Scroobius Pip | |
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![]() Scroobius Pip live at The Camden Crawl, London in 2007.
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Background information | |
Birth name | David Meads |
Born |
Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, United Kingdom |
3 August 1981
Origin | Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, United Kingdom |
Genres | Hip hop |
Occupation(s) | Rapper, Spoken Word Artist, Actor |
Years active | 2005–present |
Labels | Speech Development Records, Strange Famous Records, Sunday Best Recordings, Lex Records |
Associated acts | Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Sage Francis, B. Dolan, P.O.S, Danny Lohner, Travis Barker, Polarbear, Jackamo Brown, warrenpeace |
Website | www.scroobiuspip.co.uk |
David Meads (born 3 August 1981), known professionally as Scroobius Pip, is an English spoken word poet and hip hop recording artist from Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. He first gained prominence as one half of hip hop duo Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip sparked by their debut single 'Thou Shalt Always Kill'.
Scroobius Pip runs his own label Speech Development Records and also hosted the award-winning weekly radio show The Beatdown on XFM. Currently runs/hosts a weekly podcast called the Distraction Pieces Podcast and in August 2016 released a book of the same name.
He is a regular guest on Soccer AM and a supporter of Millwall Football Club. His favourite drink is Gin and Pepsi Max, which he names a "Scroobius" in interviews.
Scroobius Pip appears as French Bill, an assistant to Atticus, in the eight-part historical fiction series Taboo (2017) on BBC One and FX.
As a teenager punk ignited Scroobius Pip's passion for music, inspiring him to buy a guitar and form various bands with his friends. His musical tastes quickly grew to encompass hip hop, jazz and any other genre that caught his attention and he became hooked on the lyrical talents of spoken word artists Gil Scott-Heron, Sage Francis and Saul Williams. It was their poetic mix of styles and genres that encouraged him to leave his bands and go it alone, the idea of having no one to rely on or blame other than himself an appealing challenge.
He adopted a pseudonym from Edward Lear's poem 'The Scroobious Pip' and in 2002 whilst working in HMV made the decision to start saving his writing. In an interview with Beatdom, he later explained the reason behind his name: "I loved the story. It's about a creature that doesn't know what it is ...By the end [of the poem] he realises that he is simply The Scroobious Pip. He doesn't fit into any one category and can just be his own creature."