Moon Talkin’ with ShiGGa Shay
When ShiGGa Shay’s latest EP was released, I dropped a comment, saying that one day I would be interviewing him. Three weeks later, it happened. I found myself sitting down with him in a café, on a moonlit night, sipping green tea lattes, and just chillin’ as we talked about all kinds of things. The Singaporean rapper showed just how committed he is to his craft and revealed, among other things, who he’d like to work with, and his plans for the future. He surprised me with his depth and vision, and by the time I walked out of the café, I was convinced that ShiGGa Shay would be the next big thing that Singapore could offer to the world.
ShiGGa Shay, that’s an interesting name… is there a story behind how you got that name?
The name came to me in a dream. I was in a dream, and basically I was queueing up for a competition. I was 14 then, and I was thinking of names, and I fell asleep while I was thinking of names. So in the dream, I was in a super-long queue, and I went up to the lady to register my name, and she asks, “What’s your stage name?” I said, “I don’t have a stage name,” and she said, “That’s not possible, you’re ShiGGa Shay,” and that name just flashed into my head, with the capital ‘G’s and everything. Then I woke up. I just wrote the name down. Stuck with it ever since.
So you have a new album out, right? They Call Me ShiGGa. How long did it take you to put together this album?
It’s not really a full-length album, it’s an EP. It took me almost a year. But I’m always working on music. “Let’s Roll” was actually done like maybe almost 2 yrs ago. And I’m just always collecting songs. When I wanted to put together an EP, I had 20-30 songs, and I was selecting the songs from there. And then making sure that the entire project sounds the same, that it moves in a similar direction.
What is your fave track in the new EP, and why?
“Moon Talk”… yeah, “Moon Talk” is my favourite track. Why “Moon Talk”? ‘Cos it’s straight from the heart, everything that I said in the song, the lyrics, the emotions, the music in the background and everything, it’s just something that I can really relate to. It was really from my heart, so I just never get sick of the song. A lot of my songs, I listen to it a couple of times, and I’m like “aaah”, y’know (he gets sick of it)… but for “Moon Talk”, I can listen to it over and over again, and I can still get the same emotions out of it, so “Moon Talk” is definitely the one.
Who are your musical heroes?
I wouldn’t say I have any musical heroes actually. There are a few people I look up to, but I wouldn’t consider them heroes… people like Jay-Z, people like Freddie Mercury, James Brown… yeah. I wouldn’t call them heroes, but more like I really admire their career and their work ethic.
When you were putting together your EP, did you have any musical influences?
Definitely, man. But there’s no particular musical influence, it’s from all over the place. ‘Cos a piece of recording is like a recording of that period of time. So it’s everything that I was listening to for that past 1 year. All sorts of music. I was listening to music from the ‘90s, ‘60s, and music that’s on the radio now. So it’s everything blended together.
You rap a lot about how it’s such a struggle for you to pursue music, how much of that comes from your own personal experience?
100%. Yeah. It was 100% from my own experiences. Everything that I write about, it’s about shit that I went through, or shit that I’ve seen.
What were some of the difficulties that you faced?
Just gaining acceptance and having people respect you for your craft. ‘Cos when you just start out, and I mean, even at this point, it’s a struggle to get people to recognize what you’re trying to do. And it’s after you’ve done it for quite awhile, that people will recognize that this guy is consistent, and he’s doing it seriously. It takes some time for people to accept that. People don’t respect you, ‘cos they think that you’re doing it for fun, they think that you’re playing around, so it takes some time for people to take you seriously. That’s probably the most difficult struggle.
You’ve collaborated with many local artists, Vanessa Fernandez, Sheikh Haikel, Inch Chua, Sylvia Ratonel, just to name a few… are there any other local artists that you still want to work with?
I would love to work with Monster Cat. I would love to work with… man, there are so many… I would love to work with Great Spy Experiment… Plainsunset, Amterible, there are a lot of bands… oh, I would love to work with Taufik, yeah that would be fun.
If you had a chance to work with an international hip-hop artist, who would you want to work with, and why?
Kendrick Lamar. I don’t think you’ve heard of him, right? He’s this rapper based in LA. I like his stuff, because he’s not your typical rapper. He brings something new to the table, so I think it’ll be interesting if somebody from Singapore actually worked on a track with him. But I’m definitely open to working with anyone, as long as they add a new flavour to my music.
You recently performed at Clarke Quay, can you talk a bit about your experience at Music Matters Live?
It was fun. I learned a lot. I met a lot of new people. Yeah, I’d love to do it again. Maybe next year.
Would you say that you’re a perfectionist?
Yeah, pretty much. I’m really fussy about the things that go into my music, in terms of the instruments, whatever sound that’s inside, how I sound over the record, how my voice is mixed inside, how the instruments are mixed, how everything is mastered. Even for videos, I’m really particular about it… like it goes right down to the different angles that people see me in, some of the angles I want more of, some of the angles I want less of, or I want more of that particular colour in that video… or if there’s something that I don’t like that I see in the song after listening to it over again, then I’ll change it.
What’s your favourite time to work – morning, afternoon, or night?
I’d say from 1.00 to 2.00am onwards… yeah, that’s my favourite time to work.
Speaking of favourite things, let’s do something fun right now… really quickly, the first thing that comes into your mind:
Fave song = I can’t think of any right now, I’m listening to so many things that I can’t pick out a specific artist or song.
Fave movie = Departures (2009 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film). It’s this Japanese show about this guy that plays the cello, he lost his job, then he went to learn how to wrap dead bodies up and perform funeral rites. That show was touching.
Fave TV show = Fresh Prince of Bel-Air… yeah, that’s like my favourite, man!
Fave actor = Will Smith
Fave actress = Jennifer Aniston.
Fave superhero = Superman.
Fave food = Fried chicken.
Fave travel spot = Gold Coast.
OK, let’s continue… so you have your own production company, how did Grizzle Films get started?
It started ‘cos I always wanted music videos for myself, but I couldn’t afford to get other people to shoot for me. It started with one of my first music videos called “On My Grind”. I wanted to shoot a music video for that song, ‘cos it was a song off my mixtape, and I had a concept, but I didn’t have the people to shoot it for me. I was always getting my neighbours to shoot for me.
Then I had a classmate, his name was Osz. I wanted to shoot a video, so I asked him, “Dude, can you help me shoot a music video?” ‘Cos he saw my video with Inch Chua, the “Nothing On You” video. That was shot by my neighbour, and that video was just crap. So I got Osz to shoot “On My Grind” and just move with us, I had the locations in mind, and we went and just shot it, almost randomly, but it was an experience.
I remember we shot it about 3 times. The first time we shot it, it was in the wrong format. The second time we shot it, I think something went wrong, like a memory card problem or whatever. Then the third time we shot it, we finally got it right. That was my first time really sitting down to edit stuff, and I chopped it up, and the video went up (in YouTube).
It had about 3,000 to 4,000 views initially, then it went on World Star Hip Hop, and it went to 100,000 views and everything, it went crazy! I never expected so many people to watch the video, but after that, I was like, “Y’know… I might be able to go somewhere with this,” so that’s how I came up with Grizzle Films.
The word Grizzle is from Grind, as in “On My Grind”… it’s the word Grind, but it’s pronounced in a different way, Grizzle. So that’s how we came up with the name Grizzle Films. Ever since then, I just started directing my own videos. Now we’ve produced videos like “Coming Home”, “Monster”, and a whole bunch of others.
So is the same guy, Osz, still shooting your videos now?
He’s in the crew, so we still work together really often. If he’s not shooting the video, he’s probably doing the lighting, or conceptualizing the entire project with me. We’re actually working on the music video for “Echoes” now, the song I did with Sylvia Ratonel. We’re in the pre-production process right now. Osz came up with majority of the concept, and I structured it to fit the song. The crew started with me and him, and after all the videos started coming out, people started to get drawn towards my videos, and from then on, we formed a bigger team. There’s about 4 to 5 people right now. That’s the Grizzle Films crew. Then we have the Grizzle Grind crew, where we have DJs, designers, and basically a crew of talented people who are fronting a hip hop lifestyle and doing what they love.
Do you have any interests, other than music?
I don’t know anything else other than music. That’s all I think about. Music, performing, directing videos, producing videos, producing music, everything is to do with the arts.
If you were made a Tourism Ambassador for Singapore, which would you say is your favourite tourist attraction, and why?
Probably the Esplanade… ‘cos it’s a very important place that is essential to Singapore culture, I feel.
Everybody has a dream… what would you say is your dream right now?
I feel that people are always changing, so their dreams would constantly change… but right now, I want to inspire millions of people and have a million people mourn me when I’m dead.
What’s next on the cards for Shigga Shay?
The “Break Me” music video will be out soon. Then the music video for “Rock My World” is coming out. “Echoes”, we’re still working on it… but I think you can expect to see music videos for “Moon Talk”, “ShiGGa ShiGGa”… almost every song (in the EP). But here’s the thing, ‘cos I do videos myself, so I get a lot of control over this kind of stuff. I think music videos are really important for an artist’s career, ‘cos 55% of music consumption is through music videos nowadays, so it needs that push. Then probably another mixtape. Then an album.
Actually, it sounds like you’re ready to go straight for the album…
I don’t want to make people constantly pay for my stuff, so the mixtape will be a freebie… just to get them ready to pay for the album. (he smiles impishly)
Is there anything that you might want to say to your fans?
Thank you. Thanks for the support, and I’ll remember every single one of you.
ShiGGa’s new EP “They Call Me ShiGGa” is now available for sale on his official website:
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(Jeanette Chin)