IT HAS been a busy few weeks for Shannon rapper God Knows and Clare producer/DJ mynameisjOhn. They released their album ‘Rusangano / Family’ at the end of May and it has garnered rave reviews from magazines such as Hot Press and music blogs like Nialler9. The duo played a lucrative Sunday evening slot at the recent Body and Soul Festival and supported Snoop Dogg for two nights at The Academy. God Knows and mynameisjOhn are preparing to launch the record in Limerick this weekend at the Make A Move Festival.
Limerick Post spoke to mynameisj0hn this week about the recording and working with Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Dogg is described by mynameisjOhn as, “sound man, bang on altogether”. The support slot proved to the Limerick/Clare based duo that their new live show would translate to a big venue and a big stage. Joined on stage by fellow Shannon rapper MuRli, their passionate, energetic performance has been described as veering towards a punk band. For the Body and Soul Festival a few weeks ago the outfit were drafted in at the last moment to replace Nick Waterhouse who had to pull his show, leaving Mynameisj0hn and God Knows with an enviable slot on Sunday evening at 5pm sharing the stage with Caribou and Of Montreal.
“It was amazing. We only had three or four days to prepare. There was a fantastic reaction, people seem to really enjoy it. It gave us a boost of confidence that the show would work on big stages and big sound systems.”
Rapper/MC God Knows is one of the Shannon based Random Acts Of Kindness collective (RAOK). MynameisjOhn, known to his relations as John Lillis, is the turntablist and electronic beats producer who already has a wealth of impressive self released EPs on bandcamp.com.
The duo first met back in 2008 when they were part of a radio show recording made with the Random Acts Of Kindness collective and produced by Shane McCurtin, who is part of the team behind the Make A Move Festival.
Mynameisj0hn told Limerick Post, “The more I got to know God Knows over the years as a person, I thought he was someone who was very determined and focused. He has a belief that in any project that he gets involved in, he can push it in a very positive direction.”
Mynameisj0hn has been releasing his own impressive EPs of hip hop, electronica instrumentals since 2010. He had collaborated with God Knows on a pair of tracks on ‘The Struggle EP’ and ‘The Focusing Effect EP’ which gave an indication of their potential together.
“You can take my instrumentals that I had been making before, I was quite happy with them. As soon as I started working with God Knows, it felt like actually this is where it has been leading up to. We realised that we could actually have a live show. We are more than the sum of our parts when we perform together.”
‘Rusangano / Family’ was written and recorded in just a few months since the start of the year in various locations in Limerick, Clare and Shannon. Though the duo had recorded together on John’s previous EPs, this full album was the biggest undertaking so far. They decided to “jump into the project” working intensively for a short amount of time.
“It is the best way to create. Taking a visual snapshot of what we were trying to do. It was an extremely easy and enjoyable process.”
As an album ‘Rusangano / Family’ has a “live feel” which comes from the partnership working long hours in the studio. This album was not made by the beat maker emailing his rhythm tracks for the rapper to phone in his lyrics.
“We did go into quite a lot of detail in terms of the lyrics and the production making sure it was it telling the story that it needed to tell.”
Themes of identity and belonging permeate the recording and there is a raw honesty to the lyrics. Rusangano means togetherness in the Shona language of Zimbabwe. God Knows raps about his real life experiences growing up in Shannon and the struggles to fit in at a new town.
On the track ‘No Love’ he raps: “before there was Random Acts of Kindness, I thought I was an ugly looking darkie, little did I know they were scared of the new guy.”
There is no bragging or bravado or shouting about guns or cars on this record, instead what you get is a “hefty dose of lyrical realism”, as John explains,
“God Knows has a great ability to be very honest in his lyrics without sounding like he is pouring his heart out. It seems to flow very naturally for him. He is also a very intelligent and strong individual and any time he is saying something he is not exaggerating it in any kind of way. It’s not bravado, it literally is the experiences of growing up.”
‘Rusangano / Family’ is available now on bandcamp.com. God Knows and mynameisjOhn will launch the album at Dolan’s as part of the Make a Move Festival this Friday July 4. Support from Naive Ted.
