I just wanted to send out an extra special Thoughts From The Rap Nest today on the release date of this incredible project. There will be a regular Thursday edition as well.
Saskatoon Folk Rap Records – Posse Cut 12”
Saskatoon Folk Rap Records (SFRR) was the brainchild of Epic. He brought together a handful of people for a meeting in Saskatoon in the Rap Nest in November of 2019. It is a hip hop collective dedicated to releasing physical music and creating sample-based art.
During the past year and a bit, the idea of making a posse cut 12” was tossed around. I think Rob Crooks took the lead and created the music for the A side and then people in the crew picked parts and recorded and sent it back. We needed a B side and Noblonksi took up the challenge of producing it and the same process was done. He even extended the invite to some homies not in the collective but down with us and Staplemouth and Hermit of The Woods jumped on it.
This was a big endeavor and took a lot of people coming together and working together to make it happen. It really is a celebration of the collective of artists that we have formed. I made myself a SFRR custom jean jacket. I modeled it after the street gangs of the 1970’s New York City capturing those early days of hip hop. Clearly, we are not a gang in that sense. Rob Crooks had the idea for the cover that I should pose with the jacket in similar fashion to that of the Eric B & Rakim album cover for Follow The Leader.
It was a great idea. So, I ran with it. I reached out to long time homie and Sideroad Records Crew member Chad Coombs to see if he could help with the photography and recreation. I thought that instead of having water in the background it would make sense to have snow covered prairie. The prairies can be both unforgiving, desolate and brutal in the winter. However, there is beauty, solace, strength and a lot of history in the prairies as well. I think Coombs did an amazing job of capturing that with his photography that day. It was a cold day, I under dressed, my car got stuck and slid off the side of the road into the ditch. A guy with a jacked-up truck pulled me out. It was the quintessential prairies experience and a reminder that the prairies are undefeated like mother nature.
Dren did and incredible job of the layout and design. We used one of the extra photos Coombs took for the back cover and for the record labels. A decision to go with a minimal design was made collectively and Dren executed it perfectly. I love the record labels that just say A and B on them. The tracks are both untitled. I also really like the names of all the artists on each side. This is a very aesthetically pleasing record.
I gotta give a huge shout out to sign one who took on the mixing and mastering of this project and made it sound amazing. It is no easy feat taking a bunch of recordings from different home set ups and putting them together in a cohesive ear pleasing way.
Huge shout out to all the mcs Chadio, the Gumshoe Strut, MC Homeless, Add-Vice, Id Obelus, Nolto, Epic, sign one, Rob Crooks Kitz Willman, Hermit of The Woods, and Staplemouth. The DJ’s Rove and Chaps (Me). The Producers Rob Crooks and Noblonski! And everyone else that contributed and helped with the project.
-chaps
Please consider supporting this project from the following Bandcamps:
In Canada
Saskatoon Folk Rap Records
Rob Crooks
In Germany/Europe
Pen Thief Records (also has Tapes)
In the United States of America
Audio Recon