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Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

March 11, 2010


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2010-03-11

Pip Skid has arrived

The veteran local rapper gets set to release Skid Row - his finest solo album yet

Jen Zoratti

As far as Canada's independent rap scene is concerned, Pip Skid is a pioneer.

Born Patrick Skene in Brandon, Man., the 35-year-old Winnipeg-based rapper got his start back in 1991, when he formed the influential hip hop group Farm Fresh with fellow Brandonites mcenroe and DJ Hunnicutt (who later co-founded acclaimed hip hop label Peanuts & Corn in 1994). After releasing two albums with Farm Fresh, Pip teamed up with Gruf the Druid of rap collective Frek Sho to form Fermented Reptile, a more aggressive, politically driven project. Since then, he's collaborated with practically everyone on P&C's roster, from Birdapres to John Smith.

It's his unflinchingly honest and unapologetically outspoken solo work, however, that has particularly resonated with fans - and his latest solo effort, the gritty, grimy Skid Row, is easily his most affecting yet.

Pip will unveil Skid Row at an all-ages CD-release gig at the West End Cultural Centre on March 13, backed by a live band featuring Nestor Wynrush, DJ Kutdown as well as members of Annihilator, Nova and Banned from Atlantis. Uptown called up the veteran wordsmith to get more details about his new record - and his trail-blazing career.

Uptown: First off, tell me about Skid Row. Are you happy with how it turned out?

Pip: It's rare that I feel really good about a record - which, in retrospect, I guess is kind of weird. But I'm really happy with it - it's the best record I've ever made. It feels like I've developed or fine-tuned a lot of skills. Often with albums, depending on who you're working with, you're not as involved (in the production). This one was like making a Peanuts & Corn record, which was great.

What was you vision for this record?

I was recording my last album in (DJ) Kutdown's closet and we'd come up with this idea to make a record called Skid Row that would have hard-rock themes on it - not rap rock, but a heavy rap record.

I moved back to Halifax (in January 2009) for a few months and I wasn't feeling well. I had the record almost done and fuck, it was just 12 songs about depression. I revisited it a year later after I came back to Winnipeg. I scrapped a lot of songs and started with a fresh batch of beats.

Speaking of DJ Kutdown, you collaborated with him on this record.

It was great. It was also Rob Crooks - they're kind of a production team, but Kutdown makes the original beats. It's nice to work with different ears.

Greg MacPherson appears on Skid Row, too, which is interesting.

Greg and I have been friends for a long time. I've been writing more musical stuff lately that I can envision but can't always execute - which is why working with Greg is awesome. His voice is so - I've always called him the Bruce Springsteen of Manitoba, but now Bruce Springsteen sucks so much I don't want to cut Greg down.

Compare Skid Row to your other solo albums. How is it different?

There's stuff I experimented with, but overall, it just sounds better. There's always surprises when you start writing - but, I don't know, I've listened to it so many times I don't know what it sounds like. Sometimes I'll find it in my iTunes and think, 'Oh, I wrote that. That's interesting.'

You've had a long career in music, stretching back to the early '90s. When did you start rapping?

Remember Bundy's Late Night Revue? (For those who don't, it was a TV show hosted by Kevin 'Bundy' Dunn that aired on MTN in the late '80s/early '90s). I wrote a really bad rap about rednecks and how Hogan's Heroes was racist, and I called up Bundy's and kicked that rap on the phone (laughs). Being into rap at that time in Brandon, I was a total outcast.

Tyler (Sneesby, aka DJ Hunnicutt) and I became friends and started writing songs. We had a band before Farm Fresh called Post Office. We did Joy Division covers and shit like that. We didn't have a drummer so we just got a guy to hit a snare drum. We played two gigs, I think. We'd also get punk bands in Brandon to play a bass line, and I'd just rap over that. Somehow, Farm Fresh came out of that.

What happened to Farm Fresh?

We all kind of grew apart. I mean, we're all still friends and make music, but I wanted to make more political stuff. I went to B.C. for a while and, when I came back, Frek Sho had split up. So Gruf from Frek Sho and I formed Fermented Reptile. I think it was cathartic for us. I think we were both feeling confined in our old groups. And that catapulted Peanuts & Corn. That was when the Internet was getting awesome, probably around 1999. It was hard to hear rap in the '90s in places like Brandon. The Internet opened a lot of doors, and that gave Peanuts & Corn some fuel. We started putting out a record every couple months and chasing a hopeless dream.

Life is funny that way. It took 30-some years for my life to make sense, and now it's finally making sense. I went through a really depressing divorce with the dream I could make music for my whole life. Then teaching came along.

Yes, I wanted to ask you about your teaching endeavours. What has working with kids been like?

They're teaching me all the time. I'm just a weird kid - a big stupid man-boy that can't grow up. I don't work within the public school system, so I've been able to build my own programs, which is nice. I teach art classes at Graffiti Gallery, and I designed and run a program called Free Style out of U of W, for teenagers and U of W students and little kids. It's phenomenal working with them. It gets better all the time.

How about when you were a kid - when did you actively get into music?

I've always liked music. I remember hearing Van Halen's Jump and losing my shit, but nothing really resonated with me.
I had a life-size poster of Huey Lewis in my room. There were these magazines you could buy - fan magazines, I guess - and they always had a life-size pull-out poster in the back. I can see why I was hanging onto that before I found rap - it's crappy, white-guy blues, but blues is so much like hip hop that it makes sense.

Anyway, I was in a hockey dressing room, and this kid who always went to the States put in an LL Cool J tape. He's a total shit stain now, but back then he was phenomenal. I heard it and the world stopped. I had to get more tapes. I remember picking raspberries in a snake-infested garden - they were just garter snakes, but still, they're not my favourite things. It was, like, plus 40 and I made $14 for 12 hours of work. I went straight to the record store to get a tape. I remember telling my mom, 'that's what I want to do when I grow up.' And she said, 'Yeah, well, you better think of something else.'

Are you glad you didn't take that advice?

Oh yeah. I don't know anything else but music. I remember driving home from the studio when we'd been there until six in the morning, and I couldn't believe how many people were running around looking stressed out and miserable, slipping on ice to catch a bus. Ugh. I've worked my fair share of crappy jobs (see: raspberry picker), and I don't live in luxury by any means, but it's worth it not to have to live like that. I have no regrets. If it all ended today, I'd be happy. I mean, I'd be sad that it ended, but I'd be happy with what happened.

It's still fun - and that's what's important.

PIP SKID CD-RELEASE PARTY
March 13, West End Cultural Centre

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