We here at Diatribes (which currently is yours truly, Eighty-Six) snagged an interview with one of Los Santos' biggest names in the music game: Charlie Plimmft. Charlie Plimmft is known for his tracks First Date, and a recently re-released track known as "Master Key" which we at Diatribes covered when the original first released.
Mr. Plimmft was gracious enough to meet with me down by the beach to discuss his music, his inspiration, and his plans for the genre of Horror Hip- Hop. LSD: So, originally, I know you did Master Key and I know you did a remix recently that you dropped. Plimmft: Yeah, I sort of re-released it, I wasn't too happy-- I mean, it was alright the first time, but I sort of made that beat awhile ago and I feel like I've been improving over the last year and a half, so I wanted to sort of do it again, you know, get a new artist on there, someone with a local talent that's around. LSD: Yeah, for sure, I saw you got Miss Shingles on board, huh? Plimmft: Yeah, she's brilliant and she works with Kokoro and I've been working with a couple of their artists-- nothing else releasing yet, but, going to be doing a song with Aiko who I think is the CEO, and going to be working with Lulu [Moon] a lot, I know she's sort of a special guest with them, but yeah I've got a couple tracks in the works with Lulu. LSD: Any ETA on when we can expect some of these new tracks? Plimmft: That's a good question, pal- not really too sure. Musically, I got a lot of them done, but particularly when you're working with folk, everyone works at their own pace. This is sort of what I was doing to make a bit of cash while I was out of the states, doing a bit of freelance producing and all that, so you know, I'm pretty quick on the beats and I'm kind of waiting for other folk. LSD: So a lot of your music so far has been uh, very heavy-hitting, I mean a lot of people would say it's um-- I don't know the exact way to describe it-- but what inspires you-- Plimmft: Horror Hip-Hop is the word I like to use, what I've been calling the genre. Mr. Plimmft takes a moment to light a cigarette, and looks thoughtful. LSD: You seem to be the front-runner of that genre right now. Where do you get your inspiration from with these tracks like this? Plimmft : Are you trying to ask if I'm a serial killer? LSD: No, no, that's not what I'm asking at all- I mean, it's very creative, and not everyone thinks to think like this. This earned a grin from Mr. Plimmft as he ashed his cigarette. Plimmft: No, I'm just messin' around pal. Well I uh, I dunno, I always liked horror movies when I was younger, you know? I used to sort of go to this video store near where I lived pretty often and my sort of favorite flicks were the ones with some sort of bad, ominous threat, you know, sort of going around hurting people like ah-- Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Candyman, I mean uh- Silence of the Lambs, Scream, Seven? Just always been kind of interested in movies about the darker side of things, I 'spose.
LSD: Yeah, those are classics. If you were to pick your favorite as far as those classic horror killers, who would it be? [What movie] Plimmft: I gotta say, I'm a sucker for sort of the 80's, you know, Friday the 13th was awesome, the sequel-- a lot of people don't know, [Nightmare on Elm Street] the guy did another movie where it was sort of a-- no one saw it, I felt-- it was 10 years after the last movie, and it was actually all the actors playing themselves, and the story was like that Freddy had actually become real, and now was going after them. As far as sort of series of movies, I guess, that's probably been my favorite. For stand-alone movie, I gotta go with Seven. I think the level of creativity the writers were putting into it is the type of creativity I put into my songs. You know, different ways to hurt people and whatnot, stuff like that. LSD: There's such a unique kind of horror and suspense in that movie, specifically, and how it comes about- nobody expects uh- you know, you know the scene I'm talking about. Plimmft: Yeah, of course, of course. LSD: Have you ever thought of doing a song about one of your favorite horror movie killers? Plimmft: That's actually a good idea- I've been thinking about either doing one specifically or like a mish-mash of them, maybe rapping about -- I do like to keep my songs a sort of a story, something that sort of paints a picture of events happening, things going wrong. I need to sort of figure out how to work that in. LSD: Do you have any plans for a full album release, or are you mostly sticking to singles for now? Plimmft: I'm actually working on an EP called 'Allegedly'. I've got a couple different ideas, I'm working on a song with Lulu [Moon] that I'm really excited about. It's a bit of a Honeytrap type thing, where the first half of the song, she's singing about inviting a guy over to her place, and halfway through, the beat drops and changes a bit, turns out I'm there, and it's this sort of trap and we torture them to death. It will be a fun little story to be told for 3 minutes or so. I like each song to be unique, I try to come up with the idea for the song before I get writing. As fun as it is to sort of rap about all the usual things-- money, ladies, slinging dope-- I want each song to be a little contained story, which is why Master Key is pretty specific about busting into people's houses, robbing and murdering them. First Date is- well, First Date is sort of my first song too, just a little kidnapping and murder-- I want to sort of keep it fresh with each song I do.
LSD: Any plans for music videos coming up? Plimmft: That is something I want to work on, see at the moment I'm not signed to a record label, I am considering a couple options but I don't want to talk about that too much. Maybe once I get signed, get a bit of money in the pocket, I'm definitely going to invest in that -- Master Key, for sure, that would be a fun little idea. We discuss a bit about any collaborations he's looking forward to, and he expresses interest in working with quite a few Kokoro artists, mentioning some ideas for some different songs he'd like to prepare for when he plays live (including a collab with 4-5 artists for one track). LSD: Speaking of playing live, do you have any plans for that in the near future, or is that more down the road? Plimmft: No real plans as of yet-- the thing is, I'm a producer first, rapper second realistically. I've been making music on my laptop for 10 years. When I'm doing a live gig, I'll be putting a lot of time into it. Every one I do is going to be unique, and will have intros, mix in between the songs, even do some covers maybe of some 90's hip-hop. I want to make it really worth the time and money people might put into it. So, nothing too soon, but definitely something I'm very interested in. LSD: So you're a bit of a recluse, an unknown face. Is there anything you'd like people to know about you that they may not get from your music? Plimmft: Well probably the main thing is that-- I'm not actually a psychopath that enjoys pulling peoples' teeth out. I'm not the best person, I'm not the worst either-- that's sort of a persona, and yet people sort of-- I dunno, they're pretty scared of me sometimes. I can be approachable, even though I'm not the most sociable guy. I don't want people thinking that I skin people alive or get off by burning flesh or-- it ain't the case, it's just a bit of fun [with the music] is all.
LSD: I think sometimes people forget to separate the artist from the music. Plimmft: The example I always give is like, Drake's rapped about slinging dope, you know, there's no fucking way he's done that, he's the softest rapper there is in the game. I just hope people remember [to separate the artist from their art] sometimes. Everyone has got their hip-hop persona, so whether they make things up entirely or exaggerate. I thanked him for his time as we made it out of the rain, and he wanted to add that he hopes people come to his shows when he starts to play live crowds- he promises an interactive experience that isn't just playing his songs. He mentions dropping unreleased tracks, things he'll never play more than once.
These are sure to be shows you won't want to miss! Until then, make sure to check out his mentioned re-release of Master Key with Miss Shingles: https://soundcloud.com/ljandpad/master-key
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