Vid Pick: Skipp Whitman – Girls

As soon as I watched LA, by way of Boston, hip-hop artist Skipp Whitman’s video for “Girls” I knew I had to feature it here. A dope, honest, addictive, song, the video is unbridled fun, set in a summer school class with a gorgeous teacher, and food flying around the room.

Wanting to know more about “Girls” (great sentence, I know), I caught up with Skipp Whitman to find out about the song, the video, and what it was like taking a tray of cupcakes to the face. Skipp also revealed what about him has become LA, and what about him is still decidedly Boston.

Let’s start with inspiration. What made you want to write “Girls”?

Some time back, I split up with my ex – we were actually married. I kind of wrote about the experience on “The End,” on my last album, Piece.

I went through a long period of time after that just totally focused inward, focused on myself, thinking about what I wanted, about who I was without her, and what I wanted to do. I sort of went into a Rocky montage, if you will, mentally – improving, grinding, recovering, and not paying much attention to anything besides me, which at the time was very much needed. I’m even still in that a bit, selfish with my time, but eventually I just sort of looked up.

It’s hard to walk around LA – I walk, I don’t have a car – and not notice beautiful girls. I guess at some point I just kind of woke up, and most of the album is a reflection of that.

There’s a “Hot For Teacher” vibe to the video. When you were growing up did you have a teacher you – and probably all the other guys – were hot for? If so, tell everyone about her.

Ms. Digenis. Biology teacher – ironic – I think Sophomore year of high school. Man, she was fine. Compared to the other teachers she wasn't that much older than us – I’m guessing early twenties. She had these black, faded jeans that she'd wear.

We were all into her because of the way she would interact with us. It felt like maybe we would have had a chance. That would drive us nuts.

I don't know how else to describe her without being disrespectful, but yeah … whew, man … yeah, she was fine.


The video was shot on location at John Muir High School in Pasadena, CA. How difficult was it to book the high school, and how much clean up did you have to do after the shoot?

I got super lucky with that one. The director, Zach Trout, had a connect with the principle from a previous shoot he’d done.

I won’t get into numbers, but I’ll say it was way less than it should have been. I know what “professional” shoots pay for locations, and that can sometimes be discouraging when thinking of a shoot since most location fees would exceed any of my given budgets. I just got real lucky with that location.

I had wanted a much more outrageous food fight, we even got a special camera just to shoot the slow-mo, but out of respect for the high school we kept it pretty subdued, just lots of plastic sheets, and trash bags. It was easy.

Speaking of the food being flung around, you end up taking a tray of cupcakes to the face. First off, please tell me that only required one take. Also, as someone who wears glasses I have to know if the specs you were wearing ended up leaving a mark after that direct hit.

{laughs} It was actually a personal red velvet cake, and we only had one in the budget, so we had to make it count.

I would eye the cake throughout the day, knowing that was how my day was going to end, so once she finally hit me with it, it was almost a relief, and it tasted great.

(The hit left) no mark. Sara’s a champ. It almost made me think she had done it before.

Sara Ryan – the actress who plays the teacher – seemed to really enjoy that moment. At any point did you think she enjoyed it a little TOO much?

That look, right? So malevolent. Great. That’s probably my favorite expression in the whole video. She really truly enjoyed that.

We shot in sequence, so by then it had been a really long day. In the same way that I had been dreading it, she was probably looking forward to that, so the payoff was big. But yeah, she’s pretty evil, but great.


“Girls” is the title track from your latest album, which was released earlier this week. Why is this song the perfect way to introduce listeners to the new LP?

The song is like a dating profile – a succinct survey of my likes and dislikes, of what I’m looking for, and a bit of what I’ve been through.

My last album, Piece, was pretty dark; again, reflecting what I was going through at the time. The song “Girls,” like the album, is lighter.

While I have experienced too much to be totally carefree, I do have a general outlook on things which I think the song reflects. It also works as a solid intro to the album because it’s short, and hopefully catchy, and easy to digest. I can’t help but want to cater a bit to peoples’ diminishing attention spans.

You’re originally from Boston, but are now out in LA. What have you found to be the biggest difference between the two hip-hop scenes?

When I was in Boston I would have considered myself more a part of the scene. I opened up for the local favorites, including Esoteric, and Akrobatik.

In LA … I live here, but I don’t feel like I am involved in any scene in particular. However, that’s also maybe because of how the city’s laid out, or maybe even more, how the “indie” grind has changed. Like, I’m sure the scene in Boston is way different now than it was when I was there. So, part of it's geography. Part of it's just time.


What’s been the most LA thing you’ve done, the thing that made you say, “Welp, I guess I’m an LA resident now”?

I stopped eating meat. {laughs} It’s part of my Rocky montage self improvement plan. I also stopped drinking about 18 months ago, but definitely the vegetarian thing, that’s pretty LA.

Flipping that question, what’s the most Boston thing you still do, the thing that makes people in LA say, “Welp, I guess he’ll always be a Boston guy”?

I walk everywhere. I guess that’s just an East Coast thing, but I don’t own in a car in LA, which is incomprehensible to some people, especially LA natives. Sometimes I’ll walk from downtown to Hollywood to kill a day. It’s like my favorite thing to do. I also live in an area – North Hollywood – where everything is a walkable distance. It’s really the only reason why I have been able to stay in LA. I love the city, but if I had to drive everywhere I’d be back east.

For more Skipp Whitman, check out skippwhitman.com, and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.