VIDEO UPDATE: iHipHop Interview- S.A.S – Addressing Juelz Santana

Besides Wembley Stadium, the Queen, Princess Diana, the princes, and Coldplay—what do people really know about the United Kingdom?

Some people might dismiss our neighbors from across the pond as being an urban hotbed due to their proper accents, but brother-duo of S.A.S (Streets All Salute) are here to let the world know that it’s not all peaches and cream in jolly ole’ England, or in their case, fish and chips.

Born Melvin and Sean Williams, the former Dip Set members first made their way to the grand stage via Diplomatic Immunity 2 back in 2004.

But soon after, Mayhem and Mega would fall victim to being lost in the shuffle amidst Diplomat turmoil, followed by a misunderstand with Juelz Santana and a couple of London show promoters during one of Santana’s European tours.

Even with those minor setbacks, the two North London natives have managed to make a name for themselves with their Eurogang movement, and numerous mixtape releases.

So what’s been going on in the lives of these siblings in recent years? S.A.S’ Mayhem is here to fill you in…

iHipHop.com: So what have you guys been up to lately?

Mayhem: Just grinding in studio every now and then, and looking for the right distribution company.

Our biggest complaint from our fans is that they can never find a physical CD in their local retailers, and with a fan base that spans across Europe, US, Canada and Africa it’s hard to be everywhere at once.

iHipHop.com: When did you guys first get into Hip-Hop?

Mayhem: Soon as we seen our first Yo MTV Raps episode when Snoop [Dogg] and [Dr.] Dre was beefing with Eazy E. ‘Dre Day’ and ‘Real Compton City G’s’ changed our lives.

iHipHop.com: So what can people expect to hear from Eurogang Vol. 2 and Streets All Salute 2? Did you guys keep your formula the same?

Mayhem: Eurogang Vol. 2 coming out real soon, but Streets All Salute 2 is sounding a bit too crazy to just to throw it out.

That’s the reason why we’re looking for good global distribution. The beats are definitely still sonically crazy, but lyrics will be a bit more heart felt and personal this time. We’ve got older, matured and seen a lot of sh*t, good and bad.

iHipHop.com: Have two ever thought about pursuing solo ventures just to see how it would be? Or are you guys content on continuing the brother-duo?

Mayhem: [Laughs]… We’ll never separate… We’re brothers, best friends—so much so we’re almost like one cohesive person… Plus the way this industry is now with the blogging, haters and blackballers, we ain’t even trying to do more than 3-5 albums….

iHipHop.com: How’s the Hip-Hop scene out there? Are people really embracing Hip-Hop?

Mayhem: The people been feeling Hip-Hop, too bad our damn music industry hasn’t. The labels—when it comes to rap music are in the dark ages… [Laughing] It’s actually not funny though, because we’re actually embarrassed our UK Hip-Hop industry—and I ain’t talking about UK rappers.

It’s so far behind the French, German and now even Swedish Hip-Hop industry. That created a crab in the bucket syndrome in UK, because NOT ONE rapper has been signed to a major and pushed properly.

iHipHop.com: Even though you guys are making a name for yourselves over in the UK, have you found it hard to keep your name in circulation here in the states?

Mayhem: It’s actually harder in UK because the record execs and the DJ’s that feel themselves, and they’ll blackball you if they see you moving up rapidly on your own without their contribution.

The US gets all of our sh*t through the net, so it’s not too bad. Dame [Dash] set it off for us with the Billboards and State Property 2 movie, but the Dips just didn’t do anything after that. So we learned how to do for ourselves.

iHipHop.com: Is there really a big difference between American Hip-Hop and European Hip-Hop?

Mayhem: The difference is the money that’s put behind it, and an accent with different slang at times. I’m telling you though, our Hip-Hop industry over here in UK don’t exist, it’s all underground or in the streets.

iHipHop.com: What do you say to the people who think you’re embracing the American culture more than your own in terms of the music?

Mayhem: What is our UK Hip-Hop culture? I know the Funky House, Garage and Grime culture. There isn’t one because there’s never been no really big successful UK rappers to follow; and sure as hell no global UK rappers since Slick Rick, Moni Love, Cookie Crew and Rodney P.

Then I’d tell them, we got Americans screaming “Oi Oi” and wearing European brands heavy now, so I guess they’re following Mega and Mayhem’s culture. When we met Juelz [Santana] and Jim [Jones], we was in Fendi and Prada from head to feet; and they were wearing Miskeen Enyce and .

iHipHop.com: Does it bother you that your movement might not get the same amount of recognition as people like Dizzie Rascal, Lethal Bizzle?

Mayhem: Nope, they’re Grime artists, and Grime has had a culture and scene here for years, because it was invented here. The labels will sign Grime acts over rappers any day in UK.

Even still, Dizzie got off his label and went number one on the Pop Charts without no label or anything for weeks, where the f*ck is that man’s multi-million pound label deal at??? The UK is just crazy.

iHipHop.com: What’s been one of the toughest parts of this game for you guys so far?

Mayhem: The worst and toughest has to be knowing all these guys like Dame [Dash], Kanye [West], and Dip Set, and they’ all in the position to get us on, and get signed. But they just didn’t for no apparent reason, even though they was telling us we were the best thing since sliced bread, go figure… [Laughing]