Stig of the Dump interview
HUCK talks to the fiercely uncompromising rapper about life, death and Robbie Williams.
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“I’m a hater, for want of a better word, I’ve even got t-shirts that say hater on them,” says UK hip hop emcee Stig of the Dump. “But that’s more about the opposite, that’s more about a love for hip hop that’s so intense that I’m not willing to accept bullshit.”
The first thing you notice about Stig is just how much presence he has. Not just in a physical sense but in general character, projecting love, hate and a relentless passion with his words. As we speak, he reclines back into a small sofa in Lewis Recordings’ office, the label that’s about to release his first full-length album, Mood Swings. His interlocked fingers rest across his chest yet despite his relaxed poise, he’s far from mellow, launching into long monologues about life, music and, in particular, death – often before conceding that he’s going too deep into things.
“[The name] Mood Swings reflects me as a person, like I’m up and down quite a bit,” says Stig in his diluted Geordie accent. “There is definitely more of a serious element there but there’s also the moronic thing. I can understand that’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but I make music for myself, so it’s a reminder of how much fun I can have making music.”
But for a self-confessed joker, there is a deeper, and slightly darker, motivation for making music, namely an obsession with mortality. “I haven’t read it but there’s a book by Ernest Beckercalled The Denial of Death. His thesis [apparently] is that any truly artistic endeavour stems from a subconscious desire to surpass your own mortality. That’s very much the truth of me,” he explains with an honesty that’s almost alarming. “I’m an insomniac sometimes, so I just lie awake thinking about the concept of death and that sounds really morbid but like the whole concept of nothingness forever just fucks my head.”
It’s obvious that Stig is someone who has a lot of thoughts going through his head, and he isn’t shy of sharing them. So the fact that he has twice won End of the Weak - an emceeing contest that attracts talent from across the globe to showcase their lyrical skills – and become recognised as one of the UK’s most talented microphonists, is unsurprising. It almost seems emceeing is a necessity for the man born into an army family in Newcastle the best part of three decades ago. However, after leaving the “alcoholism, football and fighting” of his hometown just over five years ago, he moved down to London, ending up sleeping rough and sofa surfing while putting out his debut EP, the aptly-titled The Homeless Microphonist.
It was during this time that a bizarre twist of fate saw Stig’s talents picked up by none other than pop crooner Robbie Williams. Although Stig remains vague about the deal, he was briefly given a retainer by the wealthy popstar. For some, such a core act taking handouts from such a mainstream artist would be considered artistically suspect, but Stig views it with pragmatism. After all, it’s something that put a roof over his head. “To be honest, it was never something I envisaged doing in my career, but I was homeless and the opportunity arose,” says Stig of the arrangement. “It was never really said what he wanted me to do like, but we discussed possible ghost writing. It never came through but I’m not bitter about the situation.”
Yet despite this brief dip into this commercial world, where Stig is today has simply been the result of many years of live shows, proving his worth on stage with disregard for what is deemed ‘cool’ - even trying to start mosh pits at his shows. Beyond the morbidity, Stig genuinely seems to carry himself with that don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, luckily he happens to have the talent to back it up too.
“I think society has lost its ‘fuck you’ attitude,” he says, once again unashamedly venting his thoughts in a long monologue. “The whole world has just become soft. It’s all about health and safety, following rules being fucking stupid. Whereas I’m not about that, I’m against the grain, I’m about being true to self and bugging out! I’ve got too much going on in my head but it all disappears when I’m rapping live. There’s nowhere in the world I’m happier than when I’m on stage. I’m addicted to that feeling.”
Mood Swings is out now on Lewis Recordings.
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Stig of the Dump interview (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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