‘5 Questions With’: Dips & Lo-Wu

After years of collaborating with each other and starting their project ‘Idle Hands’ back in 2o18 already, South East London-based duo Dips & Lo-Wu‘s highly anticipated debut mixtape is finally out today! Featuring the likes of Lex Amor, The Melman and Mundo, ‘Idle Hands‘ is a true testament to the duo’s unique lyricism and genre-fusing production.

EQUATE had a chat with the duo and spoke about their collaboration so far, the creative process for their project and much more!

Read the full interview below…

EQ: First of all, how did you two meet and ultimately decide to make music together?

Lo-Wu: Having both grown up living in neighbouring areas in Lewisham borough we both had many mutual friends. Back in school times we were both into grime as that was the appealing and accessible sound of the time. It still influences us today as do many of the genres that pre-date grime such as UKG.

We eventually met years later through our mutuals which we carried into the music scene. We first worked together in 2016 when I sent Dips a beat for a track called ‘Do You’ on his debut EP ‘Phases’. Fast forward 2 years later and after many conversations about our intentions to collaborate we finally got in together for a session. We lived so close that these sessions happened at Dips’ family home. We continued to have sessions, we explored all the sounds that influenced our music to date and started bringing the best out of each other. It became clear to us that the logical next step was to form a duo for our collaborative sound.

EQ: Can you talk us through your debut mixtape, what can your fans expect?

Lo-Wu: The mixtape is an audio representation of our experiences growing up in London and therefore it carries hallmarks of all the sounds that are the bedrock of London culture. We have drawn influences from UKG, Grime, Afro-swing, Soul. From a content perspective it is truly a reflection of the struggles as well as joys of growing up around all the inner city influences, both positive and negative. It also highlights the potential pitfalls young people, in particular the children of immigrants, face in trying to make a way in such a polarising environment. Hence the name ‘Idle Hands‘.

EQ: Also, what is the meaning behind the title ‘Idle Hands’?

DIPS: From our own experience growing up in the environment we did there is nothing more pertinent than the saying “The devil makes work for idle hands“. The project encapsulates the naive adolescence, the exposure to violence, the inevitable heartbreak & the blissful ignorance we endured as young men in that environment. We’re sure a lot of people in our demographic can relate to this and for others it gives a true snapshot of the wide range of experiences young people face. In our case, making music steered us away from negativity and kept us from the pitfalls created by idle hands. It also reflects on more positive memories and experiences showing that not everything was negative. It just highlights the thin line between potential paths that have very different outcomes and the difficulty in navigating that growing up.

“It became clear to us that the logical next step was to form a duo for our collaborative sound.”