Preview - Scroobius Pip at Camden’s Barfly on November 21
Published: 17 November, 2011
by RUSSELL PARTON
IT was 2007 when the dexterous rhymes and sharp wit of Scroobius Pip – real name David Meades – first came to light, after the Essex-born rapper teamed up with his old school friend Dan Le Sac.
Pip’s spoken-word satire and irreverent humour contrast with his DJ partner’s sparse dance and hip-hop beats.
The duo’s debut single, Thou Shalt Not Kill, was a parodic Ten Commandments that tore into various aspects of British culture, instructing us to think for ourselves – and not to take the name of Johnny Cash in vain.
The duo’s third album comes out in the New Year, but for now Scroobius Pip is going it alone, touring his debut solo release Distraction Pieces which was released in September. On November 21, he’ll be performing at Camden’s Barfly.
Without the help of his regular partner, Pip has been experimenting with different musical styles, with the new album embracing punk, rock and hip-hop. It contains a roll-call of collaborators, including Zane Lowe, B Dolan and Aupheus.
It’s a darker and edgier sound than previous material.
Before Scroobius Pip Vs Dan Le Sac’s breakthrough, 30-year-old Pip, who hails from Stanford-le-Hope, was a spoken-word artist, travelling the UK in a Toyota Space Cruiser during his 2006 Relying on the Kindness of Strangers tour and giving street performances outside the gigs of better-known artists such as DJ Shadow.
After joining forces with Dan Le Sac, a 32-year-old DJ, laptop musician and computer geek, the pair became the toasts of the UK hip-hop and spoken-word scene, releasing debut album Angles and follow-up The Logic of Chance to widespread critical acclaim.
They are known for their original stances on social and political issues, and have appeared on BBC’s Newsnight. Pip’s solo album is no different, with Try Dying tackling our obsession with beating back the ageing process, while Death of The Journalist asks questions about how quality journalism has been affected by new forms of technology.
When Pip discovered the work of US hip-hop poets Saul Williams and Sage Francis, he realised that spoken word poetry and beats needn’t exist as two separate things, an idea that’s played out in all his albums.
In the same way, the pseudonym Scroobius Pip comes from an Edward Lear poem that tells the story of a strange creature anxious about not fitting in.
In the end, it decides that the best option is not to worry and instead just to be its own creature, the Scroobius Pip.