Bushkin
“MR BUSHKIN”
FROM HEARTLESS CREW
APRIL 2008
written and submitted by
Julia Kibela
Do you remember back in the day Moschino, Versace and all that London Garage wear that all the rude bwoys used to buss to college and uni - do you remember that?
Do you remember when the garage raves were at their peak, and everyone was exchanging freaky adolescent stories about their adventures to Ayia Napa - I redeemer those days…
Although I must admit, I was never swept up in the above as I was too busy hitting every hiphop rave possible that allowed girls to wear trainers…yeah, although I wasn’t a garage head, I understood and respected the vibe, the culture, the excitement and the feeling that garage was a force not be reckoned with - it was alive and very much home grown.
So when I met up with the now 28 year old Seven Day Adventist , Mr Bushkin from the Heartless Crew in April 2008 at a kid’s park in Wood Green, I instantly recognised his swagger.
his demeanour of fitted black pants and blue and white Moschino shoes and same coloured diamond jumper t match, what stood out about Bushkin however was his welcoming smile, height and oh yeah, the very large cross shaved into the back of his head, that lead me to wonder how different life might be now for one of the heartless crew’s founders, since the success of Grime on the streets of London and the somewhat death of old school style garage raves…
“You see, around a couple of years ago the police were shutting down a lot of raves and [they] lost their edge in a way…we would turn up, do our set and then go, and there wasn’t really nothing special, that’s where I had the idea to do a female only dancing competition…and it’s been a hit…”
“I don’t like racism....I don't like when people try to bully weaker people...that's what gets me angry…on a real I'm all about peace love and pum pum”
Some of you, may have heard of the dance competition Bushkin mentions, it’s called Female Skanker, where random girls who come along to a Heartless crew Rave, can enter themselves in the dance completion where the goal is to win the crowd over with their ‘skills’. Pretty much anything goes, apart from the fact the girls must be 18 or over, other than that - it’s really down to the girls’ boundaries. Female Skanker nights were created by Bushkin himself, and kicked off this side of the millennium.
If you You Tube Female Skanker, you’re bound to get a few vids of girls, poles, stages, bashment riddims and testosterone filled crowds…
“Girls do like to watch and criticise and say ‘ah she’s not all that’…look at her…‘ and girls wanna show off their dance moves. All girls want attention, so it kinda works for everyone - everyone seems happy”
Bushkin then goes onto memory lane about some of the most scandalous entries in Female Skakner, “One of dem in Aiya Napa, one girl she had the big massive tits and kinda whacked her tits out and stuff like that, strippers have entered before - it’s always memorable, you never know what’s gonna happen my whole style of hosting…is kinda freestyle ting - we got set guidelines and things like that and a rough kinda outline of it, and we never know who's gonna enter or what they're likely to do... or say. What was most memorable was that she never actually won the competition...so this was the catch behind it. After that I brought in a new wall 'if you come with any slackness - you get black list‘. Girls don’t really like that as well, and can sometimes get a bit bitchy....I don’t wanna be known for doing a competition where girls are getting their tits out and this and that...it's good fun...we don’t mind a bit of that....but you gotta have some quality control”
As Bushkin was memorising scandalous events on stage at Female Skanker, I imagined myself bringing a disc of Female Skanker to one of his church services and playing it to the congregation…I chuckled inside as I thought of the shocked looks on their faces as the girls slid up and down the pole; I had to put this scenario across to Bushkin -
“Funnily I had the same thing a couple of days ago - me and my friend were sitting outside my mum's church, it wasn’t on a church day, but she was having a meeting there, and me and my friend were smoking weed in my car, and the church women were walking past…I wound up the windows...and I thought to myself - ya know what, I smoke weed...whatever if they wanna look on me and think whatever, it's entirely up to them so I wound the windows back down; it ain’t no cloak and dagger ting...again...the Female Skanker ting, I'm tryna curve it, I got a long term vision for it...which is trying to move it away from all that, at the moment now it's in a very rough stage.”
I have to admit from Bushkin’s outlook on religion and living what some might call an ‘unreligious’ lifestyle, I did wonder if this was just an outlook of convenience - couldn’t everyone say the same thing? And if so what would make those that were living day-by-day-text-book-Bible-lives different from those that were unwilling to change their lives to fit into that old saying “what would Jesus do?” How would we then define a Christian?
“Paul in the bible, he was collecting money for the apposing side; he was using Christian people and trying to slaughter them and he ended up being one of the top disciples. Sometimes, it's not necessarily where you're at - it's where you’re going and where you wanna be. God can use anyone, the lowest of the lowest person, to the highest highest people. he tends to use people who are more down as well, just to show the other people.”
So as well as continuing to go to church on Saturdays, Bushkin pretty much lives the same life he did when he was first coming up in the scene and the Heartless Crew Theme was ripping the airwaves.
His weeks consist mainly of seeing family members, playing roller hockey / street hockey, meeting up with Mighty Moe and Fonti from the Heartless Crew to plan their next moves and playing out at raves on Friday and Saturdays.
As well as a barrage of moves Bushkin has already secured for 2008 and 2009, today Bushkin has teamed up with Mutya, former member of the Sugar Babes, along side various other artists to form a digital label called Bush Bash Recordings. The first release from the album is the Ready Riddim album due for release summer this year, “Luckily for me being a part of the Heartless Crew, has given me the opportunity to work with some of the biggest and best artists in the world, and trust me some of the hottest talent is right here in the UK. I couldn’t just sit and watch, I had to make movements.”
Mutya features on a song called She’s Just A Remix. Mutya, being a back-in-the-day fan of Heartless Crew, was more than willing and excited about being involved with the Ready Riddim, Bushkin smiles as he thinks of her “She’s doing well. You know what I'll have a dig at Mutya , cos I can never get a hold of her at the drop of a hat when I need to...when she comes to the studio she’s always on point and she’s a proper good singer.. A lot of people don’t realise that she’s that talented cos she’s from the Sugar Babes, but I would definitely sing her praises and say that she’s talented…she comes to the studio. It’s a bashment tune and that will surprise people cos they won’t think that she will come off like that; she's heavy man, she sits on the rhythm tough still.”
As a couple of children throw a ball near us, and an ice cream van rolls up pumping it’s predictable nursery rhyme tune, Bushkin gives me an insight into his family upbringing and what made him the person he is today “They knew I was always into [entertaining], when I was young, I was brought up partly by my nan. I lived at my gran’s [and] they had a big influence on me, they brought me up old fashioned ting, nuff manners - knife and fork, foundation…they brought me up and I’m sticking to the routine that they set me in general - they're proud still cos we've accomplished quiet a bit in the years. I always say to them this is nothing, I'm looking to do a whole lot more, but generally they're proud, and I'm still young…”
Everyone has their thing that makes them see red…right? For me, personally, I have too many to name! But Bushkin, was pretty much reluctant to elaborate on any past experiences that may portray him in a negative light - even that whole Pay As You Go old skool saga that happened, where both crews, Pay As You Go and Heartless got into it on stage once over some off key lyrics said about each other - even that, Bushkin has pretty much laid to rest, “We had a musical clash and buried Pay As You Go... I ain’t gonna hype up nuthin - but now, me and Maxwell D are bredrin....he’s a good bredrin, that guy is solid...real solid guy - I really rate him, we went out the other day…and we played a couple of raves, and people were so surprised to see Heartless and Pay As You Go...them things are squashed long long long time ago...bare love....them times, it was all adolescence...they were in my opinion jealous of us, what we had and where we were going. Them man there tried to hype up…Maxwell D was at the last Female Skanker. Heartless Crew and Pay As You Go - just to show them people it’s just unity we're dealing with... “
With Heartless Crew being considered diverse, because although Fonti and Bushkin are both black and from similar upbringing, Mighty Moe is of Middle-Eastern decent and can sometimes be found chatting in Arabic over the mic. It’s clear to see that Bushkin has no prejudices when he chooses his friends and those people he wants to add to his ‘empire’ of a record label as he calls it.
“I don’t like racism....I don't like when people try to bully weaker people...that's what gets me angry - that's when you’ll see me getting excited and that...I don’t really like that kind of ting there - on a real I'm all about peace love and pum pum”.
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