The London MC has spent plenty of time in Sheffield in recent years working with local musos and cultivating friendships.

"A few years ago I was getting into a lot of trouble," admits the man known by his mum as Rodney Smith, "a terrible teenager in all kinds of trouble, getting arrested, stupid things. Sheffield was the place I calmed down in for a month then I got a new bunch of friends."

These days he says the reason is also woman related as well as working with rising turntable star Toddla T in the Sheffield DJ producer's Park Hill flat.

"I spend a lot of time up there, been coming up there for years to get away from London. I even rented a residential studio there for a month last year - did f*** all but had a great time in the jacuzzi. It was nice pretending 'this is my life and my house' and having friends come see me from all over England. I've also got kids up there. I've got kids down here. What can I say, I'm an international guy."

Also spending time in Broomhall, Rodney spent time lining up Matt Helders, drummer and budding DJ from Arctic Monkeys, to remix bits on new album Slime & Reason.

"We were trying to get together to do a tune but it was on 'Sheffield time'; 'let's do it next week', 'next week'. Collaboration, if it works, it works. It's not something I set out to do, but if something can happen...

"It doesn't always 'happen'. You can spend days and days not making anything, throwing mud at the wall and nothing really sticking. So I really respect it when something comes together regardless of who it is with or whether I like it that much; I respect it when there's a song being built. With today's technology it is so easy not to make a decision - you can have a million ideas and not commit to any of them."

When we caught up with Rodney he was 'tinkering' ahead of the tour. "I'm finding bits and pieces, parts that will trigger bits and other parts. It's made complicated because I should have done this before. I get the basic skeleton together, then it morphs; I want it to be more of a warped gameshow than a show, fun and frolics.

"It's always been second nature to muck about. I'm based, from a music and record label point of view, in a recording studio in Waterloo surrounded by rock and indie bands so I've always been around lots of different people doing different things, even at 15 at the local community studio."

Rodney was last at Plug to watch Groove Armada so is looking forward to being in the spotlight. "Even before I stayed up there I always said 'I'm home' when I got on stage," says the rapper whose set-up includes computers, drums and backing singers.

"I need someone up there to make me laugh."

Not least in these difficult times of recession, far away war and youth-on-youth crime.
"There's always been a bit of knife and gun crime but there's a sudden trend of reporting every single incident," he says of the latter.

"In my more paranoid moment I think it's orchestrated by the powers that be so they can change the laws."

During his time in Sheffield, Rodney met some of the city's own less savoury types. Not that he got past the accent.

"I don't want to be area-ist but some of those Pitsmoor gangsters ... I could not understand a word they were saying."


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