Introducing The Kray Twinz

Introducing... The Kray Twinz
The debut track from Coventry's Kray Twinz (and yes they're actually twins) is going to be massive, remember that. If you know your beats then flash back to early 2005 and Low Deep's 'Straight Flush', one of the best melodical slabs of grime to date. Well it turns out 'Straight Flush' was a remix of the Kray Twinz 'What We Do' which has now been vocalled and features Twista, Lethal B and Suncycle's Gappy Ranks. The b-side of the promo will feature Low Deep (who we didn't even knew had lyrics), spitting over his version. UD met the Kray Twinz Jat and Jaz.

How did the tune come about?
KT: We've been working on our album and have had this tune about two years but didn't know what to do with it. Low Deep, who's on our production label, wanted to do a remix cause the track was garage tempo (we normally do hip hop), and it went massive. If you listen to our version it's got more live strings, more of a hip hop arrangement.

I thought you'd bootlegged Low Deep!
KT: We kept it hush cause we didn't know what we were doing with it. At the start we were going to put Trina, Busta and Twista on the same track but we wanted to unite UK and US cause no one's done it properly. We didn't expect 'Straight Flush' to get such a massive response that's for sure but it's good for everyone it's worked this way.

So Colourful State, the label Low Deep is on, is that to do with you too?
KT: Yes, that's a subsidary of Krazygroove, that's for the grime stuff cause I wanted to mess with Low Deep but it didn't quite fit with what we were doing. So that's one part of our set up. The last thing we did properly was Mark Morrison's 'Back Stabbers' and co-production on Punjabi MC 'Mundian To Bach Ke'. We've been ghost producing for a long time but now's the time for us to bring our stuff out. Our album will be similar to Neptunes presents. We've already got Truth Hurts, Elephant Man, DMX... hopefully we'll get Busta too.

How did you get the UK and US acts together?
KT: We were in LA recording the album and we had Truth Hurts in. Twista's manager came in and picked out the beat, that was the same week Low Deep released his version. We recorded it in Chicago soon after. It's not about labels and money, it's all us pulling thing together. We want to move out there in September because we're doing a lot of work with Interscope where the Indian sound is getting bigger out there.

Releases to date?
KT: This is our first proper release as us. Hot 97 have started playing it so we're hoping to get the UK some recognition. I know there's a lot of crap, Channel U is 90% rubbish but we need to get the good people out of it and try and get something happening.

So the whole album will be US meets UK?
KT: From vocalists to MC's. We've got an Asian singer who is blowing the Americans away, we put him on a track with a new Interscope act Haze, he's like the next Game. We've got bashment riddims in the pipeline too there's one called Indian Dance which we're working on now. You'll find the Indian flavour in most of our work.

Which other UK acts are you looking to work with?
KT: To tell you the truth we've been trying to get hold of a lot of UK acts, I was trying to get Kano and Dizzee. But a lot of these people think they've blown up before they have. For me, it doesn't make a difference but all they think about is money and that's why I think UK never succeeds. A buzz on Channel U doesn't mean you've made it. The only person who's come through properly so far is Lethal. Gappy too actually. Twista didn't even get paid or ask for money to go on this track!

Are you expecting people to come running to you now?
KT: I hope so but there's a lot of arrogance in the UK vibe, they always hate on each other. If we actually worked together we'd get so much further. Look at the Americans and they always feature with each other, regardless of personal feeling. We just want to get the sound out there. We're UK producers but we've got a lot going off in America but I'm more concentrating on getting this record out and making people know it's not a grime record.

What is it then? Do you not standby the arguement that grime is just the UK's answer to hip hop anyway?
KT: It's a hip hop record to me. I don't know, the production quality of grime musically isn't there. All I can hear is weird sounds and bass lines with no concepts and songs. That's why Kano is one of the few getting heat in New York, it's a good buzz because he's got what the others are lacking. There's a lot of good MC's but they don't have quality beats to ride and that will stop them getting noticed abroad.

You've got ties with producer Sticky too haven't you?
KT: He's signed to our production label too. We took him to America and he wanted to cross his garage stuff over there. People couldn't get their heads around a lot of it. It's so different to what they're used to. Lil Jon is on the grime though and he wants to work with UK, they like the stuff with energy that's why everyone loves 'Pow'.

Is there going to be a video for 'What We Do'?
KT: We're shooting it in LA at the end of August. This stuff has the potential to go overground if people would actually support their own and stop hating.

The b-side has Low Deep emceeing over 'Straight Flush', I didn't know he was an MC?
KT: We had him down as a producer, we didn't know he could spit but he wanted to put his version out initially as an instrumental. It makes sense to bring his vocal version out now though.

And when will the album be out?
KT: It will be either end of this year or next year on Krazygroove. If a major steps in then we'll see but we're happy with what we've got in place, distribution, PR the lot. Now it's about blowing up the underground.

'What We Do' will be out on Krazygroove at the end of September.
www.kraytwinz.co.uk

A version of this article appears in Blues & Soul