Dipping into the surreal

Diplomats, dipsomniacs, dippers, some might even say dipsticks, yet Athens-based hip-hop duo Dip has started a movement. Helmed by rappers and producers Johnny Dip (Parks Miller) and Leonardo Dipcaprio (Christopher Grimmett), the high-energy pair have crafted their own genre of music, polarized their hometown audiences, and even played a wedding.

Like all works of art both sacred and inane, Dip was born from idle hands. It was January 2010, Johnny Dip and ex-Dipper Scottie Dippin’ (Noah Ray) were unamused by the Super Bowl, and they eased their boredom by freestyling about dip over the communal bowl of chips and dip. Soon, the two transformed their offhand goofiness into something more. “We had this idea to make a style of music as opposed to just starting a band because I’ve been in quite a few bands,” Johnny Dip recalls. “In Athens you can be in six bands and it’s not a big deal.”

Aside from the onslaught of obvious puns, Dip’s musical makeup relies on hyper-simplified, trap-inspired, bass-heavy bangers, intended as both a tribute, and as satire of Top 40 monotony. “The hip-hop Miami booty bass from the ’90s was the main genre that we drew our inspiration from,” Leonardo Dipcaprio says. “We draw heavily from any era of pop music — any type of thing that’s happened in pop music.”

Though not an original member, Leonardo attended Dip’s first live show. He knew immediately that he needed to be a part of the movement. “It was the most high-energy thing I’ve ever seen,” Leonardo says. “They talked about one word so much that it lost its meaning, and because it lost its meaning it could become anything.”

Dip’s concept may seem intangible — as mystifying as a Zen proverb or a Gollum riddle — but Johnny lays out the two core tenets of dip music holding the madness in place: “1. Manifest the boom diddy boom beat. 2. Fuel every song with the concept of dip.”

Though Dip self-identifies as a joke, its devotion to that joke demands a kind of seriousness. Listening to the duo’s two recordings, This is Dip and Double Dip, the group’s relentless simplicity is headache-inducing, mind-numbing, and ear-piercing. But based on its live performances alone, Dip has landed high-profile slots opening for the likes of Riff Raff, NOLA bounce legend Big Freedia, and again, a wedding. “We slayed at the wedding,” Johnny says. “The bride and groom actually got onstage with us; I was nervous about it but it makes so much sense that Dip played a wedding.”

It might seem patently absurd to hire two guys rapping about dip as a wedding band, but Dip’s inherent positivity is a perfect complement to vows of undying love. Even those who find Dip’s music revolting must admit that if nothing else, Dip is fun.

A Dip live show is more of an experience than a performance. In addition to Johnny and Leo’s frenetic rapping, their shows have included everything from the Little Dipper dance crew to homemade inventions such as the Dip Decryptor. Though it’s gone through various incarnations, the latest version of the Decryptor is an eight-foot web of PVC pipes covered in lights. The purpose? Everything that goes into the Decryptor turns into dip — of course.

Coming from the Athens scene where bands nurture a musical legacy like they’re tending to the gardens of Versailles, Dip is an outlier. “We definitely are aware that we are a vast turnaround to the seriousness of the Athens scene,” Leonardo says. “There are sects of this old-school mentality out in Athens and there’s an undercurrent of people who hate us.”

Dip’s relevance stems from a truth that’s easily forgotten in the grind of the struggling musician: Never take yourself too seriously. Especially for musicians who explore the dour sides of emotion, Dip’s philosophy and its right to stand side by side with “serious” musicians is crucial. “Some people are really great at expressing their sorrow or angst, and it’s really important to have that deep connection,” Johnny says. “But just because comedy or laughing or fun can be silly doesn’t mean it’s any less important.”

But how far can one word even go? Leo and Johnny have already laid the groundwork for at least three future albums. One release, titled DIPlomacy, is set to be released later this year, and every song on the album will explore dip in a different genre.

As of yet, Dip is still DIY to the core, self-releasing albums, booking its own shows, and finely carving out its own niche in Athens, Atlanta, and abroad. So far there hasn’t been any interest in signing the duo, even Leonardo admits it “would be nice to actually make some money from Dip.”

Yet Dip carries on into the future, giving audiences a space to be ridiculous, suspend their seriousness, and dip into the delirious world of the absurd.