ATSIC S06E15 - Pay Attention
I’ve started a mailing list recently, so if you want a reminder when a new episode of #ATSIC drops on Mixcloud, sign up at the bottom of the page or hit me up on IG with your email. I’ll make sure you’re in the loop.
Below this write-up, you’ll find the track list, complete with artists and their hometowns. You can listen here and follow along, or if you’re using the Mixcloud app, hit the “…” to check out the track list while you listen. There’s also a video below from the stream where I slapped this mix together. I’m having fun week to week.
DJ Dice delivered a banger of a mix this week just in time for the heat to hit the asphalt archipelago. I decided to leave the intro talk section in tact this week because I had something to say after this election. It’s been a blue wave of maple maga tears out here on the prairie, but I’m surfing. I’ll add that I don’t really exclude anyone for their political beliefs, but there are some things that the right wing is a lot more likely to say that will result in a loss of respect points from me. People who say certain things have to know they might be excluding themselves from certain opportunities, they’ve made their choices and I’m sure they don’t care. It’s my show and I’m buying the music that we play for you, so it’s my prerogative to keep my money in my pocket if someone is saying things I disagree with. Call it cancel culture, I call it a consequence of ones actions.
I suggested some political podcasts that people could check out in the intro. I wanted to tell yall about them a bit. I painted houses for like 15 years, and on quiet work sites we’d play podcasts all day every day. I listened to Rogan when he was doing double digit podcasts on Soundcloud in like 2010, alongside early Hip Hop podcasts like Juan Epstein and Combat Jack ( RIP Dallas Penn & Combat Jack). I stopped listening to Joe about a decade ago, except for the odd episode. He lost me. Point is, I’ve been about this podcast format since the jump ball. I love thinking about new things and learning and hearing new opinions.
Let me tell you a bit about the political pods I recommended briefly in the intro: Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen is probably my favourite. Dude got himself fired from his talk radio job for saying something bad about Jason Kenney on Alberta FM, and he went indie immediately after with his own show, in a very wise move. 5 days a week you can find me in the Youtube live stream comments starting at 830 AM as Jespo talks with guests from both sides of the political spectrum, and keeps me updated on day to day stories of interest. Real Talk is Alberta based and Alberta focused, but also talks national and world events that hit the radar, and talks about topics outside of politics , peppering in pop culture and even sports news. Ryan’s cohost/producer of the show is Johnny Infamous, a DJ who also does the Oilers games at the Moss Pit - the show isn’t boring, dry, talking heads - it’s entertaining and informative and presents a lot of opinions to think about, both on the show and in the always entertaining live chat. I highly recommend it to people who want to be more engaged with the world we live in.
The other shows I shouted out are all great listens too: The Strategists is Zain Velji, Corey Hogan, and Stephen Carter - 3 guys who have, and still do, work on various political campaigns behind the scenes and they get deep into Canadian political planning and issues. Now that Corey Hogan ran and won a seat in Calgary, he won’t be on the show any more, I think.
The Breakdown pod is also a great listen, Nate Pike was instrumental in uncovering the current healthcare scandal in Alberta’s UCP clown show, he broke the info first and was hit with a swift cease and desist that resulted in his social media and podcast being taken down for a few weeks until he could lawyer up and beat their bullshit, and now he’s back to regular scheduled whistle blowing.
The Discorse Podcast is my least favourite of these suggestions if I’m honest, but mostly because it’s format is based on bickering between a right winger, Erika Barootes and a lefty, Sheryl Oates, and Erika insists on tirelessly going to bat for indefensible situations the Cons constantly find themselves in, using what I consider to be absurd propagandist talking points.. but for people looking for a “both sides of the argument” sort of situation, it might be one to check out.
Bottom line is that I hope people continue to stay engaged with politics beyond talking points from Joe Rogan and Jordan Petersen telling them to be afraid of homeless people and blame immigrants for everything. I read Jordan Petersens 12 rules book when it dropped and had a buzz. It was vauge, bland self help bullshit in my eyes, but if your parents didnt make you make your bed or do anything else to learn disciplin, maybe that’s needed. I know a huge chunk of the population had parents who suck, so fair play to ya. I’ve listened to probably over a thousand full Rogan episodes. You can’t tell me I’m not listening to both sides or am in an echo chamber. I used to like Rogan a lot.. he used to say all sorts of open minded progressive things and I thought it was cool he maintained a “masculine” edge and was also a UFC expert, even though I’ve never been a fan of that sport, mostly cuz its fan base tends to be ignorant as fuck. Rogan did a full on flip flop when he got a 100 million dollar cheque from Spotify, that’s just the reality I heard with my own ears. Dude doesn’t want to pay taxes, so he moved to Texas and started grifting off of the ignorance of right wingers by spewing all sorts of absurdist and hateful talking points. That’s my opinion, formed from my own analysis of the situation. There are plenty of other pods to listen to and that’s why I’ve been typing all this for 20 minutes.
Anyways..
This episode has all sorts of good music from coast to coast on it, including a track by DJ Dice himself, with the big homie DVL on emcee and production double duty - it’s the third track in the mix. Dice did the cuts, and there’s a full album of tracks from these two, including one track with me rhyming on it. It’s called “Revolutionary Warfare” and it does in fact exist. It’s not online anywhere, as far as I’ve been told, but I’ve encouraged them to put it on Bandcamp. I even helped them out with some cover art for it to push them along that path. I was waiting to see it somewhere available to the public before I played it, but Dice dropped “Lunatics” into the mix this week, so I guess maybe the rollout has began.
There’s a new one from Epic and The Deadly Stare - who I’m talking to about thier new album “A Library called Calder” for Fly In Formation on June 8. It’s a mellow one about taking ecstacy and walking around Toronto, and it features a verse from Chokeules, who’s a member of Toronto supergroup Swampthing - he shines on this one.
There’s another track I really like from Sudbury major miner Mickey O’Brien, a political vent featuring one of my favourites, Lee Reed, over top of a Danny Miles beat with Uncle Fester on the cuts. Pretty solid super group on this one too as a result, and they knock it out and give people some thoughts to chew on, if they have any teeth left. Lee has a new project out now on Bandcamp called “Pitchforks & Torches”, his second offering since signing on with Strange Famous.
There’s one from Victoria’s OP Yeti, “Cell Check” that he sent over a long while back. It’s a concept track about checking each others phones in a relationship, but it flips it into a jail term about bunks being searched for contraband, which I thought was really clever. He does a skillful job of avoiding some of the typical “pesky bitch up in my business” cliches that you’d (at least that I’ve come to) expect from indie raps that might approach the topics of infidelity or jealousy.
Dice picked Roshin & Gritfall’s “Ring Around the Posie (Swag Out the Dollar Store)” track off their new EP “You Don’t Get It”. It was one of the earlier singles, so it’s been in the vault for a while, but the slow groove and barsmanship (I’m gunna use that term, shouts to Dan-e-o) on this one matched the mood for the mix. I noticed on this listen that Grit says a bar about “decline the interview” - which is something I’ve heard a few emcees rap about, on a “I don’t need to do extra shit for publicity” flex. I get that sentiment, and it’s actually sorta admirable from where I’m sitting, but I’m glad that I made the cut and get another chance to talk with both Gritfall and Roshin on this coming Tuesday, May 6, at 3pm MT on Twitch.tv/Doobyis. That one is episode 100, so it’s extra special and I’m looking forward to it cuz both of these guys separate interviews went really well since they’re chill and easy to talk with.
There’s a new jam from Quake, “FAASU”, where he’s in his braggadocios bag, questioning why “if every emcees supposed to think that he’s the best, how come everyone gets pissed off when I say it?” - or something similar to that anyways. I’m not mad at his claims, and agree, everyone who doesn’t like their own bars the best should probably sit down and try to think of something they’d rather hear themselves saying. I’d bet there’s an album coming along from the Halifax heavyweight, because I saw there was another acronym track title from him in my ATSIC Radar playlist today, so it looks like he’s drop drop dropping, which often means roll out time for a project, but who knows. I’ll ask him. I’m looking forward to talking to Quake for the first time on May 20 on Twitch.tv/Doobyis. Go hit follow and come through on Tuesdays for live interviews if you don’t already.
We played one from Spitty’s up and coming homies PabloTheSensei, & WW Lowry that he featured on - “Flower City”. Spitty is always active in his scene and it’s always good to see more established artists working with the young bucks. It’s off their newest drop “Sandalwood Parkway”.
Dialect Sosa also gave a boost to one of his homies, with a feature on a track called “Ichiban” off of Bobby Pillows new album “A Rebel and A Blunt”. The track has an old school boom bap sensibility that matched the rest of this mix perfectly. Apparently Pillows used to be the hype man for a band they were both in together where Sosa was the front man.
There’s 2 tracks featuring Sayzee and Tona both, one from Sayzee and Bondalero’s new project “2 Way Mirror” that’s called “30 Plus” - talking about how all the best rappers are over 30, which is something I’ve said in my own way plenty of times in the past. To me the experience that comes with aging results in many artists making their best music in their years after 30, when they have something to say. Tona is always dope, and both him and Sayzee show out on Tha Rhyme Animals re released album “Aligned in Orbit (Deluxe)”. Dice played “Fake The Vibe” from them, and I’d say everything sounds plenty authentic to me.
There’s a diss track for every D12 fan’s favourite Canuck, Robbie G - a man who is constantly touring across the country with various legacy acts looking for an audience, complete with 23 16 year old openers at every show. The mans hustle is well known and widely looked down upon in the indie rap scene nationally, because it’s based on what’s called “pay to play” format, where openers are welcome regardless of talent or track records, as long as they agree to be on the hook to sell X amount of tickets for the show - or pay for those tickets themselves if they can’t slang them to their homies. It’s pretty sleazy in my opinion, and the opinion of many other emcees who I’ve asked about the practice on FiF, and it waters down the show and the industry at large by making outsiders think that the 3 ring circus of openers they see before seeing Bizzare reveal that he’s still alive are the cream of the Canadian crop, when really they are often far from it and are frankly a disgrace to the kulture of Hip Hop. On “Robert Greed” (see how that’s a play on Robbie G?) an emcee named Branded Moore and the Drunken Arseholes (Ceeeeee! and DJ Moves) take aim and squeeze the trigger at frauds and phonies, Robbie in particular. I think I’ve played one song by dude somewhere on ATSIC over the years, but I’ve long since stopped.
There’s more to mention, but I’ll leave it at that. Suffice it to say that once again, this episode has got you covered from coast to coast with the new new that’s worth hearing. Check the playlist at the bottom if you want to know the full extent of what we included!
If you want to check out what I had to say about this music as I was making the episode, you can find a “Making of ATSIC” stream below! I didn’t have to do much work this time, no turntables since Dice handled the mix duty this week, so it’s just me listening to the mix and yelling between tracks as I enjoy the music. Tap in on weekdays over on Twitch, I’m on all the time either working on ATSIC, listening to the new releases each week to make picks, or workin gon my own music.
Fly in Formation is flying high. On the episode attached to this ATSIC, I talked with Big J.O., formerly known as J.O. Mairs, and for now, Mixcloud is the only place to listen to it in audio only podcast format. We spoke about his last album “Maui”, which was dedicated to his new daughter, plus a bunch of other important stuff. Tune in every Tuesday for interviews with artists across the country as I learn more about local scenes and artists creative processes, talking to artists we play regularly on ATSIC. I’m looking forward to my next interview for FiF, the 100th episode, featuring both Gritfall and Roshin! They’re both return guests who I talked with separately in the past, and I’m looking forward to reconnecting with them both after they joined forces to drop a new EP called “You Don’t Get It”! Come through, hit subscribe on Twitch, skip the ads, and chat live while we stream.
I buy every track I play on ATSIC unless it’s sent to me directly. Streaming barely pays, so it’s essential to support indie artists by buying their music, tickets, or merch to keep them creating. Listening to #ATSIC on Mixcloud is free for you, and makes sure that each song you hear pays the artist at least SOMETHING. Spotify pays 0.006 CAD per stream, and only if the song hits 1000 plays in 3 months. Assuming a song gets 1000 spins, that means it takes around 125 Spotify plays to earn an artist the same .76 cents they earn from my 1.29 cent purchase on iTunes.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clear also need support. If you appreciate discovering new music without the algorithms, or if you appreciate my efforts to get indie artists music in more ears, consider donating via PayPal to help me buy the tracks and keep the show going. Every dollar helps indie artists and ATSIC alike.
If you can’t donate, that’s all good — people who can afford it are paying, and you get to enjoy a free show while I earn a living. Do me a favour though, and help spread the word to other people who love Hip Hop! Shoutout to everyone who is already supporting financially, by sharing the show, or by coming through in comments and chat to help build community.
Stay up.
