Shooting the Bull with Pink Siifu
Photography by Juan Villaseñor
I admittedly was late to the game with Pink Siifu. In the summer of 2021, it felt like everyone on my Twitter timeline was talking about his third studio album GUMBO’!. Impressive articles from the New York Times and Pitchfork, as well as dozens of independent curators encouraged me to listen, and I’m so glad I did.
GUMBO’! pays homage to the Southern rap and funk he grew up listening to, naming influences like the Dungeon Family, Goodie Mob and Lil Wayne. The album has about as many features — rappers like Maxo, singers like Liv.e and producers like Monte Booker — as a pot of gumbo has ingredients, which feels like the point. Siifu peppers in voicemails, spoken word from Atlanta legend Big Rube, and tracks that vary from ear-splitting basslines on “Roscoe’!” to funky reverberating beats that move slow as molasses on “Call The Bro (Tapped In).” He recently dropped the GUMBO’! deluxe, bringing the total track count to 28, with contributions from Valee, Zelooperz, Kenny Beats and many more.
I got the chance to speak with Siifu outside of Schubas just prior to the first stop of his U.S. “4 Tha’ Folks” tour, which will be running through March 24. We chatted about his current mental state, his thoughts on certain prominent rap media personalities, how NFTs are changing music and more.
So you just got into town earlier today. Has Chicago made much of an impression on you?
I'm from Cincinnati, so for Cincinnati n***as, Chicago is like "the city," like the first check stop. We shot like one video out here when I was first starting rapping. Chicago was the first place we was like, trying to set up shop. My n***a Anwalk and I used to open up for Jet Life out here, it was so crazy. Anwalk loved Curren$y. He on my GUMBO'! deluxe, he on the last song.
I love Chicago. The SAVEMONEY days, Kids These Days, that was my shit. Like Vic Mensa early, Chance early, Alex Wiley, Kembe X. I love Chief Keef, Valee. We was thinking about moving here before anywhere else.
You’re based in Maryland now. I know there was a lot of going from place to place for you as a kid. Birmingham, Cincinnati....
I was born in Birmingham, that's where most of my family is from but I was for the most part raised in Cincinnati. We all went down to Birmingham though for breaks and shit. That's where my grandma’s at still.
I fucked with moving around a lot of spots because it just gave me a well-rounded view on how to maintain myself in different situations. I learned a lot [about] humans, just like how shit moves sociologically.
Would you say you're somebody that's very adaptable to change? I see on the records, there's not a ton of consistency. You go from idea to idea a lot.
Some type of change. I definitely want to try the tropic life one time. That's how life is, I feel like. I fuck with a lot of music, so before I die I want to make sure I've tried everything.
How did you get connected with GKFAM, the openers on this tour?
I've known everybody on this tour for a long ass time. My first time recording officially over music was Peso Gordon's album. I was doing poetry trying to be like Big Rube.
Turich [Benjy] I've known since I've had locs. It's this picture of me & Turich that is so cute. We're so young. N***as from Cincinnati, we went to school together, had the same friends. Before we even knew each other, we liked the same shortie [Laughs].
You did an interview with Anthony Fantano in the hospital right after your twins were born. So you couldn't push it back or anything?
I just remembered it at the moment. He had texted me and I was like, why is he texting? It was just very new that he fucked with me. He had hit me like, "we still good for today?" I was like "oh shit, I forgot about this interview." [My girlfriend] was like "go do it right quick and just come back." Fantano's a legend. She knows how geeked I was about that shit.
He was a cool dude, I fuck with him. He catches a lot of flak. But he's got some longevity in this shit. He's been around for a long time. I fuck with n***like Nardwuar, like Peter Rosenberg. I don't fuck with everything they do and say, but I fuck with them. I'm happy that Fantano fucks with me & my music.
If Nardwuar was interviewing you right now, what crazy childhood thing do you think he would bring up?
Probably a video of me sucking dick in high school. Nah, I'm playing. I don't know though. I've kind of told everybody everything. Nardwuar gonna find some shit out about my homie. I don't know what he'll say about me, I ain't really that mysterious.
If he showed up with some of my grandfather's music. My dad played jazz in Nigeria.
Your grandfather played jazz too then.
In Nigeria. He ain't really dip on the family to go play jazz. He actually asked my grandmother if she wanted to come to Nigeria and she was like, "I'm not leaving Birmingham."
He was just a jazz head. I feel like he's a cool ass n***a. Like my dad loved him. He plays sax, low-key because of him. I'm actually giving my dad his sax next month, so he can get his chops up.
So he's been out of the game for a little while.
Yeah, he put it down to raise kids.
Priorities… I've heard Earl Sweatshirt is a big connector of people in the abstract hip-hop scene. What's been your personal experience with him?
Thebe is a fucking beautiful soul. He's definitely trying to put folks onto what he really fucks with all the time. A lot of rap n***as at his level per sé would not do that shit and that's something I've always really fucked with.
One n***a we need to talk about when we talk about bringing n***as together, is Sage [Elsesser, a.k.a. Navy Blue]. Sage brought a lot of n***as to Thebe. I met Thebe through Sage.
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