THE INCREDIBLE RHYME WIZARD - MC TONY TONE

Tony Tone is a proper old timer when it comes to Hip Hop and you can tell that from the influences in his music. When we asked him about his background and his formative years as a musician this is what he had to say, 'I grew up in West London and started rhyme writing back in the mid 80’s and have been around the London hip-hop seen ever since. Known by many as Bangie, rhyming has been my passion for as long as I’ve been able to access hip-hop. Early influences include Rakim, KRS ONE, LL Cool J, Ultramagnetic and Kool G Rap. Since the ‘80s the MC’s I consider top of the game would be Pharoahe Monch, Canibus, Immortal Technique, Eminem and Super Nat for his freestyle ability'.

He went on to tell us about his first crew and to let us know about some of the fist successful gigs that he played at, 'My 1st crew were called The New Jacks around ’88-91. However, I was always doing a lot of solo stuff. During my time in The New Jacks we performed at various venues including headlining at the Brixton Fridge, with a line up consisting of Outlaw Posse, 2 x Def (MC D’s 1st crew), Uncle B Nice plus many others back in ‘89. After New Jacks I formed a crew called Poet’s Corner, which is still in effect, although on the DL at the mo'.

Tony Tone is primarily a live performer which can be seen from his impressive gig resume, but he has always been recording stuff, although things have not always gone to plan for him as he describes, 'I have done a lot more live performances than recording, but Poet’s Corner did record an albums worth of material for Kold Sweat just before they folded in ’94, so the project was never finished. In addition, 2 solo tunes were released on a Kold Sweat compilation called Raw Flava'.

Despite this, he has never lost heart and had always continued as best he can to build himself up again, 'Since the Kold Sweat episode I have held microphones and ciphered with many of the UK MC’s including: Mystro, SkinnyMan, Force, Fallacy and many more. Currently I manly role with an up and coming MC called Joker Starr, who had a release ‘Raw Spittage’ and is due to release an EP very soon'.

Although pickings have been slim of late Tony Tone has been hard at work knocking out a demo. Finally he told us what he has been up to and what the future holds, 'More recently I have been on the DL but have continued writing and doing raw recordings at the studio of Poet’s Corner’s producer, Mark C. I still do open mic sessions whenever I can but have now got the urge again to let others hear what I have to say. Therefore, I have put together a little sample of tunes written, produced and mixed by me in my house, ghetto style'.

So here we have a taster of the material Tony has been working on. It is a 16 track deep CD which embodies much of what Tony stands for. As we have mentioned he is old skool and this is manifested in his music. If you have done your history the breaks used and vocal cuts will have you reminiscing along with the best of them. It is all in here from famous breaks to recognisable raps and nods and winks to those in the know, it is great to hear this stuff, but re-worked into Tony's own style. Now whilst I can appreciate exactly where Tony Tone is coming from I do however have a couple of worries about this demo. Whilst he is undeniably a lyricist who can both write coherent rhymes and keep me interested with his story telling I felt some of the delivery was a bit lacking. The same with the production, which although it utilised many of the influences I would have chosen myself it sounded a bit disjoined and could have done with some more professional arrangement to make it run smoother in places.

Now having said that, this CD is nowhere near a disaster. Tracks like London MC stand out and appeal to me as Tony Takes on the role of someone who was there at the beginning of every little happening and was responsible for it. It is a clever way of getting his knowledge of what happened in the past out to a new generation, or as Tony says, 'it is like a lil journey thru London Hip Hop History'.

Tony's main sentiments were summed up very succinctly by himself, 'I hope you enjoy and appreciate this taster. I have used some well known breaks just to add a little ‘old skool’ flavour'. Check out The Incredible Rhyme Wizard Tony Tone aka Bangie.