Gappa G and Hyper Hyper Interview 1993

I’m chilling out at 2 Bad Recording Studios in Stevenage, listening to the main men, Gappa G and Hyper Hyper throwing down some serious B’ lines. I decided to ‘haul and pull’ and catch an interview with one of the rave scenes brightest duos.

Blaze: Gappa and Hyper, come on spill the beans about your names.
Gappa: Well that’s easy, since school I’ve had a gap in the front of my teeth hence the name Gappa.
Hyper: My musical style is Hyper, hence the name.

Blaze: How did you become a combination duo?
Gappa & Hyper: We grew up together in Luton and one day over a spliff we decided to get together and run things.

Blaze: Who are you currently signed up to?
Gappa & Hyper: Ruff Kutt Records. Our debut EP was called ‘All Charged Up’. Look out for our new EP ‘Tears of Joy’.

Blaze: How would you describe your musical style?
Gappa: I combine all musical styles i.e. Hip Hop, Soul, Rare Groove, Reggae and Jazz and mix down these ingredients to produce my own unique style of today.
Hyper: I’ve always been into Dance Music and for years have played Jazz, Soul, Rare Grooves, Reggae, Swing and Hip Hop. I have used all these in different combinations to produce the Hyper style.

Blaze: Which is the most bombastic rave you’ve ever done?
Hyper: The institute in Birmingham. The right atmosphere, light show and sound system and DJ’s but most importantly the music and people were firing.
Gappa: New Year’s Eve at Eclipse, Cambridge. The whole set up was totally professional and the crowd were really friendly and without the crowd there’s no rave.

Blaze: What is the saddest?
Gappa: Castle Donnington with Fantazia. I’m a hardcore DJ and they put me in a Garage tent. Can you imagine Hardcore in a Garage tent?
Hyper: Sound Gallery at Borehamwood totally bad organisation and promotion which was a total waste of an ideal venue. Most DJ’s of today would know what I’m talking about.

Blaze: Who are your musical influences?
Hyper: There are so many. I mean there’s Marley, James Brown, Jazz musicians, Omar, the list is endless I would go on all night as these are no limits to my musical influences.
Gappa: My family as they all have various musical talents.

Blaze: Which DJ’s command nough respect?
Hyper: Randall. Gappa G, Fabio, DJ Ron and a lot of up and coming DJ’s yet to make their name (too many to mention).
Gappa: My cool spar, DJ Ron, Groove Rider, Bukhum, Randall, DJ Rap and a big shout to up and coming DJ Linx.

Blaze: What do you think to the current dark side of the Rave scene?
Gappa & Hyper: The dark side is pretty good but nothing stays dark forever, a light must shine through sooner or later.

Blaze: Your trax have large degrees of musical ingredients, how do you build up your trax?
Gappa & Hyper: With a lot of thought we use breakbeats. Some people don’t like them but we think they are alright if used in the right way. We bring a combination of Soul and Groove within out trax and create our own original style.

Blaze: What do you do to relax/chill out?
Gappa: I live, eat and breathe music, that’s my way of relaxing and other things which are too good to mention.
Hyper: I chill out by listening to 70s and 80s music with the posse, smoking herbs and relaxing how you should.

Blaze: If I were to interview you a year from now, where would you like to be?
Hyper: Still involved with music, not necessarily Rave. Producing, playing and keeping busy on different musical projects.
Gappa: Hopefully I would have had a hit record by then. From there producing and working the music scene and everybody within it.

Reproduced with the permission of Blaze