Thoughts
First I want to give a shout out to everyone that copped the new Mc Homeless and Kool Keith 12” from all the homies Audio Recon, Pen Theif Records and Saskatoon Folk Rap Records. We all appreciate it more then you know!
Secondly I want to say mega thanks to the homie sign one who sent me a test press of his new album The Mighty Highs and the Lowly Lows availible now on tape and vinyl real soon from Audio Recon, Pen Thief Records and Endemik Records. He’s also sent me a bunch of vintage Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays cards with the record! My favourite is the Lance Parish card.
Thirdly if you are in Winnipeg this Saturday June 25 the homie Kitz Willman who is the best is rapping songs at a show at the Graffiti Gallery. Show starts at 8:30pm! You will not want to miss it!
Fourthly, new Turn The Gun single Stress Leave featuring Birdapres produced by The Gumshoestrut is now on bandcamp and hitting the stream flows Tuesday. This is one of my most anticipated albums of the year. I did cuts on a few tracks and the album is the best!
Fifthly the homie Pip Skid has a really dope series of code mugs out in support of his new album Really Nice day that dropped last friday. Cop them from the homies at Style Make Fights. Cd copies of the album are still available at Peanuts and Corn Records.
Sixthly, on Saturday I went to kick it with the homie Rove as he painted what is known in Saskatooon as the Warman wall. It is on a road called Warman Road that this person in a fuck you to the city but their ouw noise retention wall and in a great fuck you at the time opened it up to graffiti. The homie Sirvis organizes a production based on a theme each year and this year was Super Mario 3 although some didn’t stick to the exact era of Mario they all kept it on the level. As always the homie Rove killed it and here is the result!
Friendly reminder if you are an artist or run a label and the idea to press a coloured record anything other then black, stop that shit. Just press the classic black. It is undefeated just like Father Time. If you are a consumer quit picking the color option if there is a black one. Vote with your dollars. We can change this this is we stick together. Anyone that supports coloured vinyl is violatin straight up and down,
I have have been thinking a lot about this weeks post. Life is full of ups and downs and everything in between. I celebrated 8 years together with my partner Karlie this week and a milestone like that is a cause for reflection. We like to joke around a lot with each other and “bust each other’s balls” as we say. It is honestly in good nature and she gives it to me way harder then I do to her. I made the joke on Twitter that if I wasn’t married to the Rap Game then I would marry you. Now she knows I am bustin balls but I there is probably some truth in that statement. I have always put rap and rap related things as the top priority. My family has always realized this and they will plan things around if I have show or have some other rap commitment. When Karlie and I first got together we had some really long conversations and really broke things down about ourselves so there would be no surprises as we entered into our relationship together. That was probably one of the smartest things I have ever done as it really has minimized conflict between us and allowed for us to build a really strong relationship.
So what the hell does this have to do do with rap? Well everything actually. My partner is super supportive of whatever I want to do as I am with her. She knows if I am going to take something on I am going to do it to the best of my ability. Before I started Thoughts From The Rap Nest, I had a talk with her about it and explained my idea and what I thought the time commitment would be. She was super supportive and encouraged me to do it like she always does full well knowing this would take time that we would otherwise spend together. Six years ago I was visiting her Dad in her hometown of Peace River Alberta. I received a message asking if I wanted to syndicate Third Verse. After a few messages I decided I wanted to do a unique show and You Know The Rules was born. Again she as super supportive. It takes me 2-3 hours on either Saturday or Sunday morning to put that show together each week. She never complains when I say I have to record Radio still or I am going up to the Rap Nest to record. It is like an unwritten code that I say I have to record radio or I have to write my newsletter or I have radio show so I can’t do anything else at that time. I am incredibly lucky to have such a supportive partner in this regard.
We don’t have kids but we do have two amazing puppies Mickey and Stevie who love to hangout in the Rap Nest while I write or record. We walk the dogs every day together and that is our time together. We often both leave our phones at home while we go out. This is not the best idea and it burned us once but overall I think it is good. She talks about her day and vents while I mostly just listen and offer tidbits. I have alway made it a rule in life to not talk about work outside of work so I rarely ever talk about it. I do talk about rap most of the time. I talk about things I am sure she has no idea what I am talking about but she listens and I really appreciate that. This is our time together and it is one of the best parts of the day.
I am incredibly lucky to have such an supportive, understanding and loving partner that supports me in spending time on things like this newsletter. I just wanted to say thank you and I love you!
Record 1
The Brand New Haevies - Heavy Rhyme Experience : vol. 1
So this past Saturday there was a Record Store Day of sorts part 2 where they featured the records that didn’t ship on time or were delayed by manufacturing and dint make the original Record Store Day back in April. As the sucker I am for these kind of things I checked out the listen posted by the two record stores here to see if anything interested me. I saw the Brand New Heavies albums listed and was like i will go grab that. I never got into this record when its dropped back in 1992. I hated rap over live drums with bands. It sounded so weird and lame to me. it too me a lot to get over this. It even took some time to get over this playing in Parab Poet and The Hip Hop Hippies. Anyways as I have aged and my rules for how rap should be made have relaxed, I have come to appreciate it a lot more. So one Saturday couple of months ago I was doing some chores around the house and I put this album on the Stream Flows and found myself really enjoying it. I was like I will put this on the radar for a cheap cd find. So when I saw the album on the list I said peace to the homie Rove and went a few minutes before the store opened at 9 to cop it. I was last in line with about 10 people ahead of me and I did that thing I do where I look at everyone in line and stereotype their musical tastes based on there appearance to see if I have any competition for the record. I gave it one look and I knew I was good. The store opened and I went upstairs and and i saw the record on the wall. I grabbed it. I then looked around and saw they had a second copy and none of the people who were ahead of me picked it up. So my instincts were correct. Still batting a thousand on that in Record Store Day lines. This record is a fun listen as it is super straight ahead rhymes that don’t require a lot of attention to digest. It features an incredbile list of rappers like Large Professor, Guru, Grand Puba, Masta Ace, Kool G Rap, Black Sheep, Ed O.G., and The Phracyde. Kool G comes so hard and angry on his track Death Threat and it doesn't really fit the vibe of the album but is super awesome in an ironic kind of way. Anyways you should check this album out if you have never listened to it.
Record 2
Serengeti - Kalediscope III
There are few things you can really count on in life and a Serengeti album is generally almost all the time a sure thing. That sure sounds like some sort of Yogi’ism. Mega shouts to Audio Recon for continually dropping all these Serengeti albums that would probably not see a proper vinyl release. Still a few copies available. Kaledicsope III is incredible front to back. Classic Serengeti and Rob Kleiner once again kills it on the production. There are so many incredible songs but the four song run of Plastic Pearls, Softball and Captain Malena and Somebody Loves You on side A may be able to beat the Golden State Warriors. The diversity and range of Serengeti is undefeated. I really need to see Serengeti live. Like in the worst way. I tried to see him on the Ceschi Tour for Sad Fat Luck in Minneapolis but he ended up not playing the show. I guess I will have two try again! I also really want a Factor Chandelier produced Serengeti record so I am just throwing that out there. Make it happen, time is running out.
Classic Material
Fermented Reptile - Let’s Just Call You “Quits”
I look around the rap nest at tapes, cd’s records and other rap memorabilia and see if they spark memories, stories, or ideas. Sometimes they come real quick others not so quick. Sometimes I am like that is too long of story so i save it for another time or I am like that is like a half paragraph story so I move on to something else. This Week I have tossed a few ideas around for this section. Some clearly better then others but all still good in their own right.
I was looking at CD’s and this one jumped out at me. This album was a game changer on so many levels. It showed the perfect balance of political fueled raps without coming across preachy or cringy. This is a fine line and is a hard one to walk. However, for Pip Skid and Gruf the Druid it comes natural and they are truly living rap Gawdz. The team up of these two is a perfect pairing, something that world has not seen since or before the only other comparable is Yy and The Gumshoe Strut (Turn The Gun). I will save that one for another Classic Material. With a runtime of 70 minutes and 29 seconds it seems short because it is so good front to back. I have the CD I am not sure when I picked it Up probably at the shop at the Airliner Hall in Saskatoon. I also got a mint green Fermented Reptile Shirt that was like a size too small so I wore is sparingly and it is in excellent condition. I would love to see a repress of this shirt (looking at you Styles Make Fights). I have a few large plastic tubs full of rap shirts from days past that are unfortunately in my Mom’s basement and I didn’t plan I would be writing about this album so I will be unable to post it tonight. Don’t worry I have an idea that it will show up in in a future Thoughts so put that on the back burner for now.
When I was in my first couple years of University in the late 90’s, Knowskills and I would venture out to Winnipeg when our winter finals were done or for spring break. We would crash at Dj Hunnicutts place and the dress was 808 and I never forget that because of the Roland 808 Drum Machine. We always made that reference. There was this pizza place near his house that had a 1 topping pizza special and I would go way off the board and get onions for my one topping. We used to also hit up the falafel House for incredible falafel pitas. Like the best ever! We would also watch lots of movies and go to this theatre called Silver City where you could get like fast food and take it into the movie with you and they had fancier seating with bigger screens. We didn’t have anything close to that in Saskatoon at the time. I would get a Mr Sub super pizza sub and just crush it while watching the movie. These trips were some of my favourite times. I got to relax and become friends with all the Winnipeg Rap homies outside of rap shows. On one off these trips Hunnicutt was going to record some scratches on a Frek Sho record and asked me if i could think of any samples for what would be the AfroCats track and I suggested he cut up Jeru The Damaja saying “you can’t take the jungle out the cat” and he did.
You are probably wondering what the hell does all of this have to do with Fermented Reptile? Well on one of these trips we were hanging an Hunnicutt said Pip and Gruf were performing at The West End Cultural Centre as a group called Fermented Reptile. He was like do you want to DJ at the show? I was like I didn’t bring any records. He said no sweat go dowstairs and put together crate of records and you can use those to play at the show. I was so excited and nervous. I had only played out a few times and never outside of Saskatoon. So I went downstairs and picked out a bunch of classic 90’s 12” to play a set. I honestly don’t remember what records I picked and played but it was such an incredible feeling playing records on stage in in a city that wasn’t Saskatoon. I think it was a relatively short set like 30 min or something. I can’t thank Hunnicutt enough for that opportunity. He didn’t have to do any of that. So this album holds an extra place in my heart and memory bank as a result.
Closing Ramblings
I have two new shirts up at Stylesmakefights.ca One for my radio Show You Know The Rules designed by the homie Aiden Searle and the other formy 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 new 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