Before we start, I'd just like to tell you that I didn't prepare for this interview at all, and that I'm going to take every word you say out of context in order to (hopefully) get you fired.
Just kidding.
swinelord: Cliché first question: how are you feeling? Anything interesting happening in your life?
ScopeY: Well, that depends on your definition of interesting. I drank some hot chocolate with cream today, and I think that was pretty interesting.
swinelord: Now I'm thirsty, hold up while I get a cup. Everyone knows you hail from the magical land of Norwegia (known by common folk and lame people as Norway), does Norwegia have its own language? Can you speak it, was it your first language?
ScopeY: Nei, jeg kan ikke snakke norsk.
Surprisingly enough, as any other country, Norwegia also has its own language. I believe the first languages I mastered were mumbling, gibberish and cute baby-talk, but I picked up on the art of Norwegian a few years later. It'd be weird if I didn't know the language of the country I was born and raised in.
However, I actually learned Turkish before I learned Norwegian, I believe. To those unaware, my mother is Norwegian and my father is Turkish, making me a little bit of both. When I was a baby, my parents would send me to my Turkish family in Turkey for a couple months at the time so that I'd pick up on the language. I'm going to learn Norwegian either way. I started speaking Turkish at home, and my mom wouldn't understand, because she hadn't quite learned it yet at that time. That was fun. Not that I remember though. I was like a baby.
swinelord: Damn, that's actually really cool (I thought you were just putting random letters together at first lmao). All countries more or less have a “native cuisine,” other than potatoes, does Norway have a unique food/what would you recommend to anyone who goes to Norway to eat? And since you also had some time in Turkey, any good Turkish dishes?
ScopeY: I put together random letters all the time and just hope that it comes out making sense. Not sure how I've been keeping this up.
But the Turkish kitchen is def a lot richer than the Norwegian. I never thought highly of traditional Norwegian food – you have like potatoes & fish (very cla**ic), lefser (soft flatbread) Fårikål (national food, lamb & cabbage), Pinnekjøtt (made only during Christmas), Smalahove (a sheep's head), and stuff of that nature. But in Turkey you have stuff like Köfte, Mantı, Kuzu Tandır, Lahmacun, Börek, Baklava, Pide, Güllaç, Dolma, Lokum, Şiş Kebap, Su Böreği, Döner, İskender Kebab, Kurufasulye, Bulgur Pilavı – I mean, so much good sh**. These are more exotic, so just look ‘em up.
swinelord: Sheeps head… I think I'll stick to hamburgers. But I did see kebabs in there, I've had those
ScopeY: I've never actually had the sheep's head so I wouldn't know. Hamburgers are good, but there's a lot more out there. Mainly anything related to chicken.
swinelord: Alright, so everyone has their own musical tastes, but once you come to rap genius sometimes you stray away from artists and start recognizing more artists that maybe you'd never thought of before. Are there any artists that have grown on you since joining RG? Any artists you don't like anymore?
ScopeY: I don't think Genius has in any way impacted how I've felt about artists – I like and dislike who I want when I want, without being influenced by other people's input – but Genius has introduced me to a lot of new music, for sure, both in terms of hip-hop and pop. My mind is drawing a blank on specific artists though.
swinelord: Here's a random question: is vegan-ism underrated or overrated?
ScopeY: Woah, you lowkey tryna get me in trouble with the vegan community. I mean, I don't have any problems with people who wants to pursue veganism, more power to you. I'm not going to be the guy to get in the way of anyone's lifestyle, as long as it isn't harmful towards anyone or anything. But yeeah, it's totally overrated. You're giving up meat? Eggs? Milk? Cheese? Seafood? All kinds of other stuff I'm not aware of? So what's left to even eat? How do do you survive? Do you get everything the body needs? This sounds like punishment.
swinelord: I could probably just survive off Skittles my whole life. Lupe Fiasco, one of the best rappers of our generation, is [wrongly] seen by many to be "overrated" and "boring," what are your thoughts?
ScopeY: Man, Lupe Fiasco is so good that even when everyone is praising him, he'll still be underrated. Sure, he got some lackluster material in his catalog, but the highs make up for it. T&Y is superb. I'm looking forward to his 2016 albums – I think he can pull off 3 quality albums in a year.
swinelord: Correct! I mean, there are no right answers but... Good job. Does the real personality of a rapper (outside of music) matter to you? Any artists that you personally hate?
ScopeY: I don't personally hate anyone – hatred is a powerful emotion – but I think rapper personalities can def make or break how you feel about their music. It's important. It's all about the brand. Their entertainment extends their music. It's a full package. Personality and self-reflection and whatnot is a big deal in hip hop. If someone is a complete a**hole and share abysmal views, but their music is amazing, I'd most likely still feel a bit distanced from their musical output.
Kendrick Lamar is my current favorite rapper. Not only does his music exceed everyone else's, but he's such a thoughtful, humble dude. The way he speaks and the way he carries himself in interviews and documentaries and such speaks volumes of the kind of person he is, and this only elevates his greatness. It makes me appreciate and respect him a lot more. He's more than just a musician. I realize I sound biased, but come on.
Kanye West is the perfect example of someone who is so much more than music, someone who transcends it all, for better or worse. Take away all his antics, all his rants, all his Twitter tirades and whathaveyou – is it still as entertaining? Or does he lose his edge? It matters. It plays a part in the overall brand that he presents. Think about it.
I might get some flack for this, but I'm not a huge fan of Snoop's music, but no one can deny his iconic status. This dude is smooth as hell. Nobody is as fresh as Snoop. Everything he does feels natural, even when he mingles in many different environments. He's so chill and laidback. This makes it easy to like him, even though I don't get super excited about him dropping new music.
Ya dig?
swinelord: Great response, I couldn't have said it better myself. Snoop is like the epitome of cool, I wish I was as cool as him.
The rumor mill has been working overtime ever since TDE announced two new mysterious signees; allowing us to speculate and fantasize about potential matches made in heaven. Who do you think TDE signed, and if you were Punch, who would you sign? Any rapper is a go!
ScopeY: It's honestly hard to tell who they signed, because I doubt they're recognizable names. It's probably some relatively unknown talents they're going to bring out into the fold. Isaiah Rashad wasn't a big name, but he's someone people are thinking about now because of TDE. I'd maybe add Vince Staples to the roster. I think he's already in good terms with the crew, and feels like someone who'd fit right in (plus he's dope). And if possible, I'd get Mac Miller to fill the other slot. Him and ScHoolboy Q just needs to hang all the time.
swinelord: Actually a Mac Miller and Schoolboy Q collab would be dope. Vince Staples would be a perfect fit for TDE. So, lately a few Genius users got to sit down together and discuss rap. Any users that you would like to meet in person? Have you ever met any users in person?
ScopeY: Well, they actually collaborated on “Gees,” but yeah, I wouldn't mind more collabs.
I've only met the HQ staffers when I was on vacation in New York. That was a cool experience, but it was at the old office, so not cool enough. I live in Norway so not a very central place to meet people. Nimpeo is too far away, and Caslon refuses to hang with me because he thinks I'll ban him IRL. Silly kid. I just wanna talk about typography.
I wanna meet all my Editors and Mediators so they can take turns of explaining in vivid detail how me promoting them changed their life. Actually, I think they're haunted by my name, so never mind, but meeting them would probably be interesting due to all our interactions on site. I always wonder how online interactions and real life interactions would differ with people you've only known online. Watch them all be smarter than me.
I would like to meet you so I can see your facial expression when you try to think of questions to ask me. Then I'm going to leave for a day then come back to answer the question because that's how long I need to respond.
I'd likely be down to meet anyone I've had positive interactions with though. Anyone I talk to regularly. Anyone I call my friends. I don't wanna name any specific people because then I'm going to forget names and people are going to feel left out. That's lame, but yeah. Just kidding, I wanna meet Heisenferg and talk about Batman.
swinelord: I would cherish a Mac & Schoolboy collab tape (hint hint TDE), but I can't afford to buy new speakers. And I can a**ure you that all users here in America are patiently waiting for your arrival with a "Welcome, ScopeY" sign. I'm not going to send you a picture of my expression, because a) I'm not very photogenic and b) the internet is a scary place, but it's uncannily like this GIF: But back to the interview. Recently, Nas remixed Future's "March Madness," which you helped transcribe, so what are your thoughts on that? Did Nas k** it, is it really that fire emoji we're all so quick to use?
Any other (non-trap) rappers you think could pull off trap beats?
ScopeY: A Mac Miller & ScHoolboy Q collab EP would be lit.
Everyone in the US? All 322,369,319 of you? That's going to be a crowded airport. I think I would honestly cry if I saw that sign anywhere though. Just fall to my knees and break down in tears.
I think Nas did a great job on that joint, yeah. I don't think you necessarily have to be a “trap rapper” to k** a trap beat. But just speaking of Nas, he probably needs to get his sh** together and put out the album he's promised for 3 years or so.
Going back to Lupe Fiasco, I think he has made great trap records. I'm hoping Drogas has some trap on it. Can't remember if Royce went over any trap beats on his Bar Exam mixtapes, but I think he could make some hard-hitting songs over some trap. Ab-Soul could probably pull it off in his right element. Imagine Black Thought getting all spitteriffic over some trap sh**. Matter of fact, they all gotta get together to make a huge introspective trap banger just because.
swinelord: Sadly, not everyone could be at the airport, but the rest of us are getting kinda claustrophobic, so if you could hurry up and get down here it would be appreciated.
Yeah, I hope there are more “No Problems” on #DROGAS. Ab-Soul already did a little stuntin' on Control System I believe. MF DOOM and Black Thought should drop a joint trap tape.
So, to completely change the subject matter for no reason, there's no way we can get through a ScopeY interview without mentioning Deadpool. So we all know you love the comics and the movie, so here's the question: if you were Deadpool for a day, what would you do? No consequences, no pain — just kidding, he feels lots of pain — but at least you can't die.
ScopeY: Oh sh**, I'm on a time schedule? I was busy grooming my beard.
But dude, this is the question of all questions I hardly doubt I'll be able to do it justice. So I would start off the day by eating 372,844 pancakes. That'd give me enough energy to go on all types of wild adventures. What I would like to do is find out all the ways I can't die. Make my body go through all types of sh** just because I can. Trying to pet a shark. Trying to wrestle with dinosaurs. Jump out of planes without parachutes. Eat a bomb and let it explode inside of me. You know, you can do whatever you want without dying, so why not go all out?
I'll finish up all that before noon. Now it's time to make the rounds to all the Marvel characters. Mess up whatever they're doing, utter an inappropriate but hilarious one-liner, laugh it up, then just leave on to the next one. Use Captain America's shield as a frisbee to randomly knock people's heads off. Shave off Wolverine's hair. Conceal myself as Mary Jane and dump Spider-Man. Convince Domino she should leave Cable for me. Everyone has a love/hate relationship with me anyway and will forgive me later because of my electric charm so it's alright.
Then I'll end the night by crying myself to sleep because my skin is disfigured and I failed at being hero because I adore violence too much.
swinelord: Speaking of your beard, I'mma need a picture of it for the fans, we need to see your progress. Use Captain America's shield as a frisbee to randomly knock people's heads off. I laughed so hard at this, it sounds like the perfect plot for the next movie.
Since we're onto the hypothetical questions, here's another: You have two tickets to go see any two rappers preforming (dead or alive), who would you go see? And to make it interesting, don't choose Pac and Biggie, that's not a conversation starter.
ScopeY: I actually sort of kinda shaved a bit, so my beard isn't quite the wild forest it used to be at the moment. I did plan on including a selfie though.
These sounds like some magic tickets. I need these tickets for the movies, so I can go see any movie I want with blank tickets. To be fair though, I wouldn't choose Pac or Biggie. I've never been that hype about them. This is going to be obvious, but I'd probably want to go back to 2003 and see 50 Cent perform in his prime. There's very few who dominated like him during that era, so the shows would probably be insane. Right now I'd go see any Kendrick show. Boring choices, I know, but I've never actually been to any concerts so this isn't necessarily something that is super important to me.
swinelord: I knew that eventually 50 Cent would come up, damn. So everyone's noticed you seem to have some sort of emotional connection to 50, was he the one who got you in to hip hop?
ScopeY: More or less, yeah. I listened to random rap songs before 50 Cent, but I can't really remember any of them – Petey Pablo and the like and whatever was hot at the time. I mean, I had Creed and Red Hot Chili Peppers on my Discman for some reason before I became a hip hop fan. But my best friend bought the GRODT CD, and we'd sit in front of his house and listen to it through the speakers. So it was a hip hop experience and a bonding experience in one. I'm not sure if we finished the full thing in one sitting, but I cla**ify this as the first album I ever heard. I was too young to understand what he was actually saying (I was 9), but it sounded so fresh. I came back to it a few years later when I was more “mature,” appreciated it more since I could digest its content, and have loved it ever since. I don't regularly listen to it or anything, but I could put it on at any time and it'll still sound good. From there I just ventured into all types of stuff and now we're here.
To be honest though I'm clowning half the time I praise 50 Cent because it's expected of me since I'm so a**ociated with him on the site. His music and career has pretty much been going downhill, and I don't agree with everything he says and does. It's amusing to me how people attempt to get at me by dissing 50 Cent like that matters. I feel no need to defend him. He's not my friend. He's still the master of the Instagram though. Hilarious guy and his interviews are lit.
swinelord: I think everyone has noticed the fall of 50 Cent, it's pretty sad to see a legend “die” like that. And for anyone who wasn't sure if ScopeY was trolling or not, it's now official: Yes.
Hip-Hop duos have been steadily dominating rap from the beginning, with Mobb Deep, Outkast, Clipse and so many more; and now there are some unlikely duos springing up, like Lupe Fiasco x Future, Future x Drake, Lil Wayne x 2 Chainz and the likes (Maybe Mac Miller x ScHoolboy Q). Any duo's you'd like to see?
ScopeY: Never trolled in me lyfe, swear on me mum.
I know I keep mentioning Kendrick in this interview, but I'd love to see Kendrick and k**er Mike. They've already got mutual respect for each other and I feel their styles could clash well. A full tape with Black Thought and Pharoahe Monch. Maybe Tyler, The Creator and Kanye West. Then do some odd pairings like Action Bronson and Young Thug. Fetty Wap and Chance The Rapper. Travi$ Scott and YG. Childish Gambino and Mac Miller. Just to see what the hell would happen.
swinelord: I could see Kendrick and Mike getting all political/emotional on a track, maybe a “Blacker The Berry” remix. I don't think we could handle Fetty and Chance together…
While I was casually stalking your Twitter, arguably one of the best (after my own, of course), I noticed that, like a good scopey, you are attending university.
[Editors Note: Fun Fact: I actually stalked the wrong account for a few hours, and finally realized it wasn't ScopeY when he said "my children gave me the best Fathers Day present ever" and I thought 'I either f**ed up really bad' or 'ScopeY is really weird.' Later that same day I found his real Twitter.]
Above: ScopeY caught asleep in cla**, next to a Pewdiepie look-a-like(Source)
So what are you going to school for? Your Major? All that good college stuff?
ScopeY: Dang, of all the Tweets. I've mentioned this to a few people already, but I'm studying game design. Currently in my second semester and we're deep into Unity and C#. Everyone else is at least, I'm just tryna catch up. I'm looking forward to the time when I feel confident in this.
swinelord: For a game designer, you must have a favorite game to play?
ScopeY: I actually didn't play any games for a long period of time before I started studying game design. It was never my plan to pursue this. I sort of just went 2 years after high school with no idea about what I wanted to do next, came across this, then just went for it. Hoping it pays off. I've been trying to play more recently to get more gaming experience under my belt.
Games I've enjoyed playing; Counter Strike, The Batman Arkham series, GTA: San Andreas and 5, Red Dead Redemption, Need For Speed Underground and Most Wanted, Fight Night, Street Fighter, Bioshock series, etc etc. Now I have like The Witcher 3, Fallout 4 and stuff laying around that I haven't fully played. I wanna catch up to some new good sh**.
swinelord: Any ideas for a game you would like to create once you graduate with flying colors?
ScopeY: I'm not the BEST idea person. I've thought of a few fun ideas here and there, but nothing remarkable or concrete. I don't really think that far ahead because I'm stressing out about the now. But I wanna make GTA: Potato Farmer.
swinelord: Lmao I'd play that. To continue to harp on awkward moments in your twitter history (it's like a gold mine), I noticed you got called out by Twisted Insane a short while back. Is this your closest claim to fame?
ScopeY: My Twitter is pretty great now that I think about it.
The Twisted Insane moment was a cla**ic moment. That Tweet I made was completely random. It was just meant as a silly joke. Then Twisted Insane brings up a forum post I made 4 years ago. He posted on my Instagram as well. Why would a self-proclaimed successful rapper care about a random forum post made by a total stranger 4 years ago? It's amusing because it makes no sense.
I'd say 9th Wonder shouting me out on Twitter is my closest claim to fame. Probably my only claim. The Twitter embed doesn't seem to be working now though.
swinelord: Damn, it's an honor being so close to someone that's so famous, I guess by the six points or whatever I guess you could say I know know Lupe Fiasco now.
Well, I think that's all I got, thanks for putting up with me. Those were some great insights.
ScopeY: hahaha awesome. This was fun! Thanks for the enlightening experience. Bonus PSA: To anyone wondering, the icon ("__/") in ScopeY's username is a writing pen!
ScopeY: That's a pen writing. Because I'm a poet.