It’s mid-morning in Hoxton, East London, and Justin Clarke has departed the backroom of Brick London Press agency to restock the permit for his car lodged outside. During the forty five minutes we have been chattering, tinges of alter ego’s Ghetts and Ghetto have flickered into conversation but J Clarke has chiefly governed proceedings.
In an age when artists annually rush out albums, the wait for Clarke’s debut effort has been a slow burn. The 29 year old, who grew up twenty minutes away in neighbouring Plaistow, has been threatening to release a full length album since 2010. Four years on ‘Rebel With a Cause’ has been fine-tuned, and will at last be unveiled on March the 9th.
With traffic wardens staved off for another hour, at least, Clarke strolls back in and slouches down in his seat to resume where he left off. “I’ve never stopped making music, I just stopped releasing it,” he says, before the buzz from his iPhone threatens to interrupt proceedings. Shifting it to one side, he chuckles, “I’ve made about 150 tunes for this album alone…Really I don’t even have to do anymore work.”
Planet Notion: With the video for ‘Rebel,’ I noticed you primarily used kids. What was the reasoning behind that?
Ghetts: It’s just that innocence. When we’re young, what we watch and what we see can influence us quite easily, so the kid in the video he’s an innocent child but he might look like he’s ‘bad.’ And when people keep saying, “You’re bad, you’re that, you’re this,” you can often go that way until you’re strong enough to think that you’re not.
PN: You have been vocal about the stature and mentality of UK artists when it comes to their American counterparts. From memory you spoke out about opening for French Montana. How do you feel about all of that now?
G: We won’t succeed here until we get out of this frame of mind. I’ve been around for a long time and seen the culture take different forms and I feel like the culture was at its most powerful when we had our own thing. No disrespect to any of them [Americans], they’ve left a great blueprint for us but it’s like we care too much about them. We care too much. I’m upset when artists from America come over here, sell out Indigo and then somebody British is opening up for them, for me that’s upsetting. Even if it’s not me opening up, I’m upset for the person that’s opening up, this is your country, you live here; If I can relate to anyone out of the two, I can relate to you. You live here; you’re from where I’m from, they are not from where I’m from.
I understand as an artist how I need to think and what I need to do to take this culture forward. Or we’re just going to go round in circles, you’ll turn on the radio hear fifteen American songs in a row, one English and then another fifteen American. We’re going to keep going around in circles, if there is anything we should take from the Americans, it’s how to make something from nothing. They are like that because they don’t care about anything else; they care about what they had. They pushed that to the world and the world felt that energy was authentic.
I feel like here we’ve lost the passion for what we do. Why should anyone else like it if the artists themselves spend all day tweeting Drake lyrics on their timeline? Your fans see that, your supporters see that and they follow suit. And you’re making the culture here weaker. Drake’s great, all these people are great, I’m not saying don’t like it but be conscious of what you’re doing to our culture whilst you’re doing it.
PN: A while back you had a lyric where you described the past as your ‘shadow.’ Do you feel that is now even more relevant with the evolution of your music?
G: First impressions last forever, some people can’t get past the fact that I’m not the Ghetto arguing with Bashy on the roof even though it’s been ten years. They can’t get past the fact that I’m not him even though everyone they know personally has changed and they’ve accepted that. But I understand for people that are fans of music, they think an artist stands still and his life doesn’t change. I’m still growing in thought, how I perceive things, how I think. I’m not the guy that was about his postcode, I know what life is now. I know what it’s really about that, my understanding is different now.
PN: The album is released in a few weeks but moving forward from that, do you have a long term vision for where you would like to take the music?
G: I want to do so much for the culture itself, it’s not just about me being this massive artist. I want to do something that’s going to be cemented in the history book, that’s way past charting, bare people chart. It doesn’t matter. Actually doing something for a culture that’s looked down upon and over shadowed matters. We downplay ourselves if we’re being totally honest, I want a man to go all the way and feel proud to say he’s from our thing, not talk about this like a stepping stone.
I just ask everyone to remember this. If anyone hears this interview, I just want you to hear. Remember when you weren’t who you were today and you were outside looking in and it was a beautiful thing. Try and feel that again. Because even though I’m Ghetts today and I’m classed as a top tier spitter, I try to remember that feeling when I wasn’t and I wanted to be involved. And I was proud. I’m versatile as fuck, everyone knows that but I stand up anywhere and say I’m a Grime artist, that’s what gave me a chance.
‘Rebel With a Cause’ is out on the 9th of March
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