Lefta Centa have been jamming together for a bit under 2 years and playing publicly for a bit over a year. The jam sessions formed at a private late night after party venue in Wickham, Newcastle named Da Lodge. Da lodge was an upstairs dwelling amongst an industrial background with a large sound system and plenty of room to kick back on the circular lounge or rumpus/dancefloor area. Here after raucus nights in town, Mc’s, Dj’s and party goers would culminate at all hours of the morning and bash out freestyle Dj-ing and Mc-ing to a crowd of friends and friends of friends. These became a regular events and before too long, people would skip town altogether to come and make noise at Da Lodge. The jam sessions began to get more structure and the dedicated ones kept returning, so they decided to do something with it. Inspired after a first Newy battle attempt where Mc Kenny K made the finals and Mc MSG made his first spirited stage appearance, the two Mc’s put pen to paper.

The first song to be rehearsed was Double Header, a fairly accurate description of the weekend jam sessions that were taking place. With the help of fanatic Dj Stoopah( part of a two man set up to make the university Dj comp finals), multi talented instrumentalist/sound student/Dj Punchie and freak producer Maddog Morley(from a mostly drum and base background) the song transformed from a few lines rhymed over battle records, to a sure fire recipe to get any of Da Lodge parties cooking (often with around 50+ in attendance).

After attending other newy hip hop shows,(which were becoming more frequent) other Mc’s and Dj’s would come and check Lefta Centa (then spelled Left Of Centa) out and after the right people saw them, they were invited to play a few local shows. With great success and a solid crowd drawn (including a lot of regular Lodge crew) it wasn’t long before they booked their first significant performance- The This Is Not Art festival, where they supported Hospice Crew and Funkoars amongst others that included TZU, the Herd and Blades of Hades on the second night. Since then successful and notable performances include supporting Downsyde and Brethren in Newcastle as well as members appearing on stage to freestyle at shows of Koolism, Downunder Beats Crew,Hilltop Hoods, Butterfingers, Blindhoarse and more. Not to mention the massive sell-out show with Resin Dogs, Good Budda and Urthboy/Ozi Batla this May in Newcastle.

The live line up now includes up to seven members at a time; including the core group- Mc MSG, Mc Kenny K, Dj Stoopah, Maddog Morley on the MPC/V-drums, Punchie on the keys/electric guitar and Grono(rock/heavy metal background) on live bass. Feature artists are Amanda Layton on electric violin (classical background) and recorded female vocalist Miss Carlzee, which smoothes one track out to date, with more to come. The sound of the live electric violin is really something else and combined with the whole bunch of other live instruments, it is a top live show. Their feel is based on hip hop, with backing tracks ranging from hip hop, to drum and bass to reggae, to funk, to rock, and most things in between.

Their fat sound just keeps getting bigger, so keep an ear to the ground and come check out Lefta Centa at the next show near you. If there’s not one near you, then send 'em an email and see if they’ll come and play one for ya.

October, 2005