Skanky Skanky

Toddla T had an impressive 2009. With a Fabric Mix, a debut album and a grueling tour schehdule, the Sheffield native talks to Shortie about plans for the future and his musical influences.

’09 was a good year man, album, Fabric mix… What’s new for ’10? I hear you got a label coming?

I’m doing a little label called ‘Girls Music’ with my boy who actually signed me initially. That’s not really the big deal though that’s just like whacking out loads of little things. It’s not got massive amounts of money behind it or promo or anything, it’s just a little side thing really.

I’m just about to sign to a new label, doing a lot more radio work for Radio 1, a lot more production, and also done a bunch of stuff for Mz. Dynamite. It’s kind of the same thing but a bit more levelled out though rather than mental out of the blue kind of thing.

What about the Radio show? It seem's to be going well. Anything planned for that?

Yeah the shows are sick man. That’s the third Thursday of every month so that’s cool. I’m also doing a lot of covering for other DJs when they’re away such as Ras Kwame and Mary Anne Hobbs and a few bits for BBC in general, I’m just enjoying it, it’s wicked.

Who’s idea was the chart attack (chart mash up) thing?…

That was mine; me and a mate just came up with it one day. I’m just trying to sort it out as we speak because I’ve got a beat for my next show and the vocalist who was supposed to go on it has flopped. It’s a version of that Rage Against The Machine tune that got to number 1 and the beat is absolutely sick so I’m literally scrolling through everyone I know trying to get a vocalist before tomorrow night but it’s all good, it’s all bless.

Obviously there’s a huge Jamaican influence in your music. Who did you listen to growing up?

Well it was hip-hop initially when I was a teenager, then when I hit like 15/16 I started to listen to a lot more Reggae, so I kind of got into it like that. I went to Jamaica last year for the first time and got a bunch of recording's over there, proper heavy.

Heard a lot of those dubplates you got when you were over there. How did you hook those up?

The dubs were different to tunes. All the tunes that I did, I did in Kingston then this geezer picked us up from Montego Bay to take us to Nagril to our hotel and he was a DJ so he was like ‘If you want some dubs I work at a studio so can sort you out’ so I paid a bit of money and just got bare dubplates.

It was simple man, every other person’s an artist over there and every other artist is a wicked artist so the choice is crazy like as long as you’ve got a bit of money. You’ve just got to go over there and get stuck in, it’s heavy!

Next: Toddla T talks Sheffield and moving to London

The whole Sheffield thing seems to be more of a community over there than a scene. I’ve heard about this collaboration album that went on not so long ago. You were involved and a load of smaller local artists…

Yeah that was the ‘Mixed in Sheffield’ thing. This dude, Liam O’Shea, who’s this proper Sheffield music head, knows everyone and just cracked on with it. It’s cool coz like everyone knows everyone so as long as people put the work in, get off their arse and do it, everything else is in place because the studios and the people are all connected, it’s not like you have to go on a mission to find people, these colabs are sitting on your doorstep. It’s just getting people in the same place which is easy in Sheffield; it’s not like London where people are all over the place. The genre doesn’t matter when it comes to partying and hanging out so it’s quite good in that way.

It’s nice to see someone blowing up and staying rooted where they come from, are you not tempted to head down to London?

Yeah definitely. It’s come to the point now where I’m ready for it. It’s different. Sheffield was like where I learned my craft, where I made my first music and last year I’ve been travelling so much and met so many different types of people, it’s just a totally different thing now. I’m never really in Sheff anymore, I’ve had to get a studio space in London coz I’m working with so many artists there. My girlfriend lives in London so I was travelling back and forth to Sheffield all the time and it’s just a different thing now. Back when I lived there, my friends were there but this last year has changed things so much, it’s just a natural progression to be in London, It’s a good thing though. I love it.