Rikard “Skizz” Bizzi has been an active part of the Stockholm hip-hop scene for a long time. On October 24th he’s releasing his third album, UR FUNKTION LP, featuring some OP-1 use. Skizz was kind enough to meet with us and answer a few questions.
TE: When did you start making music?
Skizz: I come from a musical family. We started when we were kids, playing on toys and banging on random stuff to make sounds. We had a simple cassette tape recorder for recording songs. My big sister used to be the star so we were the backing band. My big brother listened to rap since I was born and when I was 10-11 years old my sister brought home 36 Chamberson cassette. That really blew my mind and I knew I wanted to make hip-hop music.
I wrote my first rap when I was 10, in English. The only Swedish rap that I heard at that time was Just D and The Latin Kings. This was before the internet, so it wasn’t like you could go and download anything you wanted, like instrumentals and such. So when I was 13-14 I discovered Fruity Loops and started making my own beats, just to have something to rap on, and to be in full control of the production.
TE: When did you first release anything?
Skizz: My first official release was with Up Hygh. We did a remix of Bap Yo Head by Freddie Cruger that got released in 2004, and in 2006 we released The Venus Album on Jugglin’ / Raw Fusion Recordings. It got pretty hyped up around the world in this niche genre we were making music in. When we did that album we were really fresh out of ‘gymnasiet’ (high school). One of the teachers in school was Aron Phiri who was the mc at the Raw Fusion club. He sent our demo to Mad Mats Karlsson. He was a good A&R and we worked together for the whole album. Overall a good learning experience.
TE: What kind of equipment were you working with at that time?
Skizz: I had an MPC2000XL and an Ensoniq EPS keyboard, Danne (of Up Hygh) had an Akai S1100, a Yamaha TX16W, and we had a borrowed ARP synth. Most of the synth sounds came from the EPS or the MPC.
Some other machines I’ve used over the years include an MPC60, an MPC3000, a Yamaha CS01 (found for 50 SEK / 7 USD at a flea market), a Yamaha CS-10 and a Roland JX3P with the controller (featured heavily on Kärlek, funk & solidaritet etc).
OP-1 was actually kind of a milestone too, as it’s totally different from anything else. To me it’s kind of like a modern, more quirky version of an MPC, because it has that instant feeling were you can just experiment and you’ll soon learn how to make music. It’s something I’ll probably gonna keep for a while.
I mostly use the Sampler, Endless sequencer, Tape recorder and the master FX. I like the Punch effect. To me it sounds like a copied loop, low passed with some resonance on it and then layered with the filtered sound on top of the original, something I would have done on the MPC-3000. It’s nice to just be able to get a loop from vinyl, add some bass to it, add some nice compression with the master Drive, and then export it and record.
I use it mainly as a sampler, and even though it doesn’t have all the functions that I could use it’s still very competent. If it would have had all the functions it probably wouldn’t have been as inspiring. My three main wishes would be more tracks on the tape, an undo function and a sequencer more adjusted for longer loops. You always have to work with limitations and even though it can be frustrating at times, the inspiration that it brings makes up for it. Your imagination is the limitation.
TE: Can you tell us something about your new album?
Four songs on the new album are done with OP-1. For my second album 100kg Funk I didn’t get the response from media that I had thought I would get, so I got kind of frustrated. To deal with this, for Ur Funktion I did all beats, writing and recording in basically a month.
The last track För Alltid (For ever) is actually the only song that has a synth on it. Like I said it was because 36 Chambers that I really wanted to make hip-hop. I wanted it to sound like a beat from Wu Tang forever, and this whole album is kind of like a Wu Tang tribute.
TE: Thanks a lot Skizz!
UR FUNKTION LP
Release date: October 24, 2014
Buy it now at rikardbizzi.se, and at Record Mania and rikardbizzi.bandcamp.com, after the 24th.
Make sure to catch the release party!
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