Thoughts From The Rap Nest
Thoughts
Cadence Weapon had an article published this week in the Toronto Life about he plight of touring musicians. To be honest, I didn’t learn a lot I didn’t already know as I am probably not the target aiudience, but it got me thinking the future landscape of touring. Back when we really hit the road with the Sideroad Records and ClothesHorse Records crews things were tough, money was scarce and everyone came out of pocket to make it happen. Things were subsidized with the generosity of homies letting us crash with them to avoid hotel costs. I really enjoyed this approach at the time as everything was new and fun but it is hard and has its drawbacks especially as you age. However, maybe this community approach is the only way to make it work. Maybe a network of people who are willing to host and feed musicians is what it will take to assist artists in touring. Maybe you could set up an app like airbnb but for host families to house and feed musicians. There are pros and cons to something like for sure and it is not for everyone but it may be a creative solution to the rising costs associated with touring.
The lack of rail service and distances between Canadian cities really hurts the touring musician. The reliance on the automobile to tour with gas prices the way they are is a real deterrent for musicians to hit the road. Gas is not going to get any cheaper, electric car infrastructure is still in its infancy, bus service has declined and is very hard to tour on unless of course you are the ultimate Greyhound tour champion like DJ Weezil. I think the reality moving forward will be that musicians focus on touring regionally, with short runs to minimize costs. National tours for indie groups will be unrealistic economically and funds will be diverted to focussing on growing and developing a regional fanbase. It is such a different landscape as we enter a world of live shows during a global pandemic.
I have played four shows this year. Each one has been a little less stressful than the one preceding it but I still feel like I am taking a risk and dodging a bullet each time I come away with my health. It is nerve racking in such a different way. I think my days as a promoter are pretty much over or on hold until I wrap my mind around this new landscape. Always lots to think about and lots to consider.
The Second Issue of the Ugsmag Zine dropped this week and is now available with a few copies of the first from the Ugsmag SHOP. This issue features interviews wirth Homeboy Sandman, Fat Tony, Lxvndr and Helixx C. Armageddon. I was fortunate enough to have my feature Thoughts From The Rap Nest brought back for Issue 2. I write about the Technics 1200 turntable and my history with this workhorse piece of art. I don’t care how many years go by since I got my first one (I have accumulated 5 over the years) it is still as exciting to see them as the day I first laid my eyes on one. In addition I had the pleasure of talking with Lxvndr on the one and transcribing our conversation into a nice interview. I was a big fan before I spoke with her and and I am an even bigger fan after talking with her. I hope you feel the same way after reading the interview. Last but not least, after seeing the book review section in the first issue I told Noyz I would contribute to this column if he kept it going. He said he was going to so I sent him a short review of Classified’s Off The Beat’N Path. I know lots of the homies are not necessarily fans of Classified but the book is a great piece of Canadian rap history.
Once again huge shout outs to Noyz for Editing, designing and coordinating this huge undertaking for a second time, the homie Allan Lorde for the sick illustration for TFTRN (probably have to reach out and see if he is down to make this into a t-shirt) and the homie Aidan Searle who did the incredible illustrations for the Lxvndr interview. I really love the community of contributors that Noyz has pulled together to make this project happen and I am honoured to be a part of it! Noyz is coming to Saskatoon Next weekend so if you need copies locally let me know and we can make arrangements and you can save on shipping!
Sorry, but there is no episode of Third Verse this week streaming on Ugsmag. Noyz had an early flight to catch this morning and had his stuff packed up so he was unable to record. We might be back next week but if you don’t want to miss it don’t forget to tune in live every Wednesday night 9-10:30pm CST on CFRC 90.5 FM. You can always check the past ten episode of my radio show You Know The Rules which Airs Sunday Night from 10-11pm CDT switching to CST this weekend I believe. Saskatchewan never switches time so I am not super up on when daylights saving happens.
It is a Bandcamp Friday Tomorrow. I don’t think I have recovered from last Bandcamp Friday. That one was one for the record books and a downer on the pocket book. A few things I am aware of are as follows:
The homie The Gumshoe Strut is dropping a super limited 20th Anniversary of his album Clock/Works. Don’t sleep this will sell out fast. This is not the link to album but to his bandcamp. You should grab this Turn The Gun album if you have already not.
The second is the the good homies are running a promotion site wide fro 20% off with code Artisessential. This a a great time to save a few bucks and grab somethings you always wanted to get and save yourself a few bucks. Also all orders get a really dope Serengeti Noodle Arm Whimsy sticker and three random album downloads from the catalogue.
The homie and super producer Drummachinemike is back with another banger. A Photocopied Life is the story of the organic and mechanical sounds that live within the space between drums. I really enjoy his albums a lot! Check it out.
Record One
Burnt Batch - The Produce Aisle
I have wanted this record for a lot of years. Like 20 plus at least. I first heard this from Shrmpy of the Isosceles who had the OG pressing of this record back in the day. I had a dub of that record on tape and listened to it a lot. Burnt Batch is centre around Stockton California rapper and producer Pismo along with Ruckus and Pause. Shout out to Stockton native Kirby Dominant!! When I first met Kirby I asked him about Pismo and Burnt Batch as I was a huge fan. He was pretty stoked that I knew who he was and he let me know they were from the same hometown and Pismo was the homie. This is classic California underground rap and checks all the boxes fro me as a fan. I had a dream that this record was going to be re-released the night before it was released but I couldn't tell it was this record. It was an awesome dream becaeu when I woke up I checked the instagram and saw it was re-released on 90’s Tapes. It was an instant purchase. I had been eyeing it on Discogs for a minute but copies are rare, expensive in conditions I don’t want to purchase. I would recommend checking this out!
Record Two
Zuckell & Roughneck Jihad - Bay City Quiet Pills EP
You are probably like, another Jihad record? Well he is super prolific and I am a huge fan so yeah, another Jihad record. Jihad is back this time with turntables and producer Zuckell who I think is from the UK. Zuckell has a website and instagram but there is no bio or information about them so they will remain a mystery to me for now. JHowevee they are super talented and the production and cuts are exactly what you would expect from a record featuring the Roughneck Jihad on the Rhymes. Another sure shot from the Roughneck MC.
Sorry no Bandcamp link but you can purchase here.
Classic Material
The First Annual Beatcomber Collective Awards Banquet and Ceremony.
This was the brainchild of soso. He had the idea to sort of have a christmas party but make it fun for the crew in what became the precursor to the Clothes Horse Records Christmas Pissup. Now this was the one and only Beatcombers Awards events and with good reason. What started as an innocent fun night of celebrating the crew, turned into an alcohol fuelled night in jail. I will get into more on that later. soso made a handbill for the event with the following information on it:
First Annual
Beatcomber Collective
Awards Banquet and Ceremony
December 18. 1998 reception at 8:00pm
20A 129 5th ave Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Beatcomber Comeback of the Year
Beatcomber Pioneer Award
Special Tribute: The Beatcomber Vanguard Life-Time Achievement Award
Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Turntablism
Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Freestyle
Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Mic Control
Alvin Law Beatcomber Spirit of Hip Hop Award
The Beatcombers Crew at this time consisted of soso, Epic, Knowskills, Innate, M.Phasis, Funky and myself. We were a hip hop crew of mostly DJ’s with soso and Epic rapping more and more at this time joining M.Phasis as mc’s in the crew. Funky was just the homie. He supported everyone, drank lots of beers and all around was just a super fun person to have in the crew. He never picked up any of the elements which is kind of weird to me in retrospect but every crew needs a Funky. We got together and scratched and freestyle, watched movies, played video games, played Funky ball (which was driveway basketball at Funky’s house) and generally just kicked it sharing our enthusiasm for all things hip hop. I would have been 20 at the time and in my second year of University. I was a shitty student in my first two years of University as it took me a while to figure it out. I was on academic probation during this year. I really didn’t hit my stride academically until my third year. Believe it or not I completed two Undergraduate degrees and a Masters degree. I blame this on soso and Knowskills mostly as they were both super academically focused and excelled in academia. I just worked hard and went to class everyday. In six years of Undergraduate studies I missed four classes. I figured if I attended class it was less work I would have to do out of class and more time I would have for all things hip hop.
Getting back on track, it is no surprise looking back at this that there were seven of us and seven awards handed out that night. I honestly don’t remember who got what awards. soso being soso went to the goodwill shop and picked up a bunch of trophies and repurposed them, into hip hop types themes. I have the one I received and I recently aquired the Funky received that night. I have no idea what we got them for though. I thought about it and my guesses would be as follows
Epic winning the Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Freestyle
M.Phasis winning the Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Mic Control
Knowskills wining the Beatcomber Proficiency Award: Achievement in Turntablism
Innate winning the Beatcomber Comeback of the Year
soso winning the Beatcomber Pioneer Award
Funky winning the Alvin Law Beatcomber Spirit of Hip Hop Award
Chaps winning the Special Tribute: The Beatcomber Vanguard Life-Time Achievement Award
This is purely speculative. It is hard to look back at this 24 years later and try to guess what people won. I am also guessing on this on what people were good at during the time. I was 20, so wining a Life-Time achievement award seems insane to me but it was the only one left after I listed what I thought everyone else had won. Maybe soso remembers? One of the major problems about remembering who won what lies in the alcohol served that night. soso had procured and bunch of Extra Old Stock Malt Liquor 40’s that were like 8% alc. We crushed them out of tiny glasses. In addition to a lot of cheap Champagne.
soso and Funky were both super good pool players. We had gone to a bar downtown, I don’t remember which one because the pictures I have in my mind don’t line up with any of the bars I can think of. We went to a number of places as well but one of the places we went to had pool tables. We were pretty faded when we got there. Actor Michael Ironside was at the bar and was playing pool. I remember him being quite good. soso and funky put their quarters up on the table to play the winner. It was Michael Ironside. I don’t remember if they were playing doubles or not. This is where the night started to get real embarrassing for me. I knew soso and Funky were super good players, I didn’t know who Michael Ironside was at the time but someone mentioned he was a pretty big Hollywood Actor. I was super belligerent and heckling him pretty hard. Others joined in of chants and choruses of “burn Hollywood burn” and we generally just shit talked him relentlessly. It was made extra worse as Funky and soso mopped the floor with him on the pool table. I can’t believe he didn’t knock me out. I was such a prick to him. He left and we heckled him and rubbed it in that he got smoked on the pool table. We left and walked back to soso’s place where we started out the night.
We got back to soso’s and I think Funky, M.Phasis and myself were waiting for a cab to take us back to soso’s place. soso was waiting with us. This is where the night gets even more embarrassing and takes a real turn for the worse. soso lived in an apartment building downtown which happened to be directly behind the Saskatoon Police Station. It was right through the alley beside his building. We were being loud outside the building. Funky had found this metal rod and picked it up and hit a parking meter with it. M.Phasis had done the same. I grabbed it and did the same but I pushed the rod through the plastic of parking meter wrecking it. A neighbour of soso’s had called the police and they came through the alley and caught me in the act. The quickly slapped the cuffs on before I even knew what happened. The next thing I knew they had cuffed soso and then M.Phasis. I remember M.Phasis quoting Abstract Rude saying “certainly you work for me, yeah right”. That really stuck out to me. They walked us cuffed through the alley. Funky being Funky didn’t get arrested. The my detained soso and M.Phasis while the processed and charged me for vandalism. The three of us spent the night in holding cells next to each other. I remember soso doing pushups. They got released before I did. I was finally released around 7:30am with papers and a court date. This was the first time I had been arrested and charged. I was charged with vandalism. I ended up having to pay 700$ for the parking meter, work 50 community hours and had to attend a few addictions meetings.
What started off as a really fun night turned out to be super memorable but for all the wrong reasons.
I found some bonus content from last weeks post. This was the VIP passes handed out at the Mystik Journeymen show I spoke about last week. The backside is 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
I'm really glad you like it, homie. We'll have to work something on the t-shirt front. That could look really cool!