Does Hip-Hop accept outsiders?

British born rapper of Persian descent, Mams Taylor plans to put that question to the test. Introducing his own brand of Hip-Hop known as Runk, the rebel with a cause intends to open up the culture to the underdog. Not your typical face of Hip-Hop, the UK Runk star is preparing to release his debut album Persona Non Grata,, which means “unwelcome person” in Latin, and is hell bent on letting his music be his mouthpiece. His last collabo with Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, “L.A. Girls” is now blazing up Yahoo’s new music video section, and he recently shot the video for his upcoming single with Snoop Dogg and Bobby Valentino called “Girl Gotta Girlfriend”. Seemingly a natural born misfit, Mams Taylor has a private school pedigree, made millions in real estate, and trained in the fine art of cage fighting.

If push comes to shove, Taylor doesn’t mind exchanging barbs lyrically or with fist-a-cuffs, thanks to his passion for jiu-jitsu and boxing. Falling in love with music at an early age, he didn’t bother trying to fit into rigid archetypes. He honed his freestyle skills with battle raps and DJ’ed parties and community events. By 16, Mams left home and paid for his education by selling roses on the street and pushing designer gear at a clothing store where he also peddled the kind of contraband that adolescent kids craved including counterfeit jeans, porno mags, or fake Rolexes.

Always one to go against the grain, now Mams plans to conquer the stereo types of Hip-Hop by what he calls his genre-bending sound of RUNK, the bastard offspring of rap, rock, and punk, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Persona Non Grata hits streets August 25, 2009. Taylor’s high-octane, runked out manifesto offers a litany of body moving tracks featuring T-Pain, Robbie Williams, The Game and Dave Navarro. Check out what Mams Taylor has to say about being an unwanted stepchild to Hip-Hop.

AllHipHop.com: Hey Mams, nice to meet you. Is Mams your real name?

Mams: Thank you, yes it is.

AllHipHop.com: Ok so explain to me exactly what is Runk music?

Mams: Runk is a style of music that can’t really be categorized or put into boundaries it’s a mixture of all different types of music that meshes into one, rock, rap and punk. More than the type of music it is its about an attitude of breaking boundaries and of not judging people by what they look like. You know we’ve got all this stuff happening with Barack Obama being the President that title relates to the way you’ve lived your life.

I’ve been so very blessed and very fortunate and whatever I’ve done in my life I’ve used it to educate myself and grow from it and with regard to the title “Unwelcome Person” that’s pretty much how its been my whole life as kinda the black sheep of the family, at school and now in music it’s the same. I’m the underdog and its really the Runk way to sort of no matter what people tell you, to just keep rising and believe in yourself and just have faith. I have faith in God and faith in myself as a result of that. AllHipHop.com: You seem to have had many jobs from selling roses to selling real estate, over here we call it hustling how does the hustle differ in the states vs. where your from?

Mams: You know when your selling a product it’s a supply and demand thing, people want to buy roses and people want to by real estate and I figured out pretty quickly that I can make more money selling real estate than roses. But hustling is hustling worldwide I don’t think there’s a different name for it back home, at the end of the day if you want to sit back and wait for things to happen for you, its not very likely that its going to happen. So for me I’ve got a philosophy that I put out there what I want. I ask God for it and then I put out my maximum effort into making that happen and whatever is not in my control I just leave it all for the big dude upstairs to handle and accept whatever happens.

Mams Taylor –“Get Up On It” featuring The Game and Lil’ Kim



AllHipHop.com: So at one point in all your hobbies you were also a cage fighter? How did that come about?

Mams: I think it might come from my napoleon complex because I’m only 5’7. I was the tallest kid in my class until I was about 10 years old then suddenly I just stayed that height. I don’t know I’ve just always been into boxing and combative sports and stuff like that so when I was about 14, I started going to this boxing gym everyday and when I became a bouncer I was usually one of the smaller ones at the door so I usually had to compensate by making sure I knew what I was doing if I was caught in a situation.

AllHipHop.com: With all these hobbies, where did music come into play and why rap?

Mams: Well, like I said I don’t limit myself to rap as much as I love rock I definitely think Hip-Hop was more my thing than anything else and I just kinda meshed Rock and all that together. I realized from taking music classes at school that that was the class I enjoyed the most and then becoming a DJ and an emcee by the time I was 14 years old my love for music just kept growing and I realized it was the best way for me to express myself through my God given talent.

AllHipHop.com: Why do you feel so unwanted in the genre is it because your from another country?

Mams: I think ethnicity unfortunately comes into play, people judge you by the way you look a lot which is fine but less and less we’re putting those barriers up now like I said we have Obama as President now which is amazing and I still celebrate that. We’re at a place where there are infinite possibilities but you really have to believe in yourself to apply that yes I can attitude because if you’ve got any doubt in yourself period then you might as well sit this one out. So for me the ethnicity thing is funny because people usually say to me oh I thought you were black when I heard the track and I’m like what does it matter anyways because even if I was an Eskimo I’d be in music I guarantee that.

Mams Taylor “Girl Gotta Girlfriend” Featuring Snoop Dogg and Bobby Valentino



AllHipHop.com: How do you approach your music making?

Mams: My Blackberry is my best friend. I record a lot of my runs into my Blackberry or all kinds of lyrics and melodies all day long then I get in my studio and make tracks based off that and whatever I’m feeling.

AllHipHop.com: you’ve had some pretty stellar collaborations on your project how’d you come to work with Snoop and Good Charlotte?

Mams: Well with Snoop we had a mutual friend and I just went into the studio about 3 or 4 years ago and just vibe with him and he’s such a nice and humble dude considering he’s such a legend. I was really nervous to be honest he’s such an icon and I’ve been a fan of west coast Hip-Hop for so long but once I chilled and we smoked and he started talking to me about the politics of the game and some of the things he’s gone thru, I started free styling over some beats he had and we just organically made it happen. Then three years later we decide to try to make this song happen because we had this really really hot hook and sent it over to him and he really liked it then we made the video and the song happen so I think its gonna be really well received once we send it out in the next few weeks.

AllHipHop.com: What’s the song about?

Mams: The song is with me Snoop and Bobby Valentino. Its called “Girl got a Girlfriend” every guy wants that kinda situation and if you go out to the clubs in Hollywood all the girls are making out it seems as thought Katy Perry and Lindsey Lohan really had an influence on that so I thought I’d write about it.

AllHipHop.com: So what else can we expect from Mams Taylor?

Mams: Expect the unexpected I’m gonna keep coming out with innovative music and trying to connect with as many people as I can and revolutionize this industry with Rock.

Mams Taylor - "L.A. Girls" featuring Joel Madden