We can expect to see Emre performing on stage with Fuat and the Kadıköy Acil team these days. Album work is ongoing at their rap studio, Kadıköy Acil, which they opened in Kadıköy.

We now present to you the interview:

SnD: How did you start rapping, was there anyone who encouraged you?
Emre: Actually, it was largely thanks to my older brother. He's been involved with rock music for a long time, so I grew up with rock culture thanks to him, and around the same time, in 1990-91, I started with rap, with the cheesy rap of that era, which I followed on TV and got from cassettes from my friends. But of course, this isn't exactly when I'd say I'm a rapper; it's just that my ears got used to foreign music, especially rap.

SnD: How many years have you been doing this job?
Emre: I wrote my first poem in 1996, so that's been about 8 or 9 years.

SnD: Who have you worked with so far?
Emre: I haven't worked with anyone I didn't genuinely believe to be good until today: Fuat – Ceza – Mihenk Taşı – Alaturka Mavzer – Sagopa Kajmer – Sahtiyan – Ayben – Roka, these are the ones that come to mind.

SnD: What aspects of Turkish rap do you like or dislike right now?
Emre: What I like about rap is that it's currently progressing at full speed, but there are very few good rap artists. What I don't like is that the media can't tell if something is good or not, they only look at whether it's rap because it's popular and trending these days 🙁

SnD: Who do you listen to musically? Who are your favorites, or is it just rap for you?
Emre: Of course, it's not just rap. If your range isn't broad, you can't make good music, in my opinion. Think of it this way: you're an art lover who's interested in painting and you have talent – you want to paint, but you always follow the works of the same painter and you don't care about or look at anyone else's work.
How good of a commentator, observer, or illustrator do you think you are? I think it's the same with music; I listen to everything I believe has artistic value. Besides hip-hop, which I can't live without, there's R&B, drum & bass, trip-hop, reggae, hardcore, punk, rock (grunch), our own ethnic music, folk songs, classical music, etc…

If you're asking for names, the list is long, I won't even bother listing them 🙂

SnD: Hip hop culture in Turkey has seen an incredible rise in the last two years, both in visual and print media. Do you think this is how it should be, or are hip hop artists being used?
Emre: No, I think we should look at it this way: For years, pop and arabesque music dominated the media, resulting in an unconscious culture created by the people of the country we live in today. Add to this the lack of education among the people, and you get a "wow, look at the chaos!" situation. Thankfully, in recent years, rock and, for the last two years, hip-hop have been slowly but surely changing, or rather, correcting, this. Today, a child born abroad, when they turn on the TV or go out into the street, finds options in terms of music and chooses what suits them best, but in Turkey, until these years, "THIS" didn't exist.
I want to put it in quotation marks because what I'm saying is a major oversight. It even affects people's brain development. We shouldn't underestimate the power of art, especially music.
Hopefully we'll get even more media coverage from now on…

SnD: Some audiences don't like rappers appearing in commercials and such. What are your thoughts on that?
Emre: Let them not like it. They're idiots who don't want people to make money from hip-hop.

SnD: Which MCs worldwide would you like to work with, and who would you like to do duets with? This could include MCs from Turkey, of course?
Emre: I've done what I wanted to do with artists from Turkey, and I'm still working with them, but if you're talking about abroad: Nas, Mosdef, Methodman-Redman, Mobb DeepNon Phixion, Busta Rhymes, RIP Notorius BIG, NTM-IAM from France, Kool Savaş from Germany, Samy Deluxe, Dizie Rascal from the UK, and among the women: Rah Digga, Foxy Brown, Missy Elliot, and RIP Left Eye… 🙂 Of course, these are impossible for now, but I would really like to work with them…

SnD: Which scene was the most exciting and the most challenging for you?
Emre: Hmm, I've performed on quite a few stages so far, but the one I'm most excited about was probably Rock Istanbul last year with Ceza…3

SnD: Your first name was "Kadıköy Gangsta," but now you just say "Kadıköy Üz." Do you think your style has changed?
Emre: That name was actually only used by Ceza in his Medcezir album as a nod to Kadıköy. But for some reason, people preferred to call it that afterwards. I said at one of the concerts that it wasn't like that. Currently, under the Kadıköy Acil Studio, there are 3 active groups under the name Kadıköy: ALATURKA MAVZER (civciv, selo), MIHENK TAŞI (önder, serhat, charlie), and EMRE (me :)).

SnD: In rap, what topics do you generally cover? Is there a particular theme you focus on?
Emre: I can talk about anything, there's no specific topic, it depends on what I'm feeling at the moment. I don't force a particular subject. The coherence of music and content is very important, so your flavors are very fluid, and what you mention should also be clever.

SnD: How old are you and what is your education?
Emre: I am 24 years old. I am currently a radio-television student at Trakya University in Edirne.

SnD: You're working on your album, who will be on it?
Emre: Let's just say I'll be working with people I believe are good on the album.

SnD: Do you think profanity should be in rap? This has been debated for years; profanity is everywhere in our lives, but do you think it should have a place in music?
Emre, I think you should do it if it comes from your heart… But of course, you should do it in such a way that it doesn't stand out among your other words and doesn't detract from the artistic value of the piece… Those who understand, understand already.

SnD: You've worked with some of the best in rap in Turkey, and you're still working with them. In your opinion, who are the most dedicated and hardworking people in this field?
Emre: Of course, the names I mentioned above are still there.

SnD: Which new generation artists do you like?
Emre: Alaturka Mavzer is very good. Civciv is especially talented, he has incredible flex, he's also my producer and backing vocal partner, Selo is perfect in freestyle, the guy never stops 🙂 – Besides them, Raziel is very solid, Dapoet and Sansar are also among the names I like.

SnD: Besides rap, what do you do? What do you like, what do you dislike?
Emre: Besides rap, I'm interested in charcoal drawing, bodybuilding, short films, philosophy, psychology, cartoons, girls with pretty feet 🙂, break dancing (electro buggies) a long time ago, and psychics...

SnD: Last week you appeared on Okan Bayülgen's show, TV Makinesi. How was it? What did you feel? What were the reactions like?
Emre: It was a lot of fun, although I had a problem with my microphone, but still, being able to appear on a national channel and on a show hosted by someone I respect like Okan Bayülgen was a very interesting experience for me. The reactions after the program were also very good, everyone congratulated me.

SnD: There's a lot of dissing going on, it's very sad for rap to see so many good MCs fighting each other. What do you think the outcome will be?
Emre: They're already very good and at the top, I still can't understand why they're dissing each other. I think this will do more harm than good to rap. I mean, imagine a kid who's just started listening to rap and sees people dissing each other in songs, what will he think about this music? I wholeheartedly wish this would end as soon as possible and they would return to their old, excellent songs.

Thank you to our friend FUNK for collaborating with us on this interview…

SnD: We thank Emre for this interview and wish him continued success.