NorCal and Shill
A podcast where NFT artists tell stories, hosted by NorCal Guy. https://twitter.com/GuyNorcal
https://twitter.com/norcalandshill
NorCal and Shill
Rare Scrilla - Artist
Ever wondered how art and blockchain can dance together in the moonlight of innovation? Rare Scrilla, the guy who's been mixing beats with Bitcoin long before your favorite coffee shop started accepting it, graces our podcast with tales from the crypto-art frontier. He's no stranger to the game; from creating a Bitcoin music album inspired by the Silk Road saga to his endeavors with Spells of Genesis and the Rare Pepe community, Scrilla knows the ins and outs of what makes digital wallets tick. He emphasizes the value of cold storage, favoring hardware wallets for peace of mind, and offers a glimpse into the early days' trials, including a humbling Rare Pepe rejection that's now just a blip in his rearview mirror.
Switching from the digital brushstrokes to the sizzle of a skillet, we simmer down and share our mutual adoration for crafting culinary masterpieces, especially the zesty zest of authentic Mexican cuisine. Rare Scrilla stirs in some sage advice for aspiring crypto artists, urging them to soak up the culture and savvy up on the financial nuances that are unique to this art form. Then, as we contemplate the tranquil allure of Costa Rica's pura vida minus the eight-legged critters, Scrilla hints at grand plans on the horizon, including a colossal art collaboration and a personal quest to conquer a drawing challenge that would daunt even the most prolific of artists. Tune in to this episode for a blend of creativity, currency, and the kind of conversation that could only happen when art meets the blockchain.
Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of Noor Cal and Shill. Today we have Rare Skrilla, a veteran in the world of crypto art and a pioneer in the rare pet based scene. The conversation kicks off with a discussion about hardware wallets and the evolution of crypto art, with Rare Skrilla sharing his journey into the crypto art and music space. He reflects on his artistic roots and the influence of his family in pursuing a creative path. Rare Skrilla also shares details about his upcoming project, a bitcoin art house endeavor, and the immense effort and dedication he has put into it. The conversation delves into the fusion of pop culture and crypto references in his art, showcasing his passion and dedication to the industry. That episode ends with spirited conversation about the fast moving dynamics of the cryptocurrency space and the anticipation of being at Tribeca together. Overall, the episode provides a fascinating dive into the world of crypto art, the dedication and passion of artists and the evolving landscape of the crypto space, creating an engaging and insightful discussion for listeners. Everybody, please welcome Rare Skrilla.
NorCal Guy:Hey, rare Skrilla, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?
Rare Scrilla:today. I'm doing good man. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.
NorCal Guy:I'm good man, I'm glad that we can make this happen. You know you've been around for a while. You're an OG Pepe artist and it's just about it's been overdue because you've been at this longer than most people have. I feel like a lot of these questions like. My first question is like is it obvious? Duh like, do you use a hardware wallet? You know? Like like I was on the Kickstarter for Trezor type thing? I don't think I was. You got that metal Trezor.
Rare Scrilla:I definitely have one of the first ledger wallets. Yeah, I use hardware wallets. I try to like practice safe cold storage For sure. I'm not supposed to just get in like a 24 phrase and just like splitting that shit up and throwing it out there. I think it's probably even more effective If you're not going to use it. Yeah, that's true, cause these hardware wallets they all have a little bit of like funny funniness but you got way like the pros and cons of them.
NorCal Guy:For sure, for sure. Yeah, I've always been a Trezor guy. I don't know. They just always worked well for me and I mean I have a ledger now as well, but I don't know, Trezor's just been my, I guess partly cause they're open source. I like that aspect of it.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I agree.
NorCal Guy:So what were your first thoughts when you got in or heard about crypto art? Because it was crypto art before, it was NFTs.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I think I mean for me still is crypto art, um, I stuff. I definitely degen a little bit in the NFT space, but I definitely think it's like kind of separate Right they. They merged like that with yeah, then died then.
NorCal Guy:The Venn diagram. Yeah yeah, they're a lot of overlap.
Rare Scrilla:Um, um, uh, I guess. So, like I mean, I started making a bitcoin music album, kind of like, themed about the silk road. I started that in 2013 and I put out 10 years ago actually 2014. So that was like my first like kind of like intro into the space and try to sell that for bitcoin. Um, that was literally.
Rare Scrilla:I was like I want to mind bitcoin was like my art and music. Right at that time it was music, right, right and um, see, we had grand plans for that but nobody understood what the fuck we're talking about. Like, I had I love, I love the album. Um, there's a. It's a long album. It's like 18 tracks and we have like six songs with rappers on it and like telling them kind of like, giving them like a Path to like rap about, like you know, like something about this on the silk road or on my marketplaces and bitcoin and stuff, and like you know it was. It was like it was like speaking Spanish kind of at that time it was funny. Yeah, that was the first introduction.
Rare Scrilla:And then, really into the art, it was um, spells of Genesis was had a blockchain game. Um, I had some of their tokens I forget what they're called right now. But um, yeah, that was, that was the first introduction and, like as an artist and creative is like rare pepis, because like rare pepis came out, I saw everybody talking about it on twitter and put cologne ex and chat chat box and stuff. And um, I was like you know, I gotta get into this. So I mean it took me like I want to say like two or three days to figure out how to get to the Rare pepid telegram chat. Like I went on because, like I went on counter party message board I want to read it and I was like I mean you can scroll back and still see. I'm like oh, how the fuck do I get into this rare pepid?
NorCal Guy:And.
Rare Scrilla:I made a rare pepe on my phone the two live pepe, and this is fake, rare now at a series zero and um, I put it Into the telegram chat when I finally got there, as the first thing I did, I didn't say hi or anything, I just dropped it and, uh, it got. It got rejected. The scientists had like a huddle in another chat and then it came back and it was like it's rejected because, well, it was divisible and uh, I think it was too much Um skin showing on the car at borderline I guess triple x at the time, which I don't know. It's funny because it's a remake of a two live crew cover which is, like you know, like the Some of the original, like rap, to get like banned right, like before I congress and everything you shouldn't, you know, perform it could shut down and stuff. So it was kind of funny. That car got shut down and it's a play on that car.
NorCal Guy:Right, right, that's perfect, it's perfect. So what brought you to art and music?
Rare Scrilla:Um, I mean I started drawing young. My dad was an artist, my uh Grandfather's artist, so my grandmother was an artist. So they were always like teaching us early on just like messing around. So I mean I, you know funny enough I kind of joke about it, but I get my first published piece was when I was five years old and uh, um, the west palm beats something.
Rare Scrilla:I was in art for the majority of my younger years and I transitioned like music when I was like 18, 19, um, we got turntable, started DJ and started producing Um and then started running record label, managed some artists and Went down that path and like didn't really even pay any. You know I had other people doing my art for me. At the time I wasn't doing anything. And then around 10 years ago I was doing I started drawing like um, uh, local and like kind of regional album covers and mix tape covers, like people started Sorry to get a little bit of. You know I had a lot of friends in in this space.
Rare Scrilla:Like you know, I was just doing a film 150 bucks a pop, I think and uh, my son was just starting to like come to the age where I was starting to teach him to draw, so I started getting really back in the drawing. I was always drawing like doodling and shit, um. So yeah, I mean that's just how it happened and the rare peppers came out and Like even my rare peppers the first ones are like photoshop, like fun, like that style, like dankness. And then I started becoming more competitive within Rare Pepe, so I started drawing them and animating them and I had never made a gift in my life before Rare Pepe, like my first gift, I think, is that Ric.
Rare Scrilla:Flair, pepe, and it's the same. Like he talks, like mean conscious, like same thing, like you can see his skills evolve. A lot of people in that ecosystem like Easybee, a lot of people Like everybody is dope, but it's just like you came in dope or in all the art.
NorCal Guy:Right, right, yeah. Everyone evolved, got better. You guys were all pushing on each other to improve.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, it was all super friendly, but everybody has that competitive nature within the community. Everybody wants to be alpha and have that meme that gets shared and talks about mentioning the news article, just whatever.
NorCal Guy:It's like graffiti, right?
Rare Scrilla:It's like graffiti on the internet. You just want to have that shit in the background. It's like a Hollywood set, like burning fire and having a tag on it.
NorCal Guy:Right, right. So what jobs have you done along the way? Like when you were younger, those grunge jobs. You're like damn, I have to do this. But then you're like. Now you're like man, that was a funny job, glad I had it.
Rare Scrilla:I don't know. I saw it for six months when I was 19. I worked as a boat insurance operator. So basically people that were stranded off of Florida and other various places but mostly Florida would call me I need whatever what the fuck is it called Patrol, to come get me, save me all this stuff. So I was on the other end, basically saving people's lives at a young age. That's just boat insurance company. But that was actually. That was a great job, just looking back. Funny though, like you said, just the characters and the office. It was like the office. That was my only office job and that was the office. The TV show Uh-huh.
NorCal Guy:I can imagine you're like yo listen to what this call was about, like what these fools did.
Rare Scrilla:They did some wild calls and every once in a while it would be like a real emergency situation.
NorCal Guy:Mostly not Any gators, crocodiles stories from the boat people that are funny, I can't remember.
Rare Scrilla:I think it was mostly just people in the ocean, ok.
NorCal Guy:All right. So if you were an animal, what would you be and why?
Rare Scrilla:I would say a.
NorCal Guy:I mean, it seems like it's got to be a frog.
Rare Scrilla:That wasn't the first thing on my mind, but I don't think I'd be a frog. I like the frog, but I don't think I am a frog.
NorCal Guy:Fair, that's fair, that's fair.
Rare Scrilla:I'd go with, maybe like a leopard.
NorCal Guy:Say a leopard. Ok, that's fair. It's a solid one. Do you have a favorite food?
Rare Scrilla:I like cooking chicken fajitas. I like cooking a lot like steaks, rib-bys and chicken fajitas. Got a mean chicken fajita beans you know like. Let them stew for a few hours. Rice, that's good.
NorCal Guy:I can always get down on some Mexican food, man, I love Mexican food, it's my favorite.
Rare Scrilla:I think that's my go-to, my favorite, or like a good euro, like finally a good euro, right yeah.
NorCal Guy:What's the best piece of advice you've been given, or do you have like a mantra that you like kind of go back to?
Rare Scrilla:I guess kind of like my mom telling me to always be responsible for my actions and be accountable, like she was like big on that Kind of like. Drove it in yeah, kind of stuck with me.
NorCal Guy:No, that's a solid one. Can't complain about that one. That's like a core belief right there. Do you have advice for artists coming to this crypto art space?
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, tinker with everything that's going on being like the now of like crypto art and like crypto in general, like set up wallets, trade a little bit, like getting some of these like different communities, and just then you gotta like immerse yourself a little bit A lot of it even so, that you don't, in my opinion, like you just don't. It's like anybody could come over here and do whatever, but I feel like you want to get crypto artists and like have like like a solid foundation. It's easy to get if you kind of like are crypto native. I guess that's kind of like my place on that. If it's not necessary for all artists, of course, but I think for like the indie kind of mindset artists that I kind of kind of started this like still like the mindset, I think a lot of people are successful.
NorCal Guy:Right, yeah, there's a lot of culture in the crypto and crypto in general, like their like, own, like memes and culture and everything, and you know a lot of people could play on, play in that and play on that and do well and it does well to you know to learn about it and for promotion of themselves and everything and like people love that a lot.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I feel like it's like more natural in the space. If you can like talk to people in a space, like on a level right. Yeah, cause like we just come from, like this new art movement where it's like, whether we like it or not, and I don't even like talking about, like I don't tweet about stuff like this, but like it's like there's a financial aspect to this, like crypto art, like different than any like different kind of financial game and then traditional art.
Rare Scrilla:So like kind of got to understand it a little bit. I think everything is like more valuable, in the moment at least, like right, yeah, I don't know, it's interesting it is, it is for sure.
NorCal Guy:So if you could live or move anywhere, where would you live and why?
Rare Scrilla:I'd say, off the top, like Costa Rica, like I fucked with Costa Rica a couple times, I get a spot in like the in like by the volcano and get a spot on the beach.
NorCal Guy:All right, okay, I Like it. It's a solid spot. I've been there once and I had a great time with fam. It's nice.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, the spiders out of control there, but otherwise. So I woke up with a spider this big next to my head.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, oh, that's a little hard.
Rare Scrilla:Get it out. He's like non-stop. I just grabbed it to get out, like let it go just grab this like so.
NorCal Guy:Do you have any questions for me?
Rare Scrilla:Hmm, what's what's next for NorCal and the NFC space? The art side, like the photography side.
NorCal Guy:Wow. Then I guess I mean, people keep on like, hey, you should post stuff more. And I was like, you know, I don't know, I just feel like I never get around to it. But my goal for this year was to post more photographs that I've taken, because I take a lot and I just don't post any. So my goal is to just post more. And people I don't know, even like this last post I made, like Two three weeks ago I was in Texas and was snowing and I was in the small rural town and she took these pics and people were like, oh, we love these, I'd love to get an addition of it. I was like, oh, maybe someday. So just posting more, I guess be fun, but I love photography. It's a great, it's great for me. So what? Do you have any other questions?
Rare Scrilla:Are you guys still um? I mean, I see you guys are still going super hard click, create and everything.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, yeah, today's a big day. Have some announcements happening. Like a burn redeem thing is happening that we're announcing today, so you can burn PFPs and get in exchange them for something else. So that should be interesting look at. It beyond the lookout there. You won't know. Well, this will be in the history by the time this podcast goes live, but yeah.
Rare Scrilla:I.
NorCal Guy:Know right, right, right. Do you have any upcoming projects they love to talk about? I like to hear what you're getting into or been into.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, so I got the ones. Um, it's a Bitcoin art house project so they're definitely a grand idea to do like. I think I Think a hundred artists doing a hundred pieces over like so many years I don't know if that's like the actual thing, but like at least have a lot of artists doing a hundred pieces. So they approached me last summer about it and I took it as a challenge, kind of like all right, like at the time I had to have. They approached me in June. I started actually and they wanted it done by the end of August.
Rare Scrilla:So I was basically doing like one or two drawings, sometimes three drawings, every day, like straight. So it's like I've never done that much drawing. I was like deep in and I knew like I had a baby coming soon. I had to like get this done. Like I was going to Paris in October, but then so it ended up kept getting pushed back, push back. Fees went out crazy, so we had to wait for the fees to come down some and then, yeah, sorry, I drew a little bit more in October, november, like in summer once I figured I had a little bit more time Like the last, like probably 10 or 15 pieces, like we're over like a two-month period type thing, so it's all kind of like.
Rare Scrilla:It's kind of like I'm just like I don't want to call it every day's, but I literally was doing every day. I was just like kind of come up with like a thought and maybe there's something going on the news, like I did like the TikTok Psyop one, because that one was like hot at that time. Yeah, you know, there's like kind of like moments like that. I was watching Chappelle's, I did a Chappelle joint and kind of remixes like crack joke and the shit-coined joke. I try to like take like pop culture Mostly like probably 80 or 90% of it is like pop culture and, like me, mephaya and I have some kind of like Bitcoin or crypto, like you know, right parallel with reference.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, what's going on? I asked Easter eggs in there of course.
Rare Scrilla:See, I looked at it, man, like honestly, like it's like my meme, magnum opus, right. Like I just like me down for like a hundred straight days and I tried to like a few different styles. Like mostly use pen and marker, but there's some pencil and some colored pencil and I think that's all I did on that. Yeah, I tried to like, yeah, it's great.
NorCal Guy:It's great Like I was going through them and you know, definitely some stand out to me and I'm like, hey, that one's cool, I'd like to get that one sometime, so but yeah, like there's definitely great, there's classic ones like the MacGaffey and but yeah, I mean there's great references to crypto history and you know stuff happening today and I love it. It's a great collection of all these different Memable things and Can't wait for it to launch, because I'm not exactly sure when it is launching, but I'm, I'm on the list, okay, okay, perfect nice.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Man, I want to. Um, I haven't made a big drop in like a year, like so it's like it's gonna get this thing. I've been worked, worked so hard on this thing. I kind of like I've been joking around, but I think it's like very close. If it's not factual that so we'll just call it fake news, but it's real 420 hours doing all the drawing. It was definitely very close to that.
NorCal Guy:Right, right, it's fitting. It's fitting yeah. For marketing purposes. It'd be perfect this year, you know, with the happening possibly happening on 420. Yeah, if the Bitcoin price is at 69 K on on 420 and the happening.
Rare Scrilla:I mean I hope the bears don't fuck on that, that price action we know right now.
NorCal Guy:It'd be so great. Yeah, I think like crypto space would just take off. I think, like that happened, people just go nuts.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I'm bullish on like all like especially Ethereum and Bitcoin, like the, once it goes all town highs like I think like it's gonna be a frenzy of just craziness again, and that's always fun to kind of like you're in the chaos, right Like it happens so fast. What the fuck I should have done this. I should have done this.
NorCal Guy:Right. Yeah, it's funny. It does feel like it's moving faster this this time around. I don't know why it feels like that, but just feels like it's moving faster.
Rare Scrilla:Yeah, I got a feeling it's gonna be like the last. If it is a fast cycle like the last, like super fast cycle, okay, I feel that maybe a creep up after that We'll see.
NorCal Guy:Sure, well, rare scrilla. Thank you so much for your time today and give me some history, and you know I'm looking forward to seeing you in New York because I think you're gonna be there, we'll be a try back then.
Rare Scrilla:What April 4th through 7th or something?
NorCal Guy:Okay, perfect. Yeah, I'll see you there. I'll be there those dates. Yeah, I'll keep you posted me. Thanks, take care.
Rare Scrilla:She'll.