“How did you reach out to people with the use of music?” hack asked shakily

“How doe you think the Beatles or the Clash reached out to their fans?” he gauged at the Hack who remained frozen.

“Through songs! People are always touched by songs, Hack! Even you should know that” he said with a gasped expression.

“You see Hack I did not just reach out to people with written songs or spitten lyrics. I created a split personality to perform under” he said wistfully.

“I used my split personality to terrify people in the performances with my out shrieked honesty!” he squawked with his burning flinging his arms about.

“Was this the Character that people knew you for?” spoke Hack with a curious tone too his voice.

“Not many people knew me as a performer of the musical, poetic rap variety!” he said with his mannerisms calming.

“You were a rapper?” bemused Hack with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Appearances can be deceptive Hack!” his voice rang

“I was a rapper but, I decided to keep him out of the whole flimsy plastic world of fame and how fake a pastiche it is”.

“But why keep it quiet? Hack asked as the Crone stared icily at him.

“It was too close to the bone of one mans nervelle system. Manic F was my Stage name” he paused to intake a deep breath.

“I was not your typical rapper, instead of doing the stereotypical standard prosthetic bling bling bullshit that people had got confused with hip hop music! I on the other hand decided to drive nail like words to expose one mans humanity,” he said with a sternning tone.

“Drove words into myself to uproot my personal experiences and often unsettling people because getting to close with squeamish effects!” the Crone hollered.

“I had a strong image that did not dilute from the overall effect,” he voiced grandiosely.

“What was your image and why?” pressed the disconcerting Hack with an air naivety. The Crone’s eyes shone with the flashes of reflection

“Well I wore an Orange jumpsuit, black and white face paint splattered all over my face, a cracked skull mask and painted white hat with black outlines of ears! Most of it was cobbled together from freebies giving it an unfeasibly un-trendily bizarre and scary image, god I looked ultra special,” he laughed with a darkened edge, causing the Hack to smile with a nervously.

“I had a bizarre obsession with table condiments”.

“Table Condiments?” he spluttered whilst peering at the Crone through his thick-rimmed musty glasses.

“Yes I used Tomato Ketchup to spread all over my stomach, I used it as a representative for blood” he spurned with his face twitching with the glimmering of a smile.

“I can remember doing one very eventful college at the old Thekla before it became the hip house on waters with all it’s fashionista’s and the vein teenagers all hang out trying to look cool”

“That was back in my heydays of the early 20’s. Dealing with disenchantment and spending time at Music College. I met so many people through the years of setting my stones in this place” he paused.

“At this one gig I managed to scare off the A and R department from Sony with the sheer intensity of the performance” he said with distained energy

“A&R?, what is A&R?” exclaimed Hack

“A&R stands for Artist and Repertoire, they are the people who sign the artists and they act as a representative for the for the labels” pausing for breath

“They are really slimy people, like fat slugs dripping with pure vapidity!” he said curling his tongue with sheer spite. “I mean who would want to sign to Sony nowadays, there is no money in the physical format of music anymore so your best off without them!!” the Crone commented with an informative air.

“How come you know about all this stuff?” posed Hack,

“I studied contemporary popular music and took a serious interest in the business sessions” he quipped before swigging at his stale coffee in his flask

“A&R people are some of the most fickle on the planet, I mean you present them with something out of the ordinary confrontational then they are easily scared!” he croaked “But

“But yeah I did use to cover my body in a combination of Tomato ketchup and black and white body paint, which smelt awfully nice” said the Crone with more the a hint of Irony in his voice.

“I used to try and get girls to lick it off afterwards and let’s just say it made me ultra popular”.

“Really??!!” astounded Hack.

“Of course not, it made me as popular as a virulent bout of salminella, yeah they liked it when it got saucy” his voice crackled with laughter.

“But at that one gig the A&R men for Sony turned up just as I was sparking up my performance, I had them bottling themselves within seconds, I could see a stream of brown smoke of where they were standing. It is amazing what you can do with a bit of real life aggression here, a bit of ketchup squirting here all rolled up with the black and white face paint. Does the job of scaring people good and proper” the Gleamed

“But in all seriousness I did use Manic F as a way of dealing with my personal issues” he said lowering his voice