Once you claim your home country, why not go for the world? UK Hip Hop group, Virus Syndicate, is planning on doing just that with their third album, The Swarm. Their brand of music mixes the older, “punch now, ask questions later,” mentality with the newer Grime and futuristic sounds of today’s youth. Before DJ MRK1, MCs Nika D, Goldfinger, and JSD invade the USA today with this album, read their thoughts on creating it and the meaning behind the project’s name.
You can also peep the tracklist for the mixtape (not to be confused with what kids are calling mixtapes these days) below the stream and their latest video after the jump.
How is this project different or the same from your previous projects?
This is the first album project where we’ve collaborated with so many different producers from all over the world. Our two previous albums were both produced in house. Working with DJ Muggs was amazing as we all grew up listening to Cypress Hill so to collab with him on a track definitely felt like a milestone. We’re really grateful for all the producers that contributed to the album, like Savant, who I think broke some barriers on ‘Dragon Fire’ so I gotta give a big shout out to him for that. We loved making this album, and had a sick time doing it. Nice to see it being released in the US and it’s an honour to have you guys supporting it so big up for that!
Explain the bee theme. Any Wu-Tang influences?
Although we were aware of the Killa Beez project by Wu and have always been big fans of Wu-tang growing up (from the early 36 Chambers days to later classics like the Pretty Tony by Ghost… They’re true pioneers) the album title is completely unrelated. In fact you guys are the first to pick up on that haha (obviously The Source don’t mess about… You know your sh*t!). It’s our way of paying homage to the industrial revolution in 18th century England. The city where we grew up (Manchester) was the epicentre of commerce and production in the UK during those times and Mancunians (the people of Manchester) were given the nickname “worker bees” to acknowledge the extreme working hours and poor conditions the people were forced to work in. Hard graft is ingrained into the DNA of our city. And that’s no different to us as musicians. This is also the reason our branding is (generally) always black and yellow and we wear those colours on stage. So imagine when we hooked up with Pittsburgh producer Buku and explained the concept behind the single “Worker Bees” and the black and yellow link and he was like, “Yo we wear black and yellow in my city too.” Haha that’s synchronicity right there!
So yeah that’s why we called the album The Swarm to tie it into the whole black and yellow/worker bees theme. It’s all about representing our city!
Any new year’s resolutions on your minds?
Just to go harder than last year and be the best we can possibly be!
1. Intro
2. Worker Bees ft. Buku
3. Pack Leader ft. Maztek
4. R The Future
5. Venom ft. Mark Instinct
6. It’s Paul (Skit)
7. Simmer Down
8. Dragonfire ft. Savant
9. Who’s That
10. Like This ft. Skism
11. Getting Anxious (Skit)
12. BIMC
13. Knock It Back ft. Teddy Killerz (Album Version)
14. Cos We Can
15. Where’s The Fuxxing Album? (Skit)
16. Sick Wid It
17. Sick Em! ft. DJ Muggs
18. Kickin’ It Up
19. The Sky ft. Grems & Son of Kick
Bryan Hahn still thinks the UK is ahead of the rest of the world in some of the best sub-genres of music. He’s on Twitter (@notupstate).
