Music and Wine Pairing with Slim Papi

Music

You can’t beat a great glass of wine. Whether you reach for a Beaujolais or Pinot Grigio is your tipple of choice, there’s a bottle of vino out there to suit everyone’s tastes.

Slim Papi’s sampled a fair few of them. The London-based rapper and producer has a taste for a delicious lyric and a smooth instrumental.

His self-produced tracks marry laidback productions and deftly sourced samples with sparkling lyrics packed full of cultural references and flavourful food descriptions, delivered in his singular flow.

The mouth-wateringly titled Châteauneuf-du-Papi is Slim Papi’s second musical excursion under the name, following his 2020 EP Excellent Adventure, and is also a prelude to part two, a project featuring Sonnyjim and NYC rapper Crimeapple, which we’ll be seeing in the near future.

If it’s not already apparent, not only does he know a thing or two about a smooth beat and a witty bar, he’s also something of a wine connoisseur. So put your Vivino app away and let Slim Papi recommend you some of the best vinos he’s been lucky enough to sample on his trips around the world, each paired with a tasty track selection to go with it…

“I think through my love for Star Trek TNG and having identified Picard as one my king archetypes, I manifested a sort of perversion of wine. Over time I started getting into wine which led to spending some time on vineyards, eventually I produced some bottles of natural wine (or ‘Slim Papi charisma extract’) that I put on sale together with my record ‘Châteauneuf-du-Papi Vol. 1′ on which I rap about wines also. Thus, as a result of having this relationship with delicious drinks, Ransom Note asked me to put together a playlist pairing ten wines with ten songs.

For me, wine should be accessible rather than this gate kept thing.. Y’know say words wrong, it’s okay to not know what you’re talking about, ask questions… it’s fine. Every day is a school day! With this in mind I’ve tried to include wines that should be sourced as easily as a new record. When doing the playlist I didn’t know if the tracks selected should like embody the tasting notes of the wine, or if they should be referenced lyrically (a whole playlist of that would be cool, though I would probably have to think a bit harder) or fit the mood that best suits the situation within which you would be drinking the listed drink; so the below playlist is a mixture of all 3 of these. I did manage to stop myself from pairing an asti spumante with Mobb Deep Eye For An Eye, though.”

Watch the video for Slim Papi’s latest single ‘Cosmo Kramer‘, featuring Jam Baxter.

Topics

Jon Phonics Music Slim Papi Wine

LISTEN

Madvillain - Great Day

Pair with: Quinta do Javali – Clos fonte do santo cherry tree vineyard – Douro, Portugal

I just spent a month in Portugal and this bottle was one of the first natural wines I came across and it kept me in good steed for the weeks following. Tastes as bright as it looks, still has that douro deepness to it. Cherrys all the way to the finish line.

Paired with Madvillain’s ‘Great Day’ to start us on our journey ‘the rocket scientist, with the pocket wine list’ an cause I wrote a lot of rappings juiced off this.

Madvillain - Great Day

Pair with: Quinta do Javali – Clos fonte do santo cherry tree vineyard – Douro, Portugal

I just spent a month in Portugal and this bottle was one of the first natural wines I came across and it kept me in good steed for the weeks following. Tastes as bright as it looks, still has that douro deepness to it. Cherrys all the way to the finish line.

Paired with Madvillain’s ‘Great Day’ to start us on our journey ‘the rocket scientist, with the pocket wine list’ an cause I wrote a lot of rappings juiced off this.
Max Roach - Equipoise

Pair with: Valetina Passalacqua, Sovrachhio 2018 – Puglia, Italy

On a visit to New York in 2019, I was served a glass of this with a slice (or 4) of pizza in Brooklyn at Scarr’s on the first day I arrived. I left Scarr’s with a bottle and my boy Mike & I must’ve drank a bottle of this almost every day we were in town afterwards. By the time I got back I had already sourced a bottle to be delivered to me the day I got back to London (shout out naturalbornwine.Com) slightly effervescent, cloudy lemonade – paired with this Max Roach song as it reminds me of sun rays bouncing into my eyes in the rearview mirror of a taxi cab as I watch the street go by.
Lonnie Liston Smith and The Cosmic Echoes - Devika

Pair with: Christian Binner, Si Rose 2019 – Alsace, France

This wine looks like a lava lamp and tastes like a silky lychee rubicon. A bonkers blend of gewurztraminer and pinot gris and lengthy maceration result in this sort of rose coloured wine that is far more than the sum of its parts. Presented in a bottle that feels like it’s got a genie in it. Paired with Devika by Lonnie Liston Smith for the lava lamp hug and the inevitable enlightenment obtained by drinking the Si Rose.
Slim Papi - Asparagus Tips

Pair with: Camillo Donati il Mio Malvasia 2019 – Italy, Emilia-romagna

Malvasia is one of the grapes we are seeing people use to produce interesting natural wines at the moment. This Camillo Donati is something you will probably see in your shops so it’s accessible (I just googled and here is a link to it in wieno bib or just go in a shop). I like to start an evening off with this, it tastes celebratory. It’s fruity, dry slap will really lubricate the conversation. I was drinking a bottle of this in the Asparagus Tips video so, naturally, have paired it with that ‘malvasia, with maria in the pizzeria’.
Larry June - Organic Watermelon Juice

Pair with: Ampeleia, Unlitro – Italy, Tuscany

A grenache, so more complex than your average glou glou but still a super drinkable and light red wine. This comes in a litre bottle but summer days just – pop – an this is gone. Paired with Larry June ‘Organic Watermelon’ cos thats the song that plays in my head when I think back to when this was getting drunk a lot. If you see Ampeleia on a bottle though, definitely give it a try. They’re making great wines.
Invader Spade - Travellin

Pair with: Brand Brothers – Wilder Satz – Germany, Pfalz

Zeyn aka Invader Spade introduced me to this wine a few years back when he worked in Levan and I became an instant fan – again, I think I left the restaurant with a bottle. If I’m in a new place there’s often an empty Wilder Satz positioned proudly, like a decapitated head, on someone’s shelf. Some groundbreaking lemonade. Paired with his remix of this Jendor freestyle. One of my all time favourite mc’s too.
Nicholas Craven & e l u c I d - 50 wings

Pair with: Soalheiro – ag.hora Alvarinho 2020 – Portugal, Vinho verde

Wine is the thing that allows me to connect with people when I travel, one of those people is my guy Gio who produces this wine. Gio is of mixed Georgian descent and is producing wines with vineyards in the Douro and Vinho Verde regions in Portugal, using some of the oldest Georgian techniques. 3 months maceration, fermented in terracotta tinajas. Proper business. If you’re in Porto visit Prova wine bar & grab a bottle of this (also try the PWB house red whilst you’re at it). Paired with this joint off my morning run playlist for the morning after a fantastic night in Prova.
Marvin Gaye - T plays it cool

Pair with: Radikon, Jakot 2015 – Italy, Friuli Venezia

Orange wine for the more discerning wine drinker. More complex & sophisticated than some of the ‘lemonades’ elsewhere in the list. This one is a personal dinner party favourite. Have paired accordingly with Marvin Gaye’s ’T plays it cool’ from one of my favourite front room records, ‘Trouble Man’.
Robert Vanderbilt & The Foundation Of Souls - A Message Especially From God

Pair with: Pegau – Cuvée Réservée châteauneuf du pape rouge 2000 – France, Châteauneuf-du-pape

Oh my god, I’m on number 9 and I’ve only put two bottles of red. I’ve just released an EP called ‘Châteauneuf-du-Papi vol. 1’ and vol. 2 is on the way, so I would be remiss to not put a nice bottle of pap in here. The Pegau, the 2000 – put it on expenses. Paired with this silky, regal gospel joint – imagine taking that first sip and this plays.
Slim Papi & Sonnyjim - Emidio Pepe

Pair with: Emidio Pepe – Trebbiano D’aburzzo 2010 – Italy, Abruzzo

Emidio Pepe’s Trebbiano D’abruzzo stands out for me as an one of the first wines I bought that I was happy to spend, you know like more than £40 on. A super unconventional and low intervention white, made to an age-old family ‘recipe’. I bought a couple of bottles to console myself at the start of lock down which is when I wrote this song, hence the title. I also happened to come across a couple of the bottles of the 2017 in Rome on the way to propose to my fiance, so I’m sure I owe some credit to how delicious this beverage is to her saying yes that day 🙂