Strategy from Broke ‘n’ £nglish took a few moments to talk to our Zappa before their forthcoming gig at Filling The Gap this Saturday @ The Cellar.

Please let the people know who you are:

Strategy aka Jack Jones aka John Major aka Misery Guts of Manchester’s Broke ‘n’ £nglish.

So what got you into Hip Hop and who have inspired you?

My mate used to rob all his brothers tapes and bring ‘em into school. I had been into Run Dmc, Public Enemy and all that but he used to bring albums by NWA, Tim Dog and other heavy shit. We used to have one ear of the walkman each and blaze it on the bus to school.

It used to get me so hyped, by the time I got there I was in maniac mode and its no surprise I was a handful. I blame every suspension and detention I ever had on 90’s Hip Hop. I’ve been inspired by nuff things not just necessarily music but that is a big part of it.

I’m one of those people that has done a lot of different things in my time but music has been the only thing that stayed constant. I get itchy feet but my main influences are my family, where I live and tryna make something out of nothing.

How did Broke ‘n’ £nglish get together?

It’s a long story but I met Konny Kon in a weed-spot and met DRS in a fight (we was on the same side lucky for him!) and I haven’t been able to shake either of them off since.

How did you go from being a relatively unknown crew to winning the best mixtape award from 1xtra and getting loads of radio play. Can you pin point a certain person or event that advanced your music careers or was it just years of hard graft?

I wouldn’t call it hard graft ‘cos it’s the easy part of my life and its what I like doin’. It has been a long time coming though but I think its took heads in London long enough to get some recognition so its gonna take a little bit longer for those outside London but I’m in this for the long-run so I don’t fret.

We work in stages too. We might have a month or two of pure music but then everyone goes their separate ways for a bit because life-shit piles up and needs dealin’ with. When I’m on a music ting everything else gets put to one side. I think certain peeps within the “industry” are pretty thick to be honest, they don’t know half the shit that’s goin’ on but once one person jumps on something they all jump on it so they aren’t the ones that are missin’ out or lookin’ like they aint got their finger on the pulse. Once you realize that you can use it to your advantage and I think that’s pretty much what happened with us.

What have been the highlights for Broke ‘n’ £nglish or yourself so far?

Too much to mention really, loads of different things come to mind when you ask that. We have had some massive shows in the past and we have done some pretty big things but I think just generally creating Broke’n'£nglish and getting recognition for it. I’m proud when someone asks me if I’m the guy from Broke’n'£nglish instead of asking me if I was the guy that robbed their bike last year.

I’ve heard a few of the tracks off the new album and I must say it is sounding pretty heavy! Can you tell us a little bit about it? How long did it take to write and what would you say inspired the tracks?

Its been a long time coming but now the timing is good. Most of it was made last year because putting out music can sometimes be a long process which is frustrating. I make a track in the morning and I want it out be the afternoon ‘cos that’s my new shit. Once the album is made you are on the next thing and you want to move on but obviously you have to stay exited and promote the album cos no one else has heard it.

Some of the tracks were made last year, some are even older. We recorded it all at my Gaff in my living room and it was claustrophobic to fuck but I think that helps some of the music have its edge. The writing was the quick part, the hard bit was getting everyone at my place at the same time and in the same frame of mind.

Some days I was sat at the computer for about 8 hours straight, my eyes are fucked because of it but once I get started time flies and I forget to eat and drink. Computers can mess you up. I wear sunglasses when I’m on it for time so it doesn’t fuck with my eyes and I have regular spliff breaks and drink ’nuff water. I need one of them chairs that don’t fuck your back up too. I sound like a old geezer.

Are there any guest appearances or is it purely a B ‘n’ £ project?

For this it is a purely Broke ‘n’ £nglish thing. It has got some of the extended crew on there (Gudzy, Jsd-Virus Syndicate and the big man Johnny Chimpo - all from Manchester) but we wanted it that way for now, we have got a few more projects in the pipeline where we will be working with, some big artists that I’m keeping under my hat for now, but the idea was to keep it all us for the debut so we aren’t relying on anyone else’s name and that.

We have got a lot of collabos coming up with people we wanna work with and we are also producing Fallacy’s new album “A Definite Classic”. Watch out for that shit ‘cos its sounding heavy and I think Fallacy is someone the UK has been missing of late.

Whats the plan for B ‘n’ £ in the future?

Keep doing what we’re doing basically. I like to keep things simple and I don’t really plan ahead any further than six months or so. My missus is always grillin’ me for that cos I have trouble thinking that far ahead. I’m a simple yout and I like to take things a step at a time but trust me we have a lot of things in the pipeline this year and it is still early days for us. I’m glad you said you like the album cos if you like that and you hear what I am working on at the moment you will shit your kex.

I’m confident that my production and writing skills have come on a lot and I’m looking forward to the next album already. I am also working on a production project, I am gonna put out an EP of artists spitting on my beats. Got some big names on there and some of it is not what your gonna expect but it is all cold.

Now for a quick fire round. What’s your favourite…

Food:

Believe it or not I am a badboy cook. I got my own signature dishes and shit. One of my favourite scrans that I make is peppered Mackerel with honey and coriander - gangsta. Some peeps ain’t down with fish but its good for your brain. That ain’t something I would make to impress neither its just suttin’ I could whip up in about fifteen minutes.

If I was cooking to impress you wouldn’t know what hit you-id be getting ’nuff Michelin stars n shit and I ain’t talking bout the tires! If I cant be arsed cookin’ though my favourite play is Buzz Rocks Caribbean takeaway in Hulme, Manchester. Trust me it’s the dogs knackers and I recommend it to anyone anywhere any time. Portions dem large!

Drink:

Dark rum (preferably Appletons) and coke with extra lime. The lime makes it - extra lime, you need about three wedges of them badboys and I mean the fruit not the cordial. Some bartender in Salford gave me it with lime cordial once and I felt like offering him out! Fassy.

Film:

Too many to mention but there are the obvious ones like Do The Right Thing, style wars and Wildstyle, Kung-fu flicks like the Iron Monkey and Shaolin VS Wu-Tang and ’nuff other films. ‘Cos I don’t watch TV when I’m not listening to music I watch bare DVDs. Cant remember much off the top of my head now though.

TV program:

You’ve Been Framed all day. I don’t do TV, it pisses me off and I just end up screwing at all the bullshit that goes down. I hate all the presenters off T4 and Popworld and shit like that. I don’t know where they get them from but they are all knob’eads. I hate soaps, if you watch soaps you are a truly sad bastard.

You cant front on You’ve Been Framed ‘cos it is real life comedy and it makes me laugh to fuck. I even liked it when they had that bird from Emmerdale on it and once me Konny Kon and a few others went to Granada studios to watch it live. It was sick. Peter Kay was the crowd warmer-upper guy, this was before he was famous.

Football team:

Man U all day. United for the treble this year (we will see) I hate it when people go on like all United fans ain’t from Manchester. That’s bollocks. Its just that we are the biggest club in the world so we have ’nuff fans outside Manchester too. Also I am proud as fuck cos no team ever has won so much with so many home-grown players in the team. Yeah we might have a few foreigners and even a scouser too but these are players that we get in young and develop ourselves.

Teams like Arsenal are only just learning about that shit now, although I must admit they are showing a lot of promise at the moment. One of the best nights of my life was when we won in Europe and I hope it happens again soon. I have never seen Manchester like it was the night we won that it was sick.

This is probably one of my longest answers but that’s the passion and at the time of writing this we are at the most critical part of the season with only 7 games to go-Come on boys! I fuckin’ hate Chelsea and I cant stand the Gunners, your defence is leakin’ quick call the plumbers!

I represent man united and Matt Busby cos England are shit at Cricket and Rugby.

Safe.

myspace.com/brokenenglishestate