After The Smoke Is Clear 716
I’ve started a mailing list, 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 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, 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 worked on the mix that Dice sent over - I had a cold this week and was just laying low recovering. Most weeks I go live on Thursdays to DJ thought. 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.
DJ Dice swoops in like one of the 7 hawks I saw circling on the updrafts from my balcony today, except instead of being a bird, he delivers a boom bap mix in classic style. Every week I listen to all the new releases and buy what I like, and last week I noticed there was enough in the vaults that I could do a dance mix and Dice could do a mix with the 3.5 hours of new unplayed boom bap I’d collected. I thought I’d have this one online for Monday to double up on episodes in a week, but I caught some godforsaken head cold and didn’t end up doing shit until last minute.
Dice said he really enjoyed the music this week, and I agree, this one’s a vibe. Edmonton’s favourite uncle starts the mix with Edmonton’s favourite son, Cadence Weapon with “Toronto Zoo” from his new collab album with Junia-T Forager. Then it’s out to the east coast to St. John’s for G_sm00th’s “Occulus” - he’s the first of 2 artists from St. John’s (as best I can tell), with Logan Bolt introducing himself to the scene on “Who?” much later in the mix. Calgary is represented by both Manni Lewd with “Means” & newly landed Calgarian Danielson with a cut off his new Futurewave produced project “Ticket Sales” where they call in Toronto sharp shooter Asun Eastwood for a feature verse. Vancouver is in the building with Doug Treez on a Fresh Kils beat with “Supra” off of his upcoming project Pre Rolled Joints - I think you can only hear that one on ATSIC for now, but I could be mistaken. Plenty of Toronto throughout, and not just on features or production - New Villain talks about familial duties on “Life Line” off his new album The Mind of Hugo Strange 3; Unknown Mizery and Rex Seshunz light the flame with a new single “Lightning Matches”; The Dookie Bros get another spin out of Number Two with “Show and Tell”; Fortunato re-ups with a Ghost Cartridge remix; a deluxe edition album exclusive called “86 Larry Bird” from JRoberts & Imperetiv that was originally a vinyl exclusive that they recently added to streaming; and Ashton Francis repping “For the Culture”. For some central representation, Skizza even sent one over from Saskatoon, and him and AK are sounding “Better Than Ever” on their newest in a string of sports themed albums - Spring Training. Those two are staying in great shape by just staying in training and staying active. On some political shit - I love everything I hear Lee Reed doing these days since he linked up with Strange Famous - and “King Louis XVI (feat. Deuce Eclipse, Lee Reed, Height Keech & DJ Zole)” from Oldboy Rhymes & Sentence Sixguns is no exception, they all deliver the anti-Epstien class lyrical warfare that plants crave.
The final track is from O P Yeti, who I’m talking to next up on Fly in Formation on Twitch Tuesday May 12. Hes got a new album out called Mirror Room and “Ghost… sure, man” has him finessing a Gravy Beats beat to end the mix. Dice sent the mix over a couple songs short so I added the last two, which works perfectly for promotional purposes where I get to play something and tell people to come through on Tuesday to hear more about the artist behind the music.
Fly in Formation is keeping up with weekly episodes every Tuesday through the end of July, and the interview with Ezza just went live! Coming up next is episode 139 with Victoria based emcee O P Yeti from Ruze Records. 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.
