Tef-Co interview by Tricksta

Who is in the crew and who brings what to the table?
Big Fize, Trojah, Blaze-I and each one of us has the skills to write and compose songs, it varies from song to song who does the melody, who mixes down, who comes up with the concept or hook and anyway we are three different people so every time we work on a project our individual personalities spice up whatever we're workin on.

Where are you from and what's the scene like there?
Three boroughs across west London (Westminster, Ealing and the Royal Borough) but we rep for the whole of the UK, the scene around west London is building slowly but surely. We've had West/ Northwest spitters doing their thing from day one, like Reveal, Mr Drastic, Dowda, Ruel and many others. Even the fan base is getting bigger as enough heads around here are feelin our movement.

How did the name Tef-Co came about and what's the thinking/ meaning behind it?
Teflon is a man made material strong enough to withhold a bullet shot and that's how we see our bond as a group (unbreakable, impenetrable and that goes for our lyrical ability too, the coalition part represent the wide team of talent we have working with us, from brayers that have criminal records to brayers with financial degrees, ya na mean!

Have radio stations outside London city started supporting yet?
Yeah man we been getting mad love outside London sometimes it feels like we get more love outside London, we recently did a radio tour up north it was nothing but love and appreciation for our craft out there, lots of invitations to return and rip sh*t up. Big up wolf-town, B-ham, Liverpool and Man city for the love.

So what have you released so far?
We've had two underground releases back in 2004 with six tracks each and we promoted those way into 2005, we had support from most pirate stations and even France's biggest urban station rotated our sh*t, we dropped the rumours video in late summer 2005 followed by the single release in Feb 06. It got us recognition UK and Europe wide (Holland, Germany, Greece and France) even hittin Western Australia's premier urban radio station's play list.

What's your connection to stylah?
That's our brother from long time, way back when we only use to sypher in bedrooms and sh*t now we're all treatin our oldskool habit as a serious business, watch out for his Crash Course mixtape it's gonna captivate a lot people.

Tell us about your set up and your imprint Zero Tolerance?
Zero Tolerance was founded by the Coalition back in the late nineties, when our friends saw us grindin hard selling our first release with little or no funds, people started to recognise and then we was blessed with a business/ label deal in 2004, from a close friend who in turn bought on board his partner and Black Pearl Ent was born.

Apart from Tef-co, who else is hot in London?
We are feelin Stylah, Reveal, Swiss, Klashnekof, Mike GLC, Mr Drastic, Kano, Lowkey, Sway and pretty much most artists grindin and putin in work

What American artist are you feelin?
Beanie Seagel, Jadakiss, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Styles P, Sheek louch, Nas, Jay-Z and JR Writer and we could keep on naming names, you've got enough there to run with.

Describe your musical style?
Our music draws influences from a wide range of genres from Motown soul to African, Caribbean and hip hop music, not to mention that we have 100% creative control of everything we put out even songs produced by platinum selling producers like our 1st single "rumours". We have sumthin for every one even if they aint into Hip Hop.

Will there be any UK or US collaborations on the forthcoming album?
Most def, we are currently workin wit a few UK artists for our forth coming project, about US artists all we can say is watch this space.

Who is doing the beats?
We've worked wit so many producers, DJ Snips, DJ Goldfingers (France), Dr Swing (France), Da'vid, DJ Lordie (Arrogant-records) and Buddy to name a few, the original version of our follow up single "Rebel Music" was produced in house by Trojah. Plus any producers out there who wana hear Tef on their beats just hit our website and let it be known.

Anything else you want to add?
Yeah! Big up TRICKSTA for constantly backing this UK Hip-Hop thing, big up UK Runnings and all the Wolftown famo and all those who like hip hop make sure every time you buy a US album, invest in a British one too cuz without your support we're always gonna be trailing behind the Americans. We want at least some US artists to be our supporting acts when they come here not always the other way around as it usually is, ya na mean! Look out for the Tef-Co video on MTV-base and vote for it if you like it, our mixtape "The Road Map" is dropping on April 17th featuring some of UK's finest so make sure you support that. Peace…..

Interview by Tricksta
Tefco
Tricksta