Thou Shalt Always Kill

"Thou Shalt Always Kill" started life as a Scroobius Pip spoken-word composition, one he would perform and use as a piece of improvisation depending on current events or things happening on that night. "I'd use it at spoken word gigs because it was an easy one to adapt," said Pip in an extensive interview with the London Real podcast in 2014. "So if someone's overrun hugely, or been really condescending or anything like that, you can add "thou shalt not be a condescending prick"... you could just adapt bits, but put it into an already solidly structured piece. So I knew I already had the bits that would make the serious, social points, but I could add a lot of different areas if I needed to."

The piece took on a whole new look when Pip started his collaboration with Dan le Sac, who had started by remixing several of Pip's existing compositions from his first solo album, No Commercial Breaks. Pip discussed this in the 2014 interview with London Real: "He sent over this one beat, and I think he was watching (the film) The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and by the time he'd finished, I'd written and recorded the vocal, and sent it back. I don't even know the length of The 40-Year-Old Virgin! It was all over email. That was the original vocal that was on the video, and got played on XFM."

There is a common misnomer that Rob da Bank on Radio 1 gave "Thou Shalt Always Kill" its debut on mainstream radio - it was in fact John Kennady on his Xposure show on XFM, though the duo later signed to Rob da Bank's Sunday Best record label. The duo confirmed this: "We made some CDs and sent them out, not expecting them to get anywhere, and John Kennady picked it up."