Urban Vault caught up with Hamburg, Germany-based veterans Boogiedown Base & 12 Finger Dan aka Soulbrotha, and Munich/Germany-based producer Roccwell, collectively known as SoulRocca to ask them some questions about their new album IN GOOD COMPANY & more…

The ‘In Good Company‘ album is a homage to the many Rap classics of the last three decades but always remains fresh thanks to the contributions of talented artists such as DJ Eclipse, J57, Dro Pesci, Wildelux, Resolute, and Empulse.

What are your names?

Cheers everybody! We go by the name of SoulRocca, that’s Roccwell, Boogiedown Base, and 12 Finger Dan.

Where are you from?

We all are based in Germany. Roccwell lives in Munich and Boogiedown Base and 12 Finger Dan are from Hamburg.

SoulRocca consists of three producers. That’s 12 Finger Dan and B-Base, who goes under the name of SOULBROTHA, and Roccwell. What’s the idea behind three Hip Hop producers joining forces to work on one album?

As we all share the same love for that good ole’ boom-bap, it was a great opportunity to join forces and come up with that album. We already had several releases in the past decade that shared the same mood and we all like to work on new music with artists from the states.

Each of you already worked with Hip Hop legends like DJ Premier, Blaq Poet, Large Professor, Marley Marl, and Craig G in the past. How did that come together?

We were lucky to have a direct line to a lot of features we have had so far and experienced some great moments, especially like the one in New York City when DJ Premier invited us (Base and Dan) to be guests on his radio show and to hang out with him at the legendary D&D Studios a few days before it was closed. So one thing leads to another when you are connected, and with some of these artists, we have become good friends over the time. But of course, you can’t be friends with anybody, so when we want to work with somebody, we just try to reach out to them and see what is doable.

Recently you released the album ‘In Good Company’, can you tell us about that project.

For this project, we have joined forces to continue to pursue our passion for the boom-bap sound. We still love that classic formula consisting of soul samples, hard drums, and funky scratches, so the next step was to form the crew SoulRocca. The album title album “In Good Company” is a tribute to many classic releases of the Boom Bap genre, to whose tradition we want to tie in with our release.

‘In Good Company’ will be available through all major digital platforms but also on vinyl. How important is a physical release for you guys these days?

We know that it’s not that easy for an independent artist to make a vinyl record and we are glad that almost every release we’ve made so far is available on wax. We come from an era where it was natural to buy records and collect them. And if you were a Hip Hop DJ back then, it was a kind of a must. So for us being surrounded by vinyl was always familiar and as long as there are pressing plants out there, we will be trying to put out every release on vinyl to make us feel like ‘Coming Home’.

With your musical legacy in mind, I guess fans can expect nothing but that classic boom-bap sound. How relevant is that style and what do you think of more modern productions?

We think that boom bap was always relevant since the beginning and it still plays a major role in the underground. There were times where it was more present in the mainstream but it has his roots in the underground. We actually like a lot of the modern productions, if they got that soul 😉 We know that everything evolves around us and that’s totally fine. We just keep doing our thing and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, even if people tell us that we are stuck in that sound and should move forward as the 90s are already gone. If you make music you should always follow your soul, that’s why everybody who’s feeling the same way we do, is our SOULBROTHA and of course a SOULROCCA

What and who inspires you when making music?

Every record that we sample from 🙂

How long have you been making music?

Some of us started in the late 80s/early up to mid-90s.

What do you do when you don´t make music?

Diggin’ for the next bangers 🙂

Can we expect any upcoming releases from you in the near future?

“Today is tomorrow's yesterday". Yes, we have several projects in the making that will be released in the near future: SOULBROTHA (12 Finger Dan & B-Base) have teamed up with rapper Meckie Berlinutz from Berlin/Germany for a joint album and Roccwell will drop the album Chocolate Bars with the up-and-coming Emma Lee M. C. from New York City, which will feature top-class and surprising artists. And there’s more to come.

Your favorite track at the moment?

12 Finger Dan – Here We Go Again by Stetsasonic
Boogiedown Base – 1992 by Moe Zech
Roccwell – Times Is Rough (Black Soprano Family, Benny The Butcher, Heem BSF, Rick Hyde, Prod. by DJ Premier

In a few words sum up your thoughts about Urban Vault UK and what we’re trying to do.

Thanks for having us and keep on supporting independent artists. That’s what we love the most about Urban Vault UK!

Thank you for your time and may you carry on making dope, fresh music…

SoulRocca – In Good Company via iTunes/Spotify

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