TMC Interviews Envy : On lyrics, Lady Sov and being “good for a girl”

by Fairy Cake.  Photos by Christa Holka.

Envy’s LP Set Yourself On Fire (not to be confused with Stars’ 2004 album of the same name…though that is also brilliant) is one of last year’s most overlooked releases. I don’t even feel the polite urge to tie an IMO to that sentence, such is the unbearable ability of this chick to pulverise her competition.  This is raw, unapologetic rap, spat to soundtrack of bowel-bothering bass and offensively filthy grime. One listen will probably make you question why the industry is still pumping cash into weak shit like Mr Tempah, when this girl has quite clearly got them all by their balls.

Originally from Manchester, Envy has gutted herself a hole in the testosterone-filled UK grime scene, successfully dissuading lazy critics from palming her off as another Lady Sov (don’t worry, she assures me there’s no beef there). This year looks to be an exciting one, with rave reviews from NME and epics wins freestyling at The Jump Off in the back, and her massively anticipated new material brewing in the front. Not to mention this recent collab with the creme of British lady-hoppers she did, which is just fucking ridiculous.

Watching her destroy the crowd at The Horatia, Holloway made me realise how upsettingly rare it is to see female musicians embracing their aggro and not being scared of being a bit scary. When we met afterwards for a quick natter and a beer, Envy’s hooded garb and big shiny eyes did a very good job of hiding the rather intimidating talent underneath. Yeah, she’d got them big pretty peepers all ready to reel you in. Don’t be fooled; this woman means business.

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So, I’ve seen you killing it at the Jump Off. Tell us a bit more about your battle rapping…

That’s actually how I started rapping. The boys I used to hang around with did it, so it was either sit and watch or get involved – and I’ve never really been a spectator in life! I got a real buzz out of doing it back when I was younger. I loved the adrenalin, and obviously the victory. That’s really where I earnt my stripes. I won some of the biggest battles in the country against guys from all over. Nowadays I prefer to write songs with more meaning behind them, to get my feelings across. I do boxing instead to let out my aggression and get that rush!

Freestyling completely baffles me … how do you keep your flow going without running out of words?

I’m not gonna lie; I do still have moments sometimes where I draw blank, but if I’m in the zone it just comes. I’ve been rapping for 6 years now so I guess I’ve got quite a good grasp on language and things just roll off the tongue.

Do you ever get heckled on stage? If so, how do you deal with it?

Honestly I never have been, in battles obviously the crowd are crazzzzzy and will let you know if they are or aren’t feeling a line. The Jump Off crowd are notorious for that, but I’ve never really been on the negative end of it thankfully! Performance-wise, never been heckled but you definitely feed off the vibe from a crowd when you’re performing. Playing an absolutely dead crowd is the WORST. I had a gig once and everyone was on their mobile phones, it was terrible…*laughs*.

What are your favourite lyrics you’ve ever written?

That’s hard to answer, because often the newest thing I write is my favourite, and I write most days! I’m always trying to improve. I’m pretty pleased with my song Tongue Twister though, even though I wrote that song a few years ago it still gets a lot of love and demonstrates my skills quite well.

And what are your fav rap lyrics of all time…?

Again, difficult to answer there are soooo many. Nas is my ultimate rapper, he is the first rapper I really got into and made me think, “wow this is what I want to do”. Any of his lyrics, especially the older stuff, have a proper place in my heart. Also, I’m very much into Jean Grae.

Jean Grae is the shiiiiiiit…

Yeah, she’s an underground rapper but starting to get a little more recognition over here. She’s probably my favourite rapper at the moment. She’s got a track called “Live for You”; it’s amazing. I relate to it so much, the line “emotional politics wild in me, constantly pregnant with the rowdy problem child in me” grabs me every time! That’s deeeeep!

This is a bit existential, but how, if at all, has your gender impacted on your role as an MC? How do you think your experience of being a rapper has been different to that of a male rapper’s?

I’m really proud of being a female MC, because I have no doubt overcome a lot of obstacles to get to where I am. It’s a very male dominated scene, but at the same time it is sometimes frustrating to be categorised as a “femcee” etc. When somebody says “you’re the best female rapper”, it kinda frustrates me because I think it’s about time we are recognised in the same breath as male MCs. Loads of females are just as talented and in some cases more so than the guys in the industry, so why do we get put in a sub-category!? I hate it It’s actually something I feel really passionately about. I feel like women have proven that we can stand up in these arenas alongside the guys and hold our own, so it’s about time we are judged on the same criteria. I don’t wanna be “good for a girl”, I wanna be good fullstop! There’s a nice movement going on right now in the UK with female MC’s, and I have a feeling next year is gonna signal a shift in the tides – hopefully, we will get recognised for our talent not just our gender.

Forgive me for saying this but there seems to be all this shit about you being compared to Lady Sov. Obviously this is because people have very small brains and cannot imagine there being two female rappers who might be different, but anyway. Is there beef between you? Have you ever met? If so what happened? Would you totally knock her out if you bumped into her? I think you could take her…

Being that we’re both white and both female, we are constantly compared. And yes, it is tired, mad, frustrating, mostly because if people actually looked at our music we are not the same at all. I am much more lyrical than Sov and come at things from a different angle completely. There’s no beef though, in fact we’re actually cool. We go out together and chill. She came to my single and album launch. She even came up to my halls when I was at uni & cooked me Spag Bol when I was a starving student! We work with the same producer and have a lot of mutual friends, and on a personal level are really similar so we get on reeeeally well most of the time, she’s a cool girl. We have a bit of friendly rivalry too, when it comes to music. She would say she’s the best and I will say I’m the best. And, yeah, I could totally knock her out.

If one of us were to take you out, what drink should be be buying?

Southern Comfort and lemonade! Yeeeah, that’s my shit…

And where do you buy your gear from? Clothes not drugs, obvs.

Loadsa places. Nike hook me up with some cool stuff. I’m a trainer addict so I have about 70 pairs at the moment; I’ve had to introduce a new one-pair-in-one-pair-out policy! I wear a lot of Berny Bantum, White Label, Dope Chef, Ichiban & Year Zero.

Is there anything shit about doing music for a living?

Hmmm, this is the first time I’ve been asked this! Probably all the numbers I get and stuff…not *laughs*. I can’t really say a shit thing about it – it’s my dream come true. I do what I love for a living, so ups or downs, I’m pretty fuckin’ lucky! I’ll never forget that or take music for granted. Music is my life, I don’t just do it “for a living”.

The Tongue Twister video is sick….but it looks like it took a long time to film. Did you ever fall off your bike?

The whole video was done in one shot, so we spent like a whole day rehearsing it with all the extras. It was done on a mega low budget, so we only had one set of props, like one pinnate to smash, one lego sign to destroy, water bombs etc so it HAD to be done right. I had to ride my bike whilst spittin’ along to the track, behind a van that was driving about 1mph, as well as having buggies and such flying past me, it was quite difficult! But I managed it! Didn’t fall off the bike but I defo came close a few times…you can probably see in the actual vid…

On the theme…Tell us the hardest tongue twister you know…

I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s son,
And I’m only plucking pheasants ’til the pheasant pluckers come. Always fun!

After writing an entire song about her, did your sister  Nadine take any of your advice?

Yeah, she did eventually! It took a lot but she saw the light and he is gone! We did stop speaking for a while though and we weren’t properly speaking when I wrote the track. She loves the song though It defo got the message across; that’s Nadine in the video! She’s sweet isn’t she?

And finally, what’s your favourite type of cake?

Free cake.

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You guys.  This lady is sick.  You can listen to her record Set Yourself On Fire on Spotify, and then  purchase said album on Amazon.  Then you can follow her on Twitter and tell her that she’s amazing.  GO DO.