“From Hip-Hop Hobbyizm to Indie recording company:

an introduction into the world of Illegal Defence.”

written by John D. Pricklestein for ID Media, London (UK) August 2007.

(Ten Men Enter records discography @ end of page)

Approach any fan of Holland’s infamous rapgroup Illegal Defence on their forum and he or she is more than willing to share with you their trackrecord with the band. Mentioning the name alone brings out a seemingly endless stream of insights, notes and stories that seem unbelievable. So I went to see for myself.

This summer, I got two tickets to one of their venues in their native country of the Netherlands. I asked a girl from my neighborhood to accompany me. Her name is Laura. She was cheap, she was lost and to no surprise allready a longtime fan of Illegal Dee. We witnessed one of their gigs, travelling to the East of the Netherlands. We were in the middle of nowhere, at a location looking like an agricultural site. A large farmer’s barn. You know, to store cattle. At least Laura looked like she belonged.

Illegal Defence...K-Dub & SupaNova

When I walk towards a group of girls after the concert, they talk about what’s so great about this band; “I know Ozzie allready bit off the head of a bat back in the day.But when Illegal Dee did it last year with rats, their heads grew back on !” says Heather, a fan from Pennsylvania, USA. “Britney Spears don’t give ya that kinda shit, I tell ya!” says her 11 year old brother Nicolas in reply. “The way they just blew up the first four rows of the audience with a large explosion during the intro-track, you know, in the very first minute, that was kinda cool” says Heaven from France. “I didn’t think K-Dub was gonna make it when he jumped over these crocodiles and later with the polar bears and all…” says Hope, who traveled all the way from South Africa. “I just love their tushies, i’m gonna rampage their camper in a little while!” says Helena, a girl from Poland.

Her grandmother, who accompanies her, mentions that she never heard a group mix rap music with the kind of live performance

Illegal Defence brings, so that it creates a gigantic musical inferno for the mind, that’s thought invoking and feels like a mental voyage. Then she mentioned something about Garth Brooks, some more gibberish, started to drool and pied on my shoe.

The next girl had chest hair, licked my hand and went on ranting “Ah-Oegga-Oeggaah” in a very aggressive manner. She refused to answer any further questions. I think I still didn’t get a clear picture of what the typical Illegal Defence fan looks like.

All these people just seamed really a-typical. That’s when I saw a guy with the typical Hip-Hop looks. You know, big gold chain, bright new Adidases, pants strapped up just above the knees with a pitbull and two bitches who tried to look horny and ready-to-go, but instead looked like where taking a heavy shit. When I was looking for an insightful discussion, he wasn’t havin’ any of it and released his dog on me and strapped Laura up to walk alongside him and bark like a Chihuahua. She did a neat impression.

Meanwhile I was saying some prayers and begged the dog NOT to chew on my testicles.

...Some photos of the crowd....

That tells you that something may not always be wat it seems. What do we really know about this band in the first place? What are all these different people from all over the world doing here in Holland in the middle of nowhere? Are they the stereo-type Illegal Dee fans and what created all the fuz about this band in the first place? Where’s Laura?

When I was about to step into a taxi to leave the concert to return to my hotel, a young man approached me and grabbed me by the arm. He told me he had overheard me talking about writing an article on Illegal Defence and desperately wanted to show me the level of his affection. “To really point out the influence Illegal Defence had on my life, man. You know, it’s silly.

“I basically grew up on their music. I live it! ”

During their acts they often wear masks, they pull off wild stage antics but keep their private lives to themselves. Nevertheless they do seem to pop up out of nowhere every now and then and can often be seen in Hollywood productions and at IKEA stores and Tupperware party’s near you. Meanwhilst they still sleep under bridges covered in old blankets. Still, there’s so much we don’t know.

Where do they came from? Who gave them their talents?

We know founding members K-Dub and SupaNova founded Illegal Defence in the year 2000. Word on the streets is Supa

Nova hooked up a small studio using the Sonic Foundry’s Acid application to create sample based beats. The beats stimulated K-Dub enough to once again pick up the art of rhyme writing. SupaNova wrote his verses and they started recording songs. Some

of the titles of the first tracks were ‘Tomorrow Neva Comez’, ‘Break Tha Power‘, ‘Take Me Away’ and ‘Step Up’.

...Some typical Illegal Defence on stage stuntwork....

In a 2001 article in Rolling Stone K-Dub and SupaNova express themselves in a very blunt manner. They swore to unleash a

musical massacre on the establishment in Hip-Hop in these days. “We swear to unleash a musical massacre on the establishment in Hip-Hop in these days” K-Dub says. “We feel like it’s time to bring back the creativity which was there at the beginning of the nineties in this type of music” SupaNova replies. “I didn’t like what i was hearing on the radio and in clubs that was supposed to be my favourite type of music” K-Dub says. “In this type of music a lotta cats were getting the green when they started bombing the public with releases that were mediocre at best” SupaNova adds. K-Dub then smashes his Fender and claims: “I want to bring the guitar back in Hip-Hop, Goddammit!! Just watch me.”

In the article, they swore to simply sustain quality in it’s essence, to share subsequently the sublime materials, steadily set to severe standards, to surround, swarm and suffocate the audience in shows with sufficient sounds in a smothering style; so sweet and silly, it’s set for success, safe bet!

The first Illegal Dee tracks were recorded at the SubCentral Studios in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. DJ SuBBaSS as a longtime friend welcomed Illegal Defence into his studios, who were mostly used producing House records in different subgenres.

SuBBaSS did the engineering and mixing on SupaNova’s ‘Conversation With Tha Moon’ and ‘Prisoners’ , Illegal Defence’s ‘Take Me Away’ and K-Dub’s ‘Come Clean’. During recording sessions they would all sneak out of the studio to shoot hoops and check out the L-town’s record shops. Subbass also introduced Supa to the Sonic Foundry’s Acid and Steinberg’s Wavelab. Before that, SupaNova was using Magix’s Music Maker, (HipHop) Ejay and the HQ9000 Studio, along with his friend from college, MackPack. Together they recorded a song using the classic sample of the Jackson Five’s ‘ABC’ along with pounding drums and bass.

SupaNova realized his first studio at the Zweringweg in Enschede, The Netherlands. K-Dub and SupaNova started recording big time, in no time they had CD-R’s stacked to the ceiling. They recorded underground Hip-Hop classics with songs like ‘Break Tha Power’ (Part I&II), ‘Lyrical Vendetta’, ’Bacardi Sunrise’, ‘Damn, There it is!’, ‘Act Up!’ and put together an early and rough demo version of what was to become ‘Post Millennium Warfare’. It was released in 2002.

The present configuration at the Ten Men Enter records-studio in Hillywood consists of an NVidea Digital Soundcard 512i, The Sonic Foundry’s Acid 4.0, HQ 9000, Steinberg’s Wavelab 3.2 with different sets of VST’s, Virtual Drumstation, Propellerhead’s Reason 3.2, a Grundig Turntable, a Lenco Turntable, Bontempi and Casio Keyboards, various Percussion and Brass-Instruments, an Acoustic Spanish guitar and an ALBA Bass Guitar. K-Dub uses an Acoustic Crafter Western Guitar, an Acoustic Yamaha Spanish Guitar, a Fender Squire Stratocaster Electric Guitar and a Les Paul Epiphone 56 Gold Top Electric Guitar.

...Illegal Defence @ the SubCentral Studios...

In 2004 SupaNova moved his gear to a new studio called “The Eagle’s Nest” at the Haaksbergerstraat in Enschede. By then

K-Dub was putting in more and more weight in the studio with his guitar playing during the jam and recording sessions.

Slowly, Illegal Defence was becoming more and more of a crossover band. They were mixing Hip-Hop bass and drumloops with rock guitars. They recorded the acoustic track ‘Lyrical Assault/In the Ghetto’ based on the Elvis track of the same name and the hilarious Idols-diss ‘Je Weet Je Wil Wel Hangen’.

K-Dub had lost his heart playing all the classic rocksongs of the sixties and the seventees and Illegal Defence found a nice way for these songs to get some attention again. K-Dub started recording some songs for a solo album largely filled with covers. This also inspired them to do rap/rock versions of songs like Jimi Hendrix’ ‘All along the Watchtower’ and ‘Crosstown Traffic’ (in ‘Traffic’, which is included on the 2006 ‘Post Millenium Warfare’ CD, Ray Charles’ ‘Hit the Road Jack’, Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’ (in ‘No Cries’), Bill Whithers/Kid Frost’s ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and Sam Cooke’s ‘Stand By Me’. SupaNova then asked K-Dub to also blow some new life into classic raptracks like the Geto Boys’ ‘Mind Playing Tricks’, Eazy E’s’ ‘The Last Roach’ and ‘Two Hard Muthafuckas’ and Non Phixion’s ‘Black Helicopters’ among others.

At the end of 2005 they started recording songs to re-issue their debut album ‘Post Millennium Warfare’.

The album was finished at the end of 2006 and released in 2007. The CD contains 15 songs and clocks in at 79:38 minutes. These 15 songs were deprived of a set of about 30 songs. Unfortunately, some pretty good ones had to be left off. The cover features a scene from the first world war, with soldiers taking cover in a trench. The intro contains a sample of a sixties song by Crabby Appleton in “Engage from tha Mothership”. The intro continues with a cut up version of “The War is On”. The second track is the first real song. ‘Step Up’ features the Dub playing over some heavy bass-n-drum loops. Note that this is not the ‘Step Up’ the band recorded as it’s first track. It’s the 2.0 version with largely the same lyrics. We’ve been assured that the first version will be re-released some time in the future. The third track ‘Break tha Power’ (Part two) is a pumping disco raptrack which samples Hans Teeuwen, Paris and Notorious BIG vocals among others. ‘Men From The Shadows’ took it’s lyrics from the SupaNova solotrack with the same name. It’s adding the N-Man and K-Dub on guitar and features raps by K-Dub and SupaNova. The Leonard Cohen intro and brass samples are nowhere to be found here.

The N-Man is K-Dub’s brother and a vet in music. He used to be in the now split up ‘League of XO Gentlemen’ and lots of other bands. He recently released the single ‘The Long Way’. Norman Kapoyos is a graduate of Tilburg’s Rock Academy. Writing this article he’s touring the country with the Swinging Mood Orchestra. Check out his track record at http://www.normankapoyos.nl

.....the N-Man, photo courtesy of the N-Man......

The CD continues with the smooth track ‘Still Going Strong’, a 6 minute track with K-Dub on acoustic guitar playing licks based on the Clapton version of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’. ‘Mad Different’ was also featured on the rough drafts of ‘Post Millenium Warfare’. Supa and Dub also recorded an ‘Overlast Gangsta Remix’ of this track with Gonzo aka James Overlast supplying the beat at his studio. ‘Better Dayz To Come’ is one of the newer tracks, uptempo, with K-Dub on guitar. ‘Final Destination’ is an old track. A concept song of Supa suffering from street-violence, dying and going to heaven. It was spiced up with some vocals and guitarplay by K-Dub which older drafts of the song lacked. It’s an uptempo track and also features lots of sampled guitars. ‘Black Christmas’ discusses racial themes, cultural differences and acts of crime throughout history committed by various institutions. The guitar riffs were layed down by N-Man.

‘Take Me Away’ (2.0) is a remix with K-Dub playing guitar. The older version will be available in the future.

‘Act Up!!’ is one of the older songs, based on strings and very much uptempo. It’s an indictment of various anti-society groups. ‘Gun Shot’ is a rap reggea track that elaborates on gun possession and the role of guns throughout history. The N-man played solo guitar over the finished track. ‘Ain’t No Love’ is a slow track remeniscing about the days of old and a declaration of war to the music industry. ‘Traffic’ is based on Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Crosstown Traffic’. It’s a light song discussing different ways of transportation. It has a little holiday feeling to go with it. The CD ends with the medley remix of some rap rock covers in ‘Duck For Covers’.

.....the SubCentral studios.......

From 2004 and on The Kay and Supah started writing and recording their separate material. K-Dub would largely find a refuge with his beloved artists of the 60’s and 70’s, recording some fine and dandy blues, R&B and rock songs. Next to that he wrote his own tracks accompanying himself on the electric and acoustic guitar. His album “Art from the Heart” dropped in 2007. It’s production is kept basic, so there’s nothing standing between the listener and the power of the song sung with warmth and feeling. Only to have it creeping down even deeper. Some of the most memorable tracks include “As Tears Go By (Ft. Normz)”, “Master Of War” and “I Wish You Were Here” among others. The lead single is the song “Mystery Train”

SupaNova released his “Piracies on Papyrus” solo CD early 2007. The CD is a perfect example of 90’s type Hip-Hop production mixed with funk, punk, rock, pop, reggae, ska elements and even electronic influences derived from the house scene. The CD contains some older songs, but a lot of the songs were still fresh, being recorded at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 in SupaNova’s Hilversum Studio. Memorable tracks include songs like “Drive By”, “Do Not Disturb” and “When the Cold Wind Blows” along with allready known classics like “Conversation With Tha Moon” and “Hostile Take Ova” among others. Supa’s solo CD contains 16 songs and clocks in at 79:48 minutes. The poppy feelgood track “All in A Day” is the lead single for the album.

In 2007 K-Dub and SupaNova started working on a second Illegal Dee project. It has the working title ‘Unleashed From The Machine’ and about six or seven songs have been finished to this day. You might also find some older tracks on this CD, some of which have been updated and remixed. You will find them leaking tracks prior to the release on this website. Some of the tracks you’ll be eager to hear are “Still Illegal Dee”, “Hold it Down” and “How Long Will It Last”

Also, SupaNova approached DJ SuBBaSS to make an album together. A working title for the project could be ‘SuperSub’.

Some of the parameters that were discussed were tracks with tempos from app. 110 – 130 bpm, atmospheric, analog and melodious sounds, a dark bass feel and mood influencing vocal samples. With instrumental tracks as well as tracks with raps and singers. Supa semi-finished the tracks “Raw Materials”, “The Filthy Few” and “Nicotine”.

Newest Ten Men Enter recording artist Natas is working on her debut EP entitled “Boulevard of Plastic Smiles”.

She’s selecting music and lyrics out of SupaNova’s vault, as well as adding her own.

K-Dub is always up to something. It’s unknown if he’s got any new tracks, but there’s allways the still unpublished recordings with the Pole-Man that could be the foundation for a solid outing.

SupaNova selected some off-the-shelve instrumentals of his own craftsmanship for his second solo CD and will carve some rhymes to them in 2008. He recorded some in between album’s tracks, creating the gems “No Dreams For Tomorrow”,

“My Weapons of Mass Destruction”, “Uncertain Future” (in Dub) and “Low Budget Environment”