Thoughts
Lots of reflection these days. I love the fall, especially the cooler weather. Always a great time to get things done. Been really busy with real life shit as of late but I am thankful I am still finding/making some time for this newsletter. I am lacking on the original hip hop thoughts that I usually post in this section. I have had some good mail days lately so lots of music to listen to and catch up on so the upcoming weeks will have some nice record features.
Shout outs to the homie soso for taking the trophy home Monday night at the Saskatchewan Arts Awards. Congratulations on your award for Leadership! In addition to being an incredible rapper, DJ, producer and homie ,soso is also an incredible Curator of Performance and Public Practice at the world class Remai Mordern Art Museum in Saskatoon. soso is a constant source of inspiration for me since I met him as a wide eyed 18 year old. In sorting through things at my Dad’s house this past weekend I found a 3 panel art/graffiti piece he painted for me back in 1997. I will post a picture of it next week.
I just want to drop a quick note that the homie Rove still has some vinyl, tape and CD copies of his debut album available for sale on his bandcamp and also at Audio Recon. I heard there was some confusion about it being potentially sold out, however that is not the case and there are still come copies available.
Rove’s Bandcamp (best to order from if you are in Canada)
Audio Recon’s Bandcamp (best to order from if you are in the United States and Europe)
Once again mega shouts to the homies at Ugsmag for once agin recording and hosting last nights episode of Third Verse. Listen HERE.
Record One
Homeboy Sandman - There I Spirit
Voices (alright) is my jam of all jams right now. Illingsworth chopping filtering and manipulating of the sample is next level incredible The drum programming is perfect. It is really a work of art. This album is worth every penny for this song alone. Seriously this song is the best. I played it on Third Verse last night and the homies in the Rap Chat where loving it and they agree. As they say, don’t take my word for it, go listen for yourself. Whoever decided on the colored vinyl gets the bozak.
Record Two
Gel Roc & DJ JahBluez - Poetry Of War
Gel Roc has been on a tear the past half decade or so with releases with groups; The Cloaks, Exalt The Anti and with his solo projects. I always get excited every time a new Gel Roc project is announced. Poetry of War lived up to my expectations and more. It is classic Gel Roc and the beats are super dope. There are so many great features on this one as well including Ceschi, Awol One, Abstratct Rude, Ecid Megabusive. 2Mex and more. I was not familiar with DJ JahBluez who produced the entire album and his work was a pleasant surprise as the beats are dope and perfect for this album. There are a handful of copies left and shipping now form the good folks at Audio Recon. Also extra pints for pressing it on classic black vinyl.
Classic Material
Mystik Journeymen - 4001 the stolen legacy…
Now I often use the phrase game changer when expressing my affinity towards a rap releases. To say this record was a game changer for me would not be doing the impact it has had on my life justice. Their ethos of being independent and doing things your way and not compromising to the constraints of the industry and or others was so appealing. I modelled my entire approach to hip hop off of this and continue to for the most part today. There were many opportunities to change lanes, play different music in different venues for larger crowds, but never wanted to compromise the music I played or make any music decision based on money.In order to do this I worked hard in other aspects of my life through other modes of employment, so I wouldn’t have to. Rap music and hip hop culture was far too important to me to jeopardize or taint with the the allure of money and success. Therefore it has always been a money losing endeavour for the most part or break even type things at the best of times. When there are losses, I “charge them to the game” and keep it moving. Not to say there isn’t stress or hardships created by this approach but there is something freeing about just charging it to the game and keeping it moving. It is like you are absolving yourself from your loses and taking what you learned and the experiences gained and memories made. This ethos or modus operandi I owe to the Mystik Journeymen.
I wish I wasn’t so chicken shit to apply this ethos to my work life or personal life outside of rap (what little there is of that haha) and take more risks and push myself but it is hard to do. It is my safety blanket in a sense so I can take the risks and support the artists that I believe in.
One of the biggest highlights in my rap life was Djing for and performing with the Mystik Journeymen in Saskatoon on Friday August 18 , 2000. The show took place at a venue called The Crystal Ball Room which was a very short-lived venue in Saskatoon. I can’t think any other shows that took place there. I could be mistaken on that though. I also hardly remember what the venue looked like inside. It was in the basement of a building downtown that had those rooms that extended underneath the sidewalks where they had translucent stones in the sidewalk that would give light to those storage type spaces. I know these rooms and stones have proper old timey names but they escape me at this time.
The show was put on by the Hip Hop Bear aka Matthew Schryer who ran a promotions company called Big Time Hip Hop Productions. Generally I would clown a name like that especially in that era but Matt seriously tried to do things in a big way. He tried to and was successful within Sasakatoon of making Unederground Hip Hop the biggest ticket in the city. Especially the early shows he threw. He always wanted to makes sure all the performers, even the openers had a good time and were treated with respect. He had such a big heart and that was essentially his downfall. His business sense was unfortunately not as dialled in. I have so much repect for him and all the the risks he took to help build the Sasakatoon rap scene into the renowned one that it became. He always treated me so well and gave me lots of opportunities early on that I probably didn’t deserve but greatly appreciated.
His poster game was one of the worst though in the history of hip hop. I really wish he would have hired this out in those early days especially. Eventually he did but the flyer/handbills for this show were pretty brutal. The fonts were blurry as were the pictures which were made more egregious as they were not reformatted from the handbill when they were blown up for the poster which was only an 8x11 size paper. In an effort to be more organized with his promotions and shows, Matt sent out individualized itinerary’s for all the local performers. They were tailored to each person based on what their role was in the show. One of my favourite parts is as follows:
Chaps this is your night. You get the most privealged set being on stage with Moka Only and the Legendary Mystic Journeymen at the same time. The promotion will be amazing. I have complete faith in you and I know you’ll have a blast up there. We will have a meeting with them both before the show just so you don’t go up there blind not knowing what they want. All in all you’ll be the man behind the music fro the most amazing show that’s been in Saskatoon for a while!!!
I am so happy I have this itinerary because it gives a complete snap shot into the burgeoning Sasakatoon hip hop scene. This was the true heyday for underground rap and especially in Saskatoon. The lineup of locals was a prototypical one of that era. I am struggling a bit on one of the artists. I just texted M.Phasis to see if he can give me some clarity on this. There is an artist named SikSense on the bill and the terrible photo does not help at all. My intuition is that it is Acrobat who was in my first rap group with M.Phasis called Basemental State but I can’t remember if he went by that for a hot minute or not. Hopefully I get some clarification before I publish. (spoiler, I didn't) The lineup and times were as follows.
8:00 DJ Innate
8:50 Muneshine
9:20 SikSense
10:00 M.Phasis & soso
10:45 DJ Chaps
11:15 Moka Only
12:00 Mystik Journeymen
Classic marathon rap show. Those really dominated that era and still seem to. I really wish rap bills were smaller. I have been as guilty as anybody for packing bills, but I really think that needs to change. This is definitely a topic for another day.
I honestly don’t remember a lot about this show which is really strange for me and especially given how big of a fan of the Mystik Journeymen I was and still am. I do remember being so nervous. Like maybe the most nervous I have ever been fro a show. I had never DJ’d/ran tracks for a group of this stature before this show. That is probably one of the reasons I don’t remember a lot. It was probably the most nervous I had ever been in my whole life. I remember PSC ran most of the tracks off of a sampler of some sort, but it was kinda like how mc’s use a Roland 404 to run their tracks but it was more like an DAT or ADAT player but maybe fully digital. I really wish I knew what it was. PSC was convinced it was going to the standard for live shows going forward. It was probably one of things that were awesome, but didn’t catch on and got killed by the advent of CDR’s. I did some cuts on some of the tracks during the set and you better believe I had a mic and helped on some hooks. I wish I had some pictures of this show, especially one with me and the Journeymen. I wonder if Noyz was there and video taped this show or is Knowskills video taped it. Those two tapped lots of stuff in that era.
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