the internet regardless of where you are in the world by going onto HTTP://WWW.WHATSON.COM/KISS and choosing Logan Sama. Look out for the mix CDs. I'm starting 2 series that will run in parallel. Anyone who is interested in stocking those give me a shout at INFO@LOGANSAMA.COM I'm always looking for international links. And don't be afraid to get us at your parties! All bookings are welcome!

GN - Any shout outs?
LS - Big up everyone at Rinse. Big up Wiley and Roll Deep. Big up Skepta and Jammer. Big up my producer Kiss. Big up everyone doing their thing professionally and positively. And big up everyone across the world who is feeling what we do over here. You are appreciated.