Rap Among Other Things: Stan Ipcus Waxing On His New Album Sleep If You Want, Rapping Dads & More (The Witzard Interview)

Stan Ipcus (right) and Max Bent (left) performing together live in 2016 (SOURCE: Daniel Isenberg)

Daniel “Dan” Isenberg is an esteemed creative director, sports/entertainment writer, Hip-Hop journalist, children’s chapter and adult book author, and dedicated father who moonlights as witty, often sharp-tongued emcee and producer Stan Ipcus; also known as BIG I.P., Big Daddy Ip/B.D.I., Ippylicious, Snuffleupipcus, Dan Dynamite, ip/IP, Ippy Dippy, The Ipster, Schmipcus, Ippy Dipschm*tz, The Slappy Happy Pappy, and The Guapo Papo, among other things and was formerly known as both D-Nice and Stanley Ipcus. Ipcus dropped his first album (then, known as Stanley Ipcus,) Pu Click Poetry, while attending college in 1999 and appears to have stopped actively dropping around 2010. Then, about 10 years later, Ipcus suddenly returned to both rapping and producing in 2020. Stan Ipcus’ first widely-available project back at the helm was 2021’s BIG IP DON’T PLAY and around the same time, I heard Ipcus on Jason Griff’s remix of Zilla Rocca & ALASKA’s “Vamoose” from Wrecking Crew’s posse/label compilation, Steel's Kitchen. I’ve previously penned elaborate features on Ipcus’ Best of IP Freestyles compilation, “Cream” single/White Label streaming-exclusive EP, Bandcamp-only Foliage EP, and Best of Max Bent & Stan Ipcus compilation. I’ve been in contact with Ipcus via email and text over the past six or so months and on the heels of his recent return to form/10-track full-length album, Sleep If You Want, we collectively decided it was about time for The Witzard & The Ipster to link up for a proper long-form interview conversation. The immaculate interview seen below was recently conducted via email and has been lightly edited for general clarity. Stan Ipcus’ Sleep If You Want is now available in both physical and digital formats, along with assorted merchandise items, on Tape Kingz Music (UK) and Isenberg’s own Props Kid Records (US). Listen and read along below or… sleep if you want!

I. When, where, how, and why did you first decide to start recording and releasing Hip-Hop music as Stanley Ipcus (inspired by Jim Carrey's character within The Mask) before ultimately settling on the slightly more direct Stan Ipcus?

Stan Ipcus: It was a nickname my friends gave me when I was in high school right after The Mask came out and around the time I first started writing raps. We were big Jim Carrey fans and, somehow, that nickname, which started as a dumb inside joke, really stuck. At first, I used to go by “D-Nice,” but I pretty quickly shifted to just going by “Stanley Ipcus” since there was already a D-Nice rapper out there who I was a big fan of. By the time I released my first album, “D-Nice” was a thing of the past. I shortened the “Stanley” to “Stan” at some point after my first couple albums. I think the full “Stanley” first name felt a bit too nerdy to me for the type of artist I was and the music I was aspiring to make and I liked how it looked better as just “Stan,” too.

II. For listeners and readers somehow now (unfortunately) just getting introduced to the world of Stan Ipcus, what are the Top 5 tracks and Top 5 projects you would recommend they seek out first?

Ipcus: Ah man, that’s tough. I would say the best way to get a solid intro to Stan Ipcus is to listen to the new album, Sleep If You Want, and to check out The Mask Tape I put out before that, which is kind of like a “Best-of Stan Ipcus” mixtape of sorts. I think between those two, it has a majority of my favorite stuff on it and makes for a good Stan Ipcus starter kit.

III. What do your writing, creation, production (or beat selection,) recording, etc. processes typically look like for an album release, such as Sleep If You Want?

Ipcus: I usually start any new project by doing some digital digging and gathering a bunch of loops that I might want to rhyme over. And from there, I just kind of pick ones I really like and start making them into songs. For Sleep If You Want, I did that at first and recorded a few joints myself, but I didn’t really know what they were going to lead to. Initially, I had the idea of doing a new Ipcus mixtape coming off the Do Remember![: The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes] book, but I really was more interested in linking with some new producers and making a proper album. And in this pretty organic way, it started happening.

I randomly linked with [James] Fiorella (@dukefiorella) on Instagram and that kind of set things off. He really ignited the whole sh*t. We did “Not Alike” and “Stand Back” back-to-back and that laid the foundation for the album. Then, Gem Crates & Syer came into the mix after that. Gem, I’ve known for years and we had been back-and-forth about doing something for a while. And Syer, I reached out to after hearing him post a beat on Instagram I liked and we had some mutual friends and started building from there. I was a fan of his from his work with Dunbar, a dope Long Island-based Rap group.

And my boy G-Whiz was my old college roommate at Maryland and we by chance had re-connected for the first time in a minute and wanted to do some sh*t together. And all of a sudden, I had this crazy influx of new beats that had me more inspired to write than ever.

For the most part, they would all send me stuff they thought I would like and I would pick my favorites from there and go in. Syer sent me a batch, but he was also still posting beats on his Instagram every week and I’d hear something and hit him like, “yo, that’s crazy! Can I get that?!” And it was happening quickly, at least for me. I’d get a beat I liked and have a whole song written and even sometimes recorded within 24 to 48 hours. Keep in mind, you’re talking to a guy who works full-time outside of Rap among other things and has four kids.

I think I made six songs in March: three with Gem and three with Syer. And I already had the two done from earlier in the year with Duke and one from my initial loop phase I wanted to keep for the album that I produced, which was the “Heaven & Hell ‘24” joint with Genovese. And then, [G-Whiz] sent me the “Cannes” beat the first week of April after I let him hear a bunch of stuff and that was the icing on the cake.

It really came together fast and for this one, I had a concept for the album before the music was done and a real vision for what I needed to make it come to life. Thankfully, I was able to link with these guys who quickly had a feel for who I was as an [emcee] and the style of beats I was interested in, which I think is why writing the album felt so effortless. The beats put me in a crazy zone. So, a big thanks to all those guys.

IV. Do you write rhymes ahead of time without hearing any beats or do you most often collect the beats first and then, write the rhymes secondarily?

Ipcus: I almost always write to the beat. For this album, everything was written to the beat it was recorded on. In the past, once in a while, I’ll have something I write randomly with no beat and end up throwing it on a beat, but even then, it usually changes and takes a new shape or I add to it once I pair it with the beat and start making a song out of it; but I’m best when I write to the beat. I pride myself on my pockets and having different flows and rhyme patterns depending on the track and for me, that really comes from writing to the beat.

V. What can you tell us about the album art, packaging, and vinyl variant color options for Sleep If You Want and how they each relate to the themes, storylines, and rhymes heard across the album?

Ipcus: “Sleep If You Want” is really a double entendre. It’s partly referring to the grind of it all. I was staying up late or hustling between meetings at work to record vocals at lunch on work from home days when I could have been sleeping or eating or chilling or not doing sh*t.

I’ve always been like that, though. We made the whole Do Remember! book in the midst of me getting hired and working full-time as a Creative Director at one of the biggest sports and entertainment companies in the country and after I just had my fourth kid during the height of The Pandemic. And I wrote my first book, My Name Is Spit[: The Dunk Dance], in the midst of probably my busiest work year ever when I was busting my a** on the agency side to get a promotion and become a Creative Director. I’ve always used my “free time” to create.

But that’s me. I’ve been going after it and I don’t disappear. You see me as a dad at all the games, driving my kids, with my wife at every school and family function, birthday parties, all that. I just take those little moments of “free time” to myself that are few and far between and use them as productively as possible even if it means not sleeping. So, you can sleep if you want, but that’s not for me.

The other part of it is really getting to the point where I’ve accepted that I’m slept-on as an [emcee] and as an artist, but I don’t give a f**k anymore. I used to care. It used to really bother me, like, “how do they not see that I’m one of the illest?” But now, I’m so confident in what I’m bringing to the culture and my skill and my music that if people still want to sleep on me, let them. I’ve had the biggest legends in the game, guys I grew up idolizing, show me love. Sleep on me, if you want; it doesn’t matter anymore.

Stan Ipcus’ Sleep If You Want vinyl LP variants pictured in black, grey, and orange/blue splatter colorways (SOURCE: Daniel Isenberg)

And the music really ties into these two sides of the double entendre. “Smell The Sensi” is really like, “yo, do you hear how potent the sh*t is that I’m spitting? You better wake up.” And “Early Bird” is more of a story joint about that grind mentality of having to get up every day and go after it and do what you gotta do to take care of your family. I feel like that might be the most relatable track on the album. “The Return of Ip” plays into that side of it all in a way, too. Like, “yo, just because I’m older now, doesn’t mean I need to lay down and stop. I’m giving it another shot.” But also, “Not Alike,” “Stand Back,” “Styles,” [and] “Ball Hog”—all that sh*t is me flexing on cats to let them know they can’t f**k with me even if they choose to sleep on me.

As for the cover, I had this idea to have a mattress store on it just on some different, weird sh*t like, “yo, go ahead and sleep, if you want; it’s all good. Do you need a bed, my boy? I got you. Sleep well.” So, I worked with my friend, Marc Borelli, to bring that to life. He’s nice with it. From there, Marc helped put the whole packaging together and choose the colors for the vinyl. I thought the grey was original and interesting on some concrete street sh*t to match the sidewalk on the cover and the orange splatter matched the cover nicely, too.

VI. Who or what would you readily cite as some of your greatest sources of inspiration and influence while creating Sleep If You Want?

Ipcus: Not consciously, but there are coincidentally, some pretty big Phife Dawg [A Tribe Called Quest] connections on the album. Of course, the title, which I didn’t even connect at first to his verse on “Scenario.” It was something my boy, Kam, said to me as I was talking to him about the theme of the album that just stuck with me like, “yo, that’s the title.” And then, the hook on “Styles,” which really came naturally from me writing the first verse and then, thinking it would actually make a great chorus. When I think of classic albums, I think of A Tribe Called Quest. They were my favorite Rap group as a kid and have always been an inspiration. That hard, street-wise, thoughtful, but still playful and fun and lyrically accessible Rap music is what I’m always striving to make.

That said, I didn’t set out to pay tribute to Phife, but in a way, it’s even more of a tribute to see how that influence just came through organically. I set out to make a classic Rap album. So, really all the Rap albums I consider “classic” influenced me.

Especially [Nas’] Illmatic. I had a similar number of producers working with me and tracks I wanted to have on the album. So, I really thought about how Nas picked beats from these different producers that still all fit together to build a cohesive project. Actually, that was something I had in mind as I pieced everything together: from the beat selection, to the rhyme content, to the final [song] sequencing.

VII. How did you go about selecting the featured artists and producers who contributed to Sleep If You Want? What can you tell us about each individual?

Ipcus: Well, Genovese and I became friends over a decade ago. I interviewed him for Westcheddar and then, he was living up in [Mount] Kisco for a little while, so we were able to link in-person. We just kind of hit it off as dudes with the same interests in Rap and sports and baseball cards and sh*t like that and “Genovese’s Thesis” is one of my all-time favorite songs.

He had contributed to Do Remember! and then, he hit me up to be a guest on one of his songs, “Don’t Get It Twisted,” which ended up dropping in the spring of 2023. Then, when I was working on “Heaven & Hell ‘24,” I hit him up to see if he wanted to hop on it and he killed it. I love his verse so much. And he’s one of those guys that even with his success and shine on [DJ] Clue [mixtapes] and sh*t has always been slept-on, too. Like, people don’t realize how nice he still is

As for Superbad Solace, well, me and him share a lot of similarities in that we both work in the sports and entertainment creative marketing world and Rap and are fathers. I was a fan of his already from back in the Timeless Truth days and then, he came in as a guest speaker to [myself] and Ev Boogie’s NYU class we were teaching last year in connection to the book and we just kind of hit it off from there. He was giving me props on my music and I could tell he was someone who really appreciated me as an [emcee] and an artist. And we both loved Curb Your Enthusiasm and had sampled the show in different ways. I sent him “Lampin’” and he loved it and I told him how much I loved his song, “Heaven’s Above.”

So, when I was working on “Mic Check,” I had written a long verse and I had been writing so many songs back-to-back-to-back that month that it just felt like, “yo, let me get someone else to jump on this.” It just felt like a [collaborative] joint to me, especially, with the Redman sample I put down on the hook. And I immediately thought of him as someone who would kill it. I could hear his voice on it. So, I sent it to him and he loved it and the rest is history. And on top of that, he’s another guy who I feel still gets slept-on by the masses as an [emcee,] too, so he fit the bill in that regard, as well. I’m honored to have both of those dudes on the project. For [emcees] and men and fathers of their caliber to want to rock with me like that means a lot. It’s the utmost showing of respect and I’m forever grateful for their contributions.

VIII. If you could add three Deluxe Edition "Bonus Tracks" or "Hidden Tracks" onto Sleep If You Want, what would you choose and why for each respective track?

Ipcus: Great question. Well, I did this joint, “Big Daddy Ip,” which I originally wanted to put on the album. It’s me rhyming over the classic [The Emotions’] “Blind Alley” sample that Big Daddy Kane made famous and I sampled his line, “be sleepin’ on your rhymes ‘til I start to snore,” so I felt like it fit really well. It came from that warm-up loop period, so I think that would work. It’s on The Mask Tape and Bandcamp as a single already, though, but to be on the album as a deluxe cut would make a lot of sense since I never put it on [digital streaming platforms].

I’m also working on a “Stand Back” (Remix) that’s coming together nicely. I’d maybe throw that on there, I have a feeling that’s gonna be fire when it’s done. And Duke and one of my other boys have been messing around with a couple possible “Heaven & Hell ‘24” remixes, too; not with new verses, but with different beats on some white label/B-side sh*t. So, maybe, one of those?

IX. Who are your Top 5 favorite underground/unknown emcees, bands, artists, etc. you feel everyone should know about and be listening to and supporting right now?

Ipcus: Damn. Okay, definitely Rome Streetz. He’s my favorite [emcee] of late. I caught onto him at first when he did the [Death & The Magician] project with [DJ] Muggs and from a couple of his Westside Gunn features, but Kiss The Ring is a classic album; might be my favorite Rap album of the past five years or so. I mentioned Dunbar before from Long Island. They don’t get talked about enough. They make the type of Rap music I love. Check for Sure Shot’s solo stuff, too; he’s one-half of Dunbar. I also think Lord Sko is dope. “PIMP SOCKS” has been in heavy rotation for the past year and I met him before; he’s a good dude. I like this kid, Oatmeal Jenkins, too. Not even sure exactly where he’s from, but Gem Crates put me on to him and his new song, “Big Dawg,” is fresh. And I’m not sure if people caught the albums RAZ FRESCO put out with [DJ] Muggs, [The Eternal Now,] and Cookin’ Soul, [BAKIN’ SOUL,] this year, but they both were dope and he’s worth checking out, if you’re still not hip to him.

X. What sort of words of inspiration or advice might you have for young emcees out there pursuing their dreams and grinding to become successful daily?

Ipcus: Keep going. You never know what can happen. I think right now the key is to just drop music consistently and make videos and content that supports it and do whatever you can to get in real life places where people can meet you, see you perform, and hear your music.

When I was young, I never went as hard as I should have gone, but there was also no social media or YouTube, which may have allowed me to bring my music to the masses a little easier. There are a lot of things I choose not to do because of my profession outside of music or being a father in the community, but this album is branching me out a little more now, but if I was young and had these platforms at my disposal and could do it all over again, I’d be dropping [content] all the time and filming everything and being as social and creative as possible—online and offline.

XI. Do you have any current plans to record full-length projects with either of your long-time collaborators Matty B. and/or Max Bent The Human Beatbox?

Ipcus: I always tell Matty B. he needs to do an album for himself. I love his music. He’s constantly writing these great songs and sending me audio notes of his recordings, but he needs to put it all together and record them the right way and make an album. I think that’s separate from me, though. I would love to do another song with him again one day. That’s one of my best friends in the world since elementary school. And “Hammer” is still up there as one of my favorite Ipcus songs ever.

Max is my creative brother. I send him everything the moment I’m done with it, so he can hear what I’m working on and he does the same. I could see us trying to do a full project together at some point. I always wanted to be [in] a group with him and tour together and stuff. I think what we have done together is so original and representative of an unsung piece of Hip-Hop culture, so to see how legends, like [DJ] Premier and [DJ] Eclipse and Riz [MC] and others embraced it and played “Big Ip Don’t Play” and “Pumpkin Cheesecake” on their shows was incredible.

XII. What's planned next for Stan Ipcus?

Ipcus: Shows! Got one coming up in the 914 [Westchester County, New York] over the holidays on Saturday, December 28th at Yonkers Brewing [Company], which is a dope spot that’s really carved out a great local music scene over the past year or so. Max [Bent] & Matty B. will be rocking with me, as will Duke [Fiorella] and Syer and G-Whiz and others. Hoping that’s the first of many. Also, I’m starting to work on new music again. Shout to my man, [Jason] Griff. We’ve got a project in-the-works. Beyond that, I’m not sure. Excited for what’s to come, though and grateful for all the love and support thus far. Thanks, Matt!

Stan Ipcus + Friends at Yonkers Brewing Co. show flyer (SOURCE: @ippydippy)