Jita’s Cafe is bringing some hip hop back to Golden with the Marathon of Dope Canada Tour.
Manitoba rapper Pip Skid (a.k.a. Patrick Skene), will be playing a show with Rob Crooks, DJ Co-op and Zucchini Drive at the Cafe on Saturday Sept. 15 at 8 p.m.
“I grew up in Brandon, Manitoba, and there wasn’t much to do there. Nothing to do there. So I started writing rap music, in about Grade 8,” said Skene. “Rap music wasn’t very popular, quite the opposite actually.”
He eventually got together with a few friends who had the same interest, and they started a label, Peanuts & Corn, to get their own music out there.
“It’s really difficult to make music independently in Canada. I can be pretty frustrating,” said Skene
Marathon of Dope is actually a play on words, referencing Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. Skene says that trying to make music in Canada sometimes feels like running a marathon with one leg.
“Maybe it’s like love, it shouldn’t be easy. There should be challenges and trying times. Anything that means something shouldn’t come easy,” he said. “Bottom line, at the end of the day, if you’re not having fun there’s no point. That’s why I started this 100 years ago, and that’s why I still do it.”
Pip Skid is known for his socially conscious lyrics, and angry outlook on life−an image that has become less true as he gets older.
“As I get older, the less and less I get bitter about things,” he said. “There’s still that stuff there, it just comes with humour now.”
Pip Skid is travelling with a diverse mix of musicians, making the show very accessible to everyone. Even when the rapper performs solo, he finds that the audience is rarely a strict hip hop crowd anyway.
“We usually have more of an indie rock crowd, mixed with a bit of an older hip hop crowd,” he said.
Tickets for the all-ages show are now available at Jita’s Cafe, and Bizarre Entertainment.
