He is the real deal when it comes to what hip hop is supposed to be about. His lyrics are imaginative and thought-provoking, completely against the grain of the misogynistic, violent and egotistical drivel that is so prominent in commercial hip hop today.

Juice Aleem is at the top of his game – he’s worked with Flesh and Gamma, Coldcut, Hextstatic and Evil 9, amongst many others over the past 20 years… and now he’s finally gone solo. He has studied his art long and hard, and it shows in every aspect of his solo album, Jerusalaam Come (the title in itself, spelt in this way, is immediately intriguing and hints at his desire to engage the listener’s mind right from the start.)

Juice Aleem is just one of his many alter-egos. Others include Norbert Psyche, Wolf McGinty, Jerusalaam El, Alpha Prhyme, and Aleem Juice, to name but a few. Intrigued to find out what his real name was, I asked him to divulge. He told me that only people who fall into one of the following three categories know his real name:  1. those who are willing to part with generous amounts of money directly into his bank account; 2. girlfriends who he’s with for a certain period of time; and 3. his mum. Failing to qualify for any of those categories, the name Juice Aleem will have to reign supreme.

Lisa: Right then, it’s the day after you played at Wire with Anti-Pop Consortium, how are you doing?

Juice: I’m good thank you. A little frayed around the edges, but I’m good.

Lisa: And you’re straight off to London now?

Juice: Yep, back to the grindstone, back to doing other things, got another gig tonight…

Lisa: Cool. First of all I wanted to talk a little bit about how you started off MC’ing – where you were when you started writing your lyrics, and how you started doing this live?

Juice: Well, I’ve been at it for ages – forever forever forever! But, I suppose, taking it seriously, it began when I formed groups with various different people, and just realised that I actually have a talent for it – in regards to, not only the music I was listening to and wanting to make, but also how you talk and how you look at the world and how you’re able to vocalise that. People say, “Oh, that’s pretty cool!” or “I like the way you said that,” or, “I never thought of that,” and you think to yourself, there may be something in this. And that’s the kind of thing that pushed me forward in regards to making this a profession. Obviously then, there’s going to bigger and better studios, and getting tunes played on the radio, and having various levels of success in different areas. Each time, that success is going forward, and going upwards and outwards, and that’s what’s allowed me to keep doing it.

So… it’s been a long while! It’s been about 15 years or so on a level, like you say, professionally… But even before that, you know, since I was a child. I didn’t always think about it, but I used to sometimes hit soundsystems and stuff as a young teen, and get forwards and re-winds and stuff. People would ask: “Hey come back again!” You’re like: “yeah, yeah, yeah, but I’ve got school tomorrow, I can’t do this.” It just kept going from there. Obviously then, once you’ve put records out that are official, that are on actual record labels, then you realise you’re in a different realm, in a new, exciting and sometimes scary realm… it’s all upwards from there.

Lisa: Ok. You’ve worked with a lot of people, a lot of different people in the past as well as on this album that you’ve just released. Who would you say has really pushed you forwards and has really influenced you in what you do?

Juice: There’s no one… there’s no one particular influence in the people I’ve worked with… My formative years were pre- any of this. They were spent listening to Public Enemy, Jungle Brothers, Ultra Magnetic MCs, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Yellow Magic Orchestra. That’s what made me who I am. I’m not saying I’m fully formed, because you’re always growing, you’re always striving for perfection… But it’s like, the people I meet now, it’s more a case of, as they say, steel sharpening steel, and Man sharpening Man. So you’re meeting each other as equals. Even if the person I work with is bigger than myself, and has a bigger name, and a bigger cache to his name, what it is, is that I’m still meeting them and giving them an input too. So even in working for Coldcut – which is influential – but they asked me to come to them, if you know what I’m saying. So it’s not that my name’s as big as theirs, it’s me adding to what they’re doing, and they’re adding to what I’m doing. So it’s a combination.

I’ve done my apprenticeship. You know, like I say, those were my formative years, those were the years doing things for free – opening nights, doing things in promotion, handing out flyers, appearing here, there, everywhere, travelling up and down the country, “OK – here’s ten pounds, is that alright?” No it’s not, but thank you anyway! You know what I’m saying, I’ve done that, I’m trying not to do that anymore! I’m trying to meet people on a level now. So last night, with Anti-Pop, they know a lot of people that I know, I know a lot of people that they know. I’ve worked with Beans before, from Anti-Pop. We’ve all done the groundwork, we’ve all studied our craft, we’ve all found out what the background to this art form is. Our influences are very similar, but constantly expanding, and they don’t influence you as such – other than influence your sense of achievement. I tell you what’s beautiful – knowing people like, say, Roots Manuva, and seeing him get his Mercury nomination, and thinking like, hey, maybe  I can do that as well, or maybe my friend can do that, maybe Blackitude can do that, or Mike Ladd… You know, these are my friends, do you understand? So it’s not just like I’m learning from them, I’m learning from them as a friend. Like I say, steel sharpens steel, man sharpens man, mind sharpens mind.

Lisa: Now, I know you’ve got to head off soon, but could we quickly talk a little bit about the album you’ve just released. You discuss a lot of things in it, there’s a lot of deep issues in it, and a lot of political issues…

Juice: Oh, you said the ‘P’ word!

Lisa: Ha ha! But you talk about cultural identity and that sort of stuff too. I was wondering if you could run those themes past me…

Juice: You’d have to be a bit more specific, in the space of time we’ve got!

Lisa: Ha ha, OK. I’ll pick one theme specifically, which I think is quite an interesting one, which is how you seem to be… how to word it… maybe… quite sad about how Hip Hop is portrayed today in the UK, and – what’s that tune of yours? Kunte…

Juice: KuntaKinteTarDiss. Yeah, be careful how you say that!

Lisa: I know, it sounds a bit suspect! But in that you also talk about how Hip Hop is saturated by egotistical men, and how perhaps that’s not what it’s about in reality…

Juice: I mean, that track, it is five minutes long, and it has about 400 years worth of stuff in there, maybe even more.  So yeah, Hip Hop is one of the things it’s talking about, but it’s more about… I mean, it’s talking about media saturation in a few lines, but it’s also talking about how people who haven’t studied their craft are boosting up and highlighting people who maybe aren’t on the top of their game either. Now, if you really think that person is the best MC, maybe you need to go back to Hip Hop class! Go back to basics. To master your craft you have to be able to do various art forms, and be able to simplify it as well.

Take Picasso – when he got to the height and pinnacle of his career, he was able to do anything. He was able to do the Renaissance style, he was able to do surrealism, impressionism – he was able to do everything. From when he was young, he was literally a genius. But, do you know what he did when he got right to the peak? He went back to African primitivism. All that simplified stuff that people know? That was his version of cave paintings, and those real simple masks that you find in Central Asia, South and Central America and Africa. He went back to that, to the source of Humanity, do you understand? So he took it back to the root. Simple, clear, bold lines. And you can really feel it, you know, it’s raw and visceral.

Lisa: That really is what you get from your album, just a sort of raw and individual assertion of what you are, and who you are as a man.

Juice: Well this is it, this is me, this is me. For better or for worse. If someone can show me and tell me where I’m wrong, I’d love that. You know what I’m saying – if someone could agree with me, I’d love that too. But even better than both of those, is being able to debate it, and that’s what I’m trying to do. If there’s anything that I hope for, it’s for people to broaden their horizons, and to debate, and to think about things. They don’t have to agree with me, but just to think about it. That’s what I’d love. And that’s what even the album cover is about, and the title. People say, “You don’t spell Jerusalem like that,” Exactly. Have a think about it. [Siren sounds] Hold on, I’ve gotta go! Ha ha! No, that’s really what it’s all about, so it’s good that people are picking up on it. But sometimes, almost too much as well, because that’s the one song that everyone focuses on…

Lisa: I think that’s probably because it is perhaps the most straightforward one on the album, the one that’s more obvious what it’s about. You listen to it once and you get a feel to it, whereas some of the others you have to listen to a bit more…

Juice: True, true. I hadn’t thought of it in that sense. Because actually the way I write isn’t always obvious, and I didn’t realise that. And I made a concerted effort with a couple of the tracks on this album to be a bit more, “this is what I am saying today, this is how I feel.” But the reason why that one was so poignant is because, I was kind of ranting. It’s what I do on my own, at home, in my living room, after watching the news. I think, they can’t do that, you can’t invade that country! I talk to myself and I have this rant. Oh my God, they’re increasing the taxes again! The way people drive today! That was that song. It’s like, hold on, let’s not turn myself mad, let me express this and give it an outlet, and maybe there’s some people out there that agree with some of this. Not all of it, but maybe some of it, you know.

Lisa: Well, we should probably leave it at that, so you can get some food and head off, but thanks very much for coming to meet me, it’s been great.

Juice: Thank you very much, thank you for having me. And I hope people listen, and hopefully they’ll go and buy the album, Jerusalaam Come, but also support other art forms, other music and other artists out there, and give them a listen too. This is not just about me, it’s about expanding yourself, each person. As they say, ‘for each one to teach one’. So if you learn something, pass it on to the next person, if you hear some good music, let another person know. If you see a good film, let another person know and go to the cinema with them. Because in this climate right now, a lot of arts are going to suffer, and I’d hate to see that happen. Because without art, we aren’t a culture – you aren’t a civilisation without art forms. We’re going to lose ourselves and become, for want of a better word, savage.

Lisa: Let’s hope that doesn’t happen!

Juice: Yes, let’s hope that doesn’t happen! But, thank you. Peace. Blessing.

Special thanks to Joe Maitland