In The Bag? - Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip are not your conventional pop stars by any stretch. One portly, mutton chopped and sparkly eyed; the other, runner bean thin and just as tall, armed with an orthodox Jewish beard and trucker cap. As a recent YouTube skit illustrates, they certainly wouldn’t win the ‘X-Factor’. One True Voice they ain’t.

May 12th sees the crescendo of their career thus far with the release of debut album ‘Angles’. Their act, a bastardized cut-and-shut of Le Sac’s electro shtick and Pip’s spoken word poetry has been engaging and exhilarating the UK for about half a tour when Gigwise is invited into the bowels of Koko, Camden to chew the fat and explore which direction this odd couple are heading in.

Both intimidatingly tall and articulate in equal measure, Scroobius Pip is clearly a man who should have no need for the props he employs. Suffice to say, there is already a very busy look going on there. On stage, a giant tome from which to spray forth his modern strain of commandments, a dog-eared periodic table and various hats and spectacles lend a humourous edge to their otherwise serious content.

To bear witness to an evening co-ordinated by Le Sac and Pip (and subsequently the forthcoming album) will have the attendee encounter tunes about suicide, chemistry, massage, Tommy Cooper, relationships and self harm all wrapped up in an off-kilter hip hop blanket.

“It reflects on you who you bring on tour,” says Pip. “We wanted all three acts to complement each other, and I think what you get is certainly an evening of alternative hip hop.” The selection of Gideon Conn, an act who is as far as you can get from the hip-hop cliché but raps all the same, Producers With Computers; middle-class grimers and Polar Bear; a devastating spoken word poet acting as compere, most certainly does that.

Touted as one of the most visible players thrusting the spoken word genre back into the spot light, Pip has great faith in the medium: “I think whatever eliteism that surrounded poetry has been smashed down in recent years...its not neccesarily an exclusively educated thing, its just performed by people who can articulate their feelings very well.” “Take Polar Bear”, says Le Sac “you could put him in front of a Millwall crowd as they are leaving a game and they would love him.”

Despite being utterly unique in so far as what is ripping up the airwaves on day time radio, there is part of you that wants to file them at least on the cusp of the hip-hop section, even though the genre has taken a bit of a pasting recently from the white middle aged press: “This idea of hip-hop being to blame for poor ticket sales at Glastonbury is completely ridiculous. It is absolutely stupid. It will sell out, of course it will – I think people have got wise and are waiting for the whole line up to be released before they spend all that money. I always thought it was mad when it would sell out after only a couple of bands had been announced anyway...saying that, not sure if we're going!”