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…
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“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!”
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‘Messiah’ is out now through Warner Music Australia.
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