Tony Broke - 68 Sag ft Bill Shakes, Lee Scott, King Grubb, Tommy Dockerz, Black Josh & Bang On

Unfortunately I couldn't access the link to this specific interview so I had to revert to copying and pasting the whole thing in here. This was an interview I did for Boom Bap with Tommy Dockerz from Dirty Dockerz fame. It's funny. Tommy is an articulate guy. I wrote the questions a little tongue in cheek, in case you're wondering!

Dirty Dockerz are easily one of the most exciting new acts we’ve had kicking around the scene in forever. Throw in a sweet mixture of weed, women and strange slang words and you’ve got the building blocks of both Tommy and the Rev’s music. Currently signed to Blah Records expect their latest release, 2LiT, to send you far into intergalactic space. We caught up with the ferret loving comedy barsman himself Tommy to chat shit about Kettering…

Hi Tommy. Let’s just jump right in here and ask; what’s it like in Kettering?! Kettering? That’s the motherland where we keep the spare parts for the spaceship. It’s a nice place, you should go visit!

Well, can’t argue with that. The video for Viral Drift is jokes; how hard was it riding on that tiny tricycle? My legs hurt just looking at it… I’ll be honest yeah it was awkward at first but once I learnt the method I was revving all the way. The next day was a little stiff though, felt like I’d been viralated.

Yeah no doubt! Before doing this interview I had a hard time trying to find any info on the elusive Dockerz, say a few words about yourself? What are you two all about? Straight up the foundation of the Dockerz is that the party never stops, no matter how desperate it gets. Life is a pretty serious thing, & neither of us take it very seriously – the music reflects that.

Similarly how did you two get together and start making music? Was it from a love of rap or rolling dutty zoots?! I’d been recording tunes since I was about 15 with a few grime heads from Birmingham. Rev (the other half of Dockerz) and I went school together. His house was like the party house where we would have serious all night session & freestyle on the mic ‘til the police turned up. Then I went uni, the party continued & I dropped out. I heard Rev was at college making beats and then we started making tunes together. We both had a similar taste & were drawn to the more ridiculous/comedic styles of rap, neither of us had any money, & our weed addiction was a permanent fixture. The rest is history.

I’m sure this is a tired question but I kinda wanted to know what some of your lingo means… Am I okay just to reel off a few Dockerism’s and you set me straight? Okay; natty, binding and runting. GO! Wow yeah we get asked this a lot. What I like about all our slang is it’s almost like linguistic putty that can be shaped to fit the context of whatever kinda shit your talking. Sometimes I won’t even know what a new word means until we’ve said it enough and a definition binds with it. So ‘Natty’ is pretty ambiguous, but when I say it I mean naughty. ‘Binding’ is what I do on a daily basis, just getting into every opportunity I can. ‘Runting’ is like being a general swine. One day you’ll be rinsing – splashing all your cash & getting viral. Next day you’ll be runting – diggin’ in the ashtray & desperately trying to lend a fiver or more in order to buy more fried chicken/weed/scrumpy.

Big up on dropping your latest EP! How does 2Lit differ from the Fatty Getterz releases? 2LiT is the first project we’ve taken seriously & had mixed/mastered etc. Essentially there has only been one Dockerz album, which was ‘Tales From The Ashtray’ back in 2011. The Fatty Getterz Volumes 1& 2 weren’t serious releases, more a combination of ruff dubz/freestyles. In essence this is the first ‘proper’ project we’ve released with some real quality control involved.

Apart from playing Boom Bap this summer where else are you showcasing your new material live?

We’ve been rolling with the Sika Studio’s festival stage, so pretty much wherever they go this summer. We got some others coming up in Manchester/Hereford/Brighton in August but I can’t give any dates yet!

As we’ve already covered before the music you make is pretty unique — how do you feel the scene is going at the minute? In regards to what is being made/produced by other heads… The scene is actually pretty viral, but it’s still a very over-saturated recycled genre full of wannabe’s and so called rap-geeks who think they can read how to be ‘dope’ out of a hip-hop textbook, copying US swag & neglecting their English roots… The scene is essentially split into two, with all the ‘urban’ trashy played out commercial stuff getting played on 1xtra, and then you have the ‘festival rappers’ who represent the underground. Certain people are making money and wanna protect their income. But the Internet is an unstoppable force and if you understand how to market yourself and want to fit the template then you can buy a snapback, go on Don’t Flop and be the next Rizzle Kicks. There’s only a handful of crews I rate, because everyone else is boring me stupid. One love.

  What does the next six months look like for you both? Where do you want to be heading in terms of making music and performing at shows? I wish I could answer that question. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next 6 hours, I generally live minute to minute. We got an album we did with Illinformed, that’s currently being mixed & mastered (dropping this Autumn) and I’m working on a solo album. It’s all about evolution so I’m just doing me – getting natty & staying viral. Holla.

Now you’ve been signed to Blah Records is this giving you the chance to work with more people? Who would like you to collab with? It’s really cool that we’re dropping with Blah. We were with the Real Life Drama camp, but I wasn’t willing to dilute my material… We were just gonna drop on our own, then Lee Scott reached out. Since then we’ve been on a few tracks with Lee, Bang On, & Tony Broke from the Blah Camp, but I wanna collab with whoever’s making that space-funk, so people like Onoe Caponoe. I also highly rate Mr Traumatik aswel, he’s on that whole magic mushrooms/Terrence Mckenna/ shove it in fat slag type of vibe that I’m on.

Since you guys started putting out music what have been some of your highlights so far? I guess just travelling around, meeting people and smokin’ on the different weed that I find in the process. The Nephilims as well. But yeah just creating something out of nothing, having people rate my music and reach out. Having a crowd singing along and shit like that. Also working with the top-heads in the scene who I rate, shit’s cool as fuck.

These are mad important questions, nah’mean! What is a typical day in the life of Dirty Dockerz? Listen to ‘Daily Basis’ on the YouTube channel and that is pretty much the Docker life in a clam-shell. Wake up hungover, smoke a fathead, get some fried chicken. Avoiding dealing with what’s important and indulging in all of the vital components needed for runting. Make a tune, shove it in, & smoke/drink myself into a deep sleep. Of course everyday isn’t quite that glamorous, but you guys get to hear the highlight’s of the high-life.

What is the meaning of life? a) Ferrets b) Building zoots from old spliff butts c) Large promiscuous women? A, B, & C all intertwined and virally bound.

Finish this sentence the weekend is not complete without ___________? THE WEEKEND IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT DOCKERZ!

Can we get one of those Swetr jumpers? Are they being released alongside your Dockerz t’s? Or is that private stash?

Go To topbay.spreadshirt.co.uk! Limited stock available so get involved!

So it is! Nice one man, anyone you wanna big up?

Everyone who’s helped us along the way. But right now big up Blah for getting involved and getting our music out…

Safe Tommy, see you and the Rev at Boom Bap. Hollaaa!