Skipaturner – Q&A Interview

Tell us a little about yourself. Where you are from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?

I’m 23. I have a twin brother who doesn’t really look like me. I get him to rap sometimes on my tracks but I literally have to drag him to the mic. I’m from Birmingham, Uk originally, but I have been living on the gold coast, Australia since I was 11 years old. I’m currently an undergrad student doing a degree I’m not terribly passionate about. I love playing basketball, I play literally everyday. I love to draw, and I like to think of myself as a creative person. I’ve been listening to hip hop for a long time now, so it’s basically this genre of music I’m stuck with. When I was 17 me and a few friends used to freestyle and record raps over instrumentals on garageband as a joke during school times. When I moved out of home I sort of have progressively stuck with making hip hop music and I enjoy getting better at it.

What influences you in making Hip Hop?

The thought of making hip hop music as a future job is what motivates/influences me to work hard on my craft. I don’t want to work a job I hate. I like to create and be innovative and I think hip hop is a great platform for me to work on because It has been apart of my life for so long.

Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?

I don’t swear too much. I’m not in a gang and i haven’t killed any one yet, so I don’t rap about a lot of the things you may here in the hip hop scene today. I don’t want to be cheesy, so I try to avoid mainstreamy sounds. I appreciate clever lines in songs as much as I like catchy melodies. My music originates from Australia, but I don’t really like ‘aussie hip hop’ generally. So I try to stray away from that kind of sound. There are two sides to the kind of music I try to emulate. One side of me likes a slow, dark beat with trippy samples, similar to some of Isiah Reshad’s beats. Another side of me loves the old school drum and snare style like ‘a tribe called quest’. I want to bring back that style. I try to come up with catchy flows and melodies, whilst adding somewhat cryptic lyrics. I usually write to the beat, but sometimes when I feel like getting all sentimental and stuff I’ll write a lyrics before listening to the beat. Oh yeh I’m also white.

Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?

I’ve collaborated with a few producers on sound cloud, but I am yet to collaborate with another hip hop artist. I’d like to collab with an Australian artist who is trying to veer a bit away from traditional Australian rap. Someone who is trying to create the kind of sound i’m emulating in my songs. I’d obviously like to collab with people in the U.S as well.

Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?

Underground HipHop is this great place where artists can experiment with hip hop in their own way. If their music becomes noticed by a large mass of people, someone may pay them loads of money to replicate that sound in a whole album. Then everyone who hears this new sound tries to copy it into their own music, in which at this point in time it then becomes mainstream. It’s all a cycle.

Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production?
And who would you like to work with?

I don’t really have a particular influence production wise. I only started making beats 3 years ago, and only because I got over searching for beats on soundcloud to rap to. It’s usually pretty hard to find a good beat because you’re looking for a particular style and taste that works for you. Making your own beats eliminates that problem and lets you come up with something new. I’d love to work with clammyclams so he can teach me how he does his thing. I used to really dig all his beats.

Any current or future projects you are promoting?

I am working on my first music video for ‘shooting bowls’. I want to make it weird and dark. I’m also working on the next song, although I am not sure what it’s going to be called yet. This is probably strange, but I’m also in the middle of creating a 2d animation pilot episode, sort of like a south park thing.

Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Wiggout? Also/ what was the idea or concept description about your Single Art Cover.

So Noah harvey made the beat, he’s from Brisbane, I really liked it. I slowed the beat down a bit, and then basically I just listen to the beat over and over while I try to come up with lyrics. I usually freestyle into a microphone, and record and play what I just said. Then I try to change the lyrics so that they make more sense and have more meaning. The single art cover was just me experimenting with the kind of drawings I like to do. I thought a drawing would fit with the weird title I went for.

Where can we find your music and info?

I put up my finished tracks on my sound cloud page, and all my contact info is there also. To readers out there, if you have time I’d appreciate if you went onto this link and liked my songs. The page is basically a link to the local Brisbane radio station, the more likes I get the more likely my music will get played on the radio.

Any shout outs?

My home boys Karl, Berty Pie, Jaekus McGlekus, George, my twin brother rambo, my lil sister and brother Jack n Charz, thanks for supporting me in one way or another.