MC Stixman Profile

His real name is “classified”, his age is “classified”. Was this to be another one of those interviews where I was to do all the talking? As we continued to sup Jack Daniels and Coke I was finding out more and more about one half of one of the most popular MC double acts in the scene – MC Stixman.

If I was to describe MC Stixman, I wouldn’t be able to say anything bad about the guy, he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met in the scene, and we had a great laugh during the interview.

He is a relative newcomer to the scene, who only really exploded onto the circuit in 1993. Very impressive for him to get this far in such a short space of time were the thoughts rushing around my Jack Daniels infested mind. Previously, though, Stixman was involved in the music scene, but his heart was with the Ragga sound working with the likes of DJ Terrorist, Apache Indian and Pato Banton, he is of course no stranger to the spotlight.

It wasn’t until 1993, that Stixman, to be known as Stix throughout the rest of this interview, met up with one of his close neighbours who just happened to be the one and only MC Magika. They hadn’t known each other very well, just politely greeting each other when they met. But as they grew to know each other they realised they had a lot more in common than they thought. This was the beginning of a special relationship which is so much in demand today, that they are continuously booked to entertain ravers throughout the world. Magika invited Stix out for a night of Hardcore, just so that he could see what it was all about:

“Magika asked me to come out to one of his parties with him, I accepted and we travelled to Club Kinetic in Stoke On Trent. Gika was booked to MC with Carl Cox, and this was the first time that I had heard him chat on a mic”.

What better place to experience the Hardcore vibe, than Club Kinetic and with one of the worlds most famous DJ’s at the control deck. In Stix’s own words, “The first night I went I loved it, the atmosphere, the vibe, it’s like nothing I’d seen before”. After this first night, Magika asked him if he thought he could chat on a mic to Happy Hardcore, Stixman, like anybody else would, gave it a go, “Pass me the mic and let’s see”, he said with enthusiasm. Magika was very impressed, “I hadn’t heard him rhyme before, but I knew that his voice would go well with Hardcore. It was a Ragga sound coming from his mouth, I knew I could give him a chance and that’s what I did”.

The next party Magika was due to MC at was Dance Planet at the Cornwall Coliseum where a crowd of over 5,000 were waiting the arrival of Magika, and unknown to the ravers, they were to hear the voice of MC Stixman for the first time. He took hold of the mic and started to rhyme like a natural, as if he had been performing since the early days way back in 1989.

Another chapter in the history books was written, Stixman and Magika, MC’ing back to back, were a double act with a great deal to offer the scene, Stixman had more to offer than he realised. Less then three years later he is a resident MC at Dreamscape, Helter Skelter along with many other events across the country. Magika commented on his new found partner, “He had the image, the presence and the lyrics to make it through”.

“The Dance Planet crowd were wicked, I owe a lot of my bredrin Ika at Dance Planet. He gave me that chance and I proved I could do it, but when you have a crowd like that to feed off, there isn’t really much you can do but to feed off the vibe they are generating”.

They continued together, playing up and down the country at raves such as Amnesia House, Pandemonium and Club Kinetic to name but a few. “I love the Happy vibe at raves, the music is full of energy and I can compliment this with my lyrics. This scene is very special in that there are so many different styles of music to enjoy. I love Jungle, Drum ‘n’ Bass and I still listen to a lot of Ragga and Hip Hop, but Hardcore is closest to my heart, I just love the people that I am performing to”.

As time went by, Magika and Stixman were feeding off each others talents, teaching each other lyrics. Magika is more the hypemaster in the duo whereas Stixman is the lyricist, he chats like he was born to chat. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a mic to his mouth before a dummy. I recently observed him at Helter Skelter, MC’ing to the DJ Fabio. This was the first time I had the pleasure of listening to him, needless to say I stayed and danced for the rest of the hour.

Stixman is one of those few MC’s who voice sounds good to both Drum ‘n’ Bass and Hardcore, but he has another quality which you don’t see very often. It’s not a job for him, he does it for the love of the scene, he was dancing about on stage with Magika like there was no tomorrow.

In December of 1994 he took some well earned time out to concentrate on a new Christmas single with top Reggae artist Pato Banton. Stixman wrote the lyrics for the hit ‘Silent Night’ which also featured Stixman as the frontman on a special video shoot, which was later screened on BBC2 over the festive period.

We must remember than Stixman wasn’t even being paid for his MC’ing for the first year. He was doing it to get his name about, as his popularity grew, and the promoters realised that they would need Stixman there with Magika to please the thousands of hungry ravers. He was known all over the country, the ravers loved him, the promoters were continuing to book him and everything seemed to be going according to plan. Stixman wasn’t anticipating bookings abroad, but when the German giants of the rave scene, Euphoria, requested his services he was quite shocked. “I remember the event well, held at the Dorian Gray venue in Frankfurt where I MC’d with Bryan G for a three hour set”. As with the events in the UK, Stixman, after his performance in Frankfurt was headhunted where he received more bookings for events such as Rave City and Club XS. He reminisced on the event, Rave City, which had an attendance of over 20,000 people, “It was crazy at 6 o’clock in the morning there was still people queuing to get into the airport. The German ravers are wicked, always giving it loads. They enjoyed the Drum ‘n’ Bass when it was kicking, but 1996 is the year for Hardcore Techno in Germany”.

Stixman didn’t have to MC with Magika, he tagged along for the first year, but as he became more and more recognised in his own right, he was starting to receive bookings for himself. However, Stixman and Magika went on as a double act, why ruin something that was obviously loved by thousands upon thousands of ravers?

In May of 1995, Stixman received an opportunity to add ‘Radio Presenter’ to his CV when he came the resident MC on Radio XL’s ‘Roll The Beats’ show which concentrated on Drum ‘n’ Bass and Happy Hardcore giving thousands of listeners the chance to hear his beloved music legally. This style of presenting was to be continued when he and Magika were given the honour of presenting the ‘Eternity Awards Ceremony’ at Dreamscape 19. This event was to be televised for MTV, and was dubbed as the Hardcore event of the year, receiving press coverage from all magazines and press. Stixman was to be on television….

“Although I knew the cameras were going to be there, I only went for the ravers. The television crews were there to observe us, observe what we do, what the scene is all about. It went straight across Europe, and went perfectly, which was the amazing thing, the whole night went off without a hitch”.

Being such a versatile MC, Stixman has been privileged to perform with a wide variety of top names from our scene. He rates DJ’s such as Grooverider, Bryan G and Mickey Finn on the Jungle tip, whereas the DJ’s Dougal, Sy (“The up-front scratchmaster extraordinaire), Unknown, Billy Bunter and Clarkee. Obviously he rates his partner Magika for his MC’ing, but particularly Stevie Hyper, “I don’t know how fast that tongue runs but they’d better put a clock on it!”, Sharkey for doing the business, Ribbz for still going strong after all the years and the MC’s GQ, Det and Bassman who he describes as ‘rough MC’s’. This year has seen Stix venture into the studio with his friend and partner, Magika. At the beginning of this year they set up their label, ‘Timebomb Recordings’, with their first release, ‘What A Feeling’ which went in and out of the record shops in a blink of the eye. He wrote the tune with Magika, and appeared with his own lyrics in one of the years top Hardcore tunes.

“We have plenty of good material to work with, it’s all original. We have spent a lot of time at the studio concentrating on releases, but we’re not in there to knock out tunes for the sake of it. If we don’t think it’s any good, it ain’t good then we won’t put it out. We have a brilliant young vocalist in Velvet and hopefully she’ll be working on the next one with us”.

With the success of ‘What A Feeling’, Stixman has found himself PA'ing; with Magika and Velvet up and down the country to packed crowds, “We’re hoping to bring in some other artists to the label, with Dougal who’s already written the remix to ‘What A Feeling’ and we’re hoping that Billy Bunter and your boy Spinback will be making appearances soon”. Stixman feels that his MC’ing comes straight from his heart, “it’s not a part time thing, it takes dedication”, something that he has prided himself on in his short career.

Stix feels that the scene in general is getting bigger all the time, with more youngsters joining the rave rollercoaster. The events are getting bigger and badder. Commenting on Helter Skelter, “Maximum respect to Dave and Penny, they look after all the ravers that attend as do Dreamscape and United Dance”.

With plans already under way for more releases, the album, and further visits abroad to Canada, Australia and Switzerland, there isn’t really much more for Stixman to put in his resume. In such a short space of time he has catapulted himself up the rave scene ladder and found a place in the ravers hearts, “They will always be in mine”, he adds.

You can catch Stixman at nine out of ten raves in the UK, appearing regularly at Helter Skelter, United Dance and Dreamscape. Don’t forget, also, to tune into the ‘Roll The Beats’ radio show every Monday night. You can hear him along with Magika and DJ Advance on 1296AM between the hours of 10.00pm – 1.00am.

We managed to polish off an entire bottle of Jack Daniels, with two litres of Coke so with all of us feeling pretty tired, I showed Stix and his friends to the guest room whey they slept until morning before their drive back to the Midlands.