The Life and Times of Pittsburgh Rapper VIKTM : An Interview                                  Holly Coleman

 

 

Somewhere, lurking on the hills of the North Side, resides the hip-hop-producing, Pittsburgh-representing, agoraphobic Robert Evans, better known as VIKTM. I first heard about VIKTM while participating in the short-lived public access show Splendid Recipes. It was a sketch comedy show based out of Troy Hill which featured a parody of Robert Evans, who was an old school Troy Hiller. The parody featured VIKTM producing rhymes in his bedroom and having a mental breakdown as he reflected on his life.  Mr. Evans contacted Splendid Recipes by writing a vulgar, misspelled, caps-lock-heavy email about his dissatisfaction concerning the parody. A month later, Mr. Evans contacted Splendid Recipes again to express his thanks for the parody and the attention it had given him and his producer/best friend “Dale Earns Hard.”

 

VIKTM and Dale have since released tracks on various local compilations in addition to uploading their own, self-produced SendSpace recordings. I contacted VIKTM via the Facebook page that he shares with Dale. I asked to meet up somewhere to do an interview with him. He flatly refused to meet face to face, citing his undiagnosed agoraphobia; he agreed instead to correspond with me through text messages.  As we developed our text relationship, VIKTM revealed to me a short history of his life and music career in Pittsburgh:

 

* VIKTM has been kicked out of every hip hop producer's studio for stomping his feet too loudly while rapping, smoking pot around sensitive microphones and "tweaking the soundboard" by spilling Laser Malt Liquor on the controls.

 

* He dated a woman in the late 1980s who turned out to be a man; he proposed to her after this revelation and she declined.

 

* In 1996, he once smoked “sherm” and was restrained by seven Pittsburgh police officers at the Regatta.

 

* VIKTM was introduced to Dale by a mutual friend at Triangle Tech in 2002. Their friendship resulted in them being expelled for stealing soldering irons to build "echoplex rotator modulation buttons."

 

* VIKTM was arrested outside of the SiLo on McKnight Road by Officer White for possession of marijuana and china white. (VIKTM thought this was ironic and worth mentioning since Officer White is accused of growing marijuana.)

 

* An early VIKTM demo (and tribute to the Pittsburgh Steelers) called "Steal the Curtain" is said to be floating around Pittsburgh. He left 100 copies at the old Stedeford’s on East Ohio Street.

 

* Dale and VIKTM have recorded over 75 songs for their new album Night of the Giving Head, but the majority of the tracks are intoxication-fueled vulgarity-riddled rants about the mayor and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 

* VIKTM and Dale would love to write an op-ed column for a local newspaper and have a new computer that they share.

 

*Dale Earns Hard once consumed a “teener” of cocaine in the back of a police car on his way to the  Zone 1 police station after getting into a fight at JR's Bar on East Ohio street.

 

*Dale worked for a long time at Sukitz Auto.

 

Soon after, VIKTM’s Track Phone ran out of minutes and he did not bother to buy more, so we communicated only through email. VIKTM also felt that he had revealed too much about himself and  decided that he would now, only answer questions pre-screened by Dale. I presented various questions and the result is what was chosen by VIKTM and Dale, in VIKTM’s own “words,” with an introduction.

 

[Editor's Note: While VIKTM chooses to express himself entirely in capital letters and with little punctuation, some liberties were taken to increase readability of this interview]

 

VIKTM:  First, I want to thank you for this interview. We been grinding hard promoting the new album coming out soon. We love our city and its ability to draw young folks from other counties to live here and start bands.  You can see at Gooski's and in Garfield and Brillobox and places like that.  But when we came up it was like Electric Banana and Cool Pepper's Hothouse, and Rosebud's was like, turtleneck required motherfuckers did expensive coke.

 

HC:  Where did you come from?

 

VIKTM:  Rich Fitzgerald is tha dude with lots of kids and that seems irresponsible today in this year.  You know, a population crisis and we gotta double bag it.  My dad was a flake and my mom gave us life on December 25 1969-1970 and her boyfriend helped, but it was like that movie Strange Frequency and the kid is like Whiskey Mike; "One, Alpha, Tango, Echo, anyone on frequency?" and dude dies. But then rap music came along and I was the blood that rushed into that limp dick, that made it look up at your tie and not down at your shoelaces. 

 

HC:  What song changed your life?

 

VIKTM:  That whole Ninja Turtles album was tight but, no, for real, Aldo Nova "Monkey On Your Back".

 

HC:  When I say "STUNNAH", who comes to mind?

 

VIKTM:  The Catholic church pulled stunts before anyone knew it was possible. They took the templars on some jack moves October Friday 13. They have more criminals in they midsts than Riker's Island.  Riker from Star Trek says "What's Up", Haha.

 

HC:  What about this Occupy Wall Street shit?

 

VIKTM:  Yo, I think Amy Goodman keeps it real. She got all those kids to go down to Wall Street and chill hard like Bonnaroo. Haha. John Goodman is like on that show "Community" now so at least Amy fucks with shit you know. But for real, you get some kids to dread they hair and then flip the script and be like "global climate change is a myth", but meanwhile Heinz Field gets more rain than ever and Mayor Ravenstahl gets divorced, that's like 2 of 3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. 

 

HC:  Did Conrad Murray kill Michael Jackson?

 

VIKTM:  No, the King needed to return to his home planet. He recorded enough music to establish a new culture on this planet experiment of his, so now he has to return to where he came from to analyze the data he collected, and then he will either erase Planet Earth and start over or he will come back to get Bono from U2.  And Lee "Scratch" Perry, he doin' the same thing.

But you know we all live in mystery, and shit is like getting up to piss in the dark, we bangin' our feet on the pipe stickin' out of the ground and I'm standin' in blunt guts with a half boner trying to piss and it's like, you know it, so surreal to be alive. But you know the beat go on and you either step to the mic or you run from things you don't understand, in the dark, alone under your bed, when dude comes to get what you owe him. So Michael is like that, and I miss him every day. Dun Conrad was like the dude that put the other dude in that time machine but he can't go with him because he has to push the button, so he just has to explain to everyone else where the other dude went, but nobody believes him.  

 

 

 

HC:  WPXI?  WTAE?  KDKA?  Who keeps it real?

 

VIKTM:  Yo, for the record it's WPXI 'til I die. They posted up in the North Side like it ain't shit, that's hard as fuck. Darieth Chisolm was duckin' motherfuckers on her, was into the studio in Fineview, "welcome to my world" and shit.  Meanwhile, Stacy Smith smokes so much schwag he can't even see on the mic. David Johnson and Scott Harbaugh blow on that asparagus, real high grade dro and they be like stutterin' and shit on TV. They don't give a fuck.  Meanwhile, Marty Griffin is in love with himself, and fuck Andy Sheehan, my dude maced himself and straight up cried on TV, Hahaaaaaa.  New VIKTM & DALE album coming out soon!  VIKTM & DALE EARNS HARD: Night of the Giving Head (A North Side Story).

 

After dealing with VIKTM and DALE EARNS HARD, it was leaked to me that they are both classically-trained musicians who have experienced a dissociative fugue and can't remember who they used to be.

 

To hear the creations of VIKTM and DALE EARNS HARD visit  http://www.myspace.com/viktmoflife, VIKTM DALE EARNS HARD on Facebook,  http://soundcloud.com/viktm and various message boards across the east coast.

 

 

Holly Coleman lives on Troy Hill can often be found MC-ing The New Yinzer Presents Reading Series.