Hello, this is Fitz Winkleman.  You may have heard my distinguished voice on Westcheddar Radio, a program I co-host with my good buddy Stan Ipcus.  Today, I’m here with Ipcus to discuss his latest project, Verses From The Ipster, which is an 80 minute onslaught of verses spanning his entire rap career from 1999-2009.  I had the privilege to preview the project last night, and I must say it’s quite incredible.  For those of you like me who have been Stan Ipcus fans since the beginning, it is certainly a trip down memory lane.  So Ipcus, where did the idea come for this project?

IP:  I guess I was thinking about how long I’ve been rapping, and realized it had been 10 years since I recorded my first album.  Dirty Jax and I put out a Best of Stan Ipcus mixtape last April, and it was hot because it had a bunch of new stuff on it as well as some of my older songs.  But I really left a lot of songs off that, especially my stuff from when I was in college.  It was more of a way to put out some new music while simotaneously introducing some of my new listeners to some songs that were a couple years older they probably never heard before.  But with Verses from the Ipster, I’m taking it all the back to the very first album and going right up to the end of last year.  It’s a complete retrospective.

FW:  Why did you decide to put the verses in chronological order?

IP:  It just made sense that way.  It’s kind of my evolution as a rapper.  You can hear my voice change, and how the flows progressed, and kind of see how I grew as a rapper.  Plus, it made it easier to put together.  I kind of sat down with all my albums and went through them in order searching through my favorite verses.

FW:  But there’s some stuff on there that never popped up on any of your albums.

IP:  Yeah, well I have a file of unreleased songs I’ve done over the years, and I mixed those in too.  Some of my favorite verses on this project come from songs I never officially put out.

FW:  Was it overwhelming to try and tackle your whole catalog at once?

IP:  Not too bad.  I have a pretty good grip on my discography.  Once I started I just kind of got rolling and was excited to get to the end.  The hard part was fitting everything in I wanted to use.  I was pretty selective though, and really stuck to my personal favorites.  Some things I thought were hot I ended up pulling off or skipping over, especially if I wasn’t really digging the beats.  And also, I noticed that a few of my favorite songs actually didn’t even have a verse that really stood out to me.

FW:  Like what?

IP:  Umm, “Dan Dynamite” was one.  I mean, that’s one of my absolute favorite songs I ever recorded.  We even made it the first song on the Dirty Jax mixtape.  But it’s more the beat and the chorus and the concept that’s hot.  It’s not really my most lyrically crazy verses.  I also like my voice on that song.  But I skipped over that one.  Same thing with “Rap Video” and “Let’s Walk”.  Two of my favorite beats and songs, but there just wasn’t one verse that really jumped out at me.  It’s more the song as a whole.  I really tried to reach for verses that stood out for this project.

FW:  Your voice has changed a lot over the years.  But it’s not like it started as one voice and progressed to another.  You kind of hop all over the place with it.

IP:  It’s weird like that.  I definitely had more of a high pitched voice in my early recordings, and it got lower over time.  But I still revisit the high pitched voice a lot.  Like on “My Ferris Buellers”, that’s almost like my old voice.  Then there’s some songs where I have the raspy voice like on “Dan Dynamite” or “Wifey Material”, which seems to come out on more laidback cuts.  And then there’s the aggressive voice, when I’m just going in, like on “Brainiac” or “Hammer”.  And then sometimes, it might just sound like my normal speaking voice.  I can’t control it, unless I purposely use a different voice on a chorus or something, like on “Brainiac”.  But it’s usually the microphone or the feel of the song or what time of the day I’m recording that changes the tone though.  Like I said, it’s weird.

FW:  Any favorite old verses that you forgot about that popped out at you while you were putting this together?

IP:  Yeah.  One of the first verses on there is over this old Cypress Hill interlude, and it’s really slow, but I love it.  I’m talking about being in class with my old roommate Apo, and I’m just kind of observing what’s going on around the room.  It brought me back to my college days.  At the end of the verse we both get up and give our teacher dap in the middle of class and leave to go smoke pot.

Halloween on Knox Road in College Park, 1998

Stan Ipcus rapping on WMUC in College Park, Fall 1998

FW:  Hilarious!  Any others.  I mean, there’s 80 verses on there.

IP:  Another old one that cracks me up is this verse I put on there that I spit on the Sports Junkies radio show down when I was living in D.C.  My boy told me they were having this contest around the time 8 Mile came out for white rappers, so I went up there just for fun.  I spit this quick style verse over an old Jay-Z beat.  I really thought I should have won that contest.  There were mad dudes up there, and I can’t front some of them were pretty nice, but cockiness aside no one was touching that verse, and they all knew it, including the hosts of the show who were bugging out when I finished.  But I don’t think the judges wanted to give me first prize because I was from New York.  It was a fun event though, and they gave us all free passes to an early screening of the movie.   And the recording still puts a big smile on my face.

FW:  Me too.  That verse is crazy good.  You’ve got a bunch of Jay-Z beats on there actually.

IP:  Yeah I realized that too.  I don’t know, he’s one of my favorites, and I always liked his beats.  There’s a couple strings of like three or four that I put together that are pretty fun.  My favorite is probably the one over the “Squeeze First” instrumental.

FW:  There’s a lot of original beats on there too.

IP:  When I was living in College Park and D.C., I used to work with my boys Max B and Bless a lot.  A lot of the the early stuff is produced by them.  Of course, we’re all still friends and collaborators even though they both live in Maryland.  I recorded a bunch of songs for Bachelor Party down there that Max actually co-produced and played instruments on.  In fact, if you listen closely to “Wifey Material” you can hear Bless talking in the background through the whole song.  Those are my dudes.  I do a lot of production myself too, but it’s mostly just looping up old records.  I don’t really program drums.

Stan Ipcus flyer, College Park, Summer 2000

FW:  What’s with the breaking glass in between each song?

IP:  I wanted to drop Funkmaster Flex style bombs to transition between each verse because I don’t know how to scratch and I wanted it to flow from one verse to the other without any breaks for choruses, but I couldn’t find a bomb sound that had the right impact.  I thought the breaking glass was cool and more original and it had a good sound to it that wasn’t annoying.  I tried to have each beat kind of fit with the next one, but also keep it chronological order for the most part, so that was a little tricky.  And the volumes of the verses fluctuates a bit throughout the 80 minutes, which I tried my best to control.  But I think the overall flow of the project is pretty seamless.  It works.

FW:  I have to agree.  So you’re having a baby.  Are you still going to rap when you become a Dad?

IP:  Probably, but not as much as I used to.  It’s really just a hobby at this point.  I rarely perform.  Five years ago, I was doing shows all the time at lots of major venues in NYC and Westchester.  Now it’s maybe once or twice a year that I touch a stage.  I like to come out and perform “WP” with Matisyahu when he’s in town.  But I enjoy keeping up my blog Westcheddar, and I’m working with Up North Trips now too, which is a cool site that kind of merges old sports and hip hop pics from the 80’s and 90’s together, and that’s really fun to contribute to because that’s my zone.  And every once in a while I still get the urge to write or record songs.  I actually just did a new song that Max B produced.  I’m always working on some sort of project, and this is evidence of that.  I like being creative, and it’s fun to have such a lengthy discography to play with.  Right now I think I’m most excited about Westcheddar Radio and us recording our next episode.  Have you been enjoying co-hosting that with me?

FW:  Of course!  Yeah, it’s been fantastic.  I’m looking forward to our next episode too.  Now Ipcus, I wanted to ask you, do you have any favorite rap verses from other artists that you listen to?

IP:  The Nas verse on “Verbal Intercourse” might be my favorite verse of all time.  It’s so good.  The whole song is amazing, but that actual verse is bananas, and historically it’s so important too.  For Nas to be the only non-Wu member on that album says a lot about how much he was respected back then by his peers.  I have a couple high school kids I work with who are really into hip hop and writing raps and making beats.  Me and this one kid in particular have a very similar taste in rap music, so I put him on to a lot of stuff.  Right now, ever since I played him “Exhibit C”, all he listens to is Jay Electronica.  I made him a CD of all Jay Electronica songs, and he loves it.  And he’s really into 90’s hip hop too, especially Biggie and Nas.  I was giving him a ride one day and I had some mix CD in my car and when “Verbal Intercourse” came on he started bugging out!  He kept rewinding it over and over.  Somehow, he had never heard it before, which blew my mind.  But then again, he’s still in high school, so that’s an oldie to him.

FW:  Who are you checking for right now?

IP:  Jay Electronica.  He’s dope.  I like his flow, his voice, the way he pronounces his words, and he has that thing about him where every verse I hear from him has that classic sound.  People keep saying he reminds them of Nas, but I think he’s kind of a mixture of Nas and Biggie.  He’s ill.

FW: Well thanks for your time Ipcus.  I guess I’ll see you for the next episode of Westcheddar Radio.

IP:  Thanks Fitz.  And to everyone out there, enjoy Verses From The Ipster.  It’s a doozy.  Perfect for your Ipod, and it will fit on a CD if you want to bang it in your car.  Thanks for all the support.  Peace!

DOWNLOAD/STREAM STAN IPCUS VERSES FROM THE IPSTER

*Bonus*

DOWNLOAD/STREAM STAN IPCUS “PLUG ME IN” PRODUCED BY MAX BEE

Complex Magazine just published The Encyclopedia of White Rappers, and guess who was included?  That’s right, yours truly, Stan Ipcus.  Wow, I didn’t know there were so many white rappers out there.  I’ve heard of a lot of these guys (and girls), and am fans of some of them too (I’ve posted a lot of different white rapper material here on Westcheddar), but some of these people I’ve never heard of.  I must say, it’s kind of fun to thumb through, and in a way I feel honored to be included.  It’s funny, the two categories they put me in are “jewish” and “backpacker”.  Ha!  Here’s how they describe me…

Named after the titular character in The Mask, Ipcus is a childhood friend of Matisyahu who has freestyled on Hot 97 and Shade 45 and appeared on “WP” off his homie Matis’s ’06 LP, Youth. You think we’re gonna hate, but dude kicks rhymes like “I’m just a fly white boy with that real hip-hop” that we think are kinda cute, so we won’t. Cute like puppies and kittens cute, but cute nonetheless.

I actually like this description, though I wouldn’t say all my rhymes are cute.  They obviously haven’t heard 99% of my material.  Still, I’m glad they included me, and I appreciate the sentiment.  Here’s the link to my listing (which includes the video for “My Ferris Buellers”)…

Complex Encyclopedia of White Rappers STAN IPCUS page

Fun!

That picture right there is me, Stanley Ipcus, about ten years ago, performing live at some outdoor Frat Party on Knox Road in College Park, Maryland, right behind where me and Pocheese used to live (HAPPY BIRTHDAY APO AND CONGRATS TO YOU AND JESS ON THE BIRTH OF SAMANTHA!!!!).  Those were good times.  I remember how much I loved to rap back then, whether it was recording songs or performing at shows or just freestyling with my bros.  Now, ten years later, I still love it, and though I don’t perform as much or have freestyle sessions that often (we did just have a mean one the night before Thanksgiving though), I still find time to record.  After finishing up The Young Professional, I decided I would revisit that College Park style and remix one of the first songs I ever recorded in a real studio, “Ippy Strut”.  I was prompted to do so by my boy C Bats, who suggested I put new raps on one of my older beats, and that’s what I did.  With a t-t-twist of course.  Here’s the link to stream/download “Ippy Strut 2009”.  Enjoy…

STAN IPCUS “IPPY STRUT 2009” DOWNLOAD/STREAM

If you’d like to check out the original, it’s on my first album Pu Click Poetry, which you can download HERE, along with the rest of my discography.  Cheah!

*BONUS*

*Check out Ogden Avenue’s own DJ Leche’s new mixtape Impeccable Grind, which features yours truly on a couple cuts, HERE.

*Thanks to Nation at NahRight for posting “Ippy Strut 2009”, peep it HERE.  Nation just started a new blog of his own, ItsTheCalm.com.  Definitely worth visiting…

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you….drum roll please!!!!!  The brand new Stan Ipcus album.  The Young Professional.  This is my most personal work to date.  I’ve matured.

The Young Professional is the story of a 31 year old married man living in the suburbs of New York City (Westcheddar 914), with a baby on the way, reflecting on his past and looking to his future, cleaning up his act, handling responsibility, working full time, and still having fun and making rap music.

Here’s my track by track breakdown…

“Intro”

When I was on my honeymoon, I copped this CD at this little record store on our layover in Laguna Beach by Martha Velez that was produced by Bob Marley.  Once we finally got out to Kauai, I popped it in the rental car while we were driving around to check it out, and this one song on there hit me.  It was too slow to rap too, but I looped it up anyway when I got home and figured I’d use it for something.  So when it came time to put together an intro for the album, I reached for it.  As for my ramblings, well I just wanted to say “thank you” to my family and everyone who has supported me over the past ten years I’ve been been releasing music, and shout out all the places I’ve lived that made me who I am today.  This album is like the culmination of my life thus far.  I’m looking back as I look forward.  Like I said before, it’s personal.

“Auspicious”

That’s a dope word.  This song is almost two years old, but I kind of stashed it away, knowing that I would use it for something special.  I had one of the kids I work with read the definition of the word in the beginning of the song, which I recorded at my studio where I work.  It sums up the meaning of the song.  And yeah, that’s an Alchemist beat.  I usually always jack something of his for all of my releases because he’s my favorite producer.  At first, I had this in the middle of the album, but realized it was the perfect song to start everything off with.  It’s lyrical, but not too heavy or topical, and it’s straight hip hop, with the vocal scratches and all.  Plus, it was the first song on the album I recorded.

“A Pimp’s Proposal”

This is another one I had in the stash.  Don’t let the whisper flow throw you off, I went in on this song lyrically.  It’s funny, my wife, well we weren’t even engaged at the time but still she’s my wife now, she was sleeping in the other room and I was up and I was kinda twisted so I wanted to record this, but I didn’t want to wake her up.  So I was like whispering into the mic!  The beat is like your floating or something.  Shout out to my boy Tic for putting me on to the song I got the loop from.  Anyway, this is basically the story of how I dreamed of proposing to my wife.  How I would do it and all that.  But also, what the proposal really means.  What the significance of the ring is, and us being married, and all that good stuff.  The day I bought her engagement ring I was thumping this shit in my whip.  It had me amped to get down on one knee.

“The Working Man Is A Sucker”

I shaped the concept of the album around this song.  I looped the instrumental from The Menehan Street Band, who are the dudes that Jay-Z got the “Roc Boys” sample from.  I don’t really program drums and all that, but I’m nice at finding loops to rap to and creating an intrumental format from them, with a hook and all that.  I do that alot on this album.  Kinda like what I did on my first album Pu Click Poetry.  I guess I’ve come full circle.  Anyway, this song is about what it’s like to be a rapper who has to work full time.  I’ve always worked full time to make a living, which I’m proud of but in a way it held me back from really putting my all into my career as a rapper.  But hey, I had to do it to live.  This song explains the lifestyle of the young professional.  There’s lots of us out there, who have to work hard to make a living.  Sometimes our dreams suffer for it, but in the end of the day, it’s okay.

“Happy Hour”

This was fun to make.  I looped up this new funk song I like and wrote a story to it about getting out of work and going to happy hour in NYC.  I did the voice for my boss Fitz Winkleman, which is one of the old characters I used to do back in high school on my TV show Prime Time with Dan and Andrew.  I gotta shout out my boy C Bats who inspired this song.  He works in Manhattan and is always popping it off during the week like this.  I come get up with him when I can.  This is some real Westchester white boy shit though, in terms of the slang, behavior, and the overall story line of how a night after work can go down.

“Delegate of Hell”

I made this beat on Garage Band.  True story.  Fall back.  Nah Right posts alot of my stuff, but I was proud when they posted this because I made it from scratch.  The first verse is one of the best verses I ever wrote.  This is probably my favorite song on the album.  It’s dark, and lyrically vicious.

“College Park Homecoming”

This was the last song I recorded for the album.  I downloaded Oddisee’s Odd Autumn, and once I heard this beat this story came to my mind.  I know Oddisee from back in my University of Maryland days, which made the connection to telling the story of returning to my old stomping grounds in College Park perfect.  It’s been a decade since I started doing official shows in October 1999, which is crazy to me.  This beat gave me the canvas to paint that picture.  It’s a really nostalgic little song.  Those years were so important to my development as an artist and a person.  It’s about time I revisited them.  Shout out to the University of Maryland class of 2000.

“Picket Fence Dream”

I’ve never played this song for anyone.  I played the beat for my boys when I first made it though, and they loved it.  I made it like two years ago, and wrote the lyrics about a year ago.  It’s funny, because I wrote it looking into the future, and it’s what actually ended up happening.  I mean, we really do have a baby on the way, but back then, it was just a dream and something we always talked about.  And it describes our wedding, which was pretty similar to the way I rap about it in the first verse, at least the feel of it.  I was gonna flow more laidback on this, but the sample on the hook is sung with such emotion that I had to go harder, and I think it actually came out ill.  It’s soulful.  I put my all into this one.  Hopefully people can hear that.

“Killin’ Time”

There’s so many dope blogs out there that post old soul gems from the 70’s that I never heard before.  This is one of those songs.  I extended the intro so I could rap to it, and I felt like the concept of the song fit with the album.  My verse is about how I like to kill my time, back in the day and now, in terms of chilling and making music and stuff like that.  “This ain’t a hobby, it’s a lifestyle”.  I say “remix” in the beginning because it’s structured how a modern day R & B song remix would be, with a rapper adding a verse to the beginning.  I’ve been holding this one for a while too.  Peep the slow flow.

“The Good Old Days”

This is my remake of Biz Markie’s “What Comes Around Goes Around”.  Such a dope old hip hop track.  I’m telling the stories of a couple of my old girlfriends and I how I first got with them.  I’m spitting young G on this!  True stories though.  This is about as radio friendly as I get on this album, though the quality is kinda wack because I had trouble finding a good version of the instrumental.  But I did find it, and the final product sounds kinda like some old tape from back in those days anyway so I guess it’s kind of fitting.  I had this in the middle of the album before but then I decided I liked it at the end.  I don’t know, it just ends nice.  Like, those were the good old days, but now I’m looking to even better days in the future.

DOWNLOAD STAN IPCUS THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

STREAM STAN IPCUS THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL ON IMEEM

Thanks to my dude David Roy for hooking up the album cover, and thanks to everyone else for their continued support.  Enjoy the music.  Peace and love.

FULL IP DISCOGRAPHY FREE DOWNLOAD 1999-2009

*UPDATE*

THE YOUNG PROFESSIONAL FEATURED ON NAHRIGHT

Stan Ipcus “Reminder” FREE DOWNLOAD and VIDEO LINK on Nahright

The Young Professional coming soon.  Oh yeah, if you still don’t have the Dirty Jax Presents The Best of Stan Ipcus well you can get it for free HERE.  Ya dig?!?!?!?

Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 is slowly but surely starting to leak.  In the last 24 hours, two Timbaland produced tracks have surfaced.  First was “Off That” featuring everyone’s favorite new radio rapper Drake, which is pretty dope.  And then today “Reminder” hit the blogs.  Whoa.  Now that’s the one!  So well written, the beat is dumb hard, and the hook is ill.  For the first time in months I sat down and wrote a rap.  Thank you “Reminder” for the inspiration.  Listen to the song above.  I already looped up the instrumental and hope to go in on it in the morning when I have the crib to myself.  Stay tuned.

*UPDATE* 

I went in…