January 27, 2001

Pip Skid

Pip SkidA member of the great Fermented Reptile, Pip Skid is on the verge of releasing his first solo album, Friends4Ever, which will be out later this month.

Most people are probably more familiar with the name Wicked Nut, why the decision to come out with your solo album under the Pip Skid moniker?

It seems to have something to do with progression. i’m actually avoiding my family derived name. create some new things in my life. my name as one. it’s possibly a learned reaction to my lifestyle of burning my trail as i go. leaving very little traces of my where-a-bouts and previous spot riding. you know what i’m sayin? huh?

When can we look for the album to hit stores, has an official release date been set yet?

it’ll be out in the end of feb. wpg release date of feb 28th, and on from
there. sun zoo and mcenroe do their thing. word.

Fermented Reptile is definitely one of the more politically minded groups out there, can we expect the same type of messages to be delivered on the Pip Skid solo album, or are you going to be taking things in another direction in way of concepts?

some how in some way the pip shit is different from fr. if it were a book it’d be closer to the fiction section ,where as fr would be closer to the reference. snap’s 1st lp would be in the photocopier section, y’heard? freinds4ever (the new lp) feels more like a good screaming session than the fr did. fr felt like a good mental bath but i’ve lost a lot more marbles recently and the lp exhibits that i think. i feel more insane = lyrics that might tip off the people next door. the political side of this lp is more personal, less factual. i think its a very political lp though, whatever the hell that means. me being a white race traitor. i feel to be in hiphop these days as a white participant it’s important to be challenging other white folks and our racism. so there’s a chunk of the lp in that touchy space.

I know mcenroe is probably handling most of the production, who are some of the other people making appearances on the album?

mcenroe does the majority of the beats, all the mixing, mastering, layout, some rimes and a million other things like giving the illusion that he’s still 12 years old and he’s the best. i put total faith in his abilities to make shit fresher than the freshest. he’s sick wit as they say. i love rod. other folks include gruf the druid, scratch bastard. shazzam (freksho), gordski (goods), recyclone, kunga 219 (goods), knowself, john smith, gumshoe strut (your brother in my backpack), unleavened, epic, and graematter and soso did a few beats up. shit it’s like a master p lp.

How involved are you in choosing which beats you rhyme over? You’ve been working together with mcenroe for quite a while now; does he basically just know the types of beats you like to hear?

he sent a few folks a beat cd and we all rock paper scissor for them. john smith got to most of the standouts 1st. i wont forget that ever. mcenroe makes a loop, i say word i want that. i put my vocals down, then he adds different elements and i give him some vocal samples to put in. and boo ya. do you know what im sayin? then we just like..kick it y’know? “always makin’ hits” as sunil once said on rap city.

I heard you’ve been spending a lot of your time on the East Coast lately, what has it been like hanging around with all those Haligonians?

i don’t live right in smellafax. i live about an hour out so i don’t really hang out so much. it’s funny cause gordski is a lot like hunnicutt. it’s like gord is an alcoholic hunnicutt and hunnicutt is a staight livin gordski in some way or another. i have love for gord and hunnicutt.

How does their hip-hop scene compare to say Winnipeg’s?

i miss wpg sometimes. i just click better with a lot of the wpg scene. i grew up in that, i was a major part of manitoba hiphop. farm fresh had a huge impact on mb hiphop. we created a rap scene out of NOTHING in brandon. i shouldn’t say nothing, the punk scene was what we came out of. wpg seems to have more resources than hlfx. more college radio (with transmitters that actually work), more spots to rock, more diversity, and wax museum (the best spot to throw down a saturday afternoon freestyle). hlfx has been good to me though, some of the hiphopppers have given me huge amounts of support and it feels good. plus moving to another area of the world you lose all your connections and contacts that made life easier, yknow? hlfx is way smaller too. wpg is more of a bangin spot than i thought. it takes distance to see what you had.

Pip SkidTo what extent do you feel coming out of Canada has helped or hindered your place in hip-hop?

well living in wpg and hfx it’s not likely your gonna “go places”. canada is just being noticed as a hiphop resource. if a mc wanted to MAKE IT, canada is a slow start. i like it though, its not flooded (minus T dot). w/out the internet we woulda sold 200 fermented’s. if i wasn’t in certain places at certain times i may never have run into hiphop. we (farm fresh) started with absolutely no hiphop scene at all, we made one. this distance from the art form, i know gave me an original place to grow in. i am what i am now cause of where i’ve been, you know what im sayin? its like that.

I haven’t had a chance to witness Fermented live in person yet, but soso and those Beatcomber dudes put together some video footage I had the pleasure of viewing. You’re definitely one of the most intense performers I know of, how do keep your energy level up so high during shows and recording sessions?

i have a pretty strict vegan diet. besides that rapping is my 69 chevy that i wash and paint every day. my live show is intense cause its my therapy. we (me and the crowd) are interacting in a VERY personal way when i perform (most of the time). beer is one of the secret ingredients in the live show. i practice all the time. i rap everyday. i freestyle throughout the whole day. i rap loud by myself all the time. this is the most serious fun i can ever imagine having that comes with an incredible amount of heartbreak and confusion. that energy that you see or feel is pure passion. i fucking need to rap. it keeps me from choking strangers in the street. a good dj is another special ingredient.

It’s everybody’s dream to be able to make a living doing what they love; have you been able to scrape by making hip-hop or are you still working a regular job?

i’m am so broke that i’m scared. no shit, i don’t have a regular job right now and haven’t for a long time. I AM IN DEEP DEBT and i don’t think i wanna make dollars of the rap. i’d rather keep it sane and as business free as possible (i don’t believe business and art mix). i’m pursuing a chef title in wholefood vegan cooking. that’s how i’ll make the crazy dough and continue rapping doughless. in a whole other way, it’s like yea, fuck yea i wanna get paid for this. i’ve been doin this a while and regularly, i’d love to actually take $$ home from a show. youd be surprised at how often i dont get paid for a show. the goods and i are driving to PEI (which has a $40 toll bridge) to play for free beer. so i’m mixed up with all of it, and so as not to be confusing, I WANT LOTS OF CASH MONEY IN MY POSSESSION. just not sure it’d be safe to get it on the mic. and its fukin sad to see all these dope dudes struggling for rent and to put their shit out and gordski had to pawn cds he didn’t want to sell to buy groceries, that shit kills me. all these real def mc’s and dj’s working phone jobs and just getting by and dumping whole checks into equipment and all that. that’s heart, and other suckers blow up with no dues paid just for lookin pretty, shit. still undecided how i’d like to but i know i want those duckets.

Now that the solo album is finished, what’s next in store for Pip Skid? Is there a new Fermented Reptile project in the works?

i’ve been writing mad battle/concept free rimes lately. i wanna make a pause/record tape. i wanna do this lp with john smith. i wanna do this lp with mcenroe. with gumshoe and Yy. with epic. with recyclone. with break bread. with gordski. and all kinds of that shit. my next shit though is a split 12″ w/john smith. idea same as the last w/2 songs off the album and 2 unreleased. just wanna record a lot, play a lot. i’d really like to go on a huge tour. as for gruf, yea fermented is on. gruf is writing his new lp rite now. it’s incredible. he’s gonna be blowing minds for years with his shit. he’s so powerful, i think people sleep on gruf, lyrically i’ve always thought he was stronger than me. i think the next fermented could be one of the biggest, rudest, church disrupting farts ever blown.

Any final words?

big shouts to noyz319 and ugsmag. thanks and good lookin out. Friends4Ever is the album. pip