Introdiction

Album: Distraction Pieces (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Introdiction" became Scroobius Pip's first official solo single - he had already released one solo album, No Commercial Breaks, back in 2006 (with no label and fake catalogue numbers!), but Distraction Pieces he considers more his first official solo album as it's the first on his own label, Speech Development Records.
  • The Distraction Pieces album saw Pip deliberately branch out and work with different collaborators beyond his net from his work with Dan le Sac, and "Introdiction" features a drum track from world reknown drummer Travis Barker, famous for his work with Blink-182 and +44.
  • The "Introdiction" video is very distinctive and low-budget, much like the video for his debut single with Dan le Sac, "Thou Shalt Always Kill."

    "That one I made for £100," said Pip in the London Real interview. "It was just me locked in a metal container, I cut my beard off, I shaved my hair, it had to be one take due to what happens in the video - it's tough, you can't really practice! The other people involved were all far more nervous than me for some reason, I was like 'I know the words!' We set fire to a hobby horse's head, and we'd covered it in petrol - that thing went up, and we're in this closed metal container, so the smoke starts to fill up, and I'm like, we need to get to the end of the take! Because at that point I've already cut my beard off, I've shaved chunks of my hair!"
  • The lyrics contain a reference to American comedian Lenny Bruce, who was famous for being a trailblazer for alternative comedy (often laden with expletives and obscenities) and whose obscenity trial in 1964 became something of a landmark for freedom of speech in the US. The reference in "Introdiction" is pertaining to a section of the lyrics talking about how language evolves over time and how ridiculous it is that society gives so much power to profanity and swear words.

    "I'm a massive stand-up nerd," discussed Pip in the 2014 London Real interview, "and Lenny Bruce was one of those who blew my mind with his illustration of how stupid it is that we give so much power to certain words and language. In Lenny's case he had an amazing piece on all sorts of racial profanities and showing that they are only powerful because we allow them to be. I always remember seeing him explain that a seven-year-old kid hasn't got the mental power to insult another seven-year-old kid in a way that will make them question their history and heritage, but give them certain different racial slurs and profanities, and they can. They can say that one word, and make that person feel like a second-class citizen. Why have we given that word that power?!"

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