Snips Brings Hip-Hop, Funk X Soul To ‘The Barbershop LP’
Snips comes through with the first Houseology vinyl release of 2018 – ‘The Barbershop LP’, a swirl of the bedrock elements that make up modern music, his LP lifts from Soul, Funk and Hip-Hop to create this ode to Detroit House.
“I’ve always been influenced by a wide range of music so whatever direction I go in should hopefully never comes as a surprise.” Snips starts off by saying, “in this instance I have been going down the rabbit hole of digging back into early Detroit House. People like Moodymann, Rick Wilhite, Theo Parrish etc and I think naturally thats had an effect on my approach to making music. I never intended to start making House, I just started to hear samples differently and when flipping them that became evident in the end product. I’m a big believer in not just drawing on one type of music for influence, as in turn all you do is recreate that one style.”
Firmly rooted in a Soul music background Snips pays tribute to “the barbershop being the epitome of heated music discussions” across eight tracks, while saying true to sample traditions and leaving Easter eggs for fans scattered through out the LP, “All the names of the tracks are actually hints to the samples I used. I kinda did that as a bit of a game for the crate diggers to see if they can work out what was sampled on each track.”
Set to make Houseology’s first vinyl release of 2018 a special one, Snips has been careful to ensure that even the LP’s bespoke souvenir jacket incorporates all the best elements of his sound, “Souvenir are a brand run by two close friends of mine whose ethos is rooted in making something new from something old. They have a long standing history in the streetwear world and I felt that standpoint sits very well in collaboration with The Barbershop LP being a project that’s based on sampling old records. The jacket made is a Carhartt Chore Coat (a nod to the Detroit influence on the album – Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Dilla etc) The arms and collar have been cut off and replaced with a reverse weave Champion Hood and sleeves (Champion being a NYC 90s staple brand which is a nod to the classic Hip Hop sound on the album) Lastly the inner lining has been removed and replaced with a wool camo. This was a nod to my London roots and especially Maharishi which is my favourite London brand and probably the greatest streetwear brand to ever repurpose military/camo wear. The t-shirt is a play on the old school imagery of 70s vinyl releases.”
Listen in full below and order your very limited 12″ vinyl press here