Tim Hughes meets a rising hip-hop star who is breaking down the stereotypes

With his athletic performances and vocal pyrotechnics, ShaoDow looks like everyone’s image of the bombastic rapper.

But don’t let appearances fool you.

An Oxford Brookes University law graduate, ShaoDow – real name Elliot Haslam – has a lively intelligence and rapier wit, with lyrics which avoid the traditional rap stereotypes of gangs, guns and girls, to focus on racism, the pressures of everyday life, and spirituality. He also manages his own business and funds and self-releases his own music.

Oh, and he’s a huge fan of martial arts.

His often-mispronounced name references his love of Shaolin kung fu – the fighting form developed by monks at the eponymous monastery in China’s Henan Province.

Aged 18, ShaoDow visited the monastery, perched on sacred Shaoshi Mountain, to learn the hard-hitting technique.

The high kicks enliven his shows, while the drive and self-reliance engendered by kung fu filter through his work, right down to his DIY business model which sees him spending a large chunk of his time travelling around the country introducing his music to new listeners. It’s a hands-on approach which has worked; he has sold more than 15,000 CDs, supported Chase & Status, Wiley, Skepta, Chipmunk, Devlin and Akala and appeared at Reading and Leeds Festivals, and picked up 500,000 views on YouTube.

“Everything’s going great and I’m enjoying being a full-time rapper,” he says. “I had to make some scary decisions to get here but, God willing, it’s working out.”

He is talking from Cardiff, where he has been, in his own words “meeting people and building a fanbase” following the release of his new album Kung Fu Hustler. In its first week, the self-funded 21-track LP reached Number 31 in the iTunes Hip Hop Charts.

The album follows 2012’s Cut The BullSpit. It can even be bought preloaded on to a set of his brand ‘DiY Gang’ wireless headphones – making him one of the first independent artists in the country to have his own headphones range.

Next month he releases his first single from the album – Gas Mark 10.

Musically, his sound moves beyond hip-hop to encompass dubstep, rock, grime, house and jazz.

The message, meanwhile, is invariably hard-hitting or humorous. His 2009 single Grime referenced “MCs who have more interest in becoming rich and famous than improving their skill as artists,” while the single Look Out There’s A Black Man Coming is described as “a tongue-in-cheek anti-racist track from the eyes of a young black man”. A remix featured bombastic shock-rockers Smilex and a percentage of the profits were donated to Love Music Hate Racism.

“I’m a rapper but I work in a wide range of genres,” he says. “If you’re a music lover there’s a good chance you’ll like what I do. People that don’t like rap still like it because the sort of things I talk about are very different to the usual rap stuff. There are no guns or drugs in my life!

“My music is about the journey of a man trying to live his dream on a day-to-day basis. I’ve managed to make it a reality and take myself from obscurity to a higher state. There’s more to life than materialism. I do it to get better – and it doesn’t matter what suit you have on or how much you spend on videos.”

Though now living in London, ShaoDow retains close links to Oxford. He played his first gig at Baby Simple, in Cowley Road.

“Oxford is my spiritual home in terms of music and built me up to where I am today,” he says. “I’ve got a great love of the place. I miss it and come back whenever I can.”

Shortly before we spoke he had been at Headington Girls School, judging and performing at a charity event. His regular gigs invariably turn into spectacles. At a recent show the audience formed themselves into a human pyramid. Others feature displays of dancing – the crowd mirroring ShaoDow’s prowess.

The man just can’t sit still.

So, does he ever regret giving up a legal career for a life of rap?

“When it comes to life you don’t get a lot of time,” he says. “I love music and have done for a very long time. It took a lot of soul-searching but I realised I wanted to be a musician. It was a tough choice but I didn’t want to spend my life watching other people playing and doing what I wanted to do.

“People say ‘you’ve always got the law to fall back on’, but being a rapper is my life.”

So what’s the attraction?

“The freedom!” he says. “It’s amazing being able to say ‘I want to go to Wales’, and then go to Wales...or anywhere else.

“I know my business inside out – and there’s no-one blowing hot air in my head or telling me what to do. My whole career has come out of my own pocket.”

Having built his own career on his own terms, he is now dedicated to helping other aspiring musicians.

“A lot of younger people are now saying that because of what I am doing, they want to be independent. And with hard work, practice and determination that is possible.

“It’s not like X Factor; there’s no overnight success.”

“And anyway,” he jokes, “the good thing about knowing kung fu, is that if people don’t buy your CDs – you can always kill them!”

LISTEN
Kung Fu Hustler is out now. Gas Mark 10 is out next month. For more details, and to buy his music, go to shaodowmusic.com

Listen to ShaoDow's music on our Oxford Mail MP3 showcase. Click here...