Laura ‘Hyperfrank’ Brosnan recently caught up with one of the grime scenes most talked about MCs at the moment, 17 year old Maxsta from east London, exclusively for The Wrap Up!
The Wrap Up: How did you get into music and what’s your journey been like to get to this point?
Maxsta: It’s been a rollercoaster to say the least, a lot of good times, some bad times, but overall it’s been a good journey. I started off with a five pound microphone from Argos and a computer with some of my boys in my bedroom after school, so it’s great to be here right now…
TWU: What were you listening to growing up? Who inspired you to actually make music?
M: Dizzee Rascal, Kano and Ghetts were my three favourite artists, but I listened to a lot of music when I was younger. I was into grime right from the start, the first grime CDs I bought were JME’s ‘Shut Yuh Mut’ and Ghetto’s ‘2000 And Life’. I feel like I fell in love with the sound right from the start, at the moment I can’t go a day without listening to some sort of grime, even if it’s just my own music.
TWU: You were in grime collective, Mucky Wolf Pack. What was the situation around you joining that crew instead of say, Nasty Crew?
M: The Wolf Pack thing was just to do with me hanging around Bow E3. I got introduced to the whole Wolf Pack team by having my music heard by the older lot like Gods Gift. I had to clash another MC on Roman Road which decided whether I was in or not. Thankfully I won because it was one of the moves that shaped my career. I’m from Newham so a lot of people ask me the ‘why not Nasty Crew’ question, but it’s just a thing of not really having any affiliation with any of Nasty Crew, so even if there was a chance of it happening, which would have been real cool, it just didn’t.
TWU: So what actually happened to the Pack?
M: It got to a point where there were a lot of members, including Snoopy and Maniac, who had different ideas of what they wanted to do. I never actually wanted to leave, but at the time there was some confusion going on with Wiley and Wolf pack. By that time I had affiliations myself with both sides and didn’t want to have to cancel either partnership so I had to go solo.
TWU: A lot of people including myself first heard of you when you called out Double S/Marvell in one of your lyrics. Why did that all happen?
M: I got a call from Jammer talking about ‘Lord Of The Mics 3’ and he asked me who I might want to clash. I decided Double S. Many people don’t know this one, but Double S and I were meant to clash in 2007, when there was a little war season going on. Wiley rang me saying “Max, you want to clash Double S?” and I never back down from a good challenge, so I obviously said yes. The clash never happened, but I thought in 2009 I was ready to actually clash him and win. It kind of got out of hand because I weren’t really feeling the way they dealt with the situation, trying to treat me like some little kid you know? But I came out of the situation with my ratings up, so thanks.
TWU: Is it all squashed now?
M: Yes, with Double S and Shocka anyway, those are the only two I’ve spoken to, not sure about the others.
TWU: Would you ever work with Double S/Marvell?
M: Why not? Hopefully there’s no feelings caught on their side, because a lot of people would like to hear a Maxsta and Double S tune. At the minute though, the situation is like I’m saying Double, let’s do a tune and he’s trying to ignore it. That’s the kind of stuff that gets me in one of my sending moods. Thankfully though, we’re past all of that now.
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