We catch up with Foreign Beggars ahead of Tribe this weekend.

It’s been a crazy year for The Foreign Beggars, with a huge UK tour, a smash cross-over hit with Badman Riddim Jump with Vato Gonzalez, not to mention an ever growing international profile and collaborations with some of the biggest producers in the game. This Saturday they headline Tribe: Never say v’s Circus at Electric Brixton. We grabbed some time with them to see what’s in store.

Firstly, thanks for your time. 2011 has really seen you guys blow up and cross into the mainstream, how has your year been?

Hey, No worries, it’s been an insane year… we spend a lot of time touring but this year has easily been our most intensive. I think this year has been an important set up and we’ve had a lot of challenges, but it feels like we have pulled through!!! Bring on 2012.

You’ve just completed a mammoth UK tour, how did it go, what were the highlights?

Yeah the tour was awesome, real nice to be back, Vulgatron’s first tour since the immigration issues too. I think the highlights would have to be the London KOKO Showcase as so many of our close peoples came out, Exeter for the levels of insanity at a show, and generally the team that we had rolling with us, it was our first time rolling UK out with a proper production team and it felt good to be rolling like a proper band as opposed to an extended dj outfit.

You’ve been in the scene for some years now, how has it all changed with genres like grime and dubstep crossing into the mainstream?

Well actually the times we are seeing now is the first time Rap music has crossed over and the kids have real rap no. 1 superstars whereas the rest of the world has backed their national scenes for years. Seeing grime and dub step in the charts too really marks a generational shift as we have been seeing in the last few years and really gives me a lot of faith in the music industry. They are genres that were born of the British youth and music movements and to see them hitting number 1 validates them and shows respect where it is due… Shows that in the end of the day, the music is what does the talking.

You’ve had the chance to collaborate with some amazing artists, from Skillrex to Nosia and Alix Perez, how has this influenced you as an act?

Well, we are lucky to be a group that can can collaborate with almost anyone and make something that is a real combination of our sound and theirs. Working with Noisia and Alix Perez has massively inspired us and regenerated a real studio based, instantaneous writing style. Thanks to the introduction by noisia the Skrillex stuff has also popped off insanely and opened doors to us we had only dreamed of.

Have there been any personal highlights from your collaborations?

Yeah, I’d say, definitely the 3 aforementioned groups, Guilty Simpson and Dudley Perkins was real nice, working with Taskforce and Jehst had always been something we had aspired to so when those things happened
it was a real touch.

Is hip-hop still at the heart of what you do, or do you consider yourselves much more an electronic act these days?

It’s 50/50 really.. if someone asks us what we’re I still say we are a rap group, but I think we are most definitely an electronic act. We have tailored the show so it works as a rap concert, in a rave or even on big festival stages without compromising on the music we’re playing.

You’re headlining Tribe: Never say Die v’s Circus at Electric Brixton this weekend, what have you got in store for us?

Ah Man, you’ll just have to wait and see…. think we’re gonna slide some new stuff in we’ve never done live before.

The Never say die label has been your home for a couple of years now,are you part of the family?

Most definitely, I will rep never say die till the end, They are close friends before anything to do with music and their taste and presentation are impeccable and have both supported and hooked us up a lot over the last couple of years… so yeah… Most definitely Fam!!

After such a busy year, what’s 2012 going to be about for the Beggars crew?

AAArrgh.. big questions. We’re looking to tour the States pretty extensively and also the rest of the world; we have an album with Noisia in the pipeline too. We are working on a larger show production and record a new Foreign Beggars album down the line. We have some Tracks with Starkey, Kid Kanevil and a whole bunch more to come too…January sees a remix package release from Foreign Beggars on Never Say Die too!!!

Thanks for your time, Saturday goes off! x

Thanks a mill… see you there!!!

Catch Foreign Beggars this Saturday at Electric Brixton, where Tribe are uniting two of the Powerhouses of the Dubstep scene in London’s freshest venue. Both the Circus Records & Never Say Die labels have released some of the biggest underground anthems of the past couple of years, and their rosters boast some of the most exciting acts in Bass music today.