Silibil N' Brains are a Scottish hip-hop duo consisting of Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd (not to be confused with Scottish actor Billy Boyd). They are best known for masquerading as American rappers from California to secure a record deal, a story which formed the basis of Bain's 2010 memoir ''California Schemin''' (later reprinted as ''Straight Outta Scotland'') and was adapted into the documentary film ''

The Great Hip Hop Hoax ''The Great Hip Hop Hoax'' is a documentary film by Jeanie Finlay about a Scottish hip-hop duo called Silibil N' Brains, who pretended to be Americans to secure a £250,000 record deal with Sony. The film premiered at South by Southwest and wa ...

''.

History

In the early 2000s, Bain and Boyd were working together in Scotland, but found that the idea of Scottish rap was not taken seriously in London. After being dismissed as "rapping Proclaimers" during auditions because of their accents, they decided to take on American identities, pretending to be from San Jacinto in California. They created the personas of Silibil (Boyd, a play on "silly Bill" and "syllable") and Brains McLoud (Bain). Under their new identity, they were more successful at getting attention in London. They moved to the city and secured live work. They rapidly got management with

Jonathan Shalit Professor Jonathan Sigmund Shalit (born 17 April 1962) is a British talent manager and chairman of the InterTalent Rights Group, formerly ROAR Global and Cole Kitchenn. InterTalent represents household names across broadcasting, film, televisi ...

and later a record deal with

Sony Music UK Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

for two singles and an album. The pair worked on recording material and continued to perform live, including opening for

D12 D12 (an initialism for The Dirty Dozen) was an American hip hop collective from Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 1996, the group achieved mainstream success with its lineup of ''de facto'' leader Eminem, Proof, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, Kuniva and Swift ...

, and appearing on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. Their Scottish identity was known only to a small circle. However, Sony's merger and subsequent job losses left them without supporters in the record company and their planned first single was delayed for at least 6 months as the label focused on other acts. Boyd had got married and his wife, still in Scotland, was expecting a child. With work having dried up, he left the group, moving back to Scotland, and getting work in the oil industry. Bain continued performing as Brains on a smaller scale. He subsequently came out and revealed the hoax. The duo subsequently reunited and released an EP in October 2013 called ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels''. They also uploaded unreleased material from their original 1998-2005 run to Bandcamp. Bain released his solo album Almost Dead Famous on 4 July 2015, and has since continued his solo career as Brains.

Discography

* "Play With Myself" (2004, promotional single) * ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' (2013) * ''Losers'' (2014, intended to be released in 2004 as the band's debut album) * ''C**t'' (2015, demos recorded by the 2000s-era S&B live band in a more pop-punk style)

References

External links

''Storyville - The Great Hip-Hop Hoax''
* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1998 Musical groups disestablished in 2005 Musical groups reestablished in 2013 Scottish male rappers Scottish musical duos Scottish hip hop groups Hip hop duos Musical hoaxes British male musical duos