P Money interview: 'Everyone wants to do something with you'

Henry Lewis caught up with the grime MC to talk about his latest album 'Live & Direct', a collaboration with Pizza Hut Restaurants and his memories of Fabric.

Henry Lewis

Last updated: 22nd Dec 2016

Image: P Money

With a fierce new album, a MistaJam freestyle in the bag and a tasty hook up with Pizza Hut Restaurants, 2016 has been a busy time for grime MC P Money.

Two of P's tracks, '10/10' and 'Dun Know', soundtrack the demo video of the world's first playable pizza box - modelled below by Rinse FM's DJ Vectra - but the fun doesn't stop there.

P Money met with fans for pizza ahead of his shows following the release of his latest record Live & Direct - which dropped on the 25th November.

The first single from it, 'Panasonic', was a filthy affair with staccato beats and squelching synths bedding P's quickfire flow that confidently confirmed the MC's place amongst the grime elite.

With huge shows including Rinse FM Boxing Day and Heavyvibez in Birmingham in the pipeline, the remainder of 2016 promises great things for the 27 year old.

While sadly not over a slice of pizza, we caught up with P Money for a mouthwatering chat.

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You were on the bill for Warehouse Project not so long ago, how much did you enjoy that show?

Oh that was a big one man. I’ve done Warehouse Project twice before. Still never loses its excitement. It’s a sick night man, like an indoor festival.

You're played the Champagne Steam Rooms Kurupt FM curated night, have you met the Kurupt FM gang before, are you mates? Are you a fan of the show?

Yeah man, I used to watch them on YouTube and met them a while ago at Creamfields Festival. I was telling them how much I enjoy their show and they were quite surprised. They expected me to kind of have a different opinion on it but nah man it’s jokes.

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You performed as part of Fabric Live a few times, how gutted were you to see the club close? And how important is it for it to have opened again?

Heartbreaking. I had just started doing my own events and had my night there recently. 1600 people turned up and it went off, no trouble or anything. Everyone was excited for the next one only to be told that it's shut down due to some secret operation and motive. I feel like that place raised my performing abilities. I learnt so much there and got to show so many people live music. I also had somewhere to go on my weekends off. It was a shame man.

Grime is having an amazing time at the moment, what's it like to be in amongst the most exciting genre in the UK at the moment?

Sick, overwhelming at times though. Everyone wants to do something with you, interviews, partnerships, features, shoots, radio, so much but it's great coverage man. I like it because everyone is doing well. It used to be just household names, now up and comers are being looked at too and doing just as much. I just hope we keep our faith and mindset on our sound and continue releasing great music.

Did you watch Skepta win the Mercurys? Describe your feelings…

I didn’t watch it, I’m not really the award watching type but I saw the hype. I didn’t understand what it meant but realised it's a big thing man, glad he could go up against those artists and then even win it. That's sick.

You released Thank You for free for your fans, was there a particular moment that happened that made you want to do that?

I put on my first rave, the birthday one, with 750 people. On top of that I was looking at everything I own and I know why I have it. I thought the least I could do is give them something back.

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What's the reaction to Live + Direct been like?

The hype has been crazy, I was trending too. I’ve done these things before but it just feels good anyway.

How did you get involved with Pizza Hut Restaurants and how did you end up doing the music for the pizza box DJ decks?

Our style of music, in fact any style of music, needs some sort of DJ, selecta or device to play it on and we use decks. When Pizza Hut Restaurants said that they wanted to use my music to trial the world's first playable pizza box DJ decks made from just your usual takeaway box, there was no way I wasn’t gonna check it out! They invited me down and I brought along DJ Vectra to test it out. The decks were sick, it’s mad how well they worked.

And didn't you share pizza with fans before your shows?

When we were at the filming of the decks, we also spoke about my album campaign and discussed how we could work together. So we launched competitions on social to offer my fans a number of free meet and greets at their Huts across the country, ahead of my shows, back in October. They got a free meal and then tickets to my show afterwards too. There was some great conversation and I was able to bond with fans who are partly the ones that push me to do well.

Check out mine and the Pizza Hut Restaurants’ social feeds for more info. They need to offer this to Beyonce and let me win still. I’m a fan of her body and dancing, that should count right?