The Newham Generals appeared in the Observer Music Monthly over the weekend.

The cosy south London HQ of Dizzee Rascal’s Dirtee Stank label resounds with ribald merriment. Sitting alongside the man Jeremy Paxman respectfully refers to as “Mr Rascal” are roughneck Forest Gate grime duo Newham Generals. They’re laughing at YouTube clips by the Naija Boyz (a Nigerian duo who do hilariously “traditional” versions of contemporary US R&B classics).

The video for the Generals’ debut single, Head Get Mangled, is less of a laughing matter. Let’s just say it was shot in a derelict mental hospital in Epsom and leave it at that. But Generally Speaking – the album which this 18-rated audio-visual rampage heralds – is destined to light up the winter of 2009 like a flaming Swan Vesta in a petrol tank. This cocktail of home spun beats and black cockney verbal wizardry is exactly the kind of incendiary thrill that tough economic times are supposed to produce.

In the three years it’s taken to fine tune their powerful musical engine, motor-mouthed micchatter Footsie and his laid-back partner in rhyme D Double E have been through a dramatic evolution. For a start, there used to be three of them. The missing third man Munk can now be found handing out Christian literature outside Forest Gate train station. “His MySpace caption says ‘doing it all for Jesus,’” Footsie grins, affectionately.

But it was going out on the road with Dizzee that gave the Newham Generals a new perspective on where their music had come from, and where it needed to go. “A lot of people forget that grime is supposed to be dance music,” Footsie says. “If you go to its nearest relatives, they’re hard house and techno, but that’s got lost a bit. What we’ve done is put it back, but keeping a lot of grease in the lyrics. We’re not smooth-faced kids saying some mindless stuff that’s really shocking to mums at home.

“People can say it’s taken us a long time,” he continues, “but in these last three years, just about anyone you might want to call our competition has failed. This guy’s been dropped, these guys are doing tunes with Trident [not an up-and-coming producer but the Met's gun-crime squad]… it’s all just not going well. And that means there’s a big pile of people out there in receive mode.”

And if anyone’s still wondering why this duo chose to name themselves after a hospital… “Listen to the album in one go,” Footsie warns, “and you’re go ing to need an ambulance, because that’s a heart attack right there.”

• Head Get Mangled is out at the end of this month; Generally Speaking follows in March.

Check out the video here.

Related posts:

1. NEWHAM GENERALS – VIOLENCE
2. LIL WAYNE IN THE OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY
3. MK MEETS THE NEWHAM GENERALS
4. NEWHAM GENERALS – HEAD GET MANGLED [VIDEO]
5. NEWHAM GENERALS (FEAT DIZZEE RASCAL & G MAN)

Posted by admin