Hip hop/electro legend Kurtis Mantronik spoke to dancesite this week, just prior to the release of his retrospective collection, Mantronix - The Best Of 1985-1999 (out on Virgin). His welcome return to making music follows a 6 year absence, prompted by his growing disillusionment with the machinations of the music business. Rather than just focusing on the past though, his greatest hits record includes two new tracks, Mad and Push Yer Hands Up, which highlight his continuing relevance to today's hip hop and dance scenes.

DANCESITE :- Is it easier or harder this time around being older and presumably wiser?

KURTIS MANTRONIK : - "Productions are much easier, I can do them pretty quickly now because I know what I'm doing rather than second guessing myself. I also feel I can take more chances now. I did some club records in 1995 with a group called the Playas Club and what I was trying to do there was more along the lines of the Larry Levan garage type sound and I think they're going to be released now, though I'm probably going to get panned for them".

DS :- You worked with a young David Morales on India's first single in 1990, how aware were you of his talent back then?

KM : - "I wasn't really following what was going on in the scene back then and that India project was one of the last ones I did before quitting. Jellybean (Jellybean Benitez- a famous Madonna producer at the time) had asked me to work on the track with India and that was the time when latin hip hop was on its way out. David, who was spinning in the clubs then, had his finger more on the pulse of what was happening, whereas I was basically already out of the business. Music was changing at that point and I didn't care to keep up with the changes. I listened but I was going through burn out. I started doing this when I was really young, put my heart and soul into it, night and day, and after a while, that takes its toll. I felt I didn't really have anything new to offer. David was on the pulse, instead, and he just kept on going".

DS : - How comfortable are you with the whole 'legend/ king Of The Beats' thing, is it a problem being a hip hop legend?

KM : - "Well, I don't think of myself as being a hip hop legend, I was actually very shocked when I started making music again. I stopped for over 5 years and I thought, the old labels gone, my record's are out of print, I'm nobody. Then I met my manager, he started telling me, Oh, you're records are being sold for £80 each, kids are playing your old stuff all over the country and I was like - Really? I had no idea".