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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 12 July 2007

From left: Dan le Sac, Henry Conlan, Scroobius Pip and Suggs at the Camden Crawl in April

The kids are alright

INTERVIEW: SCROOBIUS PIP

BILLED as the “largest music street” in Europe – yikes – the Denmark Street festival, Tin Pan Alley, on Sunday is set to be a scorcher, weather permitting. In only its fourth year, the festival has until now given its proceeds towards the homeless charity, Shelter.
This year it has decided to support a homeless charity a bit closer to home – the Tottenham Court Road landmark Centrepoint.
And the biggest draw of day has to be the Essex duo Scroobius Pip vs Dan le Sac, who powered into the public eardrum earlier this year with their incisive hit Thou Shalt Always Kill. A hip hop outfit with a poppy electronic edge, they only formed six months ago. Scroobius nearly missed his train talking to Grooves.

CC: What’s wrong with hip hop today?
SP: I’ve been a fan of hip hop and poetry for a long time. But generally when you mention it people think of 50 Cent. There’s not a lot I’m a fan of – Sway’s good, but there’s just a few standout artists.

CC: What about Dizzee Rascal? You mention him on the track Live Fixed
SP: I think he’s great, he’s one of the few who have pioneered a sound and now everyone’s copying it.

CC: In the beginning hip hop was more about social comment than “guns, bitches and bling” (Thou Shalt Always Kill). Are you trying to take it back to that?
SP: I’m definitely trying to bring it back to the US original which was very social and conscious. Now it’s just about money and girls.

CC: What’s wrong with the kids – you seem a bit down on them?
SP: There’s no real problem with kids. In a way it’s easy to bracket all the ‘chavs’ and ‘hoodies’ but its not as simple as that.
It’s fair enough to talk about guns and bling if that’s a part of your life, but there’s a hell of a lot more out there in the world to be talked about.

CC: Tony Blair vs Gordon Brown?
SP: It’s a tough one. We have to wait and see on Gordon Brown. Tony Blair did a lot of terrible rubbish things but as a politician… he made some good speeches.

CC: What do you think of the Camden music scene?
SP: It’s great. Camden is bringing a bit of itself back. It used to be really exciting, but then it got to be all the same stuff. But it’s become a hotbed of music again.

* Tin Pan Alley Festival is in Denmark Street on Sunday July 15

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