Irish Rappers Revealed

This programme contains very strong language

# RAPPING: Do you two spit random sentences cos you're lacking intelligence

# That's factual relevance While actual evidence

# Your boy told me you penis is lacking development

# And you have the face like the back of an elephant #

WHISTLING AND CHEERING

# And you're so heavy

# That you can stand steady in the middle of a whirlwind

# How does it feel to have bigger titties than your girlfriend?

# No-one needs jiggling when they're trying to spit flows

# The only thing you have on us is about six stone

AUDIENCE: Oh!

# There's something you need to understand

# Even if you dyed your hair Lost the weight and got a sun tan

# You would still be an ugly man

# You've probably had sex with more fellas than Nugget's mam. #

The fucking skank.

CHEERING

Irish hip hop is taboo, just the name.

A white, ginger rapper, you know what I mean?

You laugh when you hear that sort of shit.

Come on, everyone, make some fucking noise, it's a party!

CHEERING

REDZER RAPS INDISTINCTLY

Redzer is a rapper in one of Dublin and Ireland's biggest rap bands,

The Class A'z.

In recent years, they have released a number of self-made videos

with the aim of achieving commercial success.

I've put in a lot money,

lot of time, lot of effort and I want that big pay day back.

I want the number one, I want the awards, I want the accolades.

I want people to say, "Redzer, you made it."

That's the goal.

# Fucking hip hop

# Fucking hip hop, work it

# Shut the fuck up

# Shut the fuck up I want to say something

# I'm here to keep the place buzzing... #

I hate authority, I hate politicians, I hate teachers,

I hate fucking people that go around clamping cars.

I hate anyone who thinks they have authority.

# I fucking hate you, little pea I'll shoot that punk in the face

# We've been doing this for eons Not a couple of days... #

Has Enda Kenny ever had to chose between medication or food?

No. So what does he know?

When they're making these cuts and stuff,

it doesn't affect them. That's what pisses me off.

Put me in there because I know what it's like

to, literally, have no money.

I've been on the bones of my arse,

I've went without food for three or four days, you know what I mean.

Growing up, I've done that.

Enda Kenny and all these politicians and that who've gone to college.

Yeah, they've gone to college,

College doesn't teach you how to fucking pick between medicine

or food or drugs or whatever.

They don't know anything about the realness of the country.

They talk about Ireland as this, like, "Oh, Ireland".

No, Ireland is a dying country, you know what I mean.

And they're not doing enough to fucking save us.

And we're not doing enough to save ourselves either.

This country... Modern Ireland saddens me. It saddens me, it does.

# Feel the toil Just shut the fuck up

# Shut the fuck up Everybody here, shut the fuck up

# Everybody here, shut the fuck up. #

-Fair play to everyone, thanks very much for having us here.

-Thank you.

Next year, I want to have a number one.

At least one number one, like.

I mean, we've been number one in the download charts and stuff like that,

but it's not good enough. We want an actual number one.

And we're not going to stop until we get it.

It's the bomb.

To date, the only successful Irish rap bands have been comedy acts

such as the Rubberbandits.

However, hidden away, Ireland does have an underground hip hop scene

with rap groups appearing in nearly every housing estate in the country.

Many of these artists see themselves as serious musicians

within the Irish tradition.

We're not in America, we're not American hip hop artists.

We'd been more tied in with the likes of the Wolf Tones

and the Dublin Boys than we would any of the hip hop artists,

let's be honest about it, you know what I mean.

The first rap I ever wrote was years ago with one of my mates.

And we done it in the big American accent.

We had it on a little radio.

But, I don't speak of that because we don't like to,

-you know what I mean.

-THEY ALL LAUGH

And if that tape ever surfaces, like, I'd be in trouble.

You see, I was only...I was only 14 or 15 at the time.

But I snapped out of that, know what I mean.

I'm now 25, so, if you're rapping in American accents,

there's still time, you'll snap out of it and you'll grow up.

You hear them tunes, say you were rapping in an American accent.

You hear them when you're 25, you're going to go,

"What the fuck was I doing, man? What was I doing?"

-You're going to be embarrassed. So just...

-Quit now.

..stop it. Please, stop it. Give it over. Stop.

# I'm back up on the beat Still got the knack for the rapping

# Racking up classics

# While you're yapping with your brap, brap, brap, brapping

# But I just happen to hang with the finest MCs in Ireland

# Lyrical tyrants so exquisite multi-syllable rhyming

# But clinical timing I'm gifted with definite style

# Still with conviction rippin' the diction

# Like a script in the Bible... #

Irish rap is fairly new so it's kind of,

we're developing the sound as we go along, kind of thing.

-Yeah.

-And it's, you know, we're trying to be as original

and base it on our lives and where we've come from.

# I'm heading for the top again Rocking jams

# If you've got a problem Then you're not a friend... #

It'll still have the American influence slightly.

Maybe in the hand shakes or, you know, the hand signs,

doing the Class A'z.

Cos it's American and you grow up watching that,

so you're going emulate these other rappers.

-# You wanna track for you iPod?

-I'm back

-# Wanna hear a track from the mic god?

-I'm back

-# You want red on a head Nodder, yeah, man

-I'm back

-# Got respect put my rep on it Yeah, man

-I'm back... #

We run everything ourselves.

From writing the song to even producing, massing

and printing press and albums.

We get our own gigs, we get very little support from anyone else.

Anyone who's anyone in Irish hip hop

has probably recorded their album or mixtape here.

But, this way, we do everything in this little set-up.

Pretty much all we need, you know, to get the music off the ground.

# I'm just a poet like Kavanagh

# Though I'm probably better off now Than in the times of our man

# Damn, I'm hungrier than Bobby Sands

# Seeing through these impostors

# Like a doctor when he's studying a body scan

# Doesn't matter what...#

Today the Class A'z are shooting their latest video.

How are you going to do it?

I'll just be like, cocksucker, and he's coming at me, you know.

Just drop it in, though, halfway.

-Do I just appear or...?

-Yeah, just go for it and get right in.

-Back a bit.

-Come on.

# I'm the king in this rhyming culture

# Most wanted lawless man since the FBI caught Whitey Bulger

# Every line is highly vulgar

# Better be without this cocksucker, motherfucker

Tera, leave it out.

# Real-life shit You're just stuck in a newby

# Class A, Red, Tera and Nu

# We were nothing... Brap. #

That's exactly how I thought of it.

THEY ALL LAUGH

Want to see?

# We don't know what to think Because you've still got to blink

# And when you rap your eyes bulge And your face goes pink

# I can see your head inflate Into the size of a basket ball

# Like Arnold Schwarzenegger At the end of Total Recall. #

CHEERING

# Look while he does it The way that we does it

# Put this grouper Who looked crookedly

# Try as I'm gonna book it

# This little sham here is talking rubbish but fuck it

# Keep disrespecting me in public

# And I'm going to kick your balls in your stomach. #

CHEERING

MUSIC: The Working Class Army

In Finglas, another group of rappers are pursuing a different dream

from the Class A'z. The Working Class Army are younger

and see themselves as being more idealistic.

They see rap as a means of spreading a social message

and, for these ends, are prepared to forego commercial success

and even give their music out for free.

They have criticised the commercial aspirations of Redzer

and the Class A'z.

And this has led to a feud developing

between the two Dublin bands.

There's too many doing it with an eye for success.

And, I mean, my personal opinion is,

if you're making music solely with the intent of being successful,

more often than not, you're not going to be successful.

It won't have no substance to it, no substance whatsoever.

You turn it on and, for hip hop,

I listen to hip hop to get something from it.

Get knowledge, wisdom. That's what it's based on,

I mean, listening to hip hop all these years.

We research about that stuff and we research a lot into our tunes

and make sure that we're not saying...

what we're saying can't be contradicted and stuff.

Like, it's all good making music for fun.

But the fact of the matter is, all of life isn't fun.

So, if you're acting like it is on tracks,

you're not being true to yourself then.

Sturdy, lads.

# They left us with the blueprints... #

The feud between the two bands has turned into a public slanging match.

Their image is the same as the newspaper,

it's a commercial image.

We get graphic and we go in and we know how this shit works,

know what I mean.

Just like the realism, what we said before, it's the realism.

The boys live in a fantasy world, you know what I mean.

They totally are, you know what I mean.

We'll leave it at that.

Keep it real. Keep it real.

Wednesday morning and Redzer is collecting his dole.

He has also arranged to meet Siyo,

another rapper who has been targeted by The Working Class Army.

Tell me, there is a bit of feud in Irish hip hop, isn't there?

Eh, not a feud, there's...

there's rumblings of a feud, all right, I mean.

I don't know.

Like, what type of credible artist or musician or fucking actor

or anything, like, would get into something

-not to bleeding try and make money and make a living out of it?

-Yeah.

I can't wait meet a plumber that gives me plumbing for free.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Mate, what are you doing? You're not keeping it real.

-Keeping it real.

-Here's free fucking plumbing.

Heat me up, man. Bring me that heat, bring me that heat.

Bring the heat, bring the heat. Yeah, man, it's fucking mad, yeah.

And that's what you're dealing with.

There is no beef, I don't think we'd even have a pound in beef.

At the end of the day, beef has to be real

and especially if these fuckers are talking about all this real shit,

real shit, the beef has to be real.

If you don't like my songs, that's not real beef,

-that's you not liking my songs. Where's the beef?

-Yeah.

If you're going to talk about this keep it real shit,

keep it fucking real.

So, yeah, people may not like me, but fuck them,

I don't like them back and that's it.

I don't need to take it to a track, I don't need to fucking...

I don't even need to call them names, people know who they are.

People know who I'm talking about and, you're a shite bag,

you're a fucking shite bag.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to make money out of this

-and I'm being honest about the whole thing.

-Too right.

I'm not going to stand here and pretend that I'm not trying to make money off it.

-Well, I am because if I fail, I fail and people know I failed.

-Yeah.

-Fuck it.

I'm trying to make money and if I don't make money, people know I fail.

-At least people know I was trying.

-That's it.

I'm being totally honest, totally honest, 100%.

Temper-Mental MissElayneous is a 24-year-old rapper

living in Finglas.

If you want gloss.

I remember learning what that meant very young. Pure stream.

# The contradiction is the truth Is where the secret's are kept ha-ha

# Nothing is real, nothing exists

# Just a projection of your perception

# A cerebral eclipse

# Deepening determinedly Despite danger's depth

# The contradiction is the truth Is where the secrets are kept

# Though subliminally untouchable

# Still corruption encroaches my vicinity

# Principally indestructible Not specifically allegorical

# Surreptitiously metaphorical Contradictorily abhorable

# Love and hate breed in close proximity

# Faith, hope and charity... #

MissElayneous sees rap as a means of spreading a political

and social message.

When I was 17,

I remember asking one of my friends I used to hang around with here,

"Are we poor?" It just dawned on me one day, I said, "Are we poor?"

"What d'ya think?" That's what he said.

And I just didn't know and these realisations dawned on me,

classes and stuff like that.

But I had not realised, I had been virgin to that idea,

to that stigma that was attached to us

because of where we were from.

-What's your name?

-Martina.

-My nanny, that's my nanny Meg, deceased now.

-Martina.

-What's your second name?

-Kavanagh.

Martina Kavanagh, what do you want me to rap about?

-Like what, now?

-What do you want me to rap about? Any topic, anything.

-Finglas.

-Finglas?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-All right, I'll rap about it.

To let someone in on a very, special thing,

so that's what it brings, that's what Finglas brought to my artistry

to allow people in artistically.

# Yeah, piece of mind doesn't come at a clear price

# The system's determined by the rolling of the dice

# Chancing your arm and leg on being eligible

# Swallowing the welfare's demands like they were edible

# What drives to drink and drugs but this romance

# We're in love and engrossed with that, foes

# We've got no chance. #

I called myself Temper hyphen Mental when I was 14,

when I was in front of that mirror, you know, rapping.

And then, as I say, when I was 19, MissElayneous.

And that was all knitted to where I came from, who I was

and referring to school, being that young person

not wanting to go to school, fighting against the system.

Er, you know, not wanting to be squashed into a role,

you know, that society had drawn up for me.

# Collecting medicine It haunts on every revolution

# Your roots upturn

# Psychological pollution's staring us in the face but we dare not look

# Divert our attention Reality we cannot broke

# You're blameless, you're pure

# Your intuition's not wrong

# Beneath that is truth Deep is where it should belong

# It's gets oppressed by confusion Doubt, prejudice

# So long that it's a distant memory On which we reminisce

# Simplified, to succeed from fear You will be freed

# I need your ears to hear my voice

# Let this rhyme plant a seed. #

-CLAPPING

-Very good.

Go on, the boys.

That's very good.

-What did you make of that?

-Lovely. Brilliant. Very good.

-Ah, it was very good, I enjoyed that.

-Yeah?

-Very good.

-Fair play to you.

-Oh, nice one, thank you.

-Fair play to you.

Brup.

All right, everybody...

The Working Class Army were inspired by a rapper called MC Lunitic

who came out of Ballymun in the early 2000's.

He was the first ever to rocks it out in a proper Dublin accent,

no holding it back.

And it just sounded grimy, it sounded gully, you know what I mean.

At the time he came out,

everybody that was in Irish rapping were sort of novelty acts.

Like, they were on the radio rapping comedy shit.

And he was the first MC that came out with that realism.

It made it seem cool to be from Dublin.

Tonight the Working Class Army are visiting Lunitic's mother Bernie

at the family home in Ballymun.

We're going up to Lunitic's house, Lunitic's mother Bernie is there

and'll have a cup of tea ready for us hopefully.

-Hello.

-How's it going?

-Going all right?

This house is the origins of Irish hop hip,

this is where it all started.

Because, without this, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now

and I don't think these lads would either.

MC LUNITIC RAPS

MC Lunitic aka. Dan McDonnell died in 2009

of a congenital heart defect.

Daniel was hilarious, he was funny, he was...

everything, really, you could say about him, like.

I know he's my son, but everyone loved him.

He was born with the condition and he knew.

But we thought that he'd only have to have surgery every so often

as he was growing, until he was 21 and then that would've been it.

That's what we thought.

We didn't know that he was going to...

end up so sick.

# Prejudging bastards are tripping like they're on shrooms

# The wall to use is the wall to your bedroom

# Fucking college faggots spending the day on the website

# Bitching about rappers But never touched a mic... #

The age that he died was 24.

You know, Tupac was, you know what I mean, 24, Biggie was 24.

That's like an age that a lot of hip hop pioneers passed away at.

I see that Dan's in that same category.

Dan's a hip hop legend now.

You know, we do what we're doing to, sort of, keep his legacy alive.

Do the main man proud, like.

# It's time now, Dublin city, For all you people... #

They're keeping Daniel's spirit alive by doing it.

When I see them on stage and when I know they're doing stuff,

I feel that Daniel is with them all the time.

And, even though he mightn't be with them on the stage himself,

he's with them in spirit.

# Thinking how things ain't What they used to be

# This fucking minor Barely out of puberty

# Started getting busy

# But truthfully no figure of speech

# I mean overly pc like a teenager

# I never was weak I'd just give her the cheek

# And smile dutifully

# But I'm too distracted with the view I see

# Staring out the window at the city... #

# Listen

# I'm all about representing either side of the Liffey

# You're all about recollecting over imaginary doggies

# With their tattooed titties

# I know no-one would ever tattoo your name on her tit

# You'd be more likely to tattoo Dublin on your dick

CHEERING

# So stop talking shit Cos you're making Cork look silly

# And having Dublin tattooed on your dick is the only way

# Any cunt from Cork would ever fuck with this city. #

CHEERING

# Jambo thinks that if he raps slow And extra aggro

# It will compensate for the fact that he can't flow

# See, I got class though to punch lines than to crack bones

# You got bad jokes and the swagger of Dabdow

LAUGHTER

# You were saving up for cans of Coke

# When he was selling bags of smoke And by the smell of you

# I'd say you've never even seen a bar of soap. #

CHEERING

Welcome!

In Cork another rap scene has emerged

with a distinct verbal style.

# Step up on the mic for the crazy track

# Anybody tell you how I'm feeling

# I'm gonna start repeating everything that's on my brain, in fact... #

I like the high energy rap with fast styles

and rhythmic flows and then sometimes I like to just, kind of,

be a bit more soulful and just put my feelings on a song, like.

# I'm about to tell you how I'm feeling

# Whoa, wait, made a mistake

-# Come back through What the boss say?

-Yeah

-# When you're coming through Matamatik, OK

-Yeah

# Here we go, oh, yeah. #

CHEERING

Cork is hungrier. That's the difference between Dublin and Cork.

We're not just two different counties,

we're two different types of hip hop.

We'll do the, kind of, yeah, we're rough,

fucking selling heroine and have sold drugs and have seen guns.

Where they'd be, # A-biggity bums, hey A-biggitys bums-i-bop a boo. #

# You can never compete

# I paint pictures Make 'em easy to see, man... #

What's good? What's good? Matamatik, Rebel Faction.

Genesis, Rebel Faction.

Brrrup. Make some noise for Genesis.

I'm here with Matamatik, we've just been dropping some bars.

# How you like that? How you like that?

# How you like that? How you like that?

# Prophecies of dishonesty

# Commodities like modesty are moderately obsolete... #

I was just always into hip hop, man. And the more I got into it,

the more it developed, I started writing, like.

Cos I was about, I'd say, around 14, I was diagnosed with cancer,

and I was stuck at home for a couple of months with nothing better to do

with just a pen and pad.

Started writing that stuff, like, you know, after that, just came out,

like, just so much stuff written, I just had to keep with it.

When you're forced with nothing else to do, like, stick with it,

like, and ever since then, been killing it since.

Word up.

-So it goes a bit like this. It goes.

-Wh-what?

# I take summers off Cos I love winter beef

# Still call me raw Like some sizzling meat

# The winner in me is dying Cos his liver's deceased

# Too much liquor on his lips Every night of the week

# You see, I've been in raids Since my younger days

# They had to numb the pain By numbing the brain

# They say, Lord giveth Lord take it away

# The Lord took more than one of my friends

# I find it hard to play

# It's hard to keep the faith In these harsh, evil days

# It seems to eat away Till you're left bleeding hate

# That's the reason We're expecting the rockets

# Another night, another fight Tearing flesh from the knuckles

# Another bottle broken over heads Left with concussions

# A week later with his cousin Results in repercussions

# From the weed puffing

# Seeds stuffed in, blowing trees

# Popping E's while he's up in the clubbin'

# On his knees Nose on the bowl, for real

# He knows that he's sniffing his soul

# Through a 50-note Throwing money up his nose

# Now he's losing his home Abusing the coke

# He's got a mouth frozen in snow

# Where money-getters Hump honeys and sunny weather

# So tight leather legs Keep me hungry for ever

# I rhyme clever and write better

# Than Professor Einstein In his prime, writing a letter

# See, rappers are monkey flipping

# With the iller lyrics they be spitting

# With precision like parkour villains robbing tall buildings

# They free fall from walls And defy laws of physics

# My God, I kill it when the mic's on, in my right palm, you hear it

# I'm the icon of spirit The python are playing pressure

# Till your life's gone

# Like IRA pipe bombs When the time's gone

# I'm the titan Bout the clash with your shitty raps

# Leave your head wrapped When they snatch up your fitted cap

# Kid, you won't get it back Like virginity

# When they hit it from the back instantly

# When she winked at me intimately I knew that she was into me

# I entered with intensity With every single inch of me

# Now she's feeling heavenly Breathing with the pedigree

# And easily the evilest penis of the century

# Look, it's only right That I was born to use mics

# Cos the stuff that I write Comes from stuffing them pipes

# For kush tougher than the bush of Colombian dykes

# Yeah, Genesis, technical simplicity

# Matamatik, cock city One love, let's go, baby. #

Outside the world of rap, Redzer leads a normal life.

Tonight is the 21st birthday party of his girlfriend Ester.

Redzer acknowledges that being a rapper has placed a strain

on their relationship.

All right, it's my girlfriend's 21st birthday party.

I think she's at the end of her soundness now where she's,

"All right, fair enough, I've done this enough,

"I've fucking shut up for four years now."

It's just getting hard to justify. I'm living with my mate now.

But the two of us are living in my mate's house.

We need, we should have our own house, to be honest with you.

I should be fucking out working and earning a proper living.

They're not fucking eejits.

They know what they want, they know what they can achieve

and they will do what they want to do.

Cos they know what they want, know what they want to do

and know what they fucking will do.

Where's our birthday girl? Come on down, Ester.

CLAPPING AND CHEERING

I'm not an emotional person.

If she left me, she'd have her reasons

and she's probably better off.

She could do better, to be honest with you.

I'd understand if she left me.

No, but, most blokes will, but I think I'm a different breed.

I'm just too logical, I don't deal with emotions.

I don't do emotion, I do logic.

So, if she left me, I'd totally understand and wish her the best.

I just want to say a special thanks to my boyfriend Redzer.

ALL: Yeah!

Maybe I have to flip a coin, even, and say, heads I rap, tails I work.

Cos I have to do something for her. She's being overly patient.

You know, I don't want to be taking advantage of that as well, like.

But I can't stop doing it. It's like heroin, you know.

I mean, hip hop is like heroin. Once you start doing it, you're hooked.

Sometimes I find it a bit hard, like.

Cos I'm usually just kind of, like...

I'm hoping that, like, you know,

he starts, like, you know, getting money and all from it, like,

and it would be great if that did happen.

But, at the moment, we're just kind of thinking, like,

"Oh, you know, is it going to happen?

"And how long do we have to wait for it to happen?"

-Do you know?

-"Go out and get a job, you Redzer bastard."

Yeah, well, sometimes I do get those days where I do, kind of,

question him on it and say, like,

"When are you going to go out and get a job?" Or whatever.

It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, like.

But still, it's so hard cos even...

When I'm trying to tell people this, I could see people do this,

cos I'd be the sort of fucker at the other end of screen going,

"Just quit, you fucking eejit. If you're not happy, then just quit." But it's...

-Addictive.

-Yeah, it is. And you can't stop.

When you genuinely sit down and do think about it,

you do get a bit, like, fucking...

..I wouldn't say emotional, but you do think a bit clearer about the whole thing

and you're like, "Hold on a second. What the fuck are you doing?

"Go out and get a job and just let it go, like."

But I can't.

Can't. Want to. Know I should. People tell me I should.

Just can't, just can't, like.

Hmm.

One little thing before I kick into the next tune.

Yeah, check this out, yeah.

# Hip hop vigilante come to give you all a slapping

# Cos these weirdos even want to imitate the fucking accent

# You're a dummy MC Rap about the money MC

# I laugh at the funny MC

# Never on a stage with a rapper like me

# And you've never run a track with the real MC. #

Kick that shit, kick that shit.

My family, they love it, they're very supportive of me.

My ma's very proud and all that, like.

Well, she's never really seen me big into anything, ever.

And now she sees that I'm mad into the rap.

She obviously knows that I really like it and all,

so she's just happy.

# Are you willing for a shilling? Am I willing for the what?

# My people, I've been struggling since 19-o-dot

# It's a body rush stoppin'

# I was told from God to blast these heathens like a ten-man firing squad

# They catch me clover on the sun Like they're crushing my dream

# Yo, they mow the men and women For the wearing of the cream

# Walking through a graveyard... #

25-year-old rapper Siyo still lives at home in Artane in Dublin.

# Lord, please deliver me from evil

# Compose a scene written on a canvas

# That be sitting on an easel

# The air smells of treason... #

-Hmm.

-All right?

-How are you?

-Grand.

-You well?

-Yeah, no worries.

-I've got the milk.

-Cheers.

-Getting the brews on?

-Well, I've put that on for you, so feel free.

Hmm. I must of left school when I was 17 or 18, wasn't it?

I've done a fair bit, but it's all kind of rinky-dink,

nothing really for a career.

What was the worst of those jobs?

Sky. It would have to be selling Sky door-to-door.

You go out and you go out and you hit the street about, er,

two or three o'clock and then you're just walking around.

You have your list, you're knocking at doors.

You have your little area, you're knocking at the doors

and nine people out of ten are just miserable.

I lost all faith in the general public in that job.

I'm slowly getting it back,

but the general public are unbelievable, like.

You're just knocking in to sell a bit of Sky

and the abuse you get off some people and all

and just the rigmarole, you know.

He's always, always been very content

in his own space and in his own skin.

He doesn't, never really did need anybody to

enhance what he was doing.

He was... Weren't you very comfortable?

-Always, yeah.

-Always.

-As far as I can remember, anyway.

-You left so close to being qualified as a hairdresser.

-Yeah.

You were almost there.

-And you left before you got it.

-Hmm.

I am the best in Europe, quite possibly the world. Er.

Pro Evolution Soccer, yeah.

I have feeling for it, though.

You waste away hours just sitting there, like.

You look at your clock, it's 12 o'clock at night.

Then you look again, it's four o'clock in the morning

and you've done nothing, you're still sitting in the same place.

This is the nest, yeah. This is where I hang around most of my time.

My ma wouldn't want you coming in here,

you know, but this is what it's all about, you know.

Letting yous into the life, the mind, the big Siyo, you know.

You see that flyer there,

that was the first real flyer I had with my name on it.

So I had to rob it off the door.

# These Dublin rappers carry on like Kanye West

# Talking about the guns And they thinking that it's proper

# They talk about the money And they haven't got a washer... #

He absolutely loves it.

He's in his own little world when he's up on stage.

It's, to me, it's where he belongs.

# She was but you don't know the time... #

Siyo's mum feels that whilst he belongs on stage,

he no longer belongs at home

and had decided that it is time for him to move out.

-There is a deadline to my patience.

-The days are numbered.

And I'm actually trying to be extremely polite.

Yeah, your days are actually numbered.

Because I'm definitely... My firm belief is, as a mother,

I am not doing you any favours by allowing you to stay here.

It's keeping you sheltered, it's keeping you cocooned.

-You're not learning anything, you're not growing as a person.

-Yeah.

All I'm enabling you to do,

when I really think about it, is to keep you unmotivated.

Well, essentially, that is what you're doing, yeah.

I'd say, like, if you had've kicked me, not kicked me out,

but done this when I was 22,

-where would I be now, after three years of it?

-Yeah.

-I could be in a completely different place.

-Absolutely.

But you're not putting the blame...

I'm not accepting the blame, under no circumstances.

-No.

-Now, hold on.

-Yeah.

-There was the slight twist.

-I'm just saying.

-No, not accepting it. I will not take it on board.

But at the moment, I don't think I am doing you any favours.

-In actual fact, I know I'm not doing you any favours.

-Yeah.

-You need to be out there and make yourself sink or swim.

-Definitely.

Yeah. This goes out to her. I love you. I love her.

Yeah. # I'm never moving out I'm never moving out, yo

# Imagine this Siyo showing love to these cabbages

# Never happening cos they're lying in the verses they be rapping in

# If they approach, I'd be slapping them

# Throw 'em off the stage Let the crowds... #

Elsewhere in Dublin, Temper-Mental MissElayneous is sharing her skills

with other female MCs.

# Open it up Let it loose

# What's trapped and hidden?

# The heartbeat of our city Is an unrelenting rhythm

# That's how through the hardship We all combine

# By rhythmic speech Identify our shared decline

# Open it up Let it loose

# What's trapped and hidden?

# The heartbeat of our city Is an unrelenting rhythm

# That's how through the hardship We all combine

# By rhythmic speech Identify our shared decline. #

-That's it, nice.

-That's it, what is that? It's the hook.

-It's the hook.

-I'm learning.

-It's the hook, yeah.

-Keep the rhythm and project.

-That's it.

And it's, doesn't it go deeper than just, you know, rapping it?

It goes deeper than that.

You know, you're promoting, you're promoting a message.

You know, delivering it with power and energy and strength

and everything in you.

And that's why it's probably important for you

to develop your persona, your character.

So give yourself a name, give that verse a title. Give it a title.

Give birth to it.

# So I think if my poverty can't afford to spend time

# Outsiders view it as one dimensional like a zone of decline

# Seems like a fist that we give to ourselves

# But it's not going to grip

# It's from adapting to fisty cuffs Fighting for life

# White knuckling And feeding a need... #

Our spirit knows no gender.

Our colour, our race, our creed, it doesn't know, it doesn't care.

And that's what I'm transmitting.

# Convince myself I'm reflecting deep when I'm lost in a stare

# I can't handle reality I don't want to be facing life

# I believe in anarchy But I'm too busy chasing strife... #

The moral standing is important.

I don't care about regional or local fame or anything,

if people are recognising me, recognise the lyrics in yourself.

I want to promote a message of positivity.

And although that may sound cliche, but it goes deep,

it's very complex as well, I think.

People might try to influence me a little bit, but, er...

..futile.

# What is it?

# I'm hypnotic

# Systematic... #

# Blah, blah, blah PS I fucked your mother

# Yeah, I'm hearing it

# And I'd love to flip that bar back at you

# But to even start understanding you

# Well, I'd have to be two foot near to you

# While you are rapping

# Speak clearly You sheep shearer, you. #

LAUGHTER

# Listen up You heroin-cooking type lookalike

# I swear to fuck

# You ever again pick up a mic

# I sever him and bury him in elephant excrement

# And PS tell your mother she was a shit ride. #

CHEERING

Dublin rapper Lethal Dialect is currently working

on his second album which he hopes will be the break through album

for Irish hip hop.

Most of the newer stuff is, sort of,

geared away from the street mentality

and it's on the positive uplift.

But, at the same time, we're just,

we're vocalising what we know.

What we've seen, what we've experienced and things like that.

And if people don't like it for what it is, well, then,

you have no business listening to it.

But it's for people...

There's an awful lot of people that will be able to relate to it.

And they're the ones, funnily enough,

that consider themselves fans of the music we make.

It's call Out Straight and it's about being out straight.

Sometimes you might get in trouble for it,

sometimes you might get credit for it, but I think that'd be,

one of the main attributes in my personality is being out straight.

It's also one of the most commonly used slang words

in Dublin at present.

That we was out straight, you know what I mean,

it's like a confirmation or something.

# Units on the street Like an emergency response

# Mathematics equals pennies for my thoughts... #

With the second album, all I'm looking to achieve is

to continue building on the foundation that I did in part one.

Actually, I don't care how many it sells.

Look, if it meant giving them out for free,

it would be nice to break even.

Throw a couple of quid down to get that album made up

and then it'd be nice to make that back.

But if it comes to giving it away for free,

to get it to people who need to hear it, I'd do that.

# And the whole congregation's a project wasted

# Well, at least that's cool I don't need the bitch

# LP... #

OK, here we go, this is the house here.

Lovely, lovely.

Make your way into the kitchen, there.

-Nice big kitchen, man.

-Cool.

-Yeah, it's a good-sized kitchen.

It's a shared kitchen with the other guys in the house.

-There are a few living here?

-There's two other people in the house.

-They're both students, so it's sort of a student accommodation if you like.

-Right, right.

But your kitchen is all fully equipped.

You've a dishwasher, washing machine, dryer

and your cooker as well there.

-Everything a young man needs.

-All the mod cons.

-All the mod cons, yeah.

-What do you do with yourself? Are you working?

I'm a student myself as well, but I do a bit of rapping as well.

-OK.

-So, hopefully, hopefully the rapping will pay my rent.

This is the single room here. This room is actually at 300 per month.

-Three, this is three?

-Yeah.

The year coming up was just work hard, work hard, work hard,

just keep writing music, recording music, releasing it.

Just always working, trying to get as many gigs as I can.

Just always trying to keep my face, keep my name in people's mouths

and just keep grafting, you know what I mean.

It's all you can do.

-You're only up the road from where your mother is.

-That's right.

I'm only down the road.

So it'll take nothing to go down with a bag of washing.

I'll be going down every week to get my dinner anyway.

-Bring the washing with you.

-Bring the washing with me, yeah.

The Class A'z brand is continuing to expand

with a number of new songs and videos.

# You know the rest be killing with the fucking Soho Six

# You think I'm not the illest... You don't know shit

# My career's been up and down Just like a pogo stick

# I thought I'd be some homeless but I'm on a solo hit... #

They have even acquired a new studio which will be their new base.

It's going to be there.

We need to, obviously, get a set of decks in there.

Pretty much, we want to have everything in one place.

Be going from doing the verse, to shooting the video, to editing it

and putting it up on the Internet within an hour.

-That's the plan.

-You're talking about showing off your skills.

If you've got the rapping skills, you've got the persona and the ego.

-You told them.

-You can make it.

-# People say we won't make it

-But they don't know shit

-# The Class A'z won't be famous

-But they don't know shit

-# Say we never reach the charts

-But they don't know shit

-# We're not taking it to heart

-Cos they don't know shit

-# They say we haven't got a chance

-But they don't know shit

-# And try to spread it all about

-But they don't know shit

-# Say we won't make it to the top

-But they don't know shit

-# The A'z are never going to stop

-Cos they don't know shit... #

The Class A'z's efforts haven't all been in vain

and they are starting to get noticed.

Tonight, they are being interviewed by RTE radio.

We have the Class A'z in the building. How are you guys feeling?

Are you feeling the love and the attention? What is the state of Irish hip hop?

Well, you keep knocking on the door,

-eventually, someone's going to answer, you know.

-Yeah.

That's, personally, what I think.

If you keep doing what you're doing, somewhere along the line,

someone's going to say, "Hold on a minute,

"we have to give attention to this."

Something reaches a crescendo underground,

it eventually bursts through into the mainstream.

As you said, you're over a million viewers on YouTube.

A lot of people would say they want to see a full studio album

from the Class A'z, not a throwaway mixtape.

Are we going to get a full studio album from the Class A'z?

We're in touch with loads of producers and stuff

and we're on the look at getting a couple of big tracks,

maybe a couple of big features.

Anyone that's willing to work with us, pretty much.

We'll take whatever we get.

We're sending out the appeal.

# Class A'z are trying to emulate mass success

# Blowing up with Semtex Strapped to our chest

# It's not the passenger jet The Jihad, the West

# Hold the rap game hostage For the cash and cheques

# So if they don't know shit

# Then you're past your best

# Class A'z don't fuck around We demand respect... #

However the music industry is a tough place

and the Class A'z are finding out that rap doesn't pay the bills.

We're struggling, do you know what I mean?

And with bills to pay and boards onto us, I should be out working.

And it's getting hard to justify as to why I'm still doing it.

Cos I mean, fucking bills to pay and, you know,

we only really get paid for the gigs.

And I get asked to come in and do a gig and I can't

cos I don't have money to get into town to have a few drinks while I'm doing the gig.

So I can't do the gig. And that's the stage it's at now.

What happens if it does become a reality and we all just say fuck it?

I'm not just talking about Class A'z, I'm talking about the people

that are genuinely good at what they do, professional at what they do

and are putting out good products.

What if they just turn around and stop doing it

because what's the point anymore?

And you'll miss it then, it's too late then.

There's a lot of shit out there and I don't want to tell you to buy that stuff

because I don't buy that shit.

But the good stuff, there is good people out there that deserve

to make a living off this that aren't.

And they won't be doing it for ever.

# I'm back up on the beats Still got the knack for the rapping

# Racking up classics

# While you're yapping with your brap, brap, brap, brapping

# But I just happen to hang with the finest MCs in Ireland

# Lyrical tyrants so exquisite Multi-syllable rhyming

# But clinical timing I'm gifted with definite style

# Still with conviction

# Rippin' the diction Like a script in the Bible

# It's survival of the fittest Only the sickest remain

# You can slain, bitches, victims And with syllable gain

# Cos my flow is overdosing All the dozy Joes opposing

# Those supposed souls Don't get thrown in frozen oceans

# Don't get close cos I'm focused And I'm heading for the top again

# Rocking jams

# If you've got a problem Then you're not a friend

# I'm not a trend, not a faze Don't pretend you're not amazed

# Give me the props cos I'm not going to stop I've been rocking

# Since those early days

# I'm back off my holidays

# Telling them to fuck off

# It'll still be mine Cos I'm back again

-# You want a track for your iPod?

-I'm back

-# Wanna hear a track from the mic god?

-I'm back

-# You want red on a head Nodder, yeah, man

-I'm back...

-#

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