Thread: DJ Rap

Originally Posted by selwyn

She's on The Facebook, Charissa Saverio :ymsmug:

yes i am a fan

I bit more info

DJ Rap

She's fallen out - and made up - with most of her drum n' bass peers. She's been blacklisted, bullied and branded a bitch. Now, with a new album and a new sound, Rap's fighting back... Words: Dorian Lynskey, Photographs: Angus Mill A few months into her DJing career, DJ Rap played at a Telepathy rave. Outside someone was stabbed to death, just as inside Rap dropped a darkcore anthem with the sample, "Mr Kirk, your son is dead". Ravers came up to her screaming, "How could you do that?" but Rap didn't know what they were talking about. The next day the police came round to her house and said, "So you're the DJ everyone hates". Overnight all her bookings disappeared. She left London and sent herself, quite literally, to Coventry. "I didn't come home for two years because I was not welcome," she remembers with little affection. "It took a lot of time for people to get over that."
'Mr Kirk's Nightmare' by 4 Hero was the first record that changed DJ Rap's life. There's been two more since - the second was General Levy's 'Incredible'. In 1994 jungle was going overground. Levy's chart crossover hit forced all the scene's main players to form a Jungle Committee to keep the music's integrity intact. For the first time, there were lines to be drawn and rules to be kept. At one meeting the Committee decided that every major jungle DJ should boycott an upcoming Jungle Soundclash event because - they claimed - it was too cheesy. Problem was, the promoter had been good to Rap and she decided to break ranks. At the time everyone, except for Kenny Ken and Fabio, shouted her down. She later received anonymous phone calls warning her that she'd be stabbed if she played.
Rap went ahead anyway and found that half of the Committee were playing, only they were getting paid more. "So was it about morals or money?" she asks now. "I just thought, 'You fucking hypocrites'." It was the moment DJ Rap decided she wasn't going to follow anyone's rules ever again. The third record to change DJ Rap's life is her own, soon-to-be-released, second album, 'Learning Curve'. Between Reprazent winning the Mercury Prize and Goldie releasing 'Saturnz Return' it looked like drum n' bass might be ready to fulfil its promise and conquer the mainstream; instead, it's ended up turning in on itself.
But DJ Rap knows a lot about breaking new ground. Four years ago her 'Spiritual Aura' single was one of the great crossover tunes. Her subsequent mix album for Journeys By DJ showcased 'intelligent' drum n' bass a year before 'Logical Progression', while her 1995 debut album 'Intelligence' was the first drum n' bass album to appear on an independent label. Around the same time, she gazed down imperiously from billboards across the UK as the face of Caterpillar boots, over a slogan that read, "DJ Rap, Junglist".



Rap has been out of the limelight ever since, working on 'Learning Curve', an album which takes drum n' bass as a vehicle, not a destination. There are tearing drum n' bass tunes, true, but tracks like the single, 'Bad Girl', sound like a big beat answer to Madonna's latest album or an angst-free Garbage. It's not afraid of being out there on it's own, or of pissing people off. It's a lot like DJ Rap.
Rap comes into the room, ill and exhausted after the 'Bad Girl' video shoot and from mastering her album. Her voice, ravaged by the air-conditioning at the hotel used for the shoot, is husky. She's worried she sounds like Donald Duck but with her broad East London accent she's more like a young Barbara Windsor on 40 a day. She's still wary of the press - the topless shots she did for the tabloids over a decade ago under her real name, Charissa Saverio, are still reprinted whenever she puts a record out - so she's charming but there's understandable caution. She warns Mixmag not to misquote her. We wouldn't dare.
'Learning Curve' is only half drum n' bass and has the ability to cross over, while most drum n' bass albums appeal only to the fans. So has drum n' bass lost its way? "Oh, I think it's gone back into itself. I think it's gone through that warp hole. Everyone was expecting that it'd be huge, weren't they? But
I think it's a lot purer now. It's strictly for the clubbers. I like that personally, but I do think it's shrinking."
You don't seem to have the jazz, funk and electro influences that every other drum n' bass producer grew up on. "I'm a fake, ha! The only music I was ever allowed to listen to at boarding school was classical music so there's no background. The first music I really got into was when I started raving. I'm a complete fake."
Why did you disappear for so long after JDJ and 'Intelligence'? "I just wanted to be left alone. You're right, I disappeared. And I loved every minute of it. I have nothing to fear about disappearing. I was grafting really hard on this album. If you know you've got it, take your time. I'm not one of those people who's like, 'Ohmahgod! People aren't talking about me!' and freaking out. Who gives a fuck?"
Did the Jungle Committee incident make you keep your distance from the scene? "I do keep my distance. Before that I used to rave every week. It made me think, 'Fuck this - from now on you're on your own'. I'm very into not being involved in the politics and bullshit because I've been there, I know what it's like and my time is too valuable to get caught up in this shit."
Have you made up with the people at that meeting now? "Yeah, it's all cool. You've got to understand, I'm quite a fiery bird. I had big arguments with all the DJs that day. It wasn't pleasant but I stuck to my guns and I got respect for that. Yeah, you fall out with people but we're all tight. What I didn't like was being harassed and put into a corner. At the end of the day you've got to do what's right for you and if it means falling out with the whole world then so be it. I'm not into conforming and what I like about this scene is that it was made up of people who were a bit weird and couldn't find a niche. It's like a whole dysfunctional family.
Have you always felt in control of your career? "Yeah. I'm incapable of working a nine to five job. I can't just stick to DJing and doing drum n' bass because after a while even that becomes routine. That's what kills me - routine. I've worked in Selfridges, I've worked in a garage, I've trained to be a lawyer, I've sung in clubs. I can't hold a job down but this is different."



Have you always been driven by the need to prove yourself? "I think I used to be. I think I used to be really quite insecure. It was, 'Ooh, I'm going prove I'm as good as the guys'. I had a really tough time as a child because of men and I did have the hugest chip on my shoulder about guys, and it was all about winning. I was very driven by that - hate, anger. I was a nightmare. My goals now are to be calm and nice. It's not about winning anymore."
So why did you do the topless modelling? "It was something I did when I left home and I was skint. It was a quick, easy way of making a lot of money. I think I was a mixed up kid and I didn't really value myself. I was running away from a lot of things. It was also something I did to piss my mum off - anything to get a bit of attention. That's all it was. I didn't do it for long."
Is it difficult for you to look at those photos now? "Yeah, 'cos my body's excellent now and it wasn't so good then. It's like, 'Oh no! Look at my eyebrows! They weren't plucked! Look at my big frizzy hair!'"
Did you ever want to be famous? "I hate all that. That's the weird thing. I've pushed and pushed to get here and now I'm here I want to go back there. I don't go out... I'm a bit of a hermit. I have talent, but it doesn't give anyone the right to exploit me or abuse me because of that. People say, 'Oh it's part of the territory isn't it?' No it fuckin' ain't. Excuse me! No it's not part of the territory, love. That kind of scares me."
Have you ever had a stalker? "I've only had one and he didn't last very long. I used to go out with someone who used to go out with Kim from Mel & Kim and she used to receive bags of spunk in the post."
Has being a woman in a male-dominated field been a help or a hindrance? "I think it's helped actually. I wasn't the first female DJ but I was the first who stood up for myself. I was the first to say if you're good it shouldn't matter what gender you are. 'Course it's helped. I've got a lot of attention because I'm a woman. I'd rather have had a lot of attention because I'm good but... you need all the help you can get."
Do you act like one of the boys in order to fit in? "I am one of the boys. Don't get me wrong, I love being a woman, but I'm also a tomboy. You can't be a fragile dollybird to get on in this scene... I'd like to think I'm one of the boys but I'm also not stupid enough to think they don't see me as a woman."
But do you manipulate your position as a woman? "I suppose I'm a bit manipulative. If it gets too tough you can always cry, heh heh. Or you can always say it's that time of the month - it's still a mystery to men isn't it, PMT? I try to play fair. There's a hidden book of rules that you guys have that women aren't brought up with, and there's a lot of stuff us girls can learn from you guys. How you run your businesses, how you leave your emotional shit at home and get on with the job - I respect that. Women spend so much negative energy on shit that's irrelevant."
In 'Bad Girl' you sing "You've gotta be a bad girl to be heard". Do you? "You've just got to be a bit more like men. It's not about Girl Power for a start. There's a lot of women who don't assert their wicked ways. Look at me. I've had to stand out a lot of times and speak up for what I want and people have said I'm a bitch or a control freak. If that's how you want to perceive me, fine, and that's how I want to be if that's what gets me heard. Look at Madonna, look at Demi Moore. Nobody says anything nice about these people. I happen to think they're the two most professional women in the world and they work incredibly hard. Why does that make them bad? But if we're bad, than so be it..."
The album 'Learning Curve' will be released August 3rd on Higher Ground

I was in Blackmarket records once, she came in and my mate whispered to me "thats DJ Rap" I hadnt seen her come in and could only seem some bloke and said "I thought DJ Rap was a bird", she heard me, I went shy!

didnt know about the being boo'd off the stage.

And never seen those pics before, i normally like it shaved but man i'd tuck right into that without second tought.

i used to listen to her show on a regs on fantasy fm back in the day

An acquaintance of a bird I knew claimed he shagged her after one of her shows here, and that it wasn't unusual for her to pick a groupie of the evening to do the honors - don't know if there's any truth to that though.

Definitely a fan of her older proper talent tunes, but as a DJ, can't rate her over Fallout or Kemistry.

I must admit i preferred her earlier tracks to her d&b ones, one of the greatest female contributors to the rave scene!

Originally Posted by spangle8

I must admit i preferred her earlier tracks to her d&b ones, one of the greatest female contributors to the rave scene!

Not sure what you mean by that.. but all her tracks (well at least at the start of her career) were drum n bass... can't say as i've heard anything from her in years, so i've no idea what she's up to now