Ctrl Meets Bashy

Ashley Thomas aka 23-year old grime star Bashy, is making movements and hitting music headlines. With a mass underground fan base building with love for his first two mixtapes 'Ur Mum Volume One' and 'The Chupa Chups Mixtape - Assorted Flavours' (all before releasing his debut album this June) - get ready, get set, for an era of the bish, bash, bosh boy from West London.

From music projects with Blur's Damon Albarn in Nigeria to being an ambassador for the UK's 'No to Knives' campaign, Ctrl.Alt.Shifter Dwain Lucktung spoke to Bashy about his life and fast times, inspiring the next generation from UK to Africa, and how 'Catch Me If You Can' is going to turn and bop heads this summer...

Would you say your rise to fame was unexpected, with your bus driving past times?
Rise to shame you mean? Nah, I don't think like that, I don't think of it as fame you get me. And I wouldn't say unexpected - I mean, I did hope to get here, because bus driving was just killing me, killing my soul.

How do the hustling youth get big in the game?
They need to look at their own life experiences, draw on their stories, form their own style and come with a new, innovative angle.

What were the highlights of your time in Nigeria, working on the Africa Express project (the ever-expanding coalition of African and Western musicians) with Blur/ Gorillaz's Damon Albarn?
Meeting the Nigerian people, experiencing Nigerian culture, eating the Nigerian food; the pounded yam, ground rice and cat fish - boy, I was eating that everyday. I enjoyed the whole lifestyle over there. And of course it was great working with the likes of musical genius Albarn, Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and chilling out with Kano was proper cool. It was inspirational to see how you could take your music that far - it showed what impact you can make worldwide, and it pushed me to up my game.

Have you spent a lot of time scoping Africa?
I've been to Mali before. From my experiences it shows how African countries have a lot of similarities, but they all have their own separate little cultures and differences.

Describe the culture shock/ main differences with UK society?
Well I'm originally from the Caribbean, and it's a similar culture shock to that which is in Africa - that being, over here (the UK) I'm a minority, over there I'm part of the majority.

Is there anything we can learn from the way of life in Africa?
We can learn a lot. Here, we always complain, like everything here is so hard - but go over there and that's HARD innit. Over there, if you have "nothing", you literally have nothing and have to work upwards from scratch - no free education, no welfare, no benefits. Some people over there are really broke, poor, and help is not available. Still, they're happy, polite, they say good morning, good evening and good night to everyone - despite the fact they don't have a penny. That's what we can take from Africa.

Will you be taking part in the Africa Express project at Glastonbury's Park Stage this summer?
Yeah, and it's going to be cool - just to get the Africa Express line-up back together. In Africa we were all one massive family, but as individuals we all came back and had to concentrate on our own careers. So it will be good to see VV Brown, Damon Albarn, Kano and the others again.

Despite the fact there are less reports of UK knife and gun crime this year in comparison with 2008, how important is it for everyone to keep up with the 'No to Knives' campaign?
We've got to keep on it - don't ever relieve the pressure, swear down, all that gun and knife crime, it's not cool. We've got to come to a point where there are no stabbings, no youth crime and killings, so show your support to the campaigns. Although, if I had one problem with the campaign, it's that all the separate campaigns battling gun and knife crime need to come together and form one big campaign.

What is your greatest achievement so far?
Completing my debut album.

What can Bashy fans expect from the 17-track Catch Me If You Can?
Expect an eclectic music mix, different styles coming from London culture, my life story and my experiences. No ones' ever heard an album like this before. Here, I'm creating my path to being an actor and musician.

Where is Bashy going from here?
I'm going to continue being cutting edge, leave a legacy - with each track getting better and better. But there's a long way to go - I'm still learning the game, I'm still quite young.

Words: Dwain Lucktung. Assistant editor, Ctrl.Alt.Shift.
Photos: Provided by Vision Music Promotions
Album cover: Created by Vanessa Emilien

Bashy's debut album Catch Me If You Can is out on June 1st. To get the tracks, please click here [1]

For Bashy news and updates visit www.bashy.com [2]

For more information on Africa Express please visit www.africaexpress.co.uk [3]