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When assessing the type of energy a DJ is casting over a crowd, a friend of mine used to use the phrase, “Some cats play records, while others be spinnin’.”
I was already a fan of Stanley Ipkuss, an Oakland musician, beatmaker, and emcee—but his early 2022 release Among Other Things had a viscus haze to it, you know? The dude hijacked soul and jazz snippets and mixed them with spasmodic keyboard glitches to create this strange-but-still-funky quiet storm hodgepodge, over which he rapped about setbacks and how to overcome them. I was surprised and stoked that even Okayplayer recognized this level of creativity.
Then, by chance, I ran into the artist DJing between sets at the Brijean show at The Independent this past summer. I mean, Ipkuss was putting it on—weaving and dipping in and out of soul, house, and abstract beats while moving to music, conversing with the records. It was a revelation to once again see someone be moved by their own musical creation while presenting those energies, IRT, to others.
“That was probably my highlight, being able to bring my own vinyl collection and share it with a venue full of music lovers,” he told me via email. “A lot of people approached me to ask what song I was playing, or to give me props because I played a song they love that they don’t normally hear in settings like that; especially on vinyl.”
Ipkuss implied that most of the year was relatively uneventful for him, but that he is currently pondering his next steps.
“Definitely a new project, but I’m still deciding whether it’ll just be instrumentals or if I want to put vocals on it,” he said. “I’ve also been working on a lot of faster-paced, higher tempo joints that I want to release.”
Whatever his next move is, we’re ready.
Buy Stanley Ipkuss’ music here.
