Local Bands

Da Mighty Elementz

Torsion, Macka, Rhize and Decision are Da Mighty Elementz, a hip hop group who, by their own admission, 'don't take themselves too seriously'.

Their lively, self-deprecating manner is summed up perfectly in their new single, 'So Broke', a humorous take on the current economic crisis.

"I think that hip hop isn't the type of thing that is serious," said Torsion live on BBC WM Introducing.

"It's about having fun, having a bit of a laugh at yourself really. We made 'So Broke' about a year and a half, two years ago – that's how ahead we are! A lot of hip hop groups are this bunch of alpha males with attitudes, something to prove. Have break, have a kit-kat and chill out!"

myspace.com/damightyelementz

The boys formed their group in 1995 after being friends - in and out of the classroom:

"Within our social circle it just so happened that we were all amateur writers and so forth and our other peers they were producing and stuff. It just all kind of came together. We went to a studio, put something down and by the time we left the studio the tape was in numerous hands. We thought we were onto something so we just continued."

A record deal of sorts followed and the lads - not one of them over 19 - initially thought they'd cracked it:

"We got a deal on one of our albums – we thought it was something different. It was just a distribution deal at the end of the day, we were all 18, 19,17 – the first kind of guys in Birmingham in terms of a rap group that got a major, so to speak, deal.

So Broke - Da Mighty Elementz

"It was on the arm of Warner Brothers. They commissioned us to produce and album. We did – they liked it and we got a lot of recognition. It was called 'Neon Verses'. From that, everybody assumed from all the reviews that we were the group that going to go forward."

Initial dreams of super-stardom were quashed though when the album failed to reach the heights Da Mighty Elementz had hoped. Like many up-and-coming acts have to learn, a distribution deal doesn't necessarily guarantee fame and fortune.

"I'd ordered a roller!" joked Torsion. "They gave us an opportunity at the end of the day and we can never take that away from them. The things that happened were sort of out of control."

Depite an early set back, Da Mighty Elementz continue to polish their act and are accepting bookings from local promotersl laughing and rapping their way around Birmingham and beyond.

Thursdays 10pm - midnight on 95.6FM

"We've been to other places such as Manchester and London and so forth and it just seems that there is a bigger scene over there," said Torshion. "I don't know why. Maybe there's not enough promoters in Birmingham promoting hip hop maybe it doesn't make much money. I don't know. We always get told 'Oh you gotta go to London' but we're local lads and we'll continue to do what we do here and we'll see what happens. The world is not just London."

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