Rapping in both English and Spanish Kerry‘s own Alex O‘ Brien and his cousin Miguel Ahumada from Alicante in Spain form Tralee based hip hop group Lineage. With collaborators ranging from Ireland, Spain, France, Poland and the USA, the Tralee duo along with Californian native DJ Jus Me are creating a unique sound that represents the new multicultural Irish musical landscape.

Their debut double titled album "LINEAGE - De Aqui y de Alla (From Here and From There)" is just about to drop and the boys answered some questions for Scruff Daddy about their musical heritages, the creative process, the irish hip hop scene and music scene in general.

How did ye get into music and rappin?

Music has always played a part in all three of our lives.

Alex: My mother was very musical and I have a few uncles who play various instruments. It's funny, Recently I found out some family members wrote poems in their earlier days. I guess that’s where I get that from!

Miguel: Music was always there. I started with hip hop in 1999 doing graffiti, recording and writing was one of many sides to the hip hop culture we practiced in La K-si-k. Which at the time homed some of the most respected emcees in the south east side of Spain. Being in that environment, full of expression started me to emcee.

Jus Me: Being from California, I was surrounded with hip hop from a young age. So thats what I was originally drawn too. De La Soul, Geto Boys, NWA, Naughty By Nature, LL Cool J etc. When I moved to Ireland in 93 I found it hard to find other people who were interested in Hip Hop. It took me a few years to realise there was a scene here.

What influences ye when writing?

Mainly Life but it could be anything. Track topics, past experiences, future plans, coincidences, anything and everything influences us. We are very guilty of day dreaming but it does help!

Who are your influences?

Alex has a line "I've no idols, the skies are all u will catch me looking up too"

We think it’s a bad idea to smother yourself with other artist's material because on some level they will influence how u are creating.

Ok influences If we have to name a few.... Philip Glass, David Axelrod, Ronan Browne, Nina Simone, The Wu, Krs One, Edan, George Clinton, Joanna Newsom, Marvin Gaye, Damien Dempsey, Isaac Hayes, and Portishead. We will leave it at that.

Do you think the Irish tradition of storytelling has an influence or lends itself easily to rapping?

Love this question. Yes, I am so emotional about this topic. Some years back the last seanchai past on back west and it seems few of the old traditions will be kept alive.

"Rappers" as they call us are poets, storytellers, the new seanchai's. People would travel miles to hear the likes of Eamonn Kelly, a Kerryman who died in the 90's. He was a pure story teller like John B. Keane and Bryan Macmahon. I tell u, it was far from hip hop we were raised!

How do the Spanish and Irish influences and heritages combine when ye are making music?

We are from different upbringings different cultures but we are family. We inherited our granddad's ears. We kind of never had trouble knowing what music we liked and disliked from the start. Our different specialities came like a jigsaw. All we had to do was just stick them together for a unique combination.

What is the hip hop scene like in Kerry or are ye out there doing it on your own?

We are pretty much on our own. But come on there has to be a few, maybe they're just preparing tracks and one day will pop up outta some hole and take the industry by storm.

How does the Irish hip hop scene compare to the Spanish scene?

Miguel: I have been out of the scene now for a few years. When I left it was a lot bigger that the Irish scene is now. There is a section of Spanish hip hop thats in all stores, supermarkets and street shops. The following is national and the magazines, radio and TV stations will plug the music and videos. Ireland would really want to wake up and see hip hop as more than a fad or faze.

What do ye make of the Irish hip hop scene and Irish music scene in general?

We can see them uniting like in Spain, bringing the hip hop culture to the people. There are a lot of talented graffiti writers, breakers, emcees, DJs and it's only a matter of time until a few headliners emerge.

Apart from the fact that very few Irish acts reach the charts, they don’t even have charts for different Musical genres. Its not one shoe fits all.

We have been talking with promoters in USA and in England And it seems they are more interested over there than here in our own country. They have always paid for their beer, not for their entertainment.

Have the media down in Kerry and the media in general been supportive?

Being on ground level, not really. The only ones down here that give a shit are Keith from Club Head Bang Bang and Joe O' Connor who spends the money out of their own pockets to bring acts down to Kerry.

There's never media coverage, no radio or newspaper. The entertainment section is full of drunken photos of people waving to the camera.

Outside of Kerry, Rap Ireland took an interest and the Chopshop.fm founder, Jay Ru has been very helpful in promoting us whenever he can. Stevie G, another Knight in shining armour. But like we said, we are on ground level relatively unknown for the time being....

Will you ask us that question in another 6 months?

Do you think Ireland is ready for multilingual music?

Of course! The Ireland of 2009 is multicultural. I have a Polish friend "Trust We All" who is having a baby with a Spanish girl in Kerry. The reality of it is, we have fast become and our future islanders will be, Mixed.

Multilingual music has always been around. Take for example Afro Celtic Sound System, Damien Marley, Immortal Technique. Anybody who plays say, "The Point," the audience would be full of Irish, Polish, Spanish, French. All living and working in Ireland and got the tickets and want to be entertained. So if the cap fits....

What’s the reaction from people when they hear ye rapping in English and in Spanish?

It's the same reaction all over the world. One of us is understood the other is not. We mentioned Ireland is fast becoming multicultural, we don’t doubt that someone understands. People enjoy a good flow no matter what the language.

How have your live gigs gone down?

There's always a good response and people are more open to the mix of cultures when u are on a stage performing as a group. We may have been working on the album a bit too long, but soon we will be ready. We are tightening up our live set so that the next time we do a gig we will leave an impression.

Where do you see the music industry going from a point where album sales are dwindling and people are putting out more and more of their own stuff?

We will just keep trying to bring out good albums and if people like it they will buy it. It's tough to make anything off of working as a musician, especially in these days of illegal downloading. If u do download an album and like it and your one of those people who will later go out and buy the album for your Cd collection that’s reasonable. People like that will keep the industry alive.

What can we expect from the album?

Something definitely different to hip hop in general, many features from up and coming rappers, singer songwriters and instrumentalists.

Not to get too far up our holes but its self produced and mastered. We had to learn everything to do this. We have our own style and Lineage seal sound. It's our debut, our baby, so we're hyped about it! We just hope people like what we've tried to do.

How did the collaborations with other international artists come about?

It was one of those things that happened over time. Some are collaborations with people we've known for years. Others we found through the internet and Myspace. We are always looking to collaborate. The musicians we have playing on the album have helped make it what it is.

Was the collaborations with other artists an enjoyable experience?

Yes it was great, very funny at stages. You have four guys who can’t understand each other trying to explain the lyrics, topics, even to figure out how many sugars they wanted in their tea was a task! We got to travel and see how the hip hop scene was looking across waters and they took to it well. Even if they didn't understand the Spanish and dirty Irish accent rapping in Paris.

Did they affect your own approach to music making?

The emcees and musicians again great, they knew we already had a plan of how we wanted to sound. If they were awake at 5 o' clock in the morning while we were making the beats, then whatever input they could bring to the mixing table we would consider then play around with.

Will ye be touring to promote the album?

Yes, soon we will be onto a few selected venues around the country for a possible album release tour and if venues aren’t so accommodating, we will go old school and gig out the back of a Hiace van!

Where can we get the album?

We are planning to have the album available to download on the usual internet spots. itunes, CD-baby etc. Some of the Irish emcees have sent us the addresses of a few shops in dublin like Freebird and All City who should stock the album (cheers for that!) Plugd records in Cork will also have some copies. If your not around dublin/cork/tralee you can get copies from our website which is currently under construction and our myspace page.

Check it: www.myspace.com/thelineagekrew