Underground dance music, which is not controlled by the industry directly, is where we exist, but also have a lot of control, because to get music out we have to start our own labels usually. But the copying goes on here the worst. We don’t have a lot of protection against thieves because their aren’t a lot of lawyers, because there’s usually just enough money for the artists to survive on, unless you helped father the form. There aren’t managers suggesting to artists to do white versions of black songs, but there are white artists with labels doing it on their own. This is one of the few places a thief will try to copy your music, then send it to you calling it a tribute in hopes of you endorsing it. They’ll find the sources of your samples if you use them, and use them verbatim, then try to cash in on your previous successes.

Theo’s music and deejaying, which I love, are quite clearly fed by his radical, uncompromising stance. It’s not just that it sounds different, has a feeling and agenda all of it’s own, but also it comes from a place I don’t know or understand. That’s the attraction (as it’s always been) you are either drawn to the comfort of home and the things you know or in the opposite direction. And if you’re leaving home, you should expect to hear things that you don’t want to and meet people who you disagree with, but can also challenge you to think about things in a different way. Theo’s gonna draw alot of heat from this interview, and perhaps rightly so, alot of people who support the man (financially or otherwise) might feel that they are implicated in the racial conspiracy he sees at the root of the music industry.

Either way, it’s the stance and the attitude that make the man (and so the music) and I would rather be surrounded by a music and culture that challenges and provokes than one that flatters me.

Read the full interview here.

***Further debate and comments including one from the man himself here*****