Thoughts From The Rap Nest

vol023-079

Thoughts

Another Bandcamp Friday tomorrow. You know the drill, if you are able to or where holding out to pick something up, tomorrow would be a great day to do it. Noblonksi jumped the gun and teased a new CD dropping tomorrow called, forrest / woods. I am both excited and terrified to see what drops tomorrow. Excited because rap is the best and terrified for my bank account.

UGSMAG issue 5 is now out and shipping!!! I am once again honored to be a part of such an amazing publication and community of writers and artists all coming together to share their passions for Rap music. Congratulations to the homie Noyz for pulling off what looks like to be another incredible issue. I can’t wait until my copy shows up! I only have one submission this issue with my reoccurring Thoughts From The Rap Nest. I am interested to see what people think of it. I put a lot of myself into it and showed a more vulnerable side of myself as I start to process a whole bunch of stuff and reflect on things. I am really proud of it and as always I hope it makes sense. You really never know how things will be received or interpreted until they are released. Probably the biggest feature is the Buck 65 interview as he doesn’t do much press these days and hasn’t done an interview in 10 years. I am really looking forward to reading that one for sure. The previews look amazing. The issue is packed:

The fifth issue of our quarterly underground hip hop magazine.

• 60 pages – no ads, full color, 5.5″ x 8.5″

• Featuring: Buck 65, ShrapKnel, illingsworth, MC Paul Barman, Southern Vangard Radio, Drop the Needle director Rob Freeman, Myst Milano, Ben Buck, and more.

Contributors: David “319 Heads” Jaguttis, Aidan Searle, Allan Lorde, Brent Fierro, Max Rodgers, Brian Kayser, Chaps, Homeboy Sandman, DJ Jester, Jonathan Balazs, Justin Boland, and Peter Agoston.

This might be a pretty niche complaint and maybe only one that applies to people with rap radio shows. We have to log various information to satisfy CRTC operating guidelines and one of this things is logging the music that you play. I am very fortunate for my You Know The Rules show on UMFM101.5 that they have an incredible online system that you use to log this information in. It is so user friendly and does a lot of things for you like calculate your CANCON percentage on the fly and colour codes it so you know you have met the requirements when to is green in colour. It is not that big of a deal for that show as I split it 50/50. I still think it is really cool. Another great feature is I don’t have to write anything down. Anyone that knows me, knows I have some of the worst handwriting/printing in the game. So this aleviates this for sure. For Third Verse on CFCR 90.5FM, I have to log this information by hand. My logs are utterly embarrassing and pretty much illegible. I am honestly surprised they have not called me in or sent an email to discuss them. They seem to be getting worse and worse every year too.

A few years back they made a switch from 11x17 to 8x11 paper in a cost saving measure, which makes sense but is proving to be a real challenge. The amount of space you have to write things has been greatly reduced by this change. So here is my gripe. Not only has the sheet shrunk but the names of songs, albums, artists and the number of features has greatly increased. It is literally out of control and impossible to fit this information into the allotted space. It seems like each week this is getting worse and worse. It is the perfect storm of, less space to write in, more and more information to write in that space and hand writing that is brutal at the best of times. I am shocked the CRTC has not rejected it or questioned it at some point. I really need to figure this out. Since UGSMAG has been graciously hosting weekly episodes of Third Verse I have been writing the set lists in my notes on my phone to send in to post, so at least now I have a legible record should I be called into question on it.

Missed Third Verse last night? Well you are in luck! 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.

Shout out to the homie Coombs who rolled through last night to shoot some pictures for a Hello Neighbour Downton YXE feature. It was super fun having him in the studio last night.

I have been posting the records I have been playing the last few weeks for my You Know The Rules show on my Instagram. I have has some real good engagement form artist I have tagged and some good reposting, so hopefully that translates into some new ears. 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

Gregory Pepper & His Problems - No Thanks

So I guess this is the final Gregory Pepper & His Problems album. I am not really sure what means. I understand the literal interpretation of it, but if could mean a host of things especially in the rap/indie music world. I have always loved Gregory Pepper’s music as it has always had a hip hop undertone to it. This album doesn’t disapoint in any shape or form. It is perfect front to back and features all the best of Pepper’s wit and sense of humour. I really hope we get another Common Grackle record. I think that would be a perfect next release for him. I really hop this doesn't mean he is packing it in though, because that would be a real shame. Never Have / Never Will is my jam in this one!

Record Two

Curly Castro - Little Robert Hutton

I didn’t know this album was released on vinyl until I saw an Instagram post of an merch table and I saw a copy of it on the table. It was a few weeks before it showed up on the BackWoodz Studioz Bandcamp page. I am super happy that it did. It is an incredible album that reminds me of rap albums of my youth. With Pro Black, gentrification, socialist, communist and revolutionary themes it is a really powerful record. I love records that challenge the everyday status quo and make you think while you listen. It fires you up like rap music should. It is a really nice throwback to a different rap era but I think one that is re-emerging and maybe more important now than ever. This album is so good front to back and has some really dope features in Breeze Brewin and Mr. Lif and features all the usual suspects in Billy Woods, Premrock, Zilla Rocca, Skech185 and a few more. Backwodz Studioz is probably the most important New York rap label since Def Jux. It is quickly solidifying itself as the gold standard. Killmonger Was Right is my jam on this one!

Classic Material

Aboriginals - Number Theory b/w Renaissance 12”

This 12” dropped in the year 2000 on Mecca Life Recordings and was manufactured and distributed by Landspeed Records. At this time Landspeed was a pretty trusted name, so if you saw that on the back of a record chances are it would be something you would enjoy. Co-signs or small things like that on a release were really important in t hat era as it helped to provide insights into wether it was something that you would be interested in or not. I still use this type of system as I buy lots of things blind, meaning never having listened to them. It is not really a gamble at this point because I have refined this process over 30 plus years of buying and listening to rap music.

Another really important thing to look for in this era of buying 12” singles was who produced it and who remixed it. In this case on of the tracks was produced by Shawn J. Period who was a pretty hot beat maker during this era. You can always tell people of a certain era will always ask, “who produced it?” when someone is talking to them about music. The producer to me is still really important and front of mind. I buy most of the music I buy based on the who produced it. I know that is not always the case for lots of people. I used to think everyone thought this way until I met Nolto. He is like the polar opposite of me, as he is rhyme centric in his listening. He always hips me to tracks on albums that I didn’t really give enough attention to. I really appreciate this amongst a host of things about him. We can both love the exact same record and if you talked to us about it, it would seem like we were talking about two completely different releases.

Back then it was hard to hear something if you didn’t own it and it was sometimes impossible to find a copy even if you wanted to get one. I grabbed my copy online from Sandbox Automatic. I have made mention in past entries that I used to spend a lot of time in Winnipeg especially around Christmas time and at DJ Hunnicutt’s place. Those trips and times were seriously some of the fondest in my life. One one particular trip to Winnipeg Hunnicutt was sharing some 12” that he recently picked up. He dropped the needle on the B side of this one and it is another example of the “B-side wins again”. I was instantly drawn in and by the drums. It is such a hard hitting track. It has a real Black Star vibe to it as it is super hip hop centric and has similar vocal stylings and cadences. It is pretty much a facsimile of Black Star. The more I listen to it I wonder if this is maybe Black Star, but in all seriousness the resemblance is uncanny.

I just really like this 12” and wanted to shed some light on it and maybe breathe some new life into it “This is dedicated to all the hip hop dreamers”. I am not sure how you can listen to it outside of owning the 12”. I will play it next week on Third Verse, so tune in then to hear it.

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