Moka Only on hipsters, scenesters, fuckheads and more ubyssey.ca MOKA ONLY - Vermilion Reported by: Julie Pickering /Photos: Oker Chen Moka Only shown as he relaxes with his extensive shoe collection in his East Side apartment, where he lays down phat beats. Moka Only is a Vancouver-based rapper who’s been working the Canadian scene for more than a decade, collaborating with artists such as Chali 5 of Jurassic 5, Jay Dee from A Tribe Called Quest, and MF Doom. He scored a mainstream hit in 2001 when he released Bad Dreams with Swollen Members. He split from Swollen Members in 2005 to focus on a solo career. He released his latest effort, Dog River, a collaboration with Def 3, last September. Ubyssey: Can you tell me about the “Moka Only” behind your latest solo work, Vermillion? Moka Only: It’s gonna sound silly, but one day, I just thought of the title Vermillion, that bright red, and that was it. I make every song sound bright red. I like to think in colours. There’s always that technical aspect…but if the mood isn’t there, then I don’t bother. U: When you do work on your music? M: Usually at nighttime cause everyone else is sleeping, so I don’t get disturbed. Or I make the beats in the daytime. I’ll start at like 11pm and go ‘till 7am. I can make a whole album in that time. I can do it from the start:the beats, everything. I can do a whole album in one night. U: With the same theme in mind? M: Yeah, unless I get sidetracked, and start working on something else. I have this one I’m trying to do right now, it’s called “Carrots & Eggs.” It’s been a real hassle because I first thought about doing it, starting making moves towards doing it, and then, you know, life happens. I mean, I got distracted, so I’m really having to crack a whip on my back to try and finish it because it’s supposed to come out in July. U: And that’ll be a solo? M: But also with Def 3, the Dog River album, it wasn’t intentional. I was out there and we just had a session, just cause I know the guy, I’ve known him for a while. It’s just some fun stuff and we ended up with five or six songs from that trip. We thought, let’s just make a mix tape, something we could give to our friends: brand new, original songs. Next time I went back to Regina, we did some more, kinda thought about maybe putting out an album. The third and final installment, we spent a couple of days doing some stuff, basically wrapped it up and decided, okay, we’ll make this an album. U: What’s your take on these sorts of collaborations? Is the creative process completely split? M: Well, it’s like in science, with alchemy. Mix two properties together, you come up with a new whole. That’s the way I look at doing collabos. Like, the stuff I did with Swollen didn’t sound like me, and the stuff that Madchild and Prevail did for the group is definitely different than what they normally do. We melded together [to make] a new whole. Do I like doing collabs? Yeah, sometimes. I like it to do my own thing ‘cause there are no restrictions. I don’t have to wait for somebody to write the rhyme. When I was doing the Dog River stuff, god bless Def 3, but, whoa, he takes a long time to write. For inspiration, I either make the rhyme up on the top of my head or write it within two to five minutes. Get it down, cause it’s like a snapshot of music, I wanna capture a mood. If I take too long, the mood’s gonna fly away. U: Regarding your solo work, can you talk a bit about how Vermillion is different than your previous stuff? M: There’s a little frustration in it. After I left Swollen and I did the Desired Effect, the label made me change a lot of things. I just had a sour experience a year or two after Swollen…I think it shows in that album. The frustration and pressures still make me do what I consider a better job. U: Are you underground? M: Yeah, I’m proud of that actually. In the past, underground always meant originality and individuality; it didn’t mean someone who’s struggling for their work and not getting paid for it. People these days insinuate that. Yeah, I like the underground tag, I really do. And it feels like a movement. There’s this information happening, musically, under the surface, that 85 per cent of the population has no real idea about. It’s secret; we speak in code, that’s what I find exciting about the underground. New developments, all the possible collaborations, and the fact that it takes less people to screw in a light bulb, so to speak. Technically, I don’t need anybody. I don’t even need to sign to a label. I am with labels, but they’re just real open agreements. Like with the underground, all you need is a computer. U: Does the fact that you are seen as “underground“ give you a different fan base? M: I have contact with some fans that have been with me since 1994, 1995. They’re all grown up, some of these people have families. It’s exciting; it’s like a relationship. Not to knock what we did with Swollen, but it was catering to our fan base, which was a demographic of 13 year old white girls, predominantly. Or young skateboarders. And we tried it, we wanted to appeal to everyone. The way the marketing appeared to people, that’s who jumped on it. Those people just weren’t there the next year. Whereas, even with Swollen, our underground fan base, they were there the whole time, they’re still there. That’s loyalty, right? As a music fan, I completely know where that comes from. There are people I’ve followed since I was a boy. U: How does Moka Only fit into the Canadian music scene? M: I don’t know where I fit in, I honestly don’t. I’m not a scenester. I know where I think I want to be. I like to try to cater towards real music enthusiasts. Someone who can listen to Frank Zappa, and then the Beatles, and then some Black Moon. People with eclectic taste. That’s where I aim my stuff. Are you surprised with the results of your writing? M: Yeah, sometimes I even get let down. Some places I’ll do a show and maybe I’ll expect a certain type of people to show up, people I can converse with about music and emotions, and I’ll end up getting a crowd of beer-swilling fuckheads. Maybe the next show, it’ll be all hipsters. With their hankerchiefs around their necks and their Chuck Taylors and tight pants. And as much as I tease those people, I admire it, because they’re kind of freakish, and I like that. Around here, they have these parties on Fridays and Saturdays and I’ve seen people dressed like robots. What is it about hipsters and robots? You throw a robot suit on and it’s just all good, and rap Beastie Boys’ lyrics. The funny thing about the hipster scene is I notice everything is based on irony, that’s the underlying theme. U: What can someone expect from a Moka Only show. M: Madness, total madness. Expect something completely different every show…I’m not trying to be like the Roots, it’s still electronic and sample-based music, but I like to do things that become visual, that becomes an artistic presentation rather than a karaoke event, which is how I feel about a lot of rap shows. There’s just a backing-track and an MC walking back and forth. I want to do something crazy, I take off my pants sometimes. Live is my opportunity to scare some people. To create a spectacle, a situation. I’ve always been interested in the art movement of Dada and post-Dada, and creating absurd situations. So you can definitely expect absurdity. U: Any shout outs for UBC? Every single person who takes the time to listen to the radio, I wanna shout out for everyone who has an actual opinion, not one that is second-hand. Someone not afraid to be individual, in the truest sense of the word.