Thoughts From The Rap Nest
Vol022-033
Thoughts
It has been a really wild last week for me personally and I didn’t have the time to put into this weeks TFTRN that I usually do. I hope that things settle down a bit and I can get back into the regular flow of this newsletter. Like last week, I thought it was still important to get something out vs skipping a week.
As I was proofing last weeks TFTRN, Karlie came upstairs and said the police were at the door asking for me. I thought she was kidding around and I told her we didn’t talk to police in this household. She said she was serious and I should go down and talk the officer as it had something to do with my Dad. I reluctantly went downstairs and answered the door. The officer informed me that my Dad was found dead in his house. The officer said he has been dead for sometime. She gave me the number of the Coroner to call. I called the coroner and the Coroner said he had died from a massive heart attack about a week earlier. I called my brother and sister and then the homies Nolto and Parab Poet.
I finished the editing of and posted TFTRN and went to bed. The next few days I spent cleaning my Dad’s house with my siblings. I played both the shows this weekend and they were much needed to add some normalcy. My relationship with my Dad was estranged and I had only talked to him once in the last 7 years in the hospital after he survived a massive heart attack. I don’t want to get into the history because it sucks and I want to try and keep this positive. I just felt like sharing with all you what I have been going though the past week.
I do want to say thank you to everyone who held space for me, had me in their thoughts and or reached out with some kind words. I appreciate it. I am doing well as I knew in my heart and had expressed to Karlie before that this is how it was going to end. Sorry for the real life post this week but sometimes it is bigger than hip hop.
Flipping the script, I am super excited that issue 2 of the Ugsmag Zine is off to print! Once again I contributed a Thoughts From The Rap Nest article. In addition to the TFTRN article, I contributed a book review and I had the pleasure of interviewing Lxvndr for this issue. Noyz (319Heads) dropped a preview of the cover this week. Incase you missed it here it is!
The homie signone dropped the unambient ep today on bandcamp. The ep features dug yuck and i am 1 self on this 14 minute project out on Florida’s Illuminated Paths. Tapes available for order now.
If you missed Third Verse last night, don’t worry. The good folks at Ugsmag have you covered. Last nights episode streaming NOW.
Record One
I got a few new records this week. Unfortunately given everything that has happened I have not had a chance to listen to them. Hopefully next week things will settle and the newsletter will be back in full effect.
Record Two
Bobby Digital ReAction Figure
I preordered this figure back in December of 2021. It sure didn’t seem that long ago. Time really does fly. If you read this weekly newsletter then you know my affinity and weakness for rap related ReAction figures. This one really delivered and was better then I thought it poor be. It has great detail and the metallic card back is really dope.
Classical Material
the basements of bad men - a hand’solo records compilation
I never owned this cd until one week ago. This compilation was released some 26 years ago in 1996. In 1996 I was finishing my senior year of High School. I was really into Rap music and I couldn’t get enough of it, well except for maybe this CD. I remember countless trips to the Sam The Record Man store in the Midtown Mall in Saskatoon and looking through the rap section humming and hawing which release I was going to get or not get or just dream about. It was a weekly and sometimes twice a week ritual.
I remember one time coming across this CD and it’s very distinctive blue and white cover with someone’s hands digging through some crates of records. I remember picking it up and turning it over and reading the names and titles on the back and not having any idea who they were. I think, if I remember correctly the used to denote with a small maple leaf of the shrink rap if releases were Canadian or not. I also may be making that up or another store did it or something similar. It also said made in Canada on the back and had a Toronto mailing address in the back so that cemented that it was Canadian for us. None of us high school rap heads that I knew at the time had any idea who any of the names were. This was not featured in any of the rap magazines we read so it couldn’t be any good, could it?
That was our mentality as young naive teenage rap fans. If we hadn’t heard of it or it wasn’t in any of the rap related magazines that we read then it must be wack. I am glad I got hip to the game not shortly after this, that sort of mentality was in fact wack and there was great rap outside of rap magazines. Unfortunately that information didn’t come in time for this release.
Week after week I would flip by, past, or over this release. Every once in a while I would pick it up and flip it over to see if any of the the names resonated with me. Each and every time I picked it up, I shortly refilled it in its spot and kept digging until one week it was just gone.
I think this release had four things working against it for me as a rap consumer. The first being I didn’t know any of the names of the artists. The second it wasn’t in any rap publication I read at the time. The third it was Canadian. The final and fourth it was on CD. It is clear to me now that there was no way I was going to buy this when it dropped and I probably wasn’t the only rap fan who thought this way at the time.
Fast forward a whole bunch of years and enter the world of Discogs. I added it to my want list and and it doesn’t pop up a whole lot, like once or twice a year and I seem to miss it every-time. However, not this time. So after 26 years between handling copies I finally have one that I can listen to and enjoy. It is in really good shape too. I have never seen this CD in the wild since I repeatedly did all those years ago in Sam The Record Man. The amount of times I have thought about not buying this CD over the years is insane. It has has always haunted my thoughts. I am finally happy to say I finally have resolution.
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
Yo, my condolences, big homie. Much love to you and yours.
On a brighter note, I can't wait to see this new UGSMAG issue, too! Finding out that Sand was gonna be in this one was a pleasant surprise. Noyz killed it on the cover.