A Few Words With... Cotti

I took some time out recently to talk to South London’s Cotti about his increasingly popular dubstep releases such as 'Sensi Dub' and 'Calm Down' featuring Doctor and also his views on the grime scene from where his musical career started.

Why did you make the initial switch from producing grime to producing dubstep?

Because I realised that grime as a whole only had a future for a few select artists and producers. When I really checked it, I'd been on the top pirate radio stations in London such as Rinse FM and On Top FM, been a guest on the top legal radio show, DJ Cameo’s Pirate Sessions on 1xtra and also [him] supporting many of my tracks on his show. I worked with a lot of the known artist and producers in the scene from east to south London and even put out a vinyl EP entitled the "4N Exchange EP" along with a mix CD called "4N Territry" featuring Jammer, J Sweet, Skream, Plastician, Big Narstie (NAA), Ironsoul/Kromestar, Mega from South Agents plus many other artists in the game and realised that I’m hitting a brick wall so to speak. There were no bookings, the vinyls and mix CD were not selling and this was not only just me but a whole load of other up and coming artists. That’s when I met up with DJ Chef and Loefah who introduced me to the dubstep sound, which was new and exciting for me, so I tried my hand at producing some dubstep and the rest is history.

Having recently recorded tunes with grime MC’s Doctor and Jammer, are you now going to balance your productions in between the two genres?

I have actually worked with both Jammer and Doctor in the past two years. As for balancing between the two, I’d rather stick to doing dubstep, grime is my past plus grime in general is a declining scene in my opinion, with only very few artists actually earning a living from it and a lot of artists having nothing positive to say with regards to lyrics and working together. It seems like if you don’t have a name in grime then nobody wants to know (i.e. other artists and even fans) and even if you do, it’s still an uphill struggle and plus I much prefer being involved in the growing dubstep scene. It’s nothing but love and I see a very bright future for the scene as a whole with all the different angles it has to offer the listener and the encouragement of producers working together.
You seem to have built up a good friendship with Jammer (i.e. youtube video of you guys in the bagel shop), how did you first link-up with him?

Well that’s funny you ask. Jammer happens to be my cousins other cousin (Slickman who is also in the video) so we phoned him up one day (2005) and said "Yo Jam we’re coming to do some work with ya". We went down to his studio the next day and recorded a track with him entitled "Hustle Hustle" which featured on my mix CD. After that, Jammer did something that pissed me off big time so I didn’t bother going down there for a very long time until a few weeks back. I said to myself, “Let me try and work with him again”. But I let him know that things are very different now as in he really wanted to work with me now and he better know himself” [Laugh out loud].


What can we expect to hear on Bassface Records that we might not usually expect to hear on -30 Recordings?

Bassface will deal with a lot of vocal stuff and even a touch of grime but not the standard grime that we’re all used to. I want to incorporate more reggae, soulful & positive vocals with regards to future releases for my Bassface label.

Could you also state the differences between the two labels. How they will be run? And who runs them?

Well -30 is strictly dubstep releases which only certain close producers will have releases on there like myself, Cluekid, Chef, Slickman and one or two others which I won’t mention yet. Bassface will be more diverse musically and I’m currently building a stable of producers to feature in the near future such as my younger cousin Kingsoly, Deapoh from Barefiles, a guy called 12th Planet from the USA, another up and coming producer from York called Locksly and obviously myself and Cluekid with others soon to follow. Both labels are run by myself with Cluekid helping a bit with -30 Recordings, although he also runs his own label, Bullfrog Beats.

Both ‘Sensi’ and ‘Calm Down’ feature prominent Reggae samples, how important do you think is in your signature style?

Well ‘Calm Down’ is no sample, that’s all Doctor on that tune. It’s funny, I get so many people assuming it’s a sample. That shows how well Doctor works over my music, big up Doctor on that. As for my signature [sound] to be honest it seems like that’s how I've made my mark in the scene, with other vocal tracks which I have released like ‘I Don’t Give A Dub’ and ‘The Legacy’. Both vocals; I like to innovate not duplicate so I thought let me come into the scene from a different angel from other producers although just before we put out me and Cluekid’s ‘Sensi Dub’ Coki did ‘Burnin’ and I thought to myself why not take it that next step further and get a live artist on the track rather than just a sample, so that’s my angle now and it seems to be working wonders as I've had so many offers from other labels to sign ‘Calm Down’.


You’re playing out with Benga in Holland at the end of the month; do you see a difference in the way a foreign crowd reacts to certain tunes in comparison with that of the U.K crowd?

To be honest that is my first booking out of the UK but I have noticed when playing out of London the fans appreciate it a lot and show so much love. I’ve played in Yorkshire, Nottingham, Leicester, Bristol, Brighton and Manchester to name a few and see that the fans really respect you, which is heavy. Big up your chest all the fans supporting the Cotti movement!

Recently you have released a collaborative E.P with Kromestar, any plans for anymore collaboration E.P’s this year?

Yeah of course. Me and Cluekid, that’s how we started out doing collabos, that tune featuring Jammer is actually a collabo with myself and Slickman a.k.a. Mr. Party who I mentioned earlier in the interview. I've also just finished a collabo with Baredubs director Deapoh so look out for that very soon and like I said -30 Recordings will be full of collabos with myself and Cluekid and other close producers, that’s initially what we started the label for.

For more on Cotti check out:

www.myspace.com/cot4n