Just a few weeks back, Australian producer M-Phazes released a pretty great new track called ‘Messiah’ that he co-wrote on with the wonderful Alison Wonderland, and came with news of M-Phazes‘ forthcoming solo album.

We thought this would be a good time to jump in and ask the man where his love of music began…

“My first CD ever was ‘Kriss Kross – Totally Krossed Out’. I was about 11 or 12 years old at the time and I pressured my Dad to buy me a CD player, so we went to some pawn shop in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast and bought this huge CD player, it was massive like a VCR player. I then went to their little CD section and the only rap album I could find was ‘Kriss Kross – Totally Krossed Out’.

I wasn’t even a huge fan, I liked ‘Jump’ and ‘Warm it up Kriss’, but I was just desperate to own a CD that I made my Dad buy that CD as well. I was into some pretty good hip-hop at the time, De La Soul, Arrested Development, Public Enemy…”Good” hip-hop, so I was pretty dismissive of Kriss Kross when they first came out.

The thing that caught my attention was the production, it was my first introduction to Jermaine Dupree, who I didn’t know at the time, but something about the production just hit me. It was a perfect blend of raw hip-hop, mainstream rap, R&B, New Jack Swing and pop. I think this had a pretty big impact on me as far as not feeling like I had to be pigeon-holed into one category and it was OK to dabble in all sorts of music styles. The album is a really strong as far as production, yeah their raps were pretty corny at times, but the shit was fun!

I haven’t listened to the album for years, but as I write this I put the album on and I can still appreciate how good it is even after 15 years. My favourite song from ‘Totally Krossed Out’ is “The Way Of The Rhyme”, the beat is insane!”

‘Messiah’ is out now through Warner Music Australia.

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