Thoughts
One of the magical things about this indie rap world is the friendships you develop. Often these friendships are initiated over social media and in days past message boards. I have met some of my best homies this way over the years. It is crazy to me how people all over the world who like this super niche music can instantly connect over the simplest things like the love of certain album or artist.
Some recent friendships the past couple of years have been with some awesome rap collectors in the United States. Three in particular that I have enjoyed getting to know through Instagram and I hope I get a chance to meet one day soon are Hazmat79, Awful_one_and Trylemma. These three are some serious collectors and our music interest’s lineup like 90% so it is really enjoyable to talk about releases and comment on recent purchases posted. What I enjoy most is seeing pictures of their collections and recent grails that they were able to cop. It is great to have a network of homies like this because they hip you to releases and drops about thing you may have missed. What is also the best is once those initial conversations about rap happen, then it is nice to be able to build on that and talk about other interests and things going on with them. That is the true beauty of the internet and indie rap world.
Third Verse and CFCR could still use your help with pledges for FM-Phasis 2022. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and if you are wanting to there is still time to show your support for rap radio on community radio waves. DONATE now! If you missed last night’s episode of Third Verse it is available at Ugsmag now
I sent in my article, TFTRN for the UGSMAG Zine volume 2. I am so excited for issue 2 and I will update once a release date has been set but it is right around the corner. Thank you to everyone who has supported so far. There are still a few issues of volume 1 available.
The homie Parab Poet who I have known since I was teenager and I am in a band with, Parab Poet and The Hip Hop Hippies, just released a new single for group he formed with mc Zhe The Free called Moonbeams. They released their first single today called Sun and the Flower on all streaming services. I believe a video is coming and an ep or full length release to follow. If you are in Saskatoon they have a release party in the works for October 14th at Amigo’s.
The homie Gel Roc droped a new album called Poetry Of War with a preorder for vinyl, cd and tape in partnership with his imprint Abolano Records and Audio Recon. I am really excited for this release as anything Gel Roc is involved in is a must cop for me. Extra props from me for pressing classic black vinyl! Description from bandcamp:
“A 12 track LP featuring legendary crew members Awol One & Abstract Rude, 2Mex OMD, Ceschi of Fake Four Inc., Dannu of the Visionaries, Scvtterbrvin RLK, Megabusive Exalt The Anti, Ecid of Fill In The Breaks, Quaesar & Monstroe Project Blowed! This album covers a broad spectrum from golden era boom bap vibes, to bona fide inner battles, trials with words to live by, and straight up battle raps! Dj JahBluez lays a heavy foundation with diverse production and scratches that couple perfectly with Gel's relentless cadence and rhyme schemes to make for a Hip Hop classic!
Record One
Qwazaar & Batsouce - Bat Meets Blaine (10th Anniversary Edition)
Full Plate Records is quickly emerging as one of my favourite record labels. If you didn’t know by now you know when I support something I am all in until you give a me a reason not to be. I was really excited when I saw this first time to vinyl 10th anniversary drop on the last bandcamp day. It was an instant cop. Qwazaar is such and amazing mc and has such a great voice and flow. I have only seen Qwazaar once live back in 2004 as part of a Typical Cats Tour in Denver Colorado and he was incredible. Such a super slept on rapper. If you missed this the first go around here is your chance to own it on vinyl. For a minute there Galapogos 4 a label out of Chicago just couldn’t miss with their releases. It was the heyday of the indie rap label. I really hope we are entering a rebirth of the indie rap record label. I only have a 1/2 criticism as the vinyl is split in half black and red. They almost got it 100% right! Cup half full I guess.
Record Two
Sabotage Super 7 Figures
Now it is no secret that I am a sucker for any rap related Super 7 action figures. When they teased the Sabotage figures a couple weeks ago I got so excited and when they dropped I ordered in the first couple of minutes. One peculiar thing is the Beastie Boys are only mentioned in the fine print on the back. I guess they wanted these to appear as a legit action figures in their own right. I kind of like that. Everyone knows they are the Beastie Boys. They are a regular drop so there is plenty of stock not like he Czarface drops that are very limited so if you want to cop them you still can. I like the extra accesarios they come with repectavley a cellphone, two bananas and a donut. The image on the card back is super classic as well. All in all these figures are well done.
Here are Vic Colofari as Bobby, “The Rookie”, Alesandro Alegre as “The Chief” and Nathan Wind as Cochese:
Classic Material
Matre - Who The Crown Fits
Back in like 2007 I was working at the University of Saskatchewan in Residence as the Manager of Student Life. I was living on Campus in a spacious two bedroom apartment. Previously I had been living in the dorms for a few years. I really enjoyed my time living there. I had a lot of room and my commute to work took minutes to walk. Of course there was lots of stress and hours working that kind of position entailed but there were some great things as well. I had become really good friends with Matre of The English League, with members Jerico J, LifeRexall and Doc Lewd and who you heard on the ShapeShifters classic Strange Birds. Matre recorded his verse when he was like 14 at Kutmasta Kurt’s on a microphone placed in a bathtub with the shower curtain drawn to create a sort of sound booth. Akuma and Matre performed this song in Saskatoon once. I was djing for them so I got to do back up vocals on this and they invited Rove to do Doc Lewd’s part. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. So magical and Rove absolutely killed it.
Akuma, Matre and me had Canadian Thanksgiving at my Mom’s with my sister and of course my mom. That was the start of a Western Canadian tour that the three of us with Factor and Ben E Elim went on. Existereo was supposed to come but got denied entry into Canada in Calgary. Matre and Akuma left them there and we made arrangements for Planit know now as the Dirty Sample to pick him up and let him stay for the night and return him to the airport for deportation the following day. It was super hectic and Planit came through in the most major of ways. Probably have to get into this tour at some point but just thought of this while I was writing, It just sort of set the foundation for Matre coming to Saskatoon and builds off the themes of friendship this week that I was thinking about earlier in this weeks Thoughts.
After that tour Matre came to Sasakatoon to live with me rent free as I had an extra bedroom. He came at the end of October 2007 and the plan was to make an album together with Factor. Some of those tracks recorded then were eventually released about a decade later in 2018 on the album Who The Crown Fits. Lots of reasons why that to took so long too get those songs released but those reasons are typical indie rap shit and not all that interesting. I am really glad they came out though. Matre ended up staying for about a month and had to cut his stay short as he had to head back home to be with his family as his Grandmother was very sick. I really enjoyed that mont my that we were roommates. I would be gone at work and Matre would be writing songs and working with Factor. We had lots of great talks about rap and about life. Matre is a really special person to me and one that I have toured with a few times and spent a lot of time with together both in Saskatoon and Santa Monica over the years. My goal right now is to get Matre rapping over a Rove beat. I just fired off a text to Matre right now as I was writing this to set the wheels in motion. One of my favourite things to do is to facilitate people collaborating together. My discography of this is quite long and has lead to some incredible songs, albums and friendships. I don’t ever want to stop doing this. If you are not familiar with Matre’s music go listen to Struggle Music it is an absolute classic.
Closing Ramblings
I have two shirts up at Stylesmakefights.ca One for my radio Show You Know The Rulesdesigned by the homie Aiden Searle and the other for my dj crew The Stone Cold Party Rockers with the homie Rove designed by the homie Awol One. Also the homies at Audio Recon have some dope shirts too
I host two weekly radio shows Third Verse on CFCR 90.5 fm in Saskatoon Saskatchewan every Wednesday 9 -10:30pm CST and You Know The Rules on UMFM 101.5 in Winnipeg Manitoba every Sunday Night 10-11pm They are pretty great and you should check em out.
Also i got some cool shirts, poster and hats in the Ugsmag Shop if you want that fly shit.
**legal disclaimer all records and songs were run through the RAP NEST 5000 SUPER ANALYTIC COMPTROLLER MACHINE that is certified by the I.A.A.R.R.A (International Association of Analytical Rap Recordings Analysis) in layman’s terms, it means the machine is never wrong.
Catch you next week with more thoughts from the rap nest.
Peace
-chaps