It doesnt seem that long ago since I interviewed Rival last but so much has happened in a short amount of time (Lord Of The Mics etc) I had to interview Rival again and get his side of things…below is how our conversation went:

Interview.

The last time I interviewed Rival he was just about to drop the epic Lock Off The Rave 8 Bar Remix and now just a few short months later he is about to drop yet another release this time in the shape of his mixtape ‘Lord Rivz’ with info scarce I pressed Rival on some details and he was quick to share.

“Lord Rivz will be a mixtape that will contain the track Talk That which is produced by Skeamz, there will also be the track Charlie Sheen which I had to put on there as it created such a buzz and that is produced by Flava D, as well as Flava D & Skeamz you can expect producers on there such as Rude Kid, Vilex and more and the thing is with these producers I didnt just ask for a beat, I reached out to them, I had ideas for the sound I wanted and asked them if they could make a beat with those specifics and they blessed me, I can honestly say Lord Rivz has some banging productions.

But what kind of sound can we expect? Rival explains

Lord Rivz it’s just another stage of my journey before I drop my album Constructive Violence, obviously I cant just drop an album, I have to show people what im about.

With Return Of The Rivz I came into the game so angry and hungry which you could probably hear but i’ve progressed with every release. Lord Rivz will show that, the tunes may be slightly different but im grime man.

Lord Rivz will be a retail release, I feel ive given the fans a lot of free music with the Jus Rival series, freestyles, Biscuits and more there will also be a lot of visuals landing for the release so look out for them.

The mention of visuals led me to ask Rival whether he feels visuals are important and he responded.

“Yeah definately, they tell the tale of the track in visual form, before I was just putting out tracks without that many visuals which was a mistake on my part so with Lord Rivz im going to be dropping a number of videos so look out for those landing soon.

The mention of the Jus Rival series earlier in the interview had me pondering if he plans to drop any more soon.

“Definately, I already have six planned for the first series and will be asking the fans which beat they would like me to go in over soon.

The thing is I didnt really expect Jus Rival to do that well, it was just a case of putting myself a bit more out there by asking fans which oldskool beat they’d like me to spit over but I got such a good response I have to do it for the fans.

Rival certainly seems to b a busy man so I asked him what does he do outside of grime to relax, Rival explains.

“Im just a normal person really, I listen to music, I jam with mates, watch movies, I eat biscuits *laughs* to be honest with you im a smoker so I dont have the energy to kick ball and stuff.

With me firmly put in my place I then moved the interview back to music and asked Rival what plans does he have beyond Lord Rivz and Constructive Violence, something he seemed a little cagey to share.

“*Laughs* without going into too much information let’s just say I have my 2012 work in the pipeline, half of it is already done *laughs*

Rival seems to have everything going to plan so I pushed him on his Grind Game cohorts (Skeamz, Nytz, Vilex)  and asked can we expect any releases from them any time soon.

“Yep, Skeamz is working on his Behind The Skeamz, Vilex is working and Nytz is doing his thing, they are all working hard.

Also I dont want to go into too much detail again but there will be a Grind Game Documentary about the evolution of grime soon, I wont say too much but a documentary is coming.

Throughout the whole interview I kept getting the distinctive feeling Rival doesnt really know how highly rated he is, I pressed him on this.

“I never really expected the fans to show me that much love to be honest with you, Im jus rival *laughs* I do it for the fans really, i’m like them, I hope I make music they can relate to but no, I never really expected people to want to hear what Rival has to say.

Rival certainly makes music I can relate to, but who makes music Rival relates to in grime? Something he was quick to answer.

“Even though im an mc im a fan of grime, I chck the grime forum, mindofgrime, rwd mag and other sites regarding grime all the time, I always look out for new talent, of course there is the older generation, the wileys etc but more often than not I listen to the up n comers, I cant really say I have a favourite or a top three, I just listen to everyone and what I think is good.

With the mention of the older generation I was curious to find out if Rival feels being compared to the mcs of yesterday is sometimes an unfair comparision, something he had no issue answering.

“Were always going to be compared to the likes of Chipmunk etc but me personally and im sure its the same for the rest we do our thing, I honestly think were every bit as talented as they were/are, I dont find being compared to them unfair it’s a good thing as it shows our levels.

Another thing the mcs of yesteryear didnt have at their exposal was twitter, I want to get the mcs opinion on whether twitter is a good or bad thing and Rival was quick to share his views.

“Twitter is a really good thing, obviously you do get caught up in the moment sometimes and get involved in stupid arguements but when you take 10 mins out and get back to normality twitter can be of a huge benefit to an mc.

It makes connecting with fans easier, networking with mcs and allows you to promote yourself, a fair percentage of sales from Return Of The Rivz came from twitter so yeah it’s definately a good thing when used correctly.

Phone issues led me to cut the interview short at this point but I more then got enough from Rival, I always leave a conversation with Rival that little bit more educated and today was no different, he speaks so much sense that it’s hard to lose attention when talking to him.

Lord Rivz looks likely to be yet another banger from an mc who just cant do no wrong and im sure like me all grime fans eagerly anticipate it’s arrival, below is the official video to Rivals track ‘Talk That’ which was mentioned during the interview and will feature on the Lord Rivz mixtape, it is produced by Skeamz.

Big up Rival each and every time and look out for Lord Rivz and many more videos landing soon!!