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Smoke-T, The Watchman on the walls of world freedom. You what ? Far from being the usual Gangsta style rapper, however easy that is to be or to pretend to be (just go Nigga this Bitch that, shoot ya Muthafuckin head off with my [insert weapon of choice, or more usually current trendy vogue firearm]. >yawn<) i wanted to do something FOR people. DEA has moved into the darker side of life, to confront imagery and fantasy that exposes people to things they would rather live in denial about. I have elected to pick up on the biggest killer in the world today, Ignorance. People need to be educated but have a natural aversion to being preached at, many people with messages for the world miss their targets because they try too hard to be heard. Taking our inspiration from Alan Moore's groundbreaking and as yet unsurpassed masterpiece Watchmen, DEA and myself have become Watchmen, we lurk in the underbelly of society working away tirelessly and without compromise, chipping away at the malaises of society in our own small way, Derided and unthanked like Rorschach, devious and subtle in our plan for the eventual saving of humanity from it's own ignorance and malice like Ozymandias. Sick and cruel in our dark humour like the Comedian, seeing the darkness and grotesque evil in the world and becoming a reflection and grossly exaggerated parody of it in order to highlight it and bring it out of the shadows so that people can see it and finally provoke the reaction it should have garnered in the first place but for the big killer, Ignorance. "Once a man has seen, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend it does not exist. No matter who orders him to look the other way We do not do this thing because we are permitted to We do it because we have to We do it because we are compelled." -Alan Moore, Watchmen		Alan Moore (Knows the Score)

The main inspiration for the Watchmen in terms other than hip hop music comes from Alan Moore's Watchmen, a Graphic Novel of remarkable subtlety and complexity, far surpassing Moore's previous adult work V for Vendetta which was itself brilliant despite it's flaws. The book affected the lives of myself and DEA in a very profound way and leaves it's legacy in our lifestyle, our music and our general outlook even today, 15 years later (can it really be so long ago ?). For a deeper look at the story, go to the annotated Watchmen site and invest in a copy of the book. Don't mistake it for a simple comic book. That is ignorance and stupidity and we tolerate neither here. Another major influence which never made it into our music despite being a band itself were Brummie band Pop Will Eat Itself. They linked into the whole Watchmen thing by the various references to the work in their single DEF-CON 1 which is truly fantastic. To understand the Watchmen and our influences an easy way to illustrate it is to refer to the lyrics of Can U Dig It ? by the Poppies. We dig exactly the same things. We dig TV we dig Remote Control We dig the Furry Freak Brothers and the Twilight Zone We dig Marvel and DC We dig Run DMC We dig Renegade Soundwave and AC/DC Bruce Wayne Auf Wiedersehen Dirty Harry Make my Day Terminator, hit the North Alan Moore Knows the Score Riffs Yeah ! Can U Dig It ? We dig Optimus Prime and not Galvatron We dig the Leader of the Pack and Da Doo Ron Ron Spinderella and Bruce Lee, The Bad and the Ugly We dig V for Vendetta and Into the Groovy Bruce Wayne Auf Wiedersehen Dirty Harry Make my Day Terminator, hit the North Alan Moore Knows the Score Riffs Yeah ! Can U Dig It ? Can U Dig it, Words and Music by Vestan Pance, from the Album, 'This is the Day, This is the Hour, This is This' by pop will eat itself. Take a trip to PWEI Nation to get all your Pop Will Eat Itself Info and Goodies.