Reuben Dangerman recently caught Viper’s eye with his sumptuous, renaissance style oil paintings of grime superstars. He talks to us about clashes and high grade sleep…
Grime’s unstoppable rise from the pre-YouTube doldrums of discriminatory A&R and Channel U has created a multi-disciplinary platform for its fans. Through social media, MC’s now benefit from the skills of their fanbase and can communicate directly for collaboration. 2015 saw a surge in creatives associated with 140bpm sound release their own interpretations of grime’s unique energy. Viper Magazine sit down with the first creative to transcend into paint, Mr Reuben Dangoor.
How do you sleep at night?
I don’t get loads of sleep at the moment, I’ll come in from work and jump straight into my projects. So I’m normally in bed by three or four am. But when I do sleep, I’m out for the count. Small amounts of high grade sleep.
Apart from Kanye doing a Lil Mama on Taylor Swift, and John McCain moving to Snooki on Twitter, the viral video ‘Being a Dickhead’s Cool’ was arguably the best cultural statement of 2010. As the co-creator and producer of the video, tell us a bit about what happened after it broke.
It was a weird one! I’d moved down to Brighton from London the day after the tune came out and was staying in a shabby basement flat with no Internet or phone signal. So when it actually blew up, I had no idea and totally missed it kick off. But it was cool. Lots of advertising agencies wanting ‘the same thing’, but for online gambling companies and things like that. That’s cool you think it’s stood the test of time, when it was made there were no expectations at all. It was just something that made us laugh.
One of the lyrics stuck out to me…”New Age Fun With A Vintage Feel”. Is this something you’ve been applying to your grime paintings?
[Laughs] I didn’t even think about that! But it is essentially new age fun with a vintage feel.
Photos by Sam Neill
Words by Shola Timothy
This is an extract from the Spring Summer 16 Issue of Viper Magazine. Read more from the magazine here. Buy physical and digital copies here.
