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Scroobius Pip, real name David Mead, quit his job at HMV stacking shelves and serving customers to wage his own guerilla assault to become a fully-fledged rock star.
Pip said: “I thought I’d give myself a year to attempt a music career. Travel around and sleep in a Toyota Space Cruiser, perform outside other people’s gigs. I figured shaving wouldn’t be so easy.”
He made the single Thou Shalt Always Kill with fellow hipster Dan Le Sac which hit the Top 40 in 2007.
Pip became the first broadcaster to play Angel Haze’s Cleaning Out My Closet, a disturbing account of the American rapper’s experience of rape.
On the harrowing track, Pip said: “It’s hard to listen to but does that mean it should be hidden away and ignored? I personally don’t thin so.”
Pip grew up as an Essex boy with a stutter and started out on his path to performance through writing poetry.
Pip wants his radio listeners to be intrigued and ‘tickled’ he said: “We’ve got comfortable with the fact that radio has become something that’s on in the background.
“And that’s fine. I like the idea that if it’s on in the background and no one’s really paying attention… let’s have some fun. Let’s see what we can do.”