ATSIC S06E27 - Imagine
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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.
I used the great horned owl for this weeks cover animal (every week it’s a different beast looking out of place in an urban landscape, if you hadn’t got the theme yet), not because I was gunna play music by OVO, but because my wife has an app that tells us what bird calls it hears when we go for nature walks, and this week I discovered that my owl call is good enough to trick it into thinking I’m an owl. I’m pretty amazing really.
When I’m not out walking through nature and talking with the forest creatures, I’m listening to new release rap from across Canada. This week there’s a bunch of good shit.
I titled the mix “Imagine” because this week I was day dreaming about a world where people still valued music, and paid for music that wasn’t force fed to them by billionaires and algorithms. A world where people decided for themselves what was dope and worth supporting. A world where the internet was used not just for shit posting memes and checking the weather, but self expression and digging deeper into our hobbies and interests. I have a vivid imagination.
Anyways, with the heat season concluding soon, I did my best to play some summer jams that I hadn’t gotten to yet. Jimmy Burnett and Moka only fit the bill with “All My Friends”. Jimmy told me this one was coming, said the beat called out for Moka’s signature smooth delivery. I’d agree—it’s chill. “We all wanna be someone who makes everyone feel like somebody”. That’s the sentiment of this show each week. I’m out here cheering for all my friends. Even if they’re just friends I’ve met on zoom chats.
Halfcut & Cole the God have a new project called The Relentless Two, which I haven’t got a chance to listen to in full yet, but will. What I have heard, I liked. This time I played “Thunder Rumble” which incorporates a bar from Raekwon’s certified classic “Incarcerated Scarfaces” over top of a smoked out piano beat that sounds like an early morning ride to a high noon shootout.
On the stunningly originally named “August 9”, Edmonton’s Ntwali talks aspirations and moving to Montreal alongside his new creative collaborator Saint Kay over top of some chill shit. I might be “people that aren’t working, talking bout what’s working, talking about the wave but not really surfin,”… but if I wasn’t chopping up the indie grind’s best practices with Canadian Hip Hop artists each week on Fly In Formation, no one would be. And if I wasn’t so busy doing this and spending my funds buying this music each week, I’d be able to focus more on my own surfing. You’re welcome.
Shark, Age, and Mr. D are here to take back the underground, Oceans 11 style on “The Heist”, a sinister sounding story teller that finds them running off with the bag and reclaiming what’s theirs. This one was off of Shark’s new drop The Last Megalodon, which he sent over for me to give feedback on earlier in the summer - and I slept on. I was busy not being busy, I suppose, but I apologize for my lack of response and I still appreciated him sending it over. Always happy to hear music early from artists who want feedback - I’ve always got opinions. The album is another I still haven’t gotten to listening to in full, but if Shark’s track record in the past few years (he’s incredibly prolific), I’m sure it’s well worth a spin. It’s on a list, I’ll get to it.
Ivason Black is another Toronto OG who sent over some heat over the summer, with a string of singles. This week I played him and Age on “Don’t Remind Me.” The two veterans kick some back and forth bars with some of that ol school in it.
Len Bowen’s manager sent his new album over for me to critique recently as well. I skimmed it quick and played “Forward (Faawud)”, a dancehall flavoured cut with the Winnipeg emcee moving ahead while rapping about the past hurdles. The album is called If You Don’t See Me, You Saw Me - and it’s due online Sept 12, stay awake.
Heads Or Tails is the name of B1 The Architect & Sythe’s newest collabo project, and I dropped the title track to give yal a taste. It’s B1 in his usual introspective deep end delivery flipping a bunch of gambling wordplay in relation to life and the risks we all take every day. I’ll always stick around to see all the cards go down when it’s skills like these on display.
There’s some standard issue clever punchline slow flows from Tone Chop over a guitar riff reliant Frost Gamble beat called “Cali Weed” that hits the sweet spot for head nod boom bap once again. mad consistent and regular ATSIC features. You should know by now.
Ottawa’s 613tino is in the mix with a freestyle alongside recently deceased emcee Dip Black. Sounds like the guy had an impact in the culture in Ottawa, and he’s got some bars. It’s always too bad when I discover artists posthumously.
Toronto holds down a lot of the remainder of the mix, even though I never plan for that sort of thing.
Toronto emcee Words smokes a blunt and kicks a bunch of rugged bars about the path he’s walked, on a track called “Life of Thunderdome”. I liked the bar about “seems like everybody’s song or album these days is based on a movie or some pre-existing piece of art” - it’s true, and I’ve thought about it a bit lately.
In Canada I think concept albums are so common because the grant system wants to hear about how highly intellectual your rap music is before they’re going to fund it. In Hip Hop more generally, it’s always been built on being highly referential to culture, pop or otherwise, so it makes sense to some degree that people all want to take their turn rapping about being Scarface or Tony Soprano or whoever else. That’s also just cuz it’s easier to be a derivative than it is to say anything you thought of yourself.
I dropped another one from Boldy James & Nicholas Craven’s Late to my Own Funeral, some airy summer vibes and the lyrical content you’d expect by now from Boldy - rhyming “daddy’s boy” with “if I was a shape I’d be a trapezoid.” Always a new angle on talking about the same stuff, that’s why I love this music.
JRoberts & Ol Man 80zz new one Shadows of Strategy is on my “listen to these full albums” playlist too. I’ve heard a few tracks off it, and “Lord Knows” got my attention with some grimy narrative about beating the odds and the first melodic singing hook from JR that I can recall, sung like Ghostface over Ol Man’s key driven sunset vibes.
Emcees Chaix & Jeff Spec united are called the SOVIETS, and they had a cut with Moka Only on it in this weeks mix as well. It’s got Moka talking a bit more forcefully on a battle rap tip than we usually hear these days, but he’s more than capable in a variety of lanes, and here he easily matches the vibes, and showcases his diversity over a head nod loop.
Dubgee recruited Doug Tree and AzraelRapsGood for “1 Thing” - where A double squiggle letter Y doesn’t loaf around, kicking a bunch of bread bars that will fill your bellies. I like playing songs with scratching like this one cuz I can’t do that shit myself at all lol.
Max Moon is one third of a group called Magick Show with Johnny B and Mickey O’Brien, and I got a chance to talk with him when they dropped their last project. He mentioned then that he had a solo drop in the works, and it’s out now - The Grand Howell - is available now to pre order on Bandcamp. It’s promised to be a lot of experimental Hip Hop and spoken word. I’m interested to check it out, hopefully Handsolo Records hooks me up with a copy.
“Dufferin Bus” is the newest single from Roshin & Uncle Fester, both of whom I’ve talked with separately a couple times on Fly In Formation. Good dudes, and top notch in their respective fields, so you know I have to recommend a track where they tapped in with fellow Toronto bar smith D-Sisive. Dude is always very entertaining. I’m looking forward to the full album dropping, but I can’t tell you the details and I’m tired of opening my IG tab.
Timbuktu’s new album “Thunderdome” (what are the odds of two different artists in Canada naming music after the Thunderdome and being featured on the same weekly mix show..?) with T.O. Huxtable is super dope from what I’ve heard. You might have guessed it, I haven’t sat with the full album, but I bought this one cuz it had a sample from my favourite movie, and I also snagged one called “Ready for War” with Wordburglar that I’m sure I’ll get onto ATSIC sooner or later.
Bozack Morris is a Toronto emcee who teamed with his homies Dnte & Wyze Wonda to form the Loyola Boyz, and he sent over “Hard To Digest” - which has all three of them barring up and bragging a bunch over a Spanish song sample looped up for execution. I think there’s a full album coming.
Break A Leg is a summer project I actually did listen to one day while I lazed on a beach in BC. Lord Juco is one of my favourite slow flow emcees in Toronto, always bringing some clever wordplay and some easy to hear, hard to understand lyricism. I played X-Ray, where he’s talking about his new castle in the country and cleaning snow off the front driveway with a skidsteer while deer look on.
Last but not least, I had to make sure to play the homie Myer Clarity and Fresh Kils before the fall hits, since it’s a track called “Tryna Have A Time (Summer in Toronto).” This one uses a guitar sample as a soundscape for Myer to tell us what his life’s like before the jam evolves to incorporate a Sublime classic for the outro. There’s a bar where he mentions “it’s been a hell of a 2020”, which makes me wonder how much music these guys have cooked up for the vaults over the past 5 years. I think I’ve seen Myer talking about a full album with Fresh Kils coming.
I should see if all these guys wanna come on FiF and talk about all these albums.
Anyways, that’s this week’s mix, hope you enjoy.
This week there was a “Making of ATSIC” video from Twitch - it’s posted below if you’re bored. I’m normally on Twitch all the time either working on ATSIC, listening to the new releases each week to make picks, or working on my own music.
Fly in Formation is back from summer break! We had to bump the schedule a bit to work around Chadio’s work schedule this week, but I’ll be talking with him and The Gumshoe Strut on Sunday Sept 7 at 8pm MT on Twitch, and then talking Tuesday Sept 9 to Wordburglar to get back to the regular schedule of Tuesday interviews. You can also watch every interview I’ve done up until now on Youtube. Leave a comment, hit like over there, show some love and run up the playlist on a muted tab - it’ll help the algorithm show my content to more people, which will get more Canadian music in more ears.
Tune in every Tuesday for interviews with artists across the country starting back up in September as I continue to endeavor to learn more about local scenes and artist’s creative processes, talking to artists we play regularly on ATSIC. Come through, hit subscribe on Twitch, skip the ads, and hang out and listen to Hip Hop.
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 purchase on iTunes.
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Stay up.
