Thoughts From The Rap Nest

vol 22-003 Three's a Crowd

Thoughts

Money, money, money, mooooneeey! Vinyl prices shipping, exchange rates the headache and heartache. I like many of my music collecting peers are feeling the pinch of the pandemic and the cost of buying physical music and specifically vinyl. It seems like what was a 20$ USD record a couple years ago is now a 25-30$ USD record. Also 50$ to 100$ USD records have entered the game. Add 20-25$ USD to ship and 20-30% for exchange depending on the day and it gets real wiledreal quick. I get that artist have been severely hampered by the pandemic and the ability to make money as a touring musician has been non existent for the past two plus years but I am concerned that artists are using the resurgence of vinyl to extract every last cent they can from fans. I am concerned that this model is not sustainable and will hurt artist is the long run as rap fans are priced out and turn to other things. I also understand that artists and labels are making up for the economy of scale by selling fewer copies at higher prices. Money used to be able to support 2-3 artists now just a single artist.  I still spend the same just less artists benefit. Taking chances on new artists is getting harder to do as there is less to go around. Shout out to the labels and artists making it as affordable as possible for the fans and collectors and not just catering to the ultra fans. Shout out to all the homies out there buying physicals. This is more of a 13% rant but I have been talking with others about this and I care about physical rap releases more then I should and at a detriment to lots of parts of my life. I still think the positive out weighs the negative!

In a more positive thought I am loving all the hip hop Super 7 Reaction figures. I recently got the Grand Master Flash figure and it is incredible. I really hope they do an Eric B. & Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Biz Markie figures in the future.

The homie The Wordburglar fulfilled a life long dream and voiced Starscope (a rapping scientist telescope transformer) on the new Transformers cartoon BotBots. Super dope check it here.

Record 1

Factor Chandelier- Time Invested 2

I remember when Factor was making his debut release Time Invested 20 years ago now. It seemed like an insane amount of work, perseverance, and luck to pull it off. I love that record. It spawned some incredible friendships and was such an important record in putting Saskatoon on the hip hop map. Now fast forward 20 years and here we are Time Invested 2. Birthed out of the global pandemic Factor drops a serious rap masterpiece. I heard a handful of songs as the they were being made and I was like “damn you really went there on this one didn’t you?” I met Factor when he was still a teenager in High School and I new he was special from the jump. It is mind blowing to me all that Factor has done musically! I couldn’t be any more happy and proud for my homie! I am still waiting for the vinyl to come back from the press before i really jump into this one but I wanted to give it some shine on its release week!

Record 2

Turn The Gun - Ally b/w We Run All The Way

The Gumshoe Strut (TGS) and Yy are back as Turn The Gun in one of my favourite surprises of 2021. Ally, first appeared on the Chadio curated Saskatoon Folk Rap Records Fall Sampler 2021 and I was like WOAH! When I heard the song it reminded me of the classic Take As You Will where Yy and TGS take on racism, sterotypes and lies all in one incredible track. Ally picks right up where Take As You Will left off. TGS is on fire with beats and this 7” is no exception. Full disclosure I did cuts on a few tracks off of the upcoming album, but I would be writing the same things about this 7” regardless if I was involved in the project or not. I am really excited for the full length release later this year. Easily one of my most anticipated of 2022. The limited lathe cut 7” sold out in 24 hours but you can enjoy it on bandcamp and the streamflows!

Top 5

Aj Seude - Metatrons Cube

Paten Locke - Americancer

HeirMAX - The Moment-20

Ecid - 1-800-Zen-Repair

Rob Sonic - Latrinalia

Classic Material

Arrested Development - 3 years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of…

Well I don’t need to tell you how fresh this album was when it dropped in 1992. I was a 14 year old kid in the middle of nowhere in a have not province coming out of one of the worst recessions and droughts to ever hit this region and just 4 years removed from the trade of the “Great One” that still sent shockwaves through the region. I remember vividly the first time I saw the Tennessee video and the rural black and white images just hit different then the urban landscapes I was used to in all the other rap videos. It was a refreshing sound and one that still resonates today.

I was in Santa Monica in 2007 hanging with the homie Matre. I believe I had come down for the Rock The Bells tour stop in San Bernadino. We were talking about things to do and he mentioned that Arrested Development was playing a free show on the Pier as part Santa Monica Twilight Dance Series. I was like “are you kidding me, we have to go”. The homie Rove was also in Los Angelas as I had crashed his honeymoon. I hit him up and him and his new bride were down. We linked with Doc Lewd and Jericho J and we all went down to the Pier for the show. It was magical being on the Pier and seeing one of my all time favourite groups perform for the first time. There were about 10,000 people at the show and it was electric. They performed with a choir and and full band. It was one of the best nights of my life.

My next Arrested Developmement experience was decade later opening up for them with the band I am in Parab Poet and The Hip Hop Hippies in 2017 at The Sasktel International Jazz Festival in my hometown of Saskatoon. To Say I was excited was an understatement. Back stage each group has their own tent/green room type set up. I was walking by Arrested Developments and I saw Speech. He invited me in and I shared with him my excitement for the show, the importance of this record for me and the show on the Pier in Santa Monica. He said he remembered that show and said it was one of his favourites and their best. He was gracious with his time, we chopped it up some more and talked rap and he signed this album for me. It was such a surreal moment. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought any of this would have gone from watching the Tennessee video to sharing a stage.

Shout out to the homie Hazmat79 for inspiring this classic material post as he posted the cassette on Instagram on the anniversary of its release this month! Give him a follow on Instagram always posting dope tapes.

Closing Ramblings

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