WiseRap, hails from Kilburn in the London. This area is a vibrant mix of cultural influences, reflected in its bustling high street and diverse community.
From the bustling heart of Kilburn, London, Paul Rafis, known as WiseRap, emerges as a powerful voice in the hip-hop scene, blending cultural influences with a message of hope. This compelling narrative takes readers on a journey through the vibrant streets of Kilburn, where the echoes of the late 80s and 90s shaped a generation grappling with social challenges like knife and gun crime.
WiseRap’s dynamic spirit and unwavering commitment to unity in a fragmented community shine through in his music. With collaborations alongside iconic figures from the Wu-Tang Clan and a bold choice to remain independent, he embodies authenticity in an industry often overshadowed by materialism.
WiseRap – The Journey
Through intimate conversations and reflections, WiseRap shares his personal journey, revealing the deep-rooted influences that have fuelled his desire to uplift others. He emphasises the importance of genuine connections and the need for community spaces that foster creativity and belonging.
As he navigates the complexities of today’s hip-hop landscape, WiseRap invites readers to reconsider the narratives that dominate the genre and encourages a collective shift towards positivity and social change. This magazine editorial is not just a biography; it’s a call to action for a generation seeking purpose and inspiration in a world filled with challenges. Join WiseRap as he shares his story—a testament to the transformative power of music and the unwavering hope for a brighter future.
“We need to look at people’s characters, not their accolades.”- Paul Rafis
Paul Rafis, known as WiseRap, hails from Kilburn in London. This area is a vibrant mix of cultural influences, reflected in its bustling high street and diverse community.
Kilburn
Like many urban areas, Kilburn faces notable social challenges. Over the years, its identity has evolved, but the story of WiseRap begins in the late 80s and 90s.
Dynamic, creative, and impactful are just a few words that describe Paul. His passion for uniting a fragmented hip-hop community is truly inspiring, especially considering that many of his peers have distanced themselves from the genre. His personal experiences with loss fuel his message of hope for a generation that often grapples with issues of knife and gun crime, both in the UK and the USA. His impact on the hip-hop community is a testament to the power of music to inspire and unite.
Global Stage
Many argue that he has rightfully earned his place on a global stage by nurturing ambition, challenging the status quo, and encouraging younger generations to aspire to achieve their goals.
WiseRap – Turning Pages
My meeting with Paul was a breath of fresh air. You seldom meet someone with an animated personality who quotes life experiences like chapters in a novel.
My life parallels his in that we quoted artists from our time and how they stayed relevant. As an 80s child, the hip-hop scene couldn’t be overlooked as it influenced politicians and laws and provided a marker in time that we still refer to today.
WiseRap – Collaboration
Notable collaborations with WiseRap include Lakim Shabbaz22 and Kinetic9 of Killarmy from the Wu-Tang Clan and West Coast legends like Bishop Lamont and Big Prodeje of South Central Cartel. These collaborations were significant because they demonstrated the authenticity of his talent as an independent music artist.
Perhaps turning down a deal from Roc Nation, headed by none other than JayZ, proved nothing short of a drive to be independent. This decision, which many would consider a career-defining moment, embodied his narrative to build authenticity with a dedicated following. His autonomy and dedication to his art are truly admirable.
The Origin
To understand the man behind the brand, we need to look at the origins of hip-hop. As I write this, I feel nostalgic; memories are flooding back of watching The Rock Steady Crew perform live at Earls Court, watching break dancing in Hyde Park and the birth of MTV. This nostalgia for hip-hop’s origins is a sentiment that many of us share, a reminder of the power of music to shape our memories and experiences.
In the late 80s and 90s, there was a strong message of community spirit and belonging to an emerging genre. Rebellious, yes, but it had tons of hope for a young fan base.
Impact
This artistic form has even influenced government at regional and local levels. It created opportunities for spaces that nurture talent and develop potential, something that has diminished over time.
Positive Future
Skate parks, community centres, workshops, and recording spaces all contributed to an industry with aspirations for a positive future. Speaking fondly of those distant times, Paul talks of how that alternative future never came to fruition, sparking social challenges.
We discussed the dark side of hip-hop in depth. Knife crime rears its head on a list that includes street crime and phone theft.
Hope
WiseRap offers hope and is rising in the hip-hop scene, creating relevant music to shift perspectives. We discuss the surrounding rhetoric of an industry shrouded in controversy at length. I hope you enjoy reading this editorial as much as I did writing it.
Questions
Your story is one of challenge. To people reading this editorial, what motivates you to carry a torch of hope for a younger generation?
I would tell them that, to fit in, you don’t need to talk about killing other youths; you don’t have to talk about knife crime or gun crime to fit in. That’s the trick, isn’t it? Everyone’s doing it to be successful, and they are all sealing their fate. When I was giving CDs out, first of all, there were a lot of tourists in London.
I would be selling CDs on the streets. A lot of people would tell me that they don’t listen to hip-hop, and I would say to them, look, you got to help us build this culture up were putting a message out. That’s what was basically going on.
You grew up when hip-hop was in its infancy. It was young and had yet to evolve. Did you foresee trouble?
Hip-hop wasn’t really accepted when I first started speaking consciously; it wasn’t accepted. People thought that it was wrong to speak like that. Now the world is a bit more awake, I always dreamed it would be like this, but I never thought we would be in such a bad state with gun and knife promotion and all the youths feeling they need to do it. I never saw this coming; I thought, you know, when I was doing this twenty-five/ six years ago, up to this point, I thought hip hop would change, and the message and we would start affecting politics. I just saw us in a better space than now, to be honest.
Do you think social media and online presence have impacted the younger generation?
Yeah, social media played a big influence in making a lot of the youth compare themselves to people who are living a fake life on Instagram and social media. It didn’t help us because back then, you know, we were on the streets with CDs, talking to people, playing CDs on our stereos, going into the record shops, and there would be a sense of community. I think online social media have replaced community centres. They have done it in a negative way because all the youth are able to attack each other and be jealous of each other. Whereas, when they were in community centres as kids they were playing together, building together like I had. That’s one thing we had in our community, we had a community centre connected to our council estate. After school, we could go down and play pool. We had darts competitions, but even that got cut short a year or two after being in it because of funding.
Is hip-hop the dark side of music?
I don’t think hip-hop has a darker side; I just think there’s a materialistic side where, like, you know, it’s about women. We don’t sort of celebrate women anymore, you know. The darker side of hip-hop would be like, just for instance, like me, everyone in the culture, including me, we knew what was going on, you know, with the parties, and what sort of stuff was going on. Everyone chose to ignore it and support it and act like certain artists were on a pedestal, and they were like gods, so they were the gatekeepers who were controlling the message and the music.
Who told you that you were good? Was there an influence that played a part in your journey?
In terms of as I was growing up, it was sort of hard because everyone around me didn’t believe in me, you know, everyone had a doubt -oh, another rapper. I had friends who, even to this day, would support people who were talking about knife crime and supporting gun crime because they thought that was the cool thing to do.
Then I would have some friends who said- give me ten albums, you know, so it was a balance, I think. You know what a lot of friends were like: Paul, you can do this, but remember you are going to see who is true. The real people you think are there to support you are going to judge you and talk behind your back. They would say you’re a thirty or forty-year-old man still rapping, not realising that all along, it’s been about a message; it’s been a calling. People who influenced me would be my mum, she used to play records in the house of great music cleaning up. She always pushed Penny for the Guy to us and pushed Guy Falkes. At that age, I didn’t know who Guy Fawkes was, but I knew his story was important.
History
My mum never really pushed the bonfires and the fireworks celebrating Guy Fawke’s death; my mum told us that he was a great man who tried to stop the money system. I feel she didn’t want me to get hurt in music, she knew I would have a journey. My mum did Tarot reading as well and read my cards a couple of times, and she predicted certain things. Now that I sit back, I sort of understand what she was saying. I think that she was just trying to protect me from it.
Do rappers have to give in to peer pressure?
What you tend to realise is that when you’re ready, so are the people in your friends and family, even if they don’t support you. It’s like when Denzel Washington acts in a film, his mates know he’s going to do a good job, they know he’s ready, so that’s what Id tell everyone, Don’t judge your friends for not supporting or any of the family around you they just don’t understand it, you know, but if you’re working doing a job. You’re making music. That is your success. There are people on this earth who love you and will always cherish your music when you’re not here.
“As long as you never quit, you have never failed, and if you do it yourself, it means more”. – Paul Rafis
Who would you like to collaborate with?
If I could collaborate with anyone, I would like to work with Eminem. I didn’t really like Eminem because of his message, you know, about babies, stuff about his mum and all of that, but I do realise that he had it hard in the culture as well, you know, lord Jamar telling him he wasn’t welcome. He had a battle, too, so I would really like to sit down; I mean, I throw shots at Eminem all the time, obviously, because he’s signed with Dre, and Easy-E gave Dre a lot of problems. I’m a big Easy-E fan, and plus, I’m linked to Jerry B Long Kocaine, who is one of my mentors along with Bishop Lemont and Prodigy, so I’d always have a dig with Em, but realistically, I would like to sit down with him and have a good rap battle back and forth with him.
Culture
For me, I think the culture needs to move towards a message; we need to impact politics. We need to be like the 90s with NWA, you know, people like that, 2Pac, where they were speaking for social change. 2Pac was a big advocate. He inspired me as a kid. I was listening to Naz at 13. My brother gave me a tape, telling me this is who I need to listen to. It was a tape of 2Pac, and it changed my life.
It changed my life, and it really made me know, wow, it made me feel different in life. I would go down to Woolworths and buy the CD; you would be walking home not knowing what the song was, so you would make up the song in your head.
WiseRap Inspiration
I can remember buying Snoop’s records like “Snoop’s Upside Ya Head”. Slick Rick, as well, was a big part of inspiring me. He was a British rapper from Wimbledon; Slick Rick is a great guy and the culture, he brought us sound when he was ten years old, and he really inspired the whole of hip hop. So, I do feel like UK hip hop played a massive role in USA hip hop, and the sound from like Slick Rick, “The Art Of Storytelling”, people like 2Pac looking up to him, Snoop, all of them took from Slick Rick who was a British rapper from Wimbledon. The culture now needs to really sit down, and people really need to listen to what these lyrics are saying, so if a rapper on a song is talking about killing and hurting people, we need to address that. There needs to be some sort of governing body in hip hop, you know, that sort of watches over the culture and makes sure if any of these youths, look, once these youths have been killed on the streets, we can’t help them. Prevention is better than cure.
“Every tear we cry has a memory that holds all information. Like every flood, every birth, every illness”. – Paul Rafis
Have we reached a point of no return?
I don’t think we have reached the point of no return with the youths. I just think we all need to do better as olders. This is what the elders do; when a youth gets killed in the streets from knife crime, everyone will be like oh, it’s really bad, it’s terrible, but they will put on Giggs talking the hardest, talking about guns that the problem. When big men are 40/50 rapping about it, the youth have looked up to them for years, so they think that’s a natural step to follow.
Hip-hop changed; there was an agenda that happened somewhere in the 90s. Where it was like labels wanted to kill music. It’s well known, well documented, artists were going into labels, and they would say- we don’t want this, we can’t sell: we can’t push this to the youth!
Now, the labels don’t win anymore; the internet is a free place where any kid can upload their music. In my case, I will never understand why I had to battle for fifteen or twenty years to get my music on national radio, but they let everyone through even though it was about killing the youth, and that was ok and celebrated.
“We need to be all be held accountable for our words.” – Paul Rafis
