One of underground hip-hop's most promising, eclectic and hilarious MCs, Pigeon John, is scheduled to burn things up tonight at Madison's Inferno club. Taking a break from working on his new album and touring, Pigeon John spoke with The Daily Cardinal about his career, music and why worshiping God in the nude is the way to go.
'Hey what's up, little slime buckets? You want a piece of me? You want to shave my chest? You want to do nasty things to me? Check it out, my SoundScans are incredible, I'm feeling great ... losing weight. You know what I like to do when no one's looking? I like to get naked and worship the Lord ... while playing the first Nas, Illmatic. A lot of people aren't on that yet. My name is'' An automated female voice interrupts: 'Record your message after the tone. To send a numeric page, press five.'
This voice mail prompt is as good of an introduction to Pigeon John as any, unless you attend tonight's show at the Inferno. The persistently droll MC/troubadour already swung through Madison twice last fall, opening for Lyrics Born on the same day Blackalicious released The Craft, which featured John's verse on 'Side to Side.' He is now touring in support of his own releases: Pigeon John ... Is Dating Your Sister and Pigeon John Sings the Blues.
John views Sings the Blues as 'a half-swing, artistically, because it was just meant to be an EP, but Basement Records really tried to blow it out.' Which is to say the label is cashing in before he moves on to his May debut for the Quannum collective, which is to include production from RJD2 and feature guest vocals from Lyrics Born, J-Live, Brother Ali and the Pharcyde's Tre Hardson.
Together, these two albums position John as a B-Boy Jon Brion, plagued by self-doubt''Look like your homeboy or look like your dad? / Should I sing a little more or should I stick to rap''?yet still hoping to 'do something ingenious' that will make 'everyone bow down.' Tellingly, his most grandiose aspirations are voiced in a nasal coo that drips insecurity; the closest he gets to chauvinism is the 'I miss you, 'cause I'm hungry' lament of 'She Cooks Me Oatmeal!'
All this jocularity cushions a musician informed by a fatherless childhood spent shuttling between Nebraska and L.A., not fitting in either place.
'Kids in Nebraska learned from their parents: the N-word and fighting every day'and that's me being mixed'black and white ... When I moved to [L.A.], not fitting in with the all-black crowd; that was less confrontational. I wasn't fighting because someone was like, [shifts to pubescent inflection] 'Hey man, are you part white'? It's more a feeling of ... 'Where am I gonna go'? I think everyone goes through something like that, whether it's racism or sexism or class-ism, everyone goes through being shut out and being raged upon.'
That alienation consistently finds outlets beyond inchoate rage or aimless moping. He spouts off flippantly about facing high school reunions penniless, but a track like Is Dating Your Sister's 'Emily' cleverly turns the absentee-father-kiss-off track on its head. This song finds John 'imagining what would've happened ... Telling the tale of ... not having a dad, but not doing it in the way where it's just a song about me ... but being the dad, and asking ... 'Why do you think he left? Was he twenty, did he want to be a painter''?
'All very touching' the stone-faced backpacker might say, 'But can he set aside the oddball pop, the waltzes, the clean-living Slug schtick and straight-up spit some flow'? He certainly can, but when challenged to pick the hardest, grimiest song from his back catalog, John laughs. 'Jeez, that's embarrassing,' he says, acknowledging that even his most straightforward hip-hop tracks hinge on melody.
He was serious about nude worship at the altar of God and hip-hop, though: 'That's my inspiration for the next record.' May the SoundScans follow.
