Galaxy High – From the People, to the People
May 17, 2010
Power to the People, Galaxy High’s recently released single, floats along on a buzzing cloud of snares and loping samples.
A self-styled “multilingual ambassador,” Galaxy High is a Swedish-born Gambian Londoner, by the end of his teenage decade already a veteran of the BMG Scandinavia roster, courtesy of his Hundreadz collective – in his words, “pointed out as the Scandinavian Boot Camp Clik.”
Off the strength of Power to the People, I called up Galaxy High in London and listened as he broke down his influences and spirituality, explained why rap cannot be pop (but sometimes is), and outlined his next steps.
Nomadic Wax: What’s the background behind the Power to the People single? Why drop this track right now?
Galaxy High: Power to the People was a quick thing, let’s do it and put it out to the people for free… It’s not a dance track, but it’s more reflective and trying to be something to vibe to. I’m being a bit conscious there, but I like to be light-hearted in terms of how I’m conscious. You have a lot of artists that’s revolutionary, trying to change up the whole system – I’m not this or that, I’m in between both of them. I’m not like, here comes the new underground artist.
I do have a new EP coming out soon, Hello Mellow, so I just wanted to hit them with something to let them know the EP’s coming.
NW: You call yourself the “multilingual ambassador”, and that’s evident throughout your music – in this track, you flip it up and spit in a couple of languages on the chorus. What does it mean to you, to be in that role?
GH: I like to, I like to go back to my roots, and let my roots be in both the West and Africa. So I have both of those sides, really.
NW: Why does hip-hop, why does the world, need someone speaking from that perspective? Where do you get that motivation to put yourself in this role?
GH: Basically, I get my drive from just being me – as an artist, [hip-hop is] an art form, and art comes from your experience, your expression, and your way of interpreting life around you…. [It can include] things that you might not know – but I’m more in tune with what I know, what I’ve seen, and that’s been very multicultural, very colorful.
I was born in Sweden, grown up in Gambia, returned to Sweden, it’s like two different worlds – so you absorb, it’s a very colorful environment to grow up in both those worlds. And you meet people in both languages, both cultures. So I’m not from New York, but I’m very international in my accent. I felt home, straight, the first day I visited New York.
NW: True – I remember, growing up, I was listening to hip-hop so much – old school New York rappers – the first time I visited the city, I was blown away by how much seemed familiar. Of course rap has grown out and taken on new influences, but New York is so imprinted on the DNA of the culture… subways, graffiti, the boroughs, all that.
GH: Exactly, exactly. I think being multicultural comes from my roots, being surrounded by multiculturalism, growing up in two different worlds and knowing them well, knowing the customs and stuff. So it’s part of me, I don’t even have to think about it when I pick up a pad and paper. Whatever comes to me, comes to me.
And I think, God gives gifts to everyone. And that’s just me expressing myself in the way that I’ve been gifted by my surroundings. So it’s only right if I’m being real to me.
NW: What is the meaning of “Galaxy High” – what are you conveying by adopting that name?
GH: Galaxy High, it’s like, outer space, out of here – going beyond the majority of what you see. [A lot of music is] all kind of the same, referring to the same thing, following whoever’s big there, they think that that’s the way to go if you want to reach success. I’ve always been a person that’s a little bit unique in my thinking, in a way. I’m not a follower, I’m a leader of my own self. I’m not telling people, let me be your leader – I’m just a leader of my own.
The galaxies are very different from this earth, [outer space] works in a way that we don’t understand, I’m working in a way that we don’t understand – it’s definitely about keeping different from anyone else. A lot of people choose an artist name because it sounds cool, it sounds dope, but I put it on like it’s a part of me: an artist that’s original, creative, and likes to think a little bit outside the box.
Don Jupiter, that’s where that also comes in – I’m intrigued by mystery, I’m a devout Muslim, and I like to balance spirituality in everyday things we’re doing. That’s a part of us, we’re spiritual beings.
NW: Word. I once read a great quote, something like: We’re spiritual beings, who happen to have a physical body, but people get it twisted and think it’s the other way around, physical first and then having a soul.
GH: Definitely not. We have a soul, and that makes us spiritual beings, and we live in a society
that keeps that hidden – whether you have a lot of money, a lot of materials, you still need that notion of balance in your life. [But] the preaching comes at me first: whatever I’m saying, I’m saying it to me before I’m saying it to other people.
NW: No doubt, we all have to make sure we practice what we preach, that we aren’t just putting things out there for others but then adopting what we’re talking against ourselves.
GH: Right, we can’t worship what we create – we should worship what created us. At the end of the day we need to go back to balance. You can’t be extreme in any way, and as a musician, I’m being an ambassador – a communicator with people.
NW: On the track, you say – “Rap is not pop”
GH: “Rap is not pop if you think that then stop,” right, I’m quoting Tribe Called Quest, they drop that on a track.
NW: Right, and – to you, what does it mean to be “pop”?
GH: These days a lot of people are just talking shit, because it’s good money, it’s quick money – but how much money can you have? It’s just quick fun, it’s fast food, you eat and you get hungry again, after half an hour you feel like you’re hungry again, like you didn’t even eat, you want something proper, a plate with rice. We can balance. I’m all for commercial music, I like Blondie, Madonna, that’s the pop stuff for people to go up and dance, but it was rooted still. It’s not about being commercial and underground, I’m a little bit between both of them.
A while ago, at the time, we were spittin hard stuff, we grew through different stages of rap. When I [first] heard Common Sense, I thought he was soft, i didn’t feel it. The first time I heard the Black Star album – that all grows on you. Company Flow – that was fresh, man, pure freshness.
NW: [laughs] No doubt, man! Shoot, Company Flow, El-P, it’s been a minute since I’ve heard someone mention that album [Funcrusher Plus].
GH: I think there is two different “pops” – there’s a pop that’s original, and that’s not the pop that I mention. I’m not talking about the pop that I used to love back in the day – Chuck Berry, he could be rock-pop, but it was commercial and fresh, Little Richard, Stevie Wonder. Pop comes from those genres. Michael Jackson – that’s not the pop that I’m dissing.
But you can’t come as a rapper, and you’re jumping on something that should be a different song, should be a pop song, the rap on top of it just sounds plastic.
There’s two types of pop: there’s pop for the people, and I like that, digging back to the old days, 80s, 60s, 70s music – that’s the good pop for me. But today’s pop, if they went back to study the old pop, in a sense, that would be great – but… I’m not really seeing any new artists doing it that way, they all sound like Billie Holliday. But it’s good if they add something that’s them, a little bit.
NW: Word. So you’re based in London right now, can you tell me – what is London to you? How does it influence your music?
GH: I don’t think it influences my music much – somewhat, it does, but I’m more of a traveler. I still like to travel, it’s the traveling that brings more, that puts me in the mood of writing. I don’t think that London’s bringing my creativity, especially the rainy days. It’s a multicultural place here, that’s the nice part of it, but in terms of it helping me be creative because I’m in London – I like to zone out in my own world. But big up to London still, and I hope this summer’s shining.
NW: What about Gambia? How does that play into your identity?
GH: I grew up in Gambia since an early age, and that’s the first language I started hearing. I went there when I was a baby, stayed there until I was 12, then went back to Sweden – so it’s very personal, very sentimental.
Going back there brings back old memories, playing in the streets, making musical instruments with kids around the streets, on the block, where the cars were running – I had that African life in the 80s. Growing up there, I’ve seen people having a lot, having poverty, but I’ve seen a lot of happiness. It wasn’t having a color TV that made a person the happiest here, people are smiling, we appreciate life, people have faith in God.
Of course, things have changed now – the whole world has gone materialistic. People might look up to someone because they have a good car, a big house, but growing up there in the 80s, it was simplicity, life was simple, and even now I still feed off some of the music that I heard growing up as a kid.
NW: And how does Sweden fit into your identity?
GH: Sweden molded my rapping, definitely. But since Gambia, you see me lost in the crowd, jumping and dancing, as my auntie was looking for me, amongst adults, basically. Music’s always been a part of me somehow. I was very intrigued by breakdancing – my cousin was breakdancing, but I was much younger, so he didn’t let me come and practice, but I always liked to sneak and see what they were doing.
In Sweden, it’s more organized, it’s very secure – like, your life is quite secure. And um, in the 90s, Sweden was very Americanized. So you might catch Swedish people having a bit of American accent, and the TV shows as well. We were in our own little “New York” world, but in Stockholm. [laughs]
But it’s a lovely place, we had a good hiphop thing going on, it’s a good hip-hip scene. So I think that molded my hiphop, that’s the place I’m born, that’s always going to be a part of me as well. I would say I’m Gambian, first of all, but I’m also Swedish, because I was born there, I know the ways. All of them made me whom I am.
NW: Any last things you want to throw out there?
GH: [pauses] Yeah, actually, the EP’s just something I quickly want to get out there. Tell people – the EP’s the first project where what I’m doing is a mixture of written and freestyle. I’m mixing straight freestyle and parts of it are written – so I was like, let me just challenge myself and get it done. I want to get it out of the way quickly, get people out there to get it.
I [also] have an album coming out with this female producer, and we’re looking to call it Black Astronauts – very 70s Shaft, Barbarella, those kinds of spaced out and blaxploitation films, the album’s gonna be that kind of film. We’re gonna be on the cover, dressed in space suits.
I like to bring females who are bringing it to the game. These days you don’t have a lot of women who are doing very much, but she’s a female producer – that will be coming out at the end of the year, but make sure to get the EP just to vibe with me.
Power to the People is available on Galaxy High’s Bandcamp page. The Hello Mellow EP is releasing soon.
Comments
Got something to say?
