EBS: So we have known your name since 1999. But for the sleepy heads that aint familiar with Asaviour, give us some background on yourself.

Asaviour: Well first off I'm a emcee/producer from Huddersfield (the north of the uk) You may know me from my work with Jehst i.e. tracks like “People Under the Weather” Money in the Bank” my work on the Falling Down album stuff like that. As well as being his hype man and touring partner for nearly 8 or so years

EBS: So you were born and raised in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, whats was the Hip Hop scene like up there?

A: To be honest Huddersfield has changed a lot since I was living there, in terms of a scene its very up and down, there are a few guys running a couple nights but be honest its a lot more wide spread, I see the scene more as a West Yorkshire thing, spanning across Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford, even Sheffield and Manchester etc Across board I’d say its quite healthy. There are a lot of good nights, in terms of just hip hop culture i.e. graffing & breaking it’s a little thinner on the ground but never the less the are quite a few crews doing there thing.

EBS: Who did you grow up listening to? Hip hop or non hip hop?

A: Hip hop - err Nwa, Epmd, Biggie Smalls, Naughty by Nature, RUN DMC, Snoop, Dre, Outkast, Nas, Large Professor, Jay –Z, Common, Busta Rhymes, Gang Starr, Wu Tang so many really.
Non Hip Hop – Bob Marley, Eurithmics, Michael Jackson, Bounty Killer, Duran Duran, Buju Banton, Marvin Gaye, Donna Summer, Prince, Prince Buster, A few my folks Soca Records, mad pop tunes like I said before so many really

EBS: How did you come to link with Jehst?

A: Well I actually got into rapping (not seriously) a year or two before I met him, I saw him just freestyling with another crew he was with at the time though he was good and that was that really. It wasn't until I started going to college that we bumped into each other and started spitting bars to each other that we even thought about doing tracks together. At first we just hooked up on a mutual love of hip hop and weed, (his side of town didn't have any weed so he come over to my side and we'd go grip something) It was through that time of linking up we started to work on shit and the rest is a dot on the pages of hip hop history.


EBS: What about YNR? You still rolling with those guys?

A: Err yeah kinda, at first when Ynr was just a crew of crews just making tracks and working together, but later it developed into the label we know today, I still work with those guys, I did a single quite a while back, and I’ve recently supplied Sir Smurf Lil with tracks for his second album an mixtape which is coming out on the label.

EBS: So what projects you working on at the moment?

A: The two projects which have been taking up a lot of my time are The A Loop Theory which I’ve produced alongside DJ IQ, I’m really proud for this album I’ve upped the ante lyrically and production wise go check out the myspace we got a few banger up you to check out. The other is a production album I have in the pipeline called Nextskool classics, That’s gonna be a collection Remixes and fresh cuts all produced by me, its shaping up really well. so far so good...

EBS: Tell us more about Savvy Beats. Describe the sound & ethos.

A: Savvy Beats, well that’s me getting a bit bored of “Uk Hip Hop” don’t get me wrong I love hip hop from this country but there are a lot of artists with very polarised views of what hip hop is. I guess I'm just striving for that NextSkool Sound. Bigger, more intricate more colourful, more dynamic, Basically not just sounding like every body in the scene right now.

Interview By: C.Monts for Bbarak Magazine.