When he had written a full spoken word set and saved enough money to live for a year without income, he quit his job and toured the country living in a 1987 Toyota Space Cruiser. Seeking out gig listings for each new town he visited, he turned up and performed his set to the fans queuing outside, with mixed results. After a few months crossing the country Scroobius Pip moved back home and decided to focus on London and Essex, attending four or five spoken word shows, open mic nights or poetry slams each week – anywhere that would let him perform. Various producers discovered Pip this way and expressed a Desire to work with him, but it was the beats of former HMV colleague Dan le Sac that captured his attention and led to the formation of Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, a collaboration that propelled Scroobius Pip into mainstream awareness thanks to their breakthrough debut 'Thou Shalt Always Kill'.
Scroobius Pip manages his own record label, Speech Development Records. He hosted the award-winning weekly radio show The Beatdown on XFM in the late 2000's and currently hosts the Distraction Pieces Podcast. In August 2016 released a book entitled 'Distraction Pieces'.
He adopted a pseudonym from Edward Lear's poem 'The Scroobious Pip' and in 2002 whilst working in an HMV store he made the decision to start saving his writing. In an interview with Beatdom, he later explained the reason behind his name: "I loved the story. It's about a creature that doesn't know what it is ...By the end [of the poem] he realises that he is simply The Scroobious Pip. He doesn't fit into any one category and can just be his own creature."
In 2007 Scroobius Pip put a shortlist of his poems up on MySpace and asked artists and illustrators to submit their interpretations. The only rule was that the poem had to be included in the artwork, in full and unabridged. Within the first few days he had received a small but passionate response. This number grew over the following year, resulting in hundreds of submissions from all over the world.
Shunning major label offers Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip signed to independent label Sunday Best Recordings for their UK releases and Strange Famous Records for their US releases. Dan le Sac Vs Scroopius Pip have released three albums to date: Angles (2008), The Logic of Chance (2010) and Repent Replenish Repeat (2013). Since March 2007 they have undertaken multiple UK, US and European tours and have appeared at numerous festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Reading and Leeds, Bestival, Coachella, Lowlands, Pukkelpop and Fuji Rock Festival.
Poetry in (e) Motion is a collection of Scroobius Pip’s poems illustrated by artists recruited via his MySpace page. The book was published in hardback on 26 March 2010 by Titan Books.
"Distraction Pieces" is the second solo album by Scroobius Pip released in the UK on his own Speech Development Records and in the US on Strange Famous Records. Released on 19 September 2011 the album entered and peaked at No. 35 on the UK albums chart. Produced by Yila and Worgie, the record sees Scroobius Pip’s lyrical dexterity and acclaimed blend of rap meets spoken-word play out across a collision of punk, rock and hip hop production.
Scroobius Pip's debut album No Commercial Breaks was self-released in 2006, marking the start of his label Speech Development Records. Originally limited to a run of 1000 copies, the album quickly sold out resulting in various online bootlegs. The album was re-released in 2012, a two CD special with a bonus disc featuring his 60-minute sold out spoken word show from the Royal Albert Hall on 21 November 2012.
The Beatdown was broadcast every Saturday night 12 am – 1 am on XFM, until August 2014.
In 2014, Scroobius Pip started a weekly podcast series called 'Distraction Pieces'. In each episode, he has held an in-depth interview with a range of comedians, actors, Musicians and DJs. In the series so far he has interviewed, among others, Aisling Bea, Doc Brown, Goldie, Russell Brand, Josie Long, Paddy Considine, Frank Turner, Stewart Lee, Sara Pascoe, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Zane Lowe, Eddie Izzard, Kathy Burke, Richard Herring, Rufus Hound, Stephen Graham, Richard Herring, Robin Ince, Wim Hof, James McAvoy and Killer Mike.
Their first collaboration resulted in the track 'Thou Shalt Always Kill', a dissection of modern British culture and a call to arms for individualism. The track appealed to XFM's John Kennedy who played it on air in demo form 24 hours after he had received the CDR. Pip set up a MySpace page with the solitary track, and the response was very favourable. The pair borrowed £200 to make the video, which as of December 2015 has over 4.5 million views on YouTube.
Scroobius Pip appears as French Bill, an assistant to Atticus, in the eight-part historical fiction series Taboo (2017) on BBC One and FX.
Speech Development Records is the independent label founded and run by Scroobius Pip. On the label’s website, Scroobius Pip describes its 'sloppy’ formation: “In 2006 I (Scroobius Pip) had quit my job in HMV and had 1000 copies of my debut album No Commercial Breaks pressed. The label name I put on them was 'Speech Development Records'. They had no barcodes. I made up a catalogue number... but it wasn't registered anywhere.” This changed for the 2011 release of his second solo album Distraction Pieces, resulting in the label’s official formation.
