The Great Hip Hop Hoax Page #3

American skating kids,

that's what we looked like.

We had baggy jeans, skate T-shirts.

My character was like Jim Carrey

mixed with the rapper Redman.

Bit of Michael J Fox, David

Schwimmer, but then I liked them

as, like, my speaking voice

and how I would speak to people.

Bill was like Chris Tucker and

Chris Rock mixed with, like, ODB.

So we were able to become

characters that you'd see on TV.

Dave!

The problem was that we spent

so much time on the accents

and getting the look,

and how we would act perfect,

we didn't do any research

into, like, American culture.

What grade... what grade

did we finish school in?

What is a grade?

All we knew was these

kind of stereotypes

that we'd seen on music videos

and we were just perpetuating

black rapper stereotypes.

It was just constant,

"perfect the character, perfect the

character, perfect the character. "

We were talking in American,

but to girlfriends and stuff,

we were having sex

with an American accent.

Definitely, my girlfriend

at the time thought that was weird.

Masturbating in an American accent.

The only way we were not

going to get caught

was if we could really believe

in these characters.

Like any actor taking on a role,

that's what we did.

This was going to be

the biggest role we'd ever play.

On the bus to London, it kind of

started to slowly sink in.

Like, "Holy sh*t, we're doing this!"

OK, so what's it

going to really take?

OK, so we need to get in the door.

We need to cause a buzz.

How can we get into this group of

people that run the music industry?

How can we convince them

that we're other people?

We are demons that are here

to take over this industry.

I just couldn't understand

how they could think

that they could carry it off.

You can't live a lie.

I'd just moved

to a little studio flat,

which was pretty much

just a living room. It was tiny.

Having, you know, just one person

in that place was just crowded

and then having the two boys...

.. it didn't really work,

but I put up with it

because I had to for my brother.

We had 360 between us,

250 between us.

Bill's last wage, my dole cheque.

I had absolutely nothing at that

point. I was in 6,000 debt as well.

They had a focus

and they had a mission. That was it.

They went and did it.

One person actually offered us

a show and said,

"If you guys want to play,

we've got a slot. "

Guys, girls, everyone just

getting naked, changing.

No-one cares, they're so focused

on, "I've got to be this pop act,

"got to get this record deal

tonight, you know?"

And we were just, like, laughing

and like, staring at tits!

We were just there

to kind of blow everyone away.

Just before we went on,

there was four guys, R&B group,

you know, singing harmonies.

We walked out on stage

and the crowd were looking at us.

We said, "Hey, we're Silibil n' Brains,

we're from California, let's go!"

Oh, oh, oh, look who's coming through

Best get out the way

This is Tongue Kung Fu

We just grew

We punched through

All we hit is bricks and beer

And touch fools.

From the moment we said,

"We're from California," that was it.

We had the crowd.

And we really had the crowd.

Already a force in the burglary

Cos I take it too far

Like Michael Jackson in surgery...

We came to the bit where we paused

in between a song and I went,

"It's a shame your mum isn't here

tonight cos she's so... blah, blah. "

It was like we were

battling each other

and the crowd were going crazy,

everybody was loving it

because, to them, we were just

making this up on the spot.

When we came off stage, we were

just completely high, buzzing,

"Oh, my God, you know, oh, wow,

that was great!" You know?

We'd taken three steps

off the side of the stage...

And someone stopped us.

You know, and he was like,

"Yo!" He was like dressed all

gangsta, like, you know, A&R.

Huge guy, London accent

and he said,

"Oh, my God, you guys are amazing.

"Where are you from?"

And without thinking we just went,

"Oh, we're from California. "

It felt like the room froze.

It felt like the world stopped and we

were able to think... "What did...?

"Did we just say that?"

That was the defining moment.

There was no turning back.

And he gave us his business card

and it was Chris Rock

from Island Records.

If you meet someone who's

into hip-hop, you know straightaway.

I have a massive collection

of trainers, I buy vinyl records,

I listen to music all the time,

I wear these crazy glasses

and every one thinks,

"My, God, what are they?"

And that's the hip-hop culture.

Authenticity within hip-hop

is pretty much that.

You've got to live and breathe it.

Silibil n' Brains were hip-hop.

It was hilarious.

They had clever enough

lyrics and flow

to actually impress people like me.

It was, "I love you guys,

I absolutely love it.

"I want to make it happen. "

He wrote down a list of names

and said, "I want you

to check these guys out.

"Tell them Chris Rock from

Island Records has seen you guys

"and wants to sign you guys. "

He goes, "I just need someone

"to represent you guys

as management. "

I'd made an industry contact.

First show in London,

first trip as Silibil n' Brains.

Same songs as what

we had in Scottish.

We were just like,

"This is going to work," you know?

Our confidence just

ballooned at that point.

I guess it's luck. I mean, it's luck

but we made that luck happen,

you know? We made our own luck.

We worked out, like, a method.

We would say, "OK, so, don't ever

talk over each other.

"One of us is to cover, one leads. "

If I'm leading, Bill will sit there

listening to every single thing

this guy's saying back and figuring

where he's going with it.

So, I'm not thinking about what...

I'm just trying to get his head

away from asking us about

our story, our past.

Because we weren't

ready for that yet.

Just worked on staying in character

all the time.

My sister must've thought we were

crazy because we always spoke

in an American accent

with her as well.

Oh, my God... F***ing A, man!

F***ing A! That guy rocks, man.

I'll tell you that. That guy rocks.

They didn't want to get

out of their personas

out of their acting, in case it

would slip back into,

kind of, a bit of a Scottish

and they couldn't let

the twang get in there.

They had honed it so well...

They sounded like they were

born in America, raised in America.

It was like a little bit

of a dream...

but I was always worried

that he would just get

so deep into it that he wouldn't

know who he was really

because they do have that in them,

both of them.

They get so involved and so deep

into what they're doing that they...

they don't know the line between

reality and, you know, the acting.

We felt Americans were slightly

cockier and slightly louder

so our characters became that.

Jonathan Shalit was, and still is,

one of the most powerful managers

in the music business.

With managers, it's to do with

not what you know most of the time,

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