Bare Girls/Jimmy Asquith answered a few questions for us regarding what we can expect from his one-of-a-kind hip hop night, Streets Of Beige. The London retreat for an Englandshire beat scene night nibbling on a bit of Dilla, some Brainfeeder, bit of that Madlib shit too.  The next one’s tomorrow at Old Blue Last for zero of your English pounds, and it’s the biggest line up to hit these shores since Bryan from Big Brother gave out a Black Berry at my Student Union.  Mix made with love below.(Blank & Kytt on a Clay Davis ting, shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie-).

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Lowdown of SOB in your own words?

Streets Of Beige is essentially the part of the video for Sisqo’s ‘Thong Song’ where the camera pans across all the thonged butts. We’re also that snippet of joy you get when your suit trousers are too tight and rub you inappropriately. A cheeky reminder that some of the best things are free.

How long have you been putting the night on and how did it come about?

We kicked the night off in July 2010 with the aim of providing a platform for emerging beat and bass artists, but also helping people to reconnect with hip-hop in a more musical way, hence why we play almost exclusively instrumental hip-hop. That’s not to say that we don’t like rappers it’s just that the instrumental side has potential for a much broader appeal than it already has and we’ve definitely seen this from the reaction of new people coming down and really getting something fresh out of it.

The first night was a conglomerate of friends who made up the lineup and Becoming Real headlined. He totally killed it but the night wasn’t programmed quite right back then. We claimed to be championing Dilla (which we duly played) but then a surplus of whiskey led to hour long house sets and I’m pretty sure we ended the night with Thomas Bangalter’s remix of Signatune! Not quite how it is now.

Any sets sticking out as a personal favorite as of yet?

Lapalux live at The Macbeth was a game changer. I definitely think he’s the most underrated producer in London if not the UK/World. The second that screwed synth comes in on Deforestation you just see the beat-heads getting their brains fucked, they’re like “What the fuck I like this!? Yurrrh!” The other one has to be S.Maharba. First ever set last September and he played every beat live. Thought the Old Blue was gonna collapse, that set really affirmed to me that live beats is right way to go.

Who can we look forward to playing the night in the future?

Apart from the insanely ridiculous all-UK lineup this Saturday, we’ve got My Dry Wet Mess from Barca and Keaver & Brauss from Wolverhampton both playing in February. March is under wraps at the minute but I can tell you that we’ve got a Beige double weekender special in April for the Royal Wedding. Some big names planned for that.

Are there any other nights/projects you know of pushing UK beat music that should get a mention?

I definitely think Eglo and Hotep need a mention for all the work they’ve done pushing artists like Letherette, Floating Points, Funkineven and Krystal Klear. You’ve also got Donkey Pitch in Brighton who’re pushing good stuff at their night and on the label. Civil Music have put out some cracking stuff with dEbruit and I’m aware that they’ve got some exciting releases out this year too. In terms of blogs and mags I reckon Neu mag, You’ll Soon Know, Dipped In Dollars, Abeano, Inverted Audio and yourselves are all getting on it pretty good. I also want to give a special mention to All City for being pretty much the best label on the planet, and to Knxwledge as it was his album Klouds that started all this for me. His tune ‘Executive’ is the sound of Streets Of Beige being born.