Ferguson opens the account by retelling how and why the act started. “I was having some beers with MHZ at the local watering hole a few years ago. He told me that Slam and a couple of others had been rapping under The D.Y.E for a while and were looking for a DJ. So I went in and started DJing with Matt, organising gigs and, yeah, the rest is history.”
Zull now interrupts with an animated and cheeky take on The D.Y.E’s origins. “Basically, Slam and me were hanging out and rapping and stuff then we saw Marshall with the dreadlocks and we thought that we needed a badass member of the crew.” For the second time in the interview all three guys crack up into rapturous laughter.
Zull continues, this time seriously explaining why he and Nichol were drawn to Ferguson. “He was playing stuff like Transplants, Wu Tang Clan, Beastie Boys, J-5…Which was pretty sick.”
Starting out with a six track recorder playing live drums, live bass and Ferguson looping tracks off the decks it didn’t take long for the three hip hop artists to find their click. Zull, the self-appointed spokesperson for the act talk about the first song they wrote together, “We were just throwing words together and having fun with the first track we made called The 799.
“The title comes from a phone number on a sticker on my wall. Early on I would name song ideas after things in my room. Like, I would look around and see something, then name it. That song was like the last three numbers of a phone number.”
It didn’t take long for The D.Y.E to click and start writing songs properly, one song that they are working on a film clip for the song Cash For Beers – a fun track with plenty of energy.
Nichol (Slam Master D) explains the quite literal inspiration for this song: “It just seemed like every Friday night that was where we were at you know, just trying to get enough cash together after the week so we could drink some beers. Everyone who has heard this song can find a line to relate to. You wake up on a weekend and look at your wallet and think ‘I spent a lot on beers last night.'”
Perhaps some inspiration was drawn from when The D.Y.E went to Sydney for some shows earlier this year. This tour was also the only time group has ever felt threatened at a show. “We went up to Sydney in January and the guys that played after us had brought down some crew, and there was this hectic punch-on. Slam walked past it,” explains Zull before deferring to Nichol. “We were in Western Sydney, I was walking up to the stage just after one of the other sets to get a CD off them, when this punch-on breaks out. When we realised what was happening, we just grabbed the decks and ran, we were laughing at the start and then it was like, ‘Holy shit! :et’s go.'”
One show for The D.Y.E that will definitely not have the violence of the Sydney show is the next Street Credit Productions party, DJ Marshall’s Winter Wonderland, at Bar 303 in Northcote. Nichol lets on about the motivation behind the theme, “Last summer we had ‘Marshall’s Summer Of Love Party’ – Hawaiian shirts and coconut bikinis – so it only seemed right to have a Winter Wonderland party with Santa MCing the night, some Christmas trees and presents for the crowd.”
There will be five acts with Rudi V, a gun rapper with an acoustic guitar, New Dub City Sound who are a dub and jazz outfit, The Fourfront who are a crew from Footscray and Melbourne MC Defron plus The D.Y.E playing a set to welcome in the winter months and the new financial year.
BY DENVER MAXX
