Kon: All Roads lead to Disco

Proclaimed as the edit and rework king by no less an authority than Gilles Peterson in 2011, Boston reared Kon's reputation as a taste-maker and crate digger extraordinaire knows no bounds.

Sir Own - Hooked (kon's nite time remix) from David Greeksson on Vimeo.

His edit of Cerrone's 'Hooked on You', re-titled as Sir Own's 'Hooked' (above), remains one of the definitive examples of how to re-imagine an old record, taking the Jocelyn Brown vocalled early eighties disco stomper into the realms of drawn out bliss for a gloriously dreamy mid tempo groover - vinyl copies of it regularly go for three figures on Discogs.

Beyond that he's got serious form, working alongside Amir (who we spoke to last year) on the vaunted Off the Track series, playing a pivotal role in the early careers of fellow Bostonians Soul Clap and putting in a stint on the city's early hip hop scene in the eighties and nineties.

He's due to headline Rediscover at Xolo in Manchester on Friday 14th November, so ahead of the show we caught up with him for a quick five minutes to talk about his movement away from hip hop towards the music that birthed it, the influence Boston had on him as a city and more.

You're originally from Boston, and grew up with the hip hop scene in the nineties there. How exciting was it to be part of all that, and what rappers did you get to work with during that time? Were you involved with the likes of Gang Starr's Guru and Krumbsnatcha?

It was definitely exciting. My crew Mikst Nutz were doing our thing around Boston and had nearly got signed to Jive Records in 1993. It was a still an honest time for hip hop overall... the things that lead to all of that though were trips to visit family in NYC in the early and mid eighties which sparked my becoming a graffiti writer and when I was b-boying.

I would come back to Boston with the latest radio shows from Mr. Magic and Red Alert... then Marley Marl and Magic as well as Pete Rock. These are what enabled me to hear for the first time songs like Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's 'It's a demo', and other joints from BDP, Jungle Brothers, Ultramagnetic Mcs etc. At one point Guru was a teacher at my high school and I've met Krumb a few times.

You've helped out some huge producers in hip hop previously, the Kanyes and Dres of the world with samples and breaks, but we've read that you've distanced yourself from that way of working. Is that still the case, and how would you like to work with these bigger artists?

I have no interest in handing millionaires samples that could potentially earn them more.

When you moved away from hip hop towards disco and the edit culture, was this on account of the crate digging side of you getting more in touch with the music of hip hop's roots or more to do with dissatisfaction for that music scene as a whole?

It's not an untrodden path if you look at Andres from Slum Village now making rawer analogue house; do you think people sometimes don't understand the links between the two scenes?

I moved away from it for those obvious reasons... it's all image based now and the majority of it just isn't honest music. Rap has already reached its apex and I was lucky enough to bear witness and be a part of the greatest era, that is gone now... forever. The world will never see another Juice Crew, or a Wu Tang Clan, ever again.

The link is quite simple. All roads lead to disco, and if you want to do the math you can trace it back further than that. If one is truly into hip hop they should know the first hip hop records are disco records anyway, and then from disco came house.

Boston as a city has always been a melting pot musically, with the rock element, some old disco heritage and the hip hop with which you were a part of. How much has that been an influence on you, and what music from the city do you still feel involved in, if any?

I love The Cars, early Aerosmith, New Edition, Edo.G, TDS MOB, but growing up my mother remarried a man who was in the band Face to Face.

They were produced by Arthur Baker, on Epic Records and one of the first groups on MTV with the hit '10-9-8' (above). Going to rehearsal with them opened my eyes, and there was also groups like Spyro Gyra, Jon Butcher Axis who were chillin' at my house all the time.

Moving away from your home town, you're off to Manchester shortly. This is another city with a long musical history, how connected are you to the lineage of it and with the UK as a whole?

Well, of course I know about groups that have come from Manchester, as well as the UK.

Are there any shops in the city you'll be checking out on your digging trips?

I'd like to hit Beat n Rhythm, I've had a bit of luck there in the past.

Finally what lies in the immediate future for you?

My crystal ball just broke, but hopefully more of the same... I love doing what I do!

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