After The Smoke Is Clear 717
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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. If I streamed while spinning the mix, the stream should be posted right under this. 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.
This week I had 3.5 hours of new music in my Unplayed Boom Bap playlist. The more music to choose from, the better the hour normally ends up working, and this one was no exception to the rule. Each week I try my best to showcase styles across the country doing different things while trying to remain cohesive in some way or another, without whiplash from song to song topically or sonically. I think I hit the mark this week, but tell me what you are or aren’t feeling.
This week we’ve got a day early exclusive from K-Rec & Checkmate featuring Copywrite and Junk for the title track from their new album The Method. It sets the tone for the mix with expert intricate lyricism, soaring riffs, thumping drums, and technically sound cuts.
Deuce Fantastick reminiscing about “Past” homies on the lead single from his upcoming follow up to last year’s “ Billion Dollar Dreams: The Future” - 2026 is set for some looking back at yesteryear on “Billion Dollar Dreams: The Past”. This one does a good job of showing off Deuce’s range, switching back and forth to sing the hook and rhyme the verses with ease.
Lethbridge local Kr3wsuffix is coming in hot with “Crash & Burn” - another one talking about struggles from times gone by executed in his typical lyrically dexterous and heartfelt style.
Rosco P. Coldchain of Startrak fame is back around, this time pairing up with Nicholas Craven instead of Pharell. They dropped a full album I haven’t made time to listen to, but this one “Die Slow” has him barring up over a signature drumless instrumental alongside fellow Craven collaborator Bruiser Wolf. Chill shit.
Stonam dropped a couple new tracks on Bandcamp a while back as a self titled A side/B side self titled single, and “BYOL” has him encouraging us to build something to be proud of. Apparently these were left overs from his last project Fight Vol 2, but if I’m being honest I think this one might slap harder than a lot of the cuts on the album did. I liked the little live remix treatment I hit it with just tapping a cue button. I like to add a little bit of spice to make the mixes feel extra compared to streaming a bunch of singles. Nothing fancy, but sometimes it’s effective.
Plenty of funk throughout - from Molly Johnson’s sultry “Talk to Me” featuring Haviah Mighty with a much more soulful, chill energy than we usually get from her on a verse; to Troy Dunnit & J-Scratch taking it to the dance floor in celebration of the beauty they behold with “YAMS”; to another from Erick Gordon’s new album Loose Ends - “Monopoly Money” brings in a slow rolling Motown motif featuring bars from Roshin & Spenny along for the ride relaxing over organic sounding drums, atmospheric keys and mellow organ chords.
Scotty IV might be making his first ATSIC appearance, I can’t say for sure. Either way, “Cold” has him getting melodic for a song that sort of serves as an interlude on this one. It’s still bars but it’s a bit of a different vibe to keep people paying attention.
Tona with Asun Eastwood and Daniel Son is a ridiculous triple play team, and they don’t disappoint on “Lucid” - barring up and pushing each other to higher heights with some friendly competition. When you get 3 heavy weights like this on a track together you know they’re going to apply the A-game. Another soul sample chop keeps the mood of the mix monotone.
We get an accoustic guitar based beat from RetroBoy for Ceaxar & Greenbeard to skip some soul searching bars and melodies across like stones on a pond. Simplicity like this tough to do right, but this one sticks the landing.
Maybe the most abrupt transition on here drops in with Sayzee and someone named 067Red somewhat abruptly welcoming us to “Rush Hour 2” - I do these mixes live nowadays, so sometimes things work better than others, but this one serves to wake people up after the last one from Retroboy might have lulled them into thinking we weren’t gunna to be going back to touch the streets.
Mitchell Lawler probably doesn’t envision his music playing back to back with grimy guys like Sayzee, but here we are. Gotta keep the listener guessing a bit. I like all sorts of stuff, and Lawler does what he’s doing well on this one. It’s bouncy fun brag raps, and it’s fun for me to hear Mitch rhyme from the position of a veteran - he’s come a long way from the young kid who I told to go listen to Illmatic, 36 Chambers and Reasonable Doubt all those years back.
My BC namesake Doobie has been on my radar for a long time, but his new one “No Justice” might be my favourite so far from what I’ve heard him drop. It’s straight to the point and on the nose, but that’s what you want a protest song to be. On ATSIC you might hear a track about MMIW, #LandBack, and residential school victims played back to back with some narcissistic or narcotic raps. I like it all, and I like it better when it’s peppered in - I can’t stomach a bunch woke raps for a full hour just like I can’t take a full hour of outright ignorance. Everything in moderation, and everything has it’s place.
Roshin is back for another round over heavenly strings, this time beside D-Sisive, 9th Uno, and B1. This is another one where putting a bunch of beasts on the same beat leads to elevated output. K-Flip handles the cuts and you get a track that approaches the summits of songs like Gangstarrs legendary collab with Inspectah Deck “Above the Clouds” with it’s contrasting barbaric bars and angelic instrumental. Tried, tested, true time honoured tradition continuing on steady.
Lofi Larry is a densely packed little EP from Spesh K, and “Daybreak" keeps things ethereal with a heady string loop and brutally honest soliloquies from frequent collaborators Skizza & The Mighty Rhino. Rhino’s verse is like a gut punch with the reality he offers up for public consumpiton - kudos to dude for spilling his heart like that, and I can only offer my sincere hopes that he keeps on pushing through to see a lot more mornings.
Thematically on point to a whole. other. level. with the transition to “Sunshine” from Rel McCoy. The Enrique Martin Remix of this one has him over a growling distorted guitar. Rel is a talented guy, singing or barring up.
Baby Grande’s newest signee, Switch, makes the announcement trading bars with Planet Asia on the final track of the night, “Serpent’s Tongue”. Switch has been dope for a long time, and after offering up a string of solo projects and then a collab album with Moka Only, it’s been a long road to get to his current position of tremendous potential. He’s one to watch and I never hear people speak on him. They should be doing that more often as he continues his relentless pursuit of bigger audiences.
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 musicians would thank you.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clear also 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.
