Thoughts
A dope new single from the homie Chadio dropped this week on Handsolo Records. really looking forward to the full length release.
“Hear Me Out”, the first offering from Chadio’s upcoming Cousin Of Lucy, delves even deeper into what was the thematic intention of his last album, 2021’s No Wives Club with producer The Dirty Sample, and is hyper-focused on a partnership turned sour. Aalo Guha & Pasquale share the production duty, providing a stark, booming backdrop for our storyteller, with lines like, “making promises but it ain't that/whatever that I got it isn’t payback/any memory that's yours I wanna take back/put up brand new walls I’m gonna paint black” expertly emphasizing the from civli rights activist James Baldwin. If you’ve ever been through a bad breakup, you’ll relate to this song.
The homie Noyz has a couple new Zines, Allergy Sneezing’ and Comics Vol. 001 that he dropped this past Sunday debuting and Lone Star Zine Feat in Austin Texas. He has a few still available and if is running a 19% discount this week only with code FREENINETEN They are both super dope and there are a few copes of both issues the UGSMAG print magazine.
The homie Odis has some 2022 panel shirts up. I love classic graffiti shirts like this. No one really makes em anymore that I am aware of. I didn’t like em when i was younger because they seemed kinda poserish. Now as an adult they are fun and nostalgic. Anyways, Odis is a really dope person that makes some incredible art projects and is super prolific in the freight graffiti world which is my favourite. The SHIRTS are nicely priced just in time for the holidays!
Missed Third Verse Last Night? Well, do I have news for you. Head on over and see the good folks at UGSMAG as they have you covered. Last nights episode is available to stream and download right NOW!
Record One
The Gumshoestrut - Clock/Works 20th Anniversary
Sorry the tapes were extremely limited and I gave many of you the heads up on that and I know at least 60% of the copies made are in the hands of readers of this newsletter. I remember when this original dropped on CD on Your Brothers Records which was a short lived imprint for the Winnipeg based Your Brother In My Backpack rap collective. The original catalogue number for this was YBR003. Another really cool and and exciting thing of note about this release was it marked a the start of Peanuts and Corn Records manufacturing and distributing non P&C releases. This was an important departure for the label and had a lot of positive impact for a lot of artists.
Bad Apple is still the jam. One of my favorite things is when ever this album gets mentioned online, in the rap chat or in person, Nolto is quick to point out how much he likes that song. The Gumshoe Strut has always been one of my favourite rappers and producers and I am very fortunate to have developed such a good friendship with over the past 20 plus years. The thing I love about his raps is his ability to bring important topics about race and social justice and make the relatable and informing in the best way. Bad Apple is such a great example of this.
Also the pakacaging of this is super sick and if you have it you know what I am talking about. It has a really dope slip cover that covers a sick Norelco style case that has a solid black front and solid black red. There is a J-card inside but you you can only see it if you pull it out. It has the pertinent album info on the inside. The tape labels are super sick. The letters are cutout of the solid black sticker to expose the blood red tape behind the label. I can’t imagine how much time it took to make these labels. They look so good! This album is a prairie rap classic. If you missed it check out the bandcamp link below to give it a listen.
Record Two
Jon Corbin - Amplify / Outcry Vinyl EP
Now here is someone after my own heart releasing a vinyl 12” maxi single!!! The term maxi single is one of my all time favourites. I want to meet the marketing exec that came up with that term to the marketing if singles to the next level. I don’t know a lot about Jon Corbin other than he raps. I saw ES post the record on Instagram and he posted a link and I checked it as I am always looking out for new Canadian rap releases on vinyl. I added Jon Corbin on Instagram and we traded a few messages back and forth which is always nice. It is great to connect with people and especially other Canadian rap artist. The 12” is comprised of two protest songs Amplify and Outcry as described as follows:
Jon Corbin revisits two protest songs, "Amplify" and "Outcry," as a reflection on the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The maxi-single boasts three versions of each song, with poetry and interludes layered in to contextualize the high emotion of that season.
Also available is a vinyl EP - featuring two versions of each song. Amplify and Outcry get revisited or extended remix treatments, featuring stunning contributions from Black emcees and musicians from Oregon, Illinois, Georgia (US) and Ontario (Canada).
released November 4, 2022
I am really happy I stumbled across this record and picked it up. The tracks are right in my wheel house and are super dope! Vinyl copies are still available. Also classic black vinyl for the win!
Classic Material
Tone-Loc - Loc-ed After Dark
There is a right of passage for every kid growing up in Saskatchewan and that is a class trip to the Legislature in Regina Saskatchewan. I didn’t travel very much growing up so any trip anywhere was extra exciting. I am sure readers in other Provinces and States did the same or similar trips in school growing up. I had a good friend in elementary school and into high school named Jeff Hiller. We all unfortunately called him by his nickname at that time of “Hitsler”. I am not sure how or why he had that nickname. I am thinking it has more to do with lazy hockey culture nicknames of adding a “eee” at the end of their name kind of thing and way less to do with Hitler other than being similar sounding and probably a play off that name to some extent. He was not a neo-nazi or anything, nor where any of us. Now that I have cleared that up, I will keep it moving.
Jeff was one of the smaller kids in the class. We played in concert band together, and softball and I think hockey early on but he was a tier 3 player so we didn’t play together as we aged. He was a super great friend in that era. He had a really attractive older sister named Cheryl that we tormented, me because I had a crush on her and Jeff because she was his older sister. Their mom worked for Nabisco and had lots of discontinued full sized chocolate bars and candy. Their Dad was a salesman of some sorts and drove a Firebird that had a carphone in it. This was in the mid 80’s so it was really cool. The Firebird had a large bird painted on the hood. Jeff later got this car from his dad when he was able to drive. It had over 800,000 Kilometres on it and he used it as a food delivery driver. It was like uber eats or skip the dishes before that. He had a pager and would get paged then he would call the number usually from a pay phone and then go pay for the food and he would get a delivery fee from the restaurant and then deliver the food and collect from the customer to reimburse the money he shelled out up front. He made good tips as most o the deliveries were from Chinese restaurants. He always had money in high school. In high school he used to make this drink from his parents liquor cabinet called “Monster Mix” where he would pour out some liquor from every bottle in the cabinet into a mason jar. He would then ground up Tylenol and add it to the mix and then add about an equal part mix of pop, put the lid on and shake it up and drink it over the course of the night at house party. It was so gross and always had remnants of crushed Tylenol pills floating on top.
He was sort of into rap but mostly metal and punk. He, however had the Tone-Loc - Loc-ed After Dark tape. That was a super hot tape to have in the late 80’s. I didn’t have it at the time. I have since acquired two cassette copies over the years. Most of the time we hung out together we played Tecmo Bowl and/or would listen to music. This as one of those albums we listened to a lot. His parents had this entertainment type room in the basement with a full service bar that was well stocked and a hot tub. His Nintendo was set up in that room. The Tv was on top of the fridge and was like a 14” size tv. His was one of the households that was always stocked with pop and chips and we would drink pop out of fancy cockatail glasses while we played Tecmo Bowl and listened to Tone-Loc.
My brother had this super dope compact yellow Sony Sports boombox. It was compact and still put out a good sound. I used to hijack it all the time for stuff. I took it on this trip to the Legislature in Regina. We took a charter bus with both of the classes in my grade and made the two hour and twenty minute drive to Regina. I was born in Regina also known as the Queen City but my family moved to Saskatoon in 1980 so my time there was short. I often forget I was born there. The trip was super fun and we blasted the the Tone Loc tape for most of the trip down. Teachers were so much different in the 80’s. You could get away with so much then. Like, I convinced my 4th grade teacher to allow us to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in class. Side note, the homie Noyz 319 ex-wife’s mom was my fourth grade teacher and I am sure Nolto’s and I think Dren’s as well. Possibly Factor’s but I am not positive. We all went to the same Elementary and High School. I was finished High School before they started however. None of the teachers or chaperons said anything about the music or the lyrics which was not always the case with Rap music. Anyways anytime I look at the tape one of my shelves or hear a track from the album I think about that trip to the legislature and my friend Jeff Hiller.
I swore I had some pictures of this trip and I was going to post them. However, I was unable to locate them. Shout out to my sister for helping me try and locate them. They are in a folder that my mom gave me but I am not sure where they are right now. I was hoping that seeing the pictures, I would be able to determine the grade I was in and what year it was exactly. Sorry I couldn’t come through on the picture tip this week.