This month, the states of our nation will be taken over by the inaugural Movement Festival. Set to fill the void of credible hip-hop events in our country, the festival, brought to life by Live Nation and Niche Productions, in association with American hip hop legend Nas, will bring together Grammy award winning heavyweights with mixtape kings and local heroes.
With hopes it will be the hip-hop and urban event each and every year in Australia, Movement looks to the future of hip-hop and rap, while still ensuring a focus on the traditional foundations of the genre.
In the lead up to their appearance at the festival, MC Chidera “aka Chiddy”, one half of the dynamic duo, Chiddy Bang, is quite excited about what is surely to be a big and positive year ahead for the genre.
“I definitely think the art form is progressing, and I think it’s getting back to the essence,” he begins. “All the really good stuff is going to seep through and crack through. I mean, it was an incredible year for hip hop [in 2012], a lot of dope stuff was coming through, like Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore, just all these people cracking through with their different sounds.”
“I look to people continuing to just take hip-hop but fuse it with other stuff. I think that’s what the future looks like; combining,” he adds.
With a lot of influential genre names performing at the festival, Chidera has a few people on the list he looks forward to performing alongside as well as seeing perform.
“There are definitely a lot of classic Nas songs that I would like to see performed, like ‘If I Ruled the World’ and ‘N.Y State of Mind’, amazing songs from years and years. Then the man of the moment, 2 Chainz, I definitely want to see what his live show is like and see how he gets down, that’s gunna be dope.”
Unfortunately, Chidera won’t get his wish, as the rapper has been forced out of the Movement lineup after being nailed with possession of drugs on the way to a show, the ensuing court case putting the can on his Australian appearance. “To come back to Australia and be down there for a different festival is very exciting for me.”
The last time Chiddy Bang were in Australia was for the Parklike festival, and they have since found themselves performing at number of similar events around the world. It seems that the inevitable energy which is emitted from festival crowds is what draws them to such scenes.
“I love the crowds, I love the festival vibe, I love the festival spirit,” says Chidera. “It’s just people that love music and want to get a good show. So you gotta just do what you do and you gotta hype them up, you know. Give them a little bit of that flare, that spark, that they’ve never seen. And there’s something different about a festival then just a regular show, there’s definitely a whole different energy.”
Or maybe it’s simply because other venues and events aren’t big enough to handle the hyperactive live sets the duo create. “Straight up energy, 24/7. You’re going to feel the energy, you’re going to see the energy, it’s going to be a beautiful thing. And be prepared for chaos, cause that’s what I’m gunna bring,” Chidera hypes.
The duo are heading to Australia with their first full-length release up their sleeves. Breakfast, which debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 and sold 31,000 copies in its first week, holds a title that means more to Chidera than just the nutritional and traditional way of starting your day.
“When you’re out and about and moving around, doing different things, chasing your dreams, pursuing a career, pursuing your passion, you miss out on the little things, breakfast is one of those things that we have missed out on so much and is something that definitely reminds me of home,” he explains.
“So whenever we could get it, it was comforting in a way. It was like ‘everything is okay’, you know? You can have your breakfast, just relax, and it helps keep me balanced.”
This latest mix from the duo definitely highlights Chidera and producer Noah “Xaphoon Jones” Bersin’s evolution as artists since the release of their very first mixtape, The Swelly Express.
“The very first mixtape, it was just us doing everything, recording in a room on the laptop, and I like that, I like recording in a room on a laptop; not really that much of a studio fan,” says the MC. “That aspect was really, really dope about it, however it was also very limited because we were just taking stuff and just putting keyboards on top of it, putting sets on top of it.”
“We came in initially just sampling everything, but we wanted Breakfast to have a half and half split between original stuff and things that were sampled, not just us relaying on chopping some stuff up. I think we were definitely sincere with that. We just wanted to give people some stuff we’d never really given them before.
“We’re going in a crazy direction, I can’t really talk too much about it but just prepared for the premiere.”In terms of sampling, a job mainly left to ‘Xap’, the extracts really represent the musical tastes and preferences of the two.
“He [Xap] has all these different songs that are great and that could potentially be samples. What he has to do now is, he’ll come to me, play me some beats, play me some stuff with those samples, and I really just choose them; I like this one or I like that one.”
“It really just comes down to our feelings, which piece connects with you and makes you feel inspired? So Xap cooks up the crack, and then I look at it, I assess it, I feel it, I hop on it,” he continues. “That’s what so dope about what we do. We can take from any genre or style.”
One such musical preference would be anything that highlights the energetic and partying nature of Chidera, such as that brought through on the album’s track ‘Handclaps & Guitars’.
“I would say that that’s the anthem to what we do in our career, because if you think about it, we’re travelling to all these different places, playing shows for different kids, but what do the kids want to do? They just wanna party,” he details. “So, we gotta come there and give them that party, and I think that that song is almost the ode to that.”
“That represents me because that’s literally my outlook on it. When I go to a new place I’m like, okay, I want to do the show, and then after this show, I wanna go party.”
Though not much can be said at this point, Chidera confirms there is new material in the works, the likes of which sounds like Chiddy Bang will be going in a whole new direction.
“We’re going in a crazy direction, I can’t really talk too much about it but just prepared for the premiere.”
Chiddy Bang feature on the lineup for the inaugural Movement Festival, which kicks off in Sydney next Friday 26th April before heading to capital cities around the country. Dates and details below.
Movement Festival 2013 Dates & Tickets
Live Nation & Niche Productions present MOVEMENT
SYDNEY – HORDERN PAVILION – FRIDAY 26TH APRIL
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MELBOURNE – FESTIVAL HALL – SATURDAY 27TH APRIL
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BRISBANE – EATON HILLS HOTEL- SUNDAY 28TH APRIL
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PERTH – METRO CITY – TUESDAY 30TH APRIL
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