Courtesy Mr. P Chill
For fans of hip-hop who somehow haven’t heard about the ongoing monthly event Rhyme Craft at the Mine Shaft in Madrid, consider this your formal invitation for the next one (7 pm Thursday, Oct. 7. Free. Mine Shaft Tavern, 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid. (505) 473-0743). It’s a real doozy, too, as Sacramento-based MC and lyricist Mr. P Chill returns to New Mexico once again with enlightened takes, sick beats and a little bit of that ACAB action layered within his combination old-school/new-school sounds. Lending support are iconic locals like MC Slader, O.G. Willikers and DJ D-Monic, all of whom know a little something about the boom-bap, too. It’s been about four years since we last checked in with P Chill, so we figured the pandemic times might have armed him with a thought or two when it comes to answering questions.
As a socially-conscious rapper—and given the shape of the world—do you find yourself having maybe too much inspiration/material at this point?
Yes and no. There is definitely no shortage of things to talk about in the music, that’s for absolute certain. Sometimes I find it overwhelming, because while I’m a socially conscious rapper, I like to write things from a personal standpoint that don’t reflect society’s woes, and sometimes when I’m trying to write that personal stuff, the social stuff comes out instead. It does get in the way a little bit. My last album, LIFE, or Living in Fragile Environments, was supposed to be personal stories—LIFE was an acronym for ‘love in full effect,’ and a third of the way through the album it started becoming something else.
I’d been dealing with anxiety and depression, though, especially last year during the pandemic. My anxiety and mental health came into the forefront, and about this time last year, I feel like I had a complete breakdown and I had a three-week long anxiety attack. I get little ones all the time, but this was some whole new shit. I lost my mom in 2019, and I’m still trying to write something in memory of her, and it was one of the things I was going to put out there, but never got around to finishing. Music...It’s like self-medicating, but in a really healthy way, although I spent a good portion of 2020 smoking all the weed I could get my hands on and drinking all the beer, and I know I’m not the only one.
As for the world, being socially conscious, in my experience, things that lean to the right lean against people of color. We cannot forget I’m a white rapper, and we cannot forget that hip-hop culture was created by people of color in New York. Anybody who won’t give it the respect is…I’m a guest in hip-hop’s house. I don’t own anything here. But I’m thankful for it. You’ve gotta respect the elders. The culture. I’ve been given a platform, the mic’s in my hands, and if I were to go out there and do only songs that make me feel good, that’d be terrible. The hip-hop that has inspired me since I was young is socially conscious. Heroes like Chuck D who put the message first.
You usually tour often. Has not being able to do that impacted how you create?
I felt like I spent a lot more time focusing on creating. I had the time, and I wasn’t distracted. I was able to give my last album my undivided attention, which I think really helped. I did my song about mental health, which was the last one I wrote before COVID, it’s called ‘Morning Coffee.’ The next one I wrote was actually a song with Doodlebug from Digable Planets called ‘Social Distancing,’ and we just dead-on hit that. I did a song called ‘Millions of Militants’ about everything from the far right, the Proud Boys, Fox News, Trump. That song, it was wild—for the first time I was getting anxiety about putting something out. I was like, ‘I’m gonna say it, I’m going to do it, but what’s going to happen?’
I also had money set aside to tour, a bunch of stuff lined up that went away, and that’s when I ordered 600 masks that said ‘COVID Sucks,’—and that was at a time when people had a hard time getting masks—and I just gave them away. Usually my music is how I try to address problems, but when I couldn’t do that, couldn’t leave the house and hadn’t quite realized streaming was a solution, I just wanted to fill those voids with other ways I could make a positive difference.
It seems like you make a point to perform in New Mexico any chance you get, huh?
Years ago, I fell in love with New Mexico. The people there are absolutely wonderful. When you’re on the road, you miss your fam and friends and your cat, but you have people you’ve built bonds with over the years and it makes it a little easier. In Madrid especially. I’ve told my wife that it’s on the list for places we could retire. I give myself a little extra time always to talk to everyone I know in that town.
