Don't Expect Anything From Pink Siifu at III Points

It would be a grave mistake to pigeonhole Pink Siifu and miss everything that drives the Alabama-born, Ohio-raised artist. Just asking him what the audience can expect when he makes his Miami debut at III Points brings this warning: "Don't expect nothing. Don't ever expect anything," Pink Siifu tells New Times via Zoom from New York. "I want people to walk in with no expectations other than quality, but don't expect anything sonically."

It could be a punk-rock-thrashing, hip-hop-shaking hybrid à la his raw album on Black identity, Negro. Or it may be done by his signature cadence and art of storytelling with little more than a simple beat. "I want to play Miami. I want to move to Miami," he adds. "I don't know if I want to die in Miami, but I want to grow old in Miami."

Inevitably, Miami booty bass enters the conversation once he starts talking about his brother, Dee, who was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale.

"Trick Daddy, Uncle Luke, SpaceGhostPurrp — me and my [producers] Apollo and Peso, we were big SpaceGhostPurrp fans. I still tap into what he plays," Siifu says. "I always wanted to be my brother, and I would listen to what he listened to, which was Florida stuff."

Born Livingston Matthews, Siifu moved from Birmingham to Cincinnati when he was 6 years old. He took up the trumpet, switched to drums around the fifth or sixth grade, and was part of his school's marching band. Matthews took up writing poetry and, like most first-year college students, tapped into different music heavily.

Matthews started producing under the Pink Siiffu moniker in 2016 when he debuted his album, Twothousandnine. What came next were eight albums, two deluxe versions, and a slew of singles incorporating anything from Thai love ballads, doo-wop, and whatever hits different.

Some of the magic comes from the 30-year-old rapper's ability to work with numerous producers. Each has a different palette to create a track that strays far away from the mainstream.
"My friend Q — he was traveling somewhere," he says of the Thai love ballad loop used on the Navy Blue-produced track "Stay Sane." "I don't know where, and he was like, 'Bro, I heard this song in a taxi, and he gave me the song.' And I heard it and thought it was beautiful. I made a loop to it and then let Navy Blue take it from there. We killed it."

Siifu, alongside Peso Gordon and Chuck Strangers, recently dropped "Pour the Wine" as well as a nine-track album, Real Bad Flights, with collaborator Real Bad Man.

"I was just making songs, and I heard that beat and knew I wanted Chuck to jump on the hook," Siifu says about "Pour The Wine." "I looped my nigga Peso. I wanted him to get cinematic and go biblical on it. Real Bad Man did the beat. It was very authentic how it came together. I did my first verse, and Chuck laid out the hook."

"Smile with your gold teeth/Smile with your gold teeth/Smile with your gold teeth," he delicately commands the listener on "Ensley (Smile Made of Gold​)​" off the 2018 same-named album. Siifu could have borrowed from his Southern and Ohio roots and rapped using torpedo tongue twisters favored by the likes of Lil Yo, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Andre 3000. Instead, his cadence is much slower — almost drowsy.

"I learned how to rap by Lil Wayne, Outkast, Mos Def. It's more old-man shit," he explains. "I love niggas to rap like an old man — Earl Sweatshirt, Navy Blue, Maxo. It's very organic, old-man talk from these young cats.

"Lil Wayne gets on a track and be lazy. Eminem did that a lot and played with words. This one new track I did, I was like I rhymed 'experience' with 'spirit.' Sometimes you gotta be lazy to rhyme like that. It's storytelling; it's being fashionable. I love rapping in a different pocket than other people, or sometimes I don't, and it's already laid out for you."

Conversely, the Negro track "FK" is a punk anthem spiked with screams and chord progressions screeching through the amplifiers — only to slam the brakes and transition into a distorted vocal rapping over a barebones beat.

Siifu is equally inspired by George Clinton, whom he identifies with on a spiritual level, and the great jazz legends like Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra or experimental outfits like the Pixies, Radiohead, and Death Grips.

"I used to go to this thing with my mom and dad called Jazz in the Park in Cincinnati, and they used to have old school niggas and jazz records," he recalls. "Frank Beverly would come, and I was like, 'Damn, this my vibe.' And I always wanted music that came like that shit, but I also enjoy music that comes from young niggas, too, and international folks and world music shit."

Siifu wants to deliver that same feeling to the listener. "I want people who get the experience. I want people who listen to my music to say, 'Shit, I want to see this live.'"

Pink Siifu at III Points 2022. 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. Friday, October 21, and Saturday, October 22, at Mana Wynwood, 318 NW 23rd St., Miami; iiipoints.com. Tickets cost $119 to $499 via iiipoints.frontgatetickets.com.