Featured: Jamal Smith

Interview: Just [JustOntask] | Photo: Danielle [Mysteryiniquity]

Is Poptartpete your official artist name?
JS: I dont know yet haha. It started as a joke and it still kind of is, but i fucks with it. Its was either that or NutellaBlack

Where the name originate from?
Yo i have no fucking clue. I just really liked poptarts at the time i started making beats. Fuck those things though, gave a nigga 8 cavities.

Poptarts, best thing about them?
The crust around the frosting…and hot fudge sundae flavor yo. But as i said…a nigga got 8 cavities so ive been eating fruit and shit.

I still haven’t been to Philadelphia, yet. But what’s the best thing about it?
The best thing about philly right now is the crew of people i’ve been making music with lately. Shout out to my mans HeyJoshHey, SWRVY, Stainless Steele, ChrisAre, Flote, Mogillah. And sometimes i get free weed

When did you start skateboarding?
I started skating when i was like 11 or 12, but i didnt start taking it serious untill i was like 14 or something.

Who do you usually skate with?
Lately i’ve been skating alone a lot. Most of the guys i started skating with when i moved to philly live in california now so the scene is kinda dead. But when the missions do go down im always skating with kyle Nicholson, Kevin Taylor, Nelly Mundo, Dylan Sourbeer and a couple othe local shredders.

Best spot to skate?
8th and poplar aka the bridge spot so fucking fun

The recent footage you have in the 10.Deep videos are sick. You plan on releasing a part soon?
Thanks! i dont know yet..I haven’t really been on the filming tip like i should be, but i do want to have a full part some day. Filming is stressful for me sometimes, i just gotta man up and go out.

How about the music, were you always making beats on your downtime?
Kind of but not really. I would fuck around with my friends keyboards and shit but i didnt really get serious with music until i moved to Ithaca, New York. When i was like 16 I met this dude named Ira who put me onto cats like Madlib, MF DOOM, and he put me onto skratching. We used to get so stoned and skratch in his room with the same Q-bert and D-styles battle records for HOURS..I sucked at that shit. I didnt start sampling and shit like that until i moved to philly in 2008.

Where do you get most of your samples from? crate digging? or straight mp3′s?
Most of the time MP3 but whenever theres a beat session with mad fools we just chop up records. But when i’m alone I’ll just steal shit from youtube. I have the most bootleg setup, I have Ableton on my girlfriends computer and i hook the computer up into my T.V so it blast out the speakers.

You plan on coming out with any tapes soon?
Me and my man Josh Hey just put out a beat tape called TVBEATS you can get that on lankyladcrew.bandcamp.com. As far as a solo beat tape I dont know, That’d be tight. Im going to just stack up on beats and see where it goes from there

What about skate parts with your own sounds?
been there done that