Piff Gang might be UK’s answer to Odd Future – and their love of the sticky stuff hasn’t stopped them from being invited onstage at A$AP’s gig in Camden . Say goodbye to grime, wave hello to their woozy, cloud-filled weed rap with the exclusive Wonderland premiere of Candy Cup.
Introduce yourselves – who are Piff Gang and what are you guys about?
Piff Gang are a hip-hop group from London made up of seven emcees: Phaze, Young Skout, Don Silk, Super D, Relly Rels, Skits & Nick Bam. Two producers: Budgie & Crankz and our DJ, Motive. Joey 2 Bunn & Johnnie Ford handle all our film production. We’re about having a good time and showing London city still makes good rap music.
What’s your music like then?
Piff Gang is a new sound derived from our influences such as East Coast hip-hop, old school garage and West Coast G-funk. A lot of our production is sample based. We’re big fans of producers like Madlib & Jay Dee who sample lots of different kinds of records as well as play original shit.
Describe the idea behind your latest video.
Candy Cup was intended to be trippy and psychedelic. As all our videos it’s full of ‘weed porn’. Its pretty much Silk’s drug trip. We shot the video with next to no budget on Canon 7D’s.
You guys have been compared to Odd Future – how does that make you feel?
We understand the comparison to OF but we see that as a compli
ment, they make wavey music. We’re both big crews who are doing something different.
How do you feel about the British rap scene right now?
The UK scene is made up of mainly road rap and grime pop, we represent something new. The US have groups like Black Hippy, OF and Worlds Fair the UK have Piff Gang, Ash Catch’em & Nate.
If you could soundtrack any film, what would it be and why?
We really like films by directors like Spike Lee, The Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino. Silk’s verse on the song ‘Trippin’ is all about the film Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas. Budgie is gonna be scoring films like RZA in no time.
How much do you guys love weed? We get the feeling you really, really love weed.
Yes we all really love Mary Jane, the fucking hoar.
You guys also rap a lot about your success with the ladies. Who’s the most successful of the group at picking up girls?
We never piff ‘n’ tell.
What else do you guys have on?
We’re releasing another three free mixtapes this year. Expect to see more video content, more Piff Gang clothing and more shows. Check piffgang.com to stay up to date.
Piff Gang’s third mixtape, Plant Life, is available for download. piffgang.com
Words: Zing Tsjeng