When I was at the height of my fascination with garage, Heartless Crew were undoubtedly one of my favourite outfits. Mighty Moe and Bushkin on the mic with Fonti (dem wanti) on the decks was a killer a combo and I went to tons of their raves in the early 2000s, all the way up to 2009. Their mixtape ‘Crisp Biscuit’ is a classic, as is their track ‘Heartless Theme’, which friends of mine still sing to this day. When they split up a few years back it was sad news, though they carried on performing individually it wasn’t quite the same. So their recent reunion has been big news for me and many others. As they prepare for a big summer of gigs, I sat down and chatted with them on a hot day in east London…

“It never actually stopped you know, we’ve been doing our thing individually but this feels like we’re coming home. It’s like you’ve played an away game, now you’re back playing at home. It feels good,” says Fonti with a wry smile on his face. We’re at a studio in Shoreditch and the guys are in a typically relaxed mood as the sun beams through the windows. Fonti is Heartless Crew’s selector, he provides the music for MCs Bushkin and Mighty Moe to perform over and his ability to mix and blend a variety of genres lies at the heart of their appeal. For years Fonti has been working across everything from soul and rare groove to drum’n’bass and dancehall. Heartless Crew operate with versatility, and they are a direct product of the soundsystem lineage which was exported from Jamaica to the UK with its early waves of migrants. Their USP is the fact that they splice Britain’s rave culture with their Jamaican soundsystem heritage, it’s a combination of influences that has widespread appeal and put them ahead of many of their peers.

If you need any proof of how popular they are, take a brief look at their tour schedule. Their summer gigs include Glastonbury, BoomTown, Bestival and fabric for Carnival weekend. Being away certainly hasn’t made them any less popular, in fact it seems as though they’ve come back on the scene at the right time. Festival culture is hitting a peak, and who better to book for your event than the infamous Heartless Crew? They are the party starters, a trio who bring energy to the crowd, living and breathing music and focused on good vibes only.

The guys have been around since the early nineties, building a big following on the legendary Mission FM and later landing a show on 1Xtra . With over 25 years under their belts, I ask what keeps them motivated…

“It’s the way we’re built. Bushkin is the most energetic out of us three, so he definitely keeps the vibes going,” Fonti tells me. “Deep down I’ve always had a love for the music. Whether we were getting paid for this or not, I’d still be doing it - that’s the main difference between us and the ones who are only in it for the money. I’m still here whether we’re making money or not.”

One of the things that Heartless are very good at is juggling different kinds of music, from dancehall and old school reggae, lover’s rock, RnB, garage and jungle they have had me dancing all night long countless times. “That vibe essentially comes from soundsystem culture," explains Bushkin. “They played music for everyone and they played a variety of music, they’d do it to set times as well, from the warm-up section to the climax and the wind down hour at the end of the night. We’ve adopted that ethos ourselves. Fonti knows how to take you up, maybe dip you down for a bit to let you cool down, and you know when he brings you back up the journey up is going to be even more exciting.”

“Some DJs don’t know any better as well,” Fonti adds. “If they haven’t experienced a Jamaican soundsystem, or a UK one even, then you wouldn’t really understand how to blend genres. A lot of DJs are specialists. We’re like a new age soundsystem, with the ethics of that culture. We can be specialists for any genre; meaning we could play a whole set of reggae, a whole set of house, a whole set of jungle, RnB, hip hop… even a whole set of rare groove if we have to. To keep it moving we make sure there’s diversity in our sets.”

“It’s a good link up innit, we’ve all got our own eclectic tastes and we mix them into one melting pot. It’s a unique synergy of different vibes,” adds Mighty Moe. Happily observing and listening intently, he’s the quiet one of the bunch today, chipping in when he sees fit.

Soundsystems were, and still are for many Caribbeans especially, a source of inspiration. Growing up in south-east London, friends at secondary school would bring in ‘sound tapes’, recordings of Jamaican soundsystems, which would get passed around and rinsed, with the best parts quoted constantly and new tunes, fresh dub plates from Jamaica, the talk of the class for weeks. Bushkin mentions infamous sounds Stone Love and Black Kat as two of his influences, while Fonti cites Metromedia and their famous ‘DJ’ Big Belly Sky Juice. “He had a really big persona, he was actually a show all to himself. He sticks in my head a bit more than the rest, I remember certain tapes of him and he’s just talking, and lighting the place up!” Fonti recalls.

“Not forgetting the UK sounds, we used to look up to them as well. Black Mafia, Glamour Guard, King Status. Kinda similar to us in a way, but a few years ahead of us,” Bushkin adds.

Whereas the older UK soundsystems had their market in catering for an older crowd, Heartless came up and hit a totally different audience, playing garage, jungle, house and drum’n’bass in their sets, which none of the older sounds really did. “Yeah there are two reasons for that,” Bushkin states. “Firstly, it’s timing. Most of those sounds died out before jungle and garage came in. Because we were a couple of years younger, we incorporated jungle into our sets, incorporated garage into our sets and no other sounds were doing anything like that. Dance music, or electronic music whatever you want to call it, had a wider audience. Jungle evolved from hardcore and acid, which both had a diverse following. When we incorporated that into our sets we attracted a whole new audience who’d maybe never listened to bashment or soul before. Likewise, when we went into garage we attracted another set of fans who might not have come to see us play in the typical soundsystem way.”

He continues, “Secondly, Mo’s white. So for someone looking in from the outside, seeing two black guys and a white guy, it’s a bit more ‘user-friendly’ than three black men.”

Moe joins in, “It’s a statement isn’t it? Because you don’t see that a lot, it’s showing unity innit.”

Though it’s the year 2017 differences in skin colour, religion, class and sex still seem to be at the root of many of society’s problems. The location of our interview had to be changed at the last minute due to the Grenfell Tower inferno. The climate in London at present is tense, fearful and the powers-that-be seem intent on driving a wedge between everybody.

Every social action we take can be seen to be political and even if we aren’t conscious of it music and club culture has strong political overtones. Heartless Crew have always pushed a message of unity on the dance floor, and beyond, bringing people together under the umbrella of music and encouraging good vibes at every show. It’s one of the cornerstones of their ethos. With that in mind I ask if they feel a responsibility to counteract the political machine and instill unity amongst their audiences. Fonti is first to respond, “As Mo said, it is a statement because I remember when he was first performing with us we were playing places that were 99% black audiences. Even Mo just being there was enough, then to have him DJing as well… it was like Rodigan says in his book, people weren’t receptive at first because they were like, ‘What can this guy do?’. But once they saw he’s got the skills on the decks then he got the appreciation.”

Moe adds, “One of the most beautiful things about raving is the escapism. You’re in an environment where you’re away from the world, dancing and listening to music consistently all night. You wouldn’t do that anywhere else but a club or a festival really, so that element, the escapism, is beautiful. Combining that with politics doesn’t really work. We do think about this and we do feel a responsibility to talk about it but we don’t want to spoil that escapism. Through that you’re already creating unity and positive vibes so you almost bypass the, ‘Oh let’s talk about politics, let’s talk about division’ idea, and get straight into action. It’s a direct counteraction to the negativity that we see in our day to day lives.”

Interviewing the guys almost feels like hanging out with some mates on a chilled Sunday afternoon, chatting about the present and the future while also reminiscing about the past. Our conversation moves into conspiracy theory territory as I bring up the topic of EMPs (electromagnetic pulses), a weapon that could be used to devastate entire countries by wiping out their technological infrastructure in a flash. The context is modern technology and the face that digital files are nowhere near as failsafe as vinyl, though we’ve become way more reliant on them out of convenience more than anything. Fonti knows all about EMPs and discusses his own reliance on digital music, considering what it would be like to go back to playing vinyl exclusively, but worrying it might put him a few steps behind his peers.

Fonti then highlights the fact that the first place we often see extreme violence is on the television. “Why show us so much gruesome stuff on the TV? If it was real, like a snuff movie, it would be banned but yet they’ve got a movie like ‘Saw’ out there. If those kind of things are out there and it’s going into your mind, your subconscious, it’s doing stuff,” he says. “We’re about positive vibes and making people aware. Awareness is a great thing. If we’re all more aware that’s the key to having a world of harmony, because we’re all more aware of each other’s feelings and our own.”



I bring up the fact that Mighty Moe and Bushkin have exemplary skills on the mic. Over the last 15 or more years I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen them perform live and listened to their sets on tape or CD. Most of my friends who are fans can recite their lyrics word for word. But it’s not just the chatting, it’s the hosting, the entertaining way they interact with the audience. Bushkin tells me, “It’s about making people happy, uplifting people’s spirits, making them have fun and have a laugh. Making the people happy makes us happy, too. That’s why we’re often called the ‘people’s champs’. It’s all about intention, some MCs can be self-centred but we’re all about the crowd.”

“Having that break was good for us, we’ve come back rejuvenated and learning again. The vibe is always going to be there, it’s like riding a bike. At the same time we’re still learning, which is fun and interesting as well,” he adds.

The guys are at a stage where they’re letting things flow naturally, making plans for the future (which include recording new music, so all ‘Superglue Riddim’ fans hold tight) and enjoying being back on the road. Their outlook and their attitude to music is the perfect antidote to the constant tide of negativity in the press and on television. So how about this, switch off the telly, throw the newspapers in the bin and chuck on a Heartless Crew set or, better still, get down to one of their raves and feel real good vibes. You won’t regret it…

Heartless Crew tour dates:

Disturbing Ibiza - Friday 28th July
Mist Marbella - Saturday 29th July
Eastern Electrics - Saturday 5th August
Boomtown - Friday 11th August
Fabric - Friday 25th August
Reading Festival - Friday 25th August
Leeds Festival - Saturday 26th August
Lockdown Festival - Saturday 2nd September
Bestival - Friday 8th September