Thoughts From The Rap Nest

vol023-067

Mega shout out to the homie Noyz and his partner who got engaged this past weekend! I am so happy for you both and I love you homie! What is great news for some, is sometimes not so great news for others. Put me in the others category on this one. I heard it from my partner who I celebrated 9 years of togetherness yesterday. Instant dog house for old Chaps. I know o could easily fix this situation. Who knows I just finally might.

A couple super dope release from the crew this week. The First one is Capacity & Noblonski’s Learning to Walk in the Dark. There are some really dope bundles available and if you preorder the album you get a bonus remix CD. So act now. I am looking forward to this one a lot. Noblonksi never disappoints on the production tip. I am not very familiar with Capaciti but I know I will like this album because of the production. Grab it now if you have already not.

The second is the latest from The Gumshoe Strut - No Time 2 Die. This one is available on CD and digital. This one continues what is teetering on an all time historic run of dope albums and beat tapes. Stay hot and keep this heater going! I was able to contribute some cuts to this album and I am really proud to be a part of it. I know a bunch of you ordered this already but if you didn't stop reading and do that right now.

It was a good mail week and local record store pick up week for me. It is honestly the week that keeps on giving. It even includes a super special surprise from the homie Rove with a test pressing of his sophomore album Poke The Bear that drops on July 14. It sounds great and I gave him my approval.

I kicked it before Fridays show in Factors back yard and as he was getting his merchandise together he showed me one of the dopest pieces of merch I have seen in a minute. Those of you that collect sports cards will understand what I am talking about when I say he released a relic card. A relic card generally features a piece of game used memorabilia like a piece of jersey, bat or something along those lines and is autographed by the player and a very limited number are produced. Now this hip hop version features a piece of a vinyl, which in this case is a piece of a Wisdom Tooth record and it is signed by Factor. I got 4/20 and it is incredible. I love it. I am not sure how he is selling them yet, but hit Factor up to get one before they are gone.

While hanging I got Ceschi to sign my copy of Ugsmag issue 4 and he read his interview for the first time. So it is also Ceschi read!! Rove got a picture of Ceschi and I shooting mini hoops before the show!

Pre order for the New LXVNDR & Tachichi album up at Hand’Solo Records right now! CD and Vinyl available now!

Found Money is the new collaboration between looming luminary LXVNDR and longterm veteran Tachichi, both highlights of the Halifax hip hop scene. The album is an eclectic mix of sounds, including throwback boom bap, slow jams, horrorcore, club bangers, and even a touch of reggae, the production provided by longtime Tachichi collaborator Moves, newest Snowgoons member BoFaat, the legendary Buck 65, plus Kulya, Dirty Dane, DK the Producer, and Trobiz. It’s all held together by the confident delivery and bold braggadocio of the two emcees, touching on topics as diverse as getting high, women’s issues, politics, suckers, and an ode to their peoples. And speaking of peoples, LXVNDR and Tachichi bring along Jay’Mila, Paollo, Cee!!!!!!!!!, and Ghettosocks to share in the dope bars and flow flexing. Found Money is a hot, hit-heavy album that will reward repeat plays.

Missed Third Verse last night? Ugsmag has you covered once again to stream or download NOW! Catch Third Verse on CFCR 90.5 fm in Saskatoon, SK every Wednesday 9-10:30pm CST. Stream online via CFCR.ca or Radio Garden.

As always the last 10 episodes of my other weekly radio show You Know Know the Rules on UMFM in Winnipeg airing every Sunday night 10:00pm -11pm CST. Episodes available NOW!

Record One

Factor Chandelier - Moving Like a Planet

Another heater from the homie Factor. Finally got the vinyl and had a good chance to listen through and really enjoy the album as it was intended. It would come as no surprise that my favourite three tracks are the ones with Ceschi, Aj Seude and Eligh. Sky High feat Ceschi is a masterpiece. It gives me shivers when I listen to it. There is some real magic between those two where they really bring out their best and my favourite in each each other. I am so glad that Rove put me on to Ceschi all the years back when we had no idea how to pronounce his name and wow did we ever butcher it. If Rove doesn't discover Ceschi and then tell me about Ceschi and then if I am not driving with Factor in his whip listening to the instrumental for what would become Pray and suggest to Factor that he hit up Ceschi to rap on it, the rap world is an entirely different place. That is how it was supposed to go down. We have always ebncouraged each other and been each others biggest supporters and cheerleaders. That is what homies do for one another. Even though this is is on coloured vinyl it is a damn good record.

Record Two

Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Maps

Another Billy Woods records and I am still digesting this one and breaking down. There are a lot of layers to these records and It takes some time to fully digest them. Billy Woods is one of those MC’s who can do no wrong. There are actually quite a few of them in my world and that is a good thing, but no one does it like he does it. The opening cut takes liberties with the classic Super Duck break that I love hearing rappers on. It is one of the best break beats ever on a break record. I love how Kenny Segal incorporated it in the track. The packaging is top notch on this one and the insert card that resembles the escape instructions you would see in the seat back back an airplane is really dope. I opted for the cheap/retail version of the album so no track with Serengeti for me. You win some and lose some as they say. I lost, as this is on orange vinyl, but I am winner because it is top notch rap music!

Rap Shirt

Not a classic yet, but a new one from Factor Chandelier. I really like this one!

Classic Material

The Canadian Indie Rap Holy Trinity

Now this is something I touched on from time to time on the Third Vesrse Extra Podcast that Chapter Thrive and I did a number of years back. I have toyed with the idea of bringing it back as people really enjoyed it, we even tried and recored a few episodes that unfortunately did not see the light of day. Maybe at some point they will. I told Noyz that if he ever moved back to Saskatoon I would restart it with him. One of the main reasons I started this newsletter was to do something that I only had to rely on myself to do. Nolto reached out early on and graciously offered to edit this thing each week. It was an amazing offer but then I would have to get it done earlier for him to edit and then correct things etc. I didn’t want to make it some big production. I just wanted to write it, give it a once over and hit the publish button. Editing was never a strong suit of mine especially in academia. I had to get get a lot of proofreading done. I also wanted to maintain my voice. I wanted it to read like a I was just thinking. Train of thought. I don’t think things perfectly so why should this be perfect? I know there is a lot of of awkward phrasing, colloquialisms and other terrible writing faux pas, but I didn't want to get hung up on that. I am getting off track here and rambling as it is something I do from time to time.

Back to the topic at hand. You may be asking your self what in the hell are you talking about. What is this Canadian Indie Rap Holy Trinity that you speak of? Well, it is three albums that I believe define my favourite era of Canadian Indie rap. These three albums were groundbreaking in their own right, have withstood the test of time and continue to get better every time I listen to them, are unique and sound like nothing else and are just in my opinion perfect. Now I am sure a lot of people will have a lot of things to say about this. This is just my opinion. There are probably a dozen or so albums you could filter in and out of this list, bit for me I keep circling back on these three. There is no right or wrong answer on this, this is just my definitive answer on it. So here the are in no particular order.

Moves Featuring Birdapres - Alleged Legends

Governor Bolts - A Crooked Mile

Gruf - Druidry

I think if you gave anyone who didn’t live through this era these three albums it would be a perfect representation and give them such a great foundation to branch out and explore further. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. I really hope someone does that for someone else. That would be incredible.

If I had to narrow these albums down to just three tracks, it would be the following:

Governor Bolts - The Idiodyssey

Birdapres - Bird’s Mind

Gruf - Awakening

These songs represent everything I love about Canadian Rap. They pull on the themes of Canadian singer songwriters of the 70’s, but done so in a contemporary way. They just seem to really make sense. These aren’t the first albums I heard that touched on realities for me, but they sure were the ones that stuck. I continually revisit these albums and I am connecting with ideas, rhymes and new contexts every time I hear them. I am at a much different point in my life now than when these albums dropped so I would hope that would be the case. I think for me that is the true sign of a great album. One that you can revisit time and time again and connect with in new ways. There are many records that I connected with as a teenager or in this era that I go back to, but they don’t have those same feelings for me. Sometimes things are just meant to be enjoyed in a certain place or time and that is okay. These albums transport me back to the days and that is why I enjoy listening to them but they don’t resonate with my current outlook and experiences.

There are three lines form these tracks that really resonated with me and have become sort of mantras for me. There are a lot of these in rap that I continually recite in my head from time to time when the appropriate situations presents itself. I just recite them and things somehow resonate on a different level. Things come into focus and make sense. Sometimes they are silly and nonsensical, other times they are profound and political and other times they are just social comentary to help me process categorize things.

“you might be alright at rapping, but you suck at life” - Governor Bolts

“spit on the sidewalk, fuck city bylaws” - Birdapres

“do not fear death as it would only take me through” - Gruf

The only negative thing is these albums were never fully released on vinyl. Criminally, Druidry only received an instrumental vinyl pressing. This is such a sore spot for me as this album is one of the most important rap releases ever. I know a couple of the homies have reached out about pressing the vinyl, however there was not much interest in making it happen at this time. I really hope that changes at some point. A Crooked Mile at least got an EP vinyl release which is the reason the album resonated so much with me. I would still love to see a full length at some point though. No vinyl in any form for Alleged Legends. My understanding is we were lucky it even got a CD release.

If you are unfamiliar with these releases or it has been a while since you gave them a listen, I would encourage you to revisit them.

Closing Ramblings

As always, thank you for reading and for the feedback!

**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