You both have seen a world outside of where you’re from. How important has that been?
Konan: I love my area, I love the ends. But to get out and see other perspectives has helped me a lot. Without leaving, you get brainwashed into being a certain way. You get tricked. As a kid growing up, if people are behaving in a certain way and that’s all you see, you’re gonna go down that route too. Now, because music has taken us around the world, we’re seeing that things we thought were normal aren’t normal for other people. It makes you question things. Like street culture, violence, people getting killed. It numbed us to the point that it wasn’t a big deal. We were just kids. Why was that normal to us? Travelling and talking to other people helps you realise that’s not healthy, that’s not right. I’m still kinda numb to the street stuff now, but I understand it shouldn’t be normal. It’s a battle sometimes to not indulge in it because it’s still there, no matter how far away you get, because your family might still be there, your friends. It’s still going on.
Krept: I can’t even drive to my house if there’s a car behind me. If I turn into where I live, and there’s a car behind me, I have to pull over. Just to make sure. And every single time it’s just someone who lives in the area and they’re going to their own house. You’re just automatically in that mode, though.
Konan: Bro, we check our cars for trackers. We’re parking up in some random petrol station. We’re on the floor with a flashlight, looking, sweeping the car, because of how we grew up and knowing people might not be on the same page that we’re on now. It’s sad.
I feel like both of you have been able to overcome the idea that we have to be tough as men through songwriting, with earlier songs like ‘My Story’, ‘Last Letter To Cadet’ and ‘Broski’, and much of your work on the new album.
Krept: Music is a place where you can express things. Any thoughts you have or things you go through, or feelings, whether they’re positive or negative, being able to put it in a song turns it into something real that you can listen back to. Like Kones [Konan], going to Jamaica and discovering more about his dad, and speaking to people like Rodigan who has stories about his dad, imagine that feeling. Being able to put that down in art, it’s a real life reflection of what we’re feeling and thinking.
Konan: I feel like those kinds of songs make you a more honest person. They make you aware of your emotions and feelings. Because when you’re writing, you have to sit down and actually think about how you feel and tell the story as truthfully as possible. Sometimes, when things happen, you don’t really tell anyone how you feel, you just go through it. Writing makes you dive deep into that moment, and how it affected you. When you’re listening back, it gets all them emotions out. You start to understand where the pain stems from and why you move [behave] a certain way
Writing ‘Broski’ made us actually look at ourselves. Nash was going through things and we didn’t know. Now, we’re aware when we’re talking to our friends, we almost over do it and make sure they know we’re there for them. And with yourself too, it makes you more aware. Like: where am I emotionally? Am I happy? Am I sad? It’s just like therapy, man.
