Growing Pains With Skryptcha

Young Skryp Speakerboxxin out!

What kicked off last week as mostly incoherent babble from me reminiscing about weighty choons of my younger days, has now turned into what i can only hope will be a weekly feature here on the blog. For today’s Growing Pain’s we have been blessed by none other than Skryptcha.

Skrytptcha Has had a massive 2012 releasing his 2nd full lenth titled Mindful, which recived a huge amount of support and love nationally. Skryp teamed up with estemed Stateside beatmaker illmind to make Mindful and together they crafted an extremely solid and polished album furthering the evolution of Skryptcha’s sound. If you haven’t copped it yet grab it digitally through itunes or for all touchy feely peeps, you can get your hardcopy through spots like JB hifi.

On the subject of Growing Pains, I got in contact with Skryp last week to ask if he would pen down some thoughts on 3 to 4 tunes that had some influence on his formative years . No doubt Skryptcha’s rapidly increasing fanbase will be hyped to check some baby pictures (see above) and get into the head of their new best friend. For now get acquainted below with the man himself and look forward to us delving into the heads of other talented chums in the coming weeks.

Introduction by Skryptcha..

My first introduction to Hip-Hop was through skate videos.. Mostly 411 vids. Around the ages of 13-14 we’d skate most days,then go back to mates places to watch vids and listen to music. I hadn’t really listened to much Hip-Hop before that as a kid but the second I heard it, I was totally drawn in by it.. Here’s a little break down on the tracks that grabbed me back then in the very beginning and the ones that have shaped me from there.. If I had to list every track that’s ever grabbed me like crazy, I’d be here all day haha.. Hip-Hop reminds me so often how much I love it and that’s one of the biggest reasons I’m still here,we have a lot to be proud of..

Listen: Royce Da 5’9″ – Boom // Buy Me

I can’t exactly remember where I was when I first heard this track but I know that I have probably listened to it more than any other Hip-Hop track ever. This is probably my favourite DJ Premier beat of all time and that is seriously saying something! That sample just does something to me haha.. It’s dark but still so soulful.. Royce is soo raw and comes SO hard on this. As a teen this track was everything you could want, it had so much angst and ego in it.. I still rap every word to it and get just as stoked as I did as a teen haha. You can’t fault Royce or Preem on this. Two of the best at their finest. Gold Jerry! Gold!

Download: Dr Dre feat Snoop Dogg – The Next Episode

I’ll never forget hearing this song for the first time haha it did crazy things to me and got me so pumped up. It STILL gets me crazy pumped every time I hear it. Everyone knows this track & everyone loves it ha.. You could drop it anywhere and have people go nuts.. Dre & Snoop come so harrd on this, the beat is BANGING & to top it all off, Nate Dogg laces the outro. It is a banger in every sense of the word. One of my all-time faves for sure!

Download: Atmosphere – Modern Man’s Hustle

Most of the Hip-Hop I listened to as a teen was on the pretty traditional, raw tip.. Acts like Redman, Beatnuts, Big Pun, Biggie etc. One day at school my mate Ryan gave me Atmosphere’s CD ‘God Loves Ugly’ and told me to check it out.. To be honest, I wasn’t super taken by it on first listen but this song totally grabbed me. It was such a heartfelt song, full on soulful music..It was so different to most of what I’d listened to previously. I was more drawn to the raw, rugged rap as a teen but this track made me see things a little differently. I started to see that Hip-Hop didn’t all have to be like that, that there was a bit more to it. I fell in love with this track.. It shifted the type of Hip-Hop I listened to from there..

Download: Hilltop Hoods – Testimonial Year // Buy Me

Most of the first Aussie stuff I heard was pretty raw too and I loved it ha.. my early music was some straight up raw stuff..It was a great avenue for me to get that teen angst out haha.. I’d heard a couple of Hoods’ tracks before ‘The Calling’ dropped,and was a big fan of ‘1979’. I remember going into HMV I think and playing ‘The Calling’ on one of those CD players where you could preview CD’s haha it was one of those ‘Muuuuuummmmm!!!! Come here!!’ moments hahahaha… I played the first track on the album Testimonial Year’ and again, it did something to me.. The beat was soo chilled out and Suffa’s flow was just so laid back and melodic. I ended up finding Mum and found a way to get her to buy it for me 😉 Haha again, it made me see things in a different way and inspired me to make music just like it from there. Most Aussie MC’s from my generation will more than likely pinpoint this album as the most influential of their careers. It changed everything.