Armed with an uncanny visual sense and an undeniable internet presence, Chippy Nonstop is fast making herself the poster girl for the Tumblr generation. The diminutive twenty-one year old is the embodiment of a rapidly growing cyber-subculture of bedroom producers and performers whose identities are forged by follow-backs and retweets. With a Klout score that’s higher than most traditional artists’ record sales – Chippy was the perfect cover model for our Authenticity Issue.
Did you want to introduce yourself?
I’m Chippy and I say that I make dance music, I guess? Nothing to put too much thought into, just something to have fun to.
So do you shy away from the ‘hip-hop’ label?
I would call it dance music. When you say hip-hop… I feel like so much bad connotations come with it. You know ‘rapper girl beef’ and all that bullshit. It’s just supposed to be fun dance music. No one ever is judging dance artists on their lyrical content; it’s not supposed to be like that.
So when did you get introduced to performing?
I’ve done dancing my whole life, performing is my main passion. I love being on stage. I was dancing for DJ ZAKMATIK in LA and Paul Devro from Mad Decent saw me playing onstage. He saw me hyping up the show so he was like “Why don’t you actually try making your own music?” Because I knew what I really liked to listen to, and what I wanted to be like production-wise. So we just went into the Mad Decent studio and recorded some tracks, but never really did anything with it. That was my first time actually recording. But yeah I’ve been performing on stage a lot before then, and that just kind of turned into my own music career. It wasn’t planned like that, but now I’m definitely planning more. It was spontaneous at that time.
And you have a background in visual art as well?
My friends and I ran this website called T Tauri TrapHouse – and I went to school for graphic design and web design. I like really graphic visuals, just insane flashy stuff. A lot of my visuals are probably inspired by computer visuals, my brain is set to, like, make a lot of graphics like that.
What would you do without the internet?
I’m like crying thinking about that even being an option. Honestly, I have no idea. I can’t even fathom that. I don’t think the music I make would exist without the internet.
Because for someone like yourself it’s really about the package, you need the visuals for that music to make sense.
I always say my sound and my visuals have to go hand-in-hand. It’s fun doing the whole process, conceptualising how I’m going to put out each song with visuals. I like doing every step, not just making the song.
So have you got anything coming up at the moment?
I’m working on an EP right now. It’s going to be surprising to people because it’s not as glitchy and crazy sounding as my other EP. It’s still going to be fun dance music, but there’s going to be some chilled slow songs too and some sexy shit.
Purchase the Authenticity Issue here.
See the full cover shoot featuring Chippy Nonstop and Hot Sugar here.