User Interview: Skhills vs Theonlydjorkaeff lyrics

by

Genius


Skhills’ Foreword:

Sydney is known for many things: The Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Harbour Bridge. Beautiful beaches accompanied by beautiful bi—women (honestly, my compulsion to rhyme will be the death of me.) But Sydney is truly fortunate to house two of Geniuses beloved contributors: Theonlydjorkaeff and myself. I was there when my friend was first editored, watching him dominate the leaderboards for months on end, but it wasn’t until I made an annotation on Users’ Cities that I first interacted with him, and we didn’t truly start talking until Christmas Day 2015 when I sent him a message of appreciation. He’s now a moderator, a pivotal member of the Genius community, the 4th highest contributor of all time, and most importantly to me, my friend.

We decided to break the mould a little with this one. I interview Ben for the first half of the interview, and he interviews me for the second. Now for your reading pleasure, please journey with us down under into our world of whimsy and wonder.


Yo Ben Carter for a starter I'll attack the main artery
How does it feel to be the #1 scholar of Jay Z?

It's great! I guess we all have little things in life that we're passionate about. For example, I bet my mum would be the number 1 scholar on Say Yes To The Dress. I learned from a young age that none of my mates were going to share my passion for Jay Z, so I pursued this interest in private and voraciously. Genius was at first a way for me to learn even more about him, but when I realised there were gaps in the collective knowledge of the website, I decided to fill them. And here we are. It's misleading, I know people like AintNoJigga and most likely SameOldShawn know a lot more about him than me, but I'm getting there.

Okay so at the Skhills Store today I discovered a Hip-Hop Favourites Box. Have you opened one before? I thought not. It's unique to my store. Essentially it’s exactly like a Cadbury Favourites Box but, instead of hosting an array of little Favourites chocolates, my box contains little favourite themed questions. Let's engorge.
Damn I need to hit this store up. The only things I gorge myself on are actual chocolates.

Who are your five favourite lyricists alive or dead?
Jay Z, MF DOOM, Cassidy, 3 Stacks, Eminem. Eminem just sneaks on. He has fallen off pretty badly, but Bad Meets Evil redeems him.

What are your favourite albums?
Oh man... Well put it this way, in 2016 I've listened to on average 45 albums a month, and it's September, and I do this every year. So basically a list of my favourite albums? It's going to be long... Here's a list of 41 albums I adore. I'll also rank my top 5 OAT:
1. Sgt. Peppers
2. Pet Sounds
3. Dark Side of the Moon
4. Who's Better, Who's Best (compilation but it's just insanely good)
5. Phaedra by Tangerine Dream

What are your favourite songs?
Another long list. I'll just say a couple that really stand out to me:
Lil Wayne - "I Feel Like Dying"
Placebo - "English Summer Rain"
Jay Z - "U Don't Know (Remix)" purely for Hov's verse
Alpinestars - "Burning Up"
Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"
Depeche Mode - "Blasphemous Rumours"
Future Islands - "Tin Man"
Meat Puppets - "Away"
Frou Frou - "Let Go"
2 Chainz - "Yuck!"
Cadence Weapon - "(You Can't Stop) The Machine"
The Streets - "Weak Become Heroes"
Autechre - "Altibzz"
Ramona Falls - "I Say Fever"
Fennesz - "Endless Summer"
Kanye West - "Pt. 2"
Sorry. I could list forever
Do you have any favourite bars? Or even a definitive favourite?
Loads!!! I mean we all say "D'Evils," but those bars are insane. A lot of them are from Hov. "I had to get off the boat so I could walk on water." "You ain't start out from your trunk / then reach the roof, just to put your roof in the trunk." Hov's verse here is straight insane. A lot of Eminem bars, a lot of Lil Wayne bars. Cory Gunz' "All I want is hits b*tch, Wayne signed a fiend." Took me forever to finally get that, don't ask me why, I must have heard it hundreds of times. I couldn't possibly list any more there's thousands!

Do you have some personal favourite Genius moments? (Outside of your interactions with me, although I know they be in your top 3.)
We've had some good times :) Favourite Genius moments... When I finally got the push the button on @GothicM becoming an editor! We worked so hard together and they deserved it so much! Getting @AintNoJigga to sign up to the site (I am a bit of a fanboy). He'll be an ed in no time. When Angela called me benpai in chat and I had to look up what it meant. I was chuffed! Me, Scopey, and Scopey chatting every night for about a month. We were the only people up. Scopey and his alt (stereo) kept chatting to each other, it was kinda weird. Our two Genius meet ups. I know it sounds a bit lame, but those two days have been absolute stand outs this year for me, I had a blast at both of them. The first few Community Hangouts I participated in were great, I got to put faces to names and learned so much about the site. Competing with Hustleordie in Genius season and realizing that there's always someone out there more dedicated than you, which actually made me feel really good, I felt validated that someone else could as immersed in the website as I! There's so many more, and my memory's no sharp.

Okay I'm full, now. Oh wait! If you had to choose two annotations (you can choose more if you want,) what would be your favourite community made one, and one you've made?
I think the "Famous" annotation, because it's the embodiment of what this website is, on the most maximal level. It decodes. It was made into an incredible video, and all the information you'd ever need is right there. In 20 years, a kid just like me will be listening to the track for the first time and go "what the hell was he talking about? Who is Taylor?" And he/she will jump on Genius and have the answer. It's how I learned so much about slang and connections.
As for one I've made? That's tough actually. I've made 9,700 (make some noise for me flexing). It'd be a Jay Z one somewhere, I do remember some annotations that took me 2+ hours. There's a lot of occasions where I spent hours researching and finding sources. I couldn't point to a specific one though!

What to you is the great moment in Hip-Story (Hip-Hop History)
When Cole went platinum with no features.
No.
Not that.

The day Jay and Big officially met. Clark Kent had Biggie in a car downstairs, whilst upstairs Jay was recording "Brooklyn's Finest." Clark brought him up, and Jay spat his verses while Big was there. I don't believe Jay would have been anywhere near as good if he'd never formally met and collaborated with Big. Pac and Big were so far ahead of the rest of the world, the fact that the greatest rapper of our time (Kendrick) is influenced so heavily by a man who passed away 20 years ago is proof that if they'd continued, hip-hop would be a vastly different landscape. Imagine Nas collaborating heavily with Pac? Jay learning story telling from him? Imagine if Lupe had a chance to sit with Big and learn about his cadences and his ability to ride a hook.

Moment in music that made your jaw drop or moved you incredibly?
Although it was before my time, John Lennon getting killed. Just devastating. David Bowie passing really really hurt me too, I cried that day. The man was such a massive influence on my life, and got me through my teenage years, and I so desperately looking forward to actually interacting with his new music as a fan, with other fans. It's hard when you listen to a lot of old music. The hype has passed, and you can't just sit and chat to people as easily about old music as new. Bowie had so much more to give the world, and we're much poorer for having lost him.
Proof getting killed also impacted me. I wasn't even a big fan, but it was the first time I'd been exposed to the violence of hip-hop in the modern era. I knew Biggie and Pac had died from it, but I wasn't caught up in the culture back then (I was 8). When Proof died I was like "damn, so they actually can die from this?" It really brought a lot of my own posturing into focus.

Any cosigns or recognitions that really stood out to you?
When Rob Markman told us that Jay actually reads the website, I felt something I don't think I've ever felt before. I guess it was a tiny tiny tiny portion of that feeling people get when they meet their idol. He wasn't even referencing any of my work, but I felt connected to Jay in the tiniest of ways, and I've never felt that before.
I love it when people cosign Genius. It makes you feel like the work you put in matters, that it's something positive.

Any Genius projects you wanna embark upon?
At the moment, not really. I am slowly making Genius the place to come for Placebo knowledge. Another of the artisits I "stan." Working on Elbow and Limp Bizkit as well.
And finally, a user submitted question from Kev: If you weren't contributing to Genius what would you be doing?
This is a good and relevant question. Due to a combination of factors, I do have quite a lot of free time since I left university. Since mid 2012 I've embarked on a number of different time-consuming endeavours. I began gardening first, and my first harvest was an absolute bounty. We had these huge corn stalks 2 metres+, and we got 2 massive cobs of corn off each plant. Plus 50-100 capsic*ms, loads of chillies, and I even grew a watermelon! When that got a bit dull, I moved onto blogging. I actually have 120,000 views on my blog. I mainly did reviews to start with, music/movies/games. But then I transitioned into cooking. There was a point where I spent hours every day cooking and baking. My sister is celiac, which means she cannot eat any gluten or wheat. So I would spend all my free time researching recipes and cooking and experimenting, and introducing her to foods I'd grown up on, but she'd never experienced. Neenish tarts, Vanilla slices, Mint Slice biscuits, Tim Tams, banana bread, wagon wheels. About 2 years I spent in the kitchen. Then I got over it, and joined Genius.
Sorry for the long answer. What would I be doing if not working on Genius? Something new. A business of some kind. Maybe I'd learn about cars and start working on them, or maybe I'd do up my house, or maybe I'd learn to knit. No idea. But great question :)

I think that's enough questions from me. So, here we go:

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