After The Smoke Is Clear 714
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Below this write-up, you’ll find the track list, complete with artists, albums, and the city they represent. 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. Above this there’s usually also a video from the Twitch stream where I slapped this mix together. This week I didn’t stream while I did the mix, but I’m having fun week to week. Come through and say hi, hang out and listen to music. I’m streaming often on weekday afternoons, either working on ATSIC, listening to the new releases on the radar each Friday or Saturday to make picks, doing Fly In Formation interviews on Tuesdays, or working on my own music when I can find time.
I started and ended this mix with Stephen Heroe’s new album “ETR2” - on “Heartbreaker” he raps to a childhood hero who let him down (something I feel like we talked about on FiF one of the times he was on), and on ‘It’s a Trap” he points out the pitfalls with punchlines. I got the pleasure of hearing the full album over a month ago, but it’s online now for everyone after it’s 420 release date.
The rest of the mix has plenty of character and I think it all maintained tone. I did some blends and really basic remixing on the fly, nothing fancy but enough to add some extra flavour.
Fly in Formation is back to weekly episodes every Tuesday for 2026 until July, with the interview with Sarafin just went live! Coming up next is episode 136 with Niagara Falls based emcee Ezza of Choom Gang. You can watch every interview I’ve done up until this point on Youtube - Leave a comment, hit like over, or show some love and run up the playlist on a muted tab - it’ll help the algorithm show this content to more people, which will get more Canadian music in more ears.
Tune in every Tuesday for interviews with artists across the country as I continue 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 to 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 that’s 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. Spotify is also now investing the billions they earn into weaponized AI drones, which is just awful, frankly. Fuck those guys - I use it because it’s the only realistic way to keep up with all these drops from all these artists, but I never listen to anything more than twice on there - because I go buy a digital single of anything I like that much. You could to, and the music industry would thank you.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clearalso need support. If you appreciate discovering new music without the algorithm, 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.
