Sixteen years later the same foggy evenings are now smothered in Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam, the debut album from Ghostpoet.
One of Mike Skinner’s favourite MCs, and hailed as one of the most exciting new hip-hop talents in the UK, Ghostpoet aka Obaro Ejimiwe, was recently nominated for a Mercury Music Prize.We last saw him solo, accompanied by a complex-looking console of laptops at Barfly for the Camden Crawl. Next week, after his nomination for one of the industry’s prestigious music prizes, he plays Scala (Oct 13), with an entourage of musicians, promising a number of surprise guests.
Although he had never met Mike Skinner, The Streets’ frontman – on temporarily taking over the Guardian music page – nailed his colours to Ghostpoet’s flag, citing him as one of his favourite MCs and streaming his album on the website.
Obaro said: “It was really amazing because I’ve been a fan of his music for so long. The idea of him bigging our music up is really out of this world.”
Less verbose than his songs, his blog reveals some curious insights, like his appreciation for Haribo wine gums: “It’s one of these comfort things that sometimes you need in your life. It’s kind of fundamental on tour life to have a few sweets you can eat so Haribo is the sweet of choice at the moment.”
Food is important to Obaro, explaining how his album was named after household spreads: “I needed a title that encapsulated the feeling of the album to me personally. I never listened to it as a whole piece until it was finished. For me it was quite a lot of melancholy in there and the idea of being a bit down, a bit out, a bit grey, the idea of not having a great day but still hope for the future. That was where I was getting the melancholy...I like comfort eating when I feel under the weather so I like peanut butter, I like jam so I thought I’d put it together.”
He’s not as morose as his album, swearing he’s like any normal person: “Like everyone else I guess, (I have) good days and bad days. Some days I don’t want to get out of bed, I want to stay in and wallow, other days I want to enjoy the sunshine, whatever works. Up and down good and bad, left and right, round and round.”
Obaro, who is engaged but coy about how he proposed, is more reserved than expected, saving his innermost insights for his music: “It’s connected to emotions. I try to pour into the emotion and feelings I get out of the music I create, it’s about tapping into that and letting the music tell me what to write. I guess the lyrics are a combination of the things I come across over a period of time, it could be from my life, from someone else’s life, from something I come across on the road and I try to shape it around a particular tune that I’ve made.”
His mild superstitions prevent him from revealing any unrecorded lyrics: “I couldn’t do that, I’m really bad with stuff like that. I don’t like saying lyrics until they’re recorded, they may change if I say it out loud it may jinx it, can’t say anything until it’s recoded...I don’t like saying much about potential things, rather wait until its set in stone before I announce stuff.”
He harbours a plan to one day open a dog farm: “It’s not an easy task starting a farm for dogs. But I think it could potentially happen if I have the means and the finances. I have one, I wish I had four. I never really was into dogs when I was a kid. I got one about three years ago and they’re just great companions, no matter what kind of mood you’re in they’re always there for you.”
While the glare is all on Obaro, his reaction couldn’t be more understated.
He said: “I’ve become slightly busier... people who may have never heard of my stuff before have been exposed to it a bit more I guess and that’s great, kind of what I wanted from the Mercury if anything so I was grateful to get that awareness, pick up a fanbase and cement a career of sorts...to be part of the Mercury was a complete shock to me.”
He added: “It’s definitely a case of more doors are opening because of the position I got myself into now and I’m really pleased with how things are going.”
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