WEEKLY RECOMMENDED RELEASE RADAR FOR HIP HOP / RAP MUSIC. Send an email to crownthement@gmail.com to inquire access to 100s of releases cataloged each week (not featured on this page.) Connect on other platforms with CROWNTHEM ENT.  https://linktr.ee/CrownThem

WEEKLY RECOMMENDED RELEASE RADAR FOR HIP HOP / RAP MUSIC. Send an email to crownthement@gmail.com to inquire access to 100s of releases cataloged each week (not featured on this page.) Connect on other platforms with CROWNTHEM ENT.  https://linktr.ee/CrownThem

2023 marked a special year for Hip Hop. Universally recognized as the 50th anniversary of this multifaceted culture, it encompassed not just a unique style of visual arts, fashion, and dance, but also one of the world's most popular music genres. It's no surprise, then, that a wide range of film and television offering were released to celebrate and capitalize on the occasion. Perhaps the strongest representation of this came in the form of documentaries, aiming to shed light on some of the culture's most influential creators. Additionally, we saw the return of one of televisions best shows, along with several compelling podcasts that explored niche corners of Hip Hop History. Here, we’ll take some time to highlight some of the best Hip Hop-based film and TV projects of 2023. FIGHT THE POWER: HOW HIP HOP CHANGED THE WORLD Chuck D of Public Enemy explores Hip Hop’s political awakening over the last 50 years. With a host of rap stars and cultural commentators, he tracks Hip Hop’s socially conscious roots. From "The Message" to "Fight The Power," examining how Hip Hop has become "the Black CNN." Chuck D kicked off 2023 with a powerful four-part documentary series aiming to provide a political history and analysis of Hip Hop’s beginnings and future trajectory. What's particularly interesting is Chuck D's focus on Hip Hop's political leanings and consciousness, present since its start in the 1970s and continuing to be a voice of protest for the marginalized during turbulent times. The series also delves into the challenges the genre faced as it became a larger cultural and commercial force. Joining Chuck D is a who’s who of Hip Hop personalities including the likes of Eminem, Ice T, Fat Joe, Sway, MC Lyte, Monie Love, Melle Mel, LL Cool J and more. DIRECTOR: Yemi Bamiro WHERE TO WATCH: PBS MAY THE LORD WATCH: THE LITTLE BROTHER STORY May the Lord Watch is the definitive story of Little Brother, the North Carolina rap group comprised of rappers Phonte, Big Pooh, and (formerly) producer 9th Wonder. The film follows the rise, breakup, and reunion of the preeminent 2000s rap group. However, the heart of the documentary lies in the evolving relationship between members Phonte and Big Pooh. This bond began at Durham's HBCU, North Carolina Central University, strained during their parallel growth in the music industry, and ultimately resolved with an enduring friendship as the two reunited to create their 2019 album, May the Lord Watch. Using archival and interview footage, Little Brother (comprising Big Pooh and Phonte, with 9th Wonder formerly a member) has assembled a work that relays the definitive version of the group’s story. Viewers gain unique insights from their humble beginnings to their rise as one of the most acclaimed and beloved groups of the early 2000s. While founding member and original producer 9th Wonder is absent from the documentary for undisclosed reasons, the true cause of the rift remains unclear. Big Pooh and Phonte suggest some factors, including inflated egos and emotional immaturity, but ultimately acknowledge that it might be a private matter. Perhaps it’s just none of our business. Despite the ambiguity, May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story remains an inspirational and invigorating presentation. Its release directly on the Little Brother YouTube channel perfectly aligns with these artists' self-made spirit. DIRECTOR: Holland Randolph Gallagher WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube DEAR MAMA: THE SAGA OF AFENI & TUPAC SHAKUR A deeply personal five-part series, Dear Mama, defies the conventions of traditional documentary storytelling. It shares an illuminating saga of mother and son, Afeni and Tupac Shakur. The series takes an unique approach in handling its subjects. Throughout the five parts, Allen Hughes of the Hughes Brothers tells the stories of Tupac and his mother Afeni Shakur thorugh the interviews with them, their closest friends, and family. Tupac’s story has been told so many times, it’s hard to imagine myself watching yet another thing on Tupac and learning something new. However, Dear Mama more than makes a case for itself. The best idea is to tell their stories side by side. For me, the Afeni Shakur side was incredibly powerful. It informs us about her life and provides a reference point for Tupac's character and motivations. As for the Tupac we know as a pro-Black revolutionary, that was largely influenced by his mama and the Black Power movement that surrounded them. Sadly, both Afeni and Tupac are no longer here to speak for themselves. However, we gain valuable accounts and analysis from friends, family, politicians, and artists like Shock G, Mike Tyson and Jasmine Guy. The result is a poignant and powerful series that sheds light on the lives of two people who directly and indirectly impacted so many lives to this day. This one is a must watch! DIRECTOR: Allen Hughes WHERE TO WATCH: FX Networks LADIES FIRST: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN HIP HOP Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop is a Netflix documentary that highlights the often-overlooked contributions and challenges faced by women artist in Hip Hop. Through insightful interviews with the women themselves and incisive social commentary from industry insiders, the film provides a powerful exploration of the role and impact of women in this influential genre. Netflix delivered one of the most well-made documentary series on Hip Hop in 2023 with Ladies First: A Story Of Women In Hip Hop. This series takes us on a journey, starting with Sha-Rock, the first woman MC, and continuing all the way through to present-day stars like Rapsody, Kash Doll, and Tierra Wack. The structure is commendable, taking the time to highlight significant moments from different eras such as MC Lyte's debut as the first woman to release a full length Hip Hop album and Sista Souljah’s battle with Bill Clinton in the early 90s. While men still greatly outnumber women artists in Hip Hop, this documentary does an excellent job of reminding viewers that women have been there from the beginning, offering significant contributions to both the music and the culture that continue to this day. DIRECTORS: Hannah Beachler, Dream Hampton, Raeshem Nijhon, Giselle Bailey, Carri Twigg WHERE TO WATCH: Netflix ALL UP IN THE BIZ Celebrity interviews and rare archival footage provide valuable insight into the life and legacy of hip-hop icon Biz Markie. All Up In The Biz, the latest film from documentary specialist Sacha Jenkins (Wu Tang Clan: Of Mics And Men, Fresh Dressed,) chronicles the life and times of hip-hop legend Biz Markie, who tragically passed away in 2021 from complications related to diabetes. Through a combination of past and present interviews, photos, and his music, the film meticulously details how important Biz Markie was to the world. Rap icons like Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane appear in the film, highlighting his pivotal role in their discovery and careers. Firsthand accounts from Dapper Dan, Doug E. Fresh, DMC, and Fat Joe further paint a full picture of Biz Markie's influence and the love he inspired. The film features wraparound reenactments featuring a Crank Yankers-styles puppet of Biz Markie in a hospital during his final months. While jarring at first, these scenes eventually resonate as Sacha Jenkins brilliantly captures Biz's warmth and spirit thought this unconventional medium. These reenactments provide a few more precious moments with a remarkable man who lived a beautiful life. DIRECTORS: Sacha Jenkins WHERE TO WATCH: Showtime | Paramount+ | Amazon THE CHOICE IS YOURS A story of rapper and artist Dres, part of the iconic 90's hip hop duo Black Sheep, chronicles his amazing journey from the top of the game to facing the challenges of civilian life and pursing his last chance at creative success. This documentary traces the rise of Hip Hop duo Dres and Mista Lawnge, collectively known as Black Sheep. What makes it interesting is its focus on Dres in the present day. Despite his enduring love and respect within the industry, his creative spirit years for more. He grapples with anormal life while harboring the urge to take one last artistic shot, especially as Black Sheep has faded from the limelight. Additionally, the film explores his years-long estrangement from Mista Lawnge after a failed attempt at a third Black Sheep album. Another compelling layer comes in Dres' personal quest to seek approval from the late J Dilla's mother to utilize some of his unreleased compositions for a new album. The film's deliberate pacing, bordering on a Dres' reality show at times, allows viewers to connect with him on a more personal level. This approach makes it understandable why peers like Posdnous, Jarobi and Mareen Yancey readily share stories and shower praise on him and Black Sheep. Ultimately, The Choice Is Yours offers a heartfelt exploration of history, legacy, longevity, purpose, and aging within the world of Hip Hop. DIRECTOR: Clark Slater WHERE TO WATCH: Paramount+ CYPHER Tierra Whack rose to fame rapping on a Pennsylvania street for a YouTube channel. Years later, while documenting her astronomical rise, questions arise about who is filming whom and whether being seen is a desirable and unavoidable part of fame. Cypher is a mockumentary-style film that aims to chronicle Tierra Whack's rise while casting a cautious lens on the entertainment industry and fame itself. It’s a unique blend of traditional serious documentary and fictional, found-footage horror/suspense narrative, aiming to satirize entertainment conspiracy theorist and their claims. This experimental approach mostly works, successfully showcasing the talented Tierra Whack while creating a spooky and voyeuristic atmosphere. DIRECTOR: Chris Moukarble WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA SEASON 3 Following six months after the season two finale, we find RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan settled in a New Jersey mansion, far from the streets of Staten Island. Despite their recent album's massive success, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), they're nowhere near finished. Season 3 of Wu-Tang: An American Saga sees the clan at its peak. Their debut album is a commercial and critical triumph, and most members have secured lucrative solo deals. As a viewer, the season was bittersweet. Watching the series come to life and showcase the potential of Hip Hop-based TV was exhilarating, but knowing it's over with so much more to tell about the Wu-Tang Clan was saddening. It wasn't a perfect ending, with some allegorical episodes about solo projects being more successful than others. Ultimately, though, I believe most appreciated the creative risk regardless of the outcome. Wu-Tang: An American Saga stands as a milestone for Hip Hop in other mediums, opening the door for similar shows based on real-life Hip Hop history. A biographical series about A Tribe Called Quest or Queen Latifah would be incredible. The door is open, and I don't see it closing anytime soon. DIRECTORS: Mario Van Peebles, Nefertite Nguvu, RZA, Matthew Ross, Janice Cooke, Eif Rivera WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu RAP SH!T SEASON 2 In the second season of Rap Sh!t, Shawna, Mia, and Chastity, continue their journey toward Hip Hop success as a group. However, their rising success is threatened when situations in their personal lives, and industry pressures threaten to derail them. Rap Sh!t returned for a second season, retaining the fun, drama, and exceptional production value that captivated audiences in its first outing. Our main trio embarks on a tour, navigating industry politics, financial hardships, and personal difficulties. This season builds upon the show's foundation, deepening our connection to the characters. The series' social media-infused presentation effectively creates a setting that mirrors our own time. It offers insightful commentary on social media, mental health, relationships, business, para social relationships with celebrities, morality, and crime, making it some of the best writing currently on television. despite packing impressive depth int its 30-mnute episodes, the show never feels overwhelming. Unfortunately, HBO Max canceled the series, leaving its cliffhanger ending unresolved. While some attribute this to the SAG-AFTRA strike and lack of promotion, viewership might not have been strong enough even prior to those factors. Perhaps it didn't spark the same level of discourse as Issa Rae's other project, Insecure. Regardless of the reasons, I highly recommend watching the series despite the lack of closure, as HBO Max can still choose to the remove the episodes at any time. Overall, Rap Sh!t remains a highlight of 2023 television and represents a significant contribution to the world of Hip Hop / Rap. DIRECTORS: Ava Berkofsky, Lawrence Lamont, Ami Aniobi, Calmatic WHERE TO WATCH: Max | HBO HIP HOP TREASURES Hip Hop Treasures, a captivating documentary series hosted by LL Cool J and Ice-T, delves into the cultural phenomenon of Hip Hop. The show follows a team of field collectors and museum curators on a nationwide quest to gather artifacts for the upcoming Universal Hip Hop Museum (UHHM) in the Bronx, New York, slated to open in 2024. Limited to a single season, this series explores Hip Hop history with the goal of curating the UHHM located in its birthplace, the Bronx. Throughout the season, field curators like DJ Cipha Sounds travel the country, acquiring artifacts that will eventually be displayed in the museum. The "magic" truly happens when the curators meet the artifact owners, not only securing the items but also learning and sharing their rich histories. Witnessing Biz Markie's wife, Tara Hall, discussing her husband and revealing the rhyme book containing the iconic "Just a Friend" is heartwarming. Similarly, watching Yo Yo's charismatic persuasion in acquiring Coolio's prized lowrider bike for the museum brings a smile. The A&E-style presentation, complete with engaging editing and music between segments, evokes a feeling akin to a Hip Hop version of Pawn Stars. Overall, Hip Hop Treasures represents a valuable expansion of the types of TV content exploring Hip Hop culture. DIRECTORS: Pulse Films, Rock The Bells WHERE TO WATCH: A&E In conclusion, 2023 was a solid year but it could have been better considering it was the year where the “Hip Hop 50” branding was everywhere. Ultimately it’s up to the culture to tell it’s own stories via film and TV. Looking for corporations and media conglomerates to do it just doesn’t work because you can’t rely on consistent support unless it’s something in it for them. As far as what we can expect in 2024 it’s mostly up in the air, but there are some Hip Hop offerings to watch immediately out the gate such as Peacock’s Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story, and Netflix’s Champion. Stay on the look out for reviews of these and any upcoming Hip Hop films and series we think are worth watching. WORDS BY MONK https://linktr.ee/monkeyblood | https://linktr.ee/2for5hiphop

WEEKLY RECOMMENDED RELEASE RADAR FOR HIP HOP / RAP MUSIC. Subscribe to the website or send an email to crownthement@gmail.com to sift through 100s of releases cataloged each week (not featured on this page.) RESEARCH CURATION 'N DESIGN BY JAMEKA

Below you’ll find a selection of hip-hop projects from the first quarter of 2023 that sparked my personal engagement with the genre on various levels. These works transcended mere enjoyment, prompting me to re-evaluate my own artistic interpretations and grapple with broader social and cultural themes. The featured projects hail from diverse geographical perspectives, encompassing the lyrical prowess of New York artists like donSMITH, Leeky Bandz, and Malz Monday, the soulful inflections of New Orleans through Ferris Blusa, Hxndrx, and Lil Iceberg, the sun-drenched realities of Californian artists Mani Draper and ICECOLDBISHOP, the smooth rhymes of Georgia's Silky Southern, and the introspective lyricism of North Carolina's Sincere Hunte. This exploration is grounded in appreciation rather than critical analysis. It acknowledges the multifaceted nature of artistic appreciation, which extends beyond the confines of verbal discourse. The projects' potency manifests not only through lyrical articulation but also through their capacity to evoke movement, inspire creative expression, and stimulate self-reflection. Ultimately, these works contribute to the ongoing cultural discourse surrounding Hip Hop / Rap, challenging the superficiality of "perceived timelines" and the rapid churn of media trends. They invite us to engage with music as a dynamic force, asking not how many "good" songs a project contains but rather how it makes us move, think, and feel. Does it trigger introspective inquiries into our own artistic practices? Does it resonate with broader societal currents? By fostering such contemplation, these projects propel us beyond the limitations of fleeting trends and engage us in a meaningful dialog with the genre itself. While the projects highlighted below represent a curated selection, the accompanying playlists, Q! - ‘23 and CROWN VIEWS 002, offer an additional comprehensive panorama of Q1's rich tapestry of Hip Hop / Rap sounds. I encourage you to delve into these playlists and discover your own sonic treasures within this ever-evolving art form. Q! - ‘23 - Spotify playlist with 140 songs highlighted from the first quarter of 2023. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1jWt3dAnzieARRPtQbUbTy?si=d59bde0981fb4e72 CROWN VIEWS 002 - consists of about 100 music videos from the first quarter of 2023. The visual playlist is compiled of an array of videos from various artists, directors, producers, etc in different regions, sub-genres of Hip Hop / Rap. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBYGFutPdmTkNYDWDDFDMLv8HMjybnZ3f FULL EDITORIAL: https://www.crownthement.com/post/crown-views-002 33 Mani Draper x Steven King Mani Draper's music is a constant ascent, each release building on the last while hinting at new artistic peaks. This is especially true for 33; here his mastery of wordplay seamlessly blends poetry and Hip Hop, creating a soundscape that's both introspective and infectious. 33, is a guidebook for finding balance and embracing personal growth. Motivational snippets weave through tracks, with themes of self-alignment, evolution, and appreciating one's blessings. 33 radiates positive energy and gratitude, a testament to Mani's own journey and source or inspiration for listeners. Fellow Bay Area artists C Plus and Iamsu! add their own verses to the mix, their styles effortlessly complementing Mani's flow. Track's like "WWND" and others shimmer with luxurious soul and carefully chosen lyrics. It's a celebration of hustle and independence, urging listener to chase their dreams on their own terms. 33 is a rich tapestry of love, confidence, vulnerability, and raw Hip Hop / Rap. An audio experience where introspection meets celebration, and where self-discovery guides the way. City/State: Richmond, CA Released: March 3rd, 2023 See Also: Every Blue Moon by Mani Draper x Kevin Allen, Communion: Book 2 by Mani Draper, Coordinates (Deluxe) by Brookfield Duece + Flowers by Passwurdz No More Free Game donSMITH x Leeky Bandz donSMITH and Leeky Bandz latest project, No More Free Game, is an immersive experience that transcends mere music. It's woven from lyrics, hooks, melodies, and a soundscape that makes you feel like you're privy to some of the flyest contemporary Hip Hop / Rap being made. The album's title hangs heavy in the air, prompting introspection as it intersects with the content. Interwoven clips of Meta World Peace add another layer of intrigue, his words briefly touching on various topics, creating the illusion that donSMITH and Leeky Bandz are in direct conversation with him - this metaphorical connection adds depth and complexity. Throughout, a delicate balance of energies reigns. Gratitude and bravado dance, generosity and boundaries coexist. donSMITH and Leeky Bandz' distinct vocal textures and deliveries complement each other, each adding their unique perspective to the album's overarching themes, even when their stories differ. No More Free Game is more than a collection of tracks; it's an allegorical journey, a sonic exploration of identity, growth, and intricacies of navigating the world. An album that rewards repeated listens, unveiling new layers of meaning with each spin. City/State: Harlem, NY Released: March 10th, 2023 See Also: In Loving Memory by donSMITH (2022,) The Album Of JOB (Deluxe) by Leeky Bandz + LET ME SPEAK by Leeky Bandz Keys Open Doors Keaze x World Be Free There's something special about Keaze and World Be Free's collaboration, Keys Open Doors. It's an album that lingers, drawing you back even months after your first listen. It's a conscious journey, packed with thought-provoking content and beautiful production. The intro itself, "Reintroductions" throws down the gauntlet with a powerful KRS-One clip - reminding us that knowledge comes from lived experience, not just textbooks. It's a call to action for both the artists and listeners, urging us to walk the walk before we talk to the talk. Similar gems are scattered throughout the album. On "Numbers Man," Nipsey Hussle speaks wisdom about investing and building something lasting - echoing the album's message of responsible action over fleeting materialism. Beyond these impactful interludes, Keaze and World Be Free create a rich variety of sounds and themes. Authentic lyrics tackle vital topics like community building, guiding youth, and celebrating the beauty in Blackness. Keys Open Doors resonates on multiple levels - it's a hopeful vision of unlocking possibilities with acknowledgement of the complexities of true freedom. City/State: NY Released: January 5th, 2023 See Also: From Niggas To Gods, Pt. 2 by World Be Free Look Both Ways  Malz Monday Malz Monday's music walks a familiar path - one shadowed by a melancholic haze. Not a crashing darkness rather a gentle mist born from weathered experiences. This introspective energy infuses, Look Both Ways, where Malz masterfully paints the universal struggles of the human condition. Beneath the surface of this pensive soundscape, flickers of light emerge. His lyrics visit valleys of hardship, ultimately reaching plateaus of peace and acceptance. Additionally, released January '23, the album resonated with the mood of the winter season. Look Both Ways meets listeners in the midst of reflection, amidst memories, anxieties, and desires for change. The music embraces this solemn atmosphere, while the lyrics offer solace and strength, finding the lessons and gratitude simultaneously. Look Both Ways serves as a poignant message; a call to awareness, a reminder to navigate life's challenges with caution and purpose - ultimately - to keep moving forward and embrace whatever lies ahead and beyond. City/State: Ossining, NY Released: February 20th, 2023 See Also: Where There's Smoke by Malz Monday GENERATIONAL CURSE ICECOLDBISHOP ICECOLDBISHOP's debut album, GENERATIONAL CURSE, doesn't shy away from the rawness that once defined "gangsta rap." It channels the spirit of those who laid the tracks; unapologetically presenting real-life struggles and contradictions with an aim to spark change or thought. GENERATIONAL CURSE is not a throwback; it's a contemporary evolution that infuses classic West Coast Hip Hop / Rap with ICECOLDBISHOP's own creative fire. The album pulsates with the energy of Los Angeles, both it's beauty and harsh realities. The soundscapes, lyrics, and vernacular all pay homage to the legends who came before, yet reshaped with a modern edge. Each track evokes questions and stirs emotions. Who else crafts music with such raw texture and potent velocity? GENERATIONAL CURSE is a statement, a challenge, and an example of the enduring power of West Coast Hip Hop / Rap. City/State: South Central L.A., CA Released: March 24th, 2023 City Blues Lil Iceberg City Blues grabs attention instantly with it's vibrant artwork. The colored pencil and marker scene of bustling New Orleans - two-stories, balconies, palms against the sky, gators and diamonds - is a stunning prelude to the music within... although, the true marvel of City Blues lies in Lil Iceberg's unmistakable artistic identity. His influences, namely No Limit Records, Hot Boys and New Orleans bounce, are evident but not simply mimicked. Lil Iceberg channels their energy and spirit, crafting a sound distinctly his own. He's not just influenced; he's a descendant, carrying their legacy forward with a present-day twist. The infectious beats urge you to move and get lost in the moment. And while not everyone enjoys some of the realities in raps, Lil Iceberg delivers his stories and reality in ways that are almost impossible to resist. The production plays a key role, driving the energy even higher. City Blues is a captivating journey with an infectious soundscape, distinct voice and clear connection to his musical heritage make Lil Iceberg an artist to keep your eyes - and ears - on. City/State: New Orleans, LA Released: March 24th, 2023 ROADMAN Sincere Hunte “I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.” - Kahlil Gibran, The Madman Sincere Hunte reads / recites at the end of “ROCHAMBEAU” It’s an interesting album that caught my attention because there are so many aspects of it that were like charting uncharted waters. It was illuminating in the sense that it goes from an underground/punk feel that meets Hip Hop in the South to moments of dance like, “CARRIED AWAY (4U).” It works well for Sincere Hunte because the various fusion of sounds absolves any soundscape expectations. Even with, “DJ GIRL” it starts off sounding like a song that is almost a modern Beach Boys track with a feature from $avy. There’s a lot sonically to keep the listener entertained and wanting to know more about the artistry and the mind that created this body of work. FULL REVIEW City/State: NC / TN Released: February 17th, 2023 The Son's Shine Silky Southern Caught my attention initially off the album art; a young, brace-faced, 3rd eye beamin’, elated eyes, tendrils of hair falling into face and distorted trees in the background. Embodiment of a Sun ray, a son from the Sun + this is how he shines. The Son’s Shine, a somewhat alteration of Black Boy Joy. Part of the brigade of Southern acts that are highlighting / paying homage to traditional Hip Hop with sometimes an acquired evolution of seasoning. Playful delivery and production that often still align with a traditional Hip Hop influence. Feels like a sunny spring day. Pollen, bird, worms, mosquitos, humidity, tall trees. Down to Earth, vulnerable and real while still fun. It’s a good balance of content, sounds ‘n flows. Could’ve been created in some dark moments — there are places within The Son’s Shine that feel more like manifestations in order to motivate oneself to continue on their path. At the heart of it, The Son's Shine is a celebration of life that also acknowledges life's complexities. City/State: GA Released: January 9th, 2023 See Also: Strange Places by Wulf Morpheus, JOINTS by MARCO PLUS x The Smokers Club, Mr. Smo by SMO 2nd Kings Hxndrx We been blessed another day so what you conquerin’ ? / I’m out here rockin’ that’s for real, so what you rockin’ with / I’m really stylin’ in the field / Out here movin’ spiritual and confident - I wrote this for the conquerin” 2nd Kings serves as a reminder of the expression of one’s Soul and Spiritual nature that represents light and can still grab Hip Hop / Rap by the reigns. Every word is a nutrient and every song is nourishment. There’s not any bragging or making the listener feel as though they’re less than because they don’t quite have the same life, amenities and resources as the artist they’re listening to. This is for the people, the spiritually minded and guided or those who seek to be in alignment with those frequencies and vulnerabilities. FULL REVIEW City/State: New Orleans, LA Released: March 2nd, 2023 See Also: An Appointed Time by Hxndrx I Hope This Finds You Well Ferris Blusa This album found me in a time where a good group of underground and independent Hip Hop just wasn't hittin' for me like I wanted it to. Everyone was talkin' about similar things, supposedly living similar lives, having the same artwork and very similar production/soundscape. I Hope This Finds You Well, shines bright, proving that exceptional Hip Hop thrives in the South. Gone are the tired stereotypes; this album delivers raw talent and lyrical artistry without subscribing to the typical tropes of modern rap. While grounded in his New Orleans roots, I Hope This Finds You Well transcends regional boundaries. The album's strength lies is Blusa' artistry; his deliberate pace, thoughtful bar setup, and disregard for fleeting trends paint a picture of a confident artist in his own lane. Each track feels intentional, avoiding overhyped aesthetics and lyrical cliches. Raw emotion, clever wordplay and genuine storytelling are sure to resonate with those who find value in those aspects of Hip Hop / Rap. City/State: New Orleans, LA Released: March 24th, 2023 See Also: Forever Is Not For Everybody by Ferris Blusa ADDITIONAL RECS I Wish You Well by WayneFowler DOGZTON TO HOOTYORK by BoriRock Church Ain’t Safe by Shootergang Kony Flowers Before The Grave by Huey Briss x Walt Mansa Bride of Bucky by D’Barbie x E MOZZY FEAR by Swooty Mac Last Night in Houston by Wes Denzel Moonrock & Mimosas by Goldie Rebel Pain In Full by Gaine$ DIMENSIONS N DEMOS by Ron Obasi GONE 4 THE WINTER by DXPE Madden by Dan Nicholson Experienced by Regular Repty Born in it (Really) by Chippass FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT EP by Mackbo Dead Poets by Eto x Futurewave F.I.R.E. by Starz Coleman x godBLESSbeatz Tag Team Championships by Ryan Milla Family Business by Organized Krime MEDIA by LOKIHASDIED 21 Gun Salute by Lil 2 Dow In The Meantime by Will Hill WHO I AM by Wu Me Against Them by Young Drummer Boy As It Is In Heaven by FUNERAL Ant Bell x DeevoDaGenius Thug Child by Young Jr Back on Dexter: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape by Kash Doll x DJ Drama Mourning Due by Nappy Nina LET’S DO A DRILL 2 by Asian Doll DIY by Bocha x Corey G The Price Jus Went Up by 2 Eleven FOD Presents J Money: Baby Money by J Money Even God Has A Sense Of Humor by Maxo Flygirl Era by Kemarilyn Chanel DNT TALE by DNTWATCHTV Abolished Uncertainties by Jae Skeese Ways of Knowing by Navy Blue x Budgie FREE FOOD PROGRAM by AJ McQueen Evolution Of Existence: Love & Power by Brandon Isaac Bear Vs Pitbulls by Starz Coleman FOR ACCESS TO ALL RELEASES FROM QUARTER 1 - 2023 email: crownthement@gmail.com WORDS CURATION 'N DESIGN BY JAMEKA S/O ALL THE ARTISTS WHO MADE THE LIST, DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST, ETC, THANK YOU FOR BEING COURAGEIOUS WITH YOUR HE(ART.)

PHOTOS BY ABRANISAACC There's a war going on outside, no man is safe from. You can run but you can't hide forever. In these streets that we done took. - Prodigy, Survival Of The Fittest Over the past several years, underground hip-hop's cultural stage has been hijacked by a new brand of emcees and producers reminiscent of the sounds of Mobb Deep's mid to late nineties run. Concentrated within up-state New York, in large part thanks to Buffalo's Griselda roster, this new rap renaissance has not only transformed the underground scene but has made a significant dent in the mainstream hip-hop circuits as well. Of the many hundreds of emcees who have stepped inside this stylistic endeavour, I argue that Griselda-affiliate Elcamino is not only the purest manifestation of the renaissance in question but is arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time. 'Me and my brother man? We like that street shit. We come from that Mobb Deep shit.' - King Ralph [brother of Elcamino.] Word choice is perhaps the most undervalued asset to a rapper’s arsenal. Unlike speed, charisma, subject matter, rhyme scheme, or flow, all of which introduce themselves as visible and tangible components - capable of measuring a rapper's skillset, word choice is often a less flashy - often invisible power that an emcee can draw from. Prodigy and Havoc, the duo that comprised Mobb Deep, are certainly not known for their technical prowess, their speed in delivery, or even subject matter that spoke to contemporary issues of the day. Despite this, emcees like Prodigy are still labelled as some of the greatest rappers of all time, and to those whom the emcee resonated with most, Prodigy is often considered the perfect rapper. I think many people who consider themselves fans of Mobb Deep, would be hard pressed to codify what exactly made them great. My argument is word choice. Word choice is not synonymous with a large vocabulary. Quite the opposite. Sometimes less is more. Furthermore, the ability to be direct and communicate meaning with one swipe, is often more appreciated than communication which requires work deciphering the text on behalf of the audience. Great screenwriters are often very good at this skill. Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi who wrote Goodfellas together, had the ability to paint a vivid and believable picture of New York City crime life with simple, yet punching word choice. When a gangster spoke, the words that came out of their mouth, despite how menacing they may be on paper, were delivered as a veiled threat. The audience understood that the reality was far grimmer and bleaker than what the screen had told them. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times the following after seeing Goodfellas for the first time: 'The screenplay by Pileggi and Scorsese distills those memories into a fiction that sometimes plays like a documentary, that contains so much information and feeling about the Mafia that finally it creates the same claustrophobic feeling Hill's wife talks about: The feeling that the mob world is the real world.' This is the power of word choice. It's the power of good writing. Not in flashy writing, but in powerful writing. When Mobb Deep released The Infamous in 1995 on Loud Records, the feeling was the same. You believed their existence. The apocalyptic landscape that the two emcees painted for Queensbridge New York, felt like a movie. There was a war going on outside, and you were knee deep in the trenches for 66 minutes. When Prodigy spits 'you can put your whole army, against my team and... I guarantee you it will be your very last time breathing.' You not only believe him, but part of you understands that the severity of his message is veiled by a particular humility that comes from respect and confidence. Elcamino is cut from this same cloth. Though he has shown he is capable of flaunting more technically savvy ideas, the emcee has willingly sacrificed these elements to deliver on word choice, potency and above all, mood. As when word choice is at its best, mood becomes the by-product. On the song, "Camino Season," the emcee describes expanding his turf by claiming nonchalantly, "I kidnapped your earth." On the song "Field Trips," he raps "these ni**as brought a knife to a gun fight." A simple reflection on a common refrain that tells you all you need to know about the circumstance being detailed. These hard and poetic descriptions are common-place among Camino's writing. The words he uses matter. His word choice is where he excels, much like Mobb Deep before him. Labeled as some 'laid back, don't fuck with me rap,' by Dead End Hip-Hop's Kinge, Camino carries forward the styles of Mobb Deep to tell an ever-so-slightly different story. Unlike Prodigy and Havoc who told the story of Queensbridge crime life, Camino speaks on Buffalo's crime life to much the same effect. However, although stylistic similarities exist, the differences are important. From an outsider, Buffalo feels less apocalyptic and more desolate. Empty, broken promises, far removed, yet still experiencing the same struggles that New York City in the 1990s felt. In an interview with Toronto's Daniel Son, he recollected experiencing up-state New York in the 2010s, and how it resembled the stories he had heard of New York City in the 1990s. 'When you go do shows up there? It's a whole different type of new energy. When you go to those shows you're gonna see more guns than you ever seen in your life. I guarantee it. Just inside the little club or the little bar that you're in. Shit is grimy out there. Shit is not lovely out there. When I hear OGs talk about the stories from the 90s and how the shows were in the 90s? How it was grimy? Early 2000s? And how shit got soft? And now shit is getting back to that grimy shit. When I go to Buffalo, when I go to Rochester, I come back and tell these stories; like 'Yo, this guy was holding me down in the bathroom. I thought he was going to rob me. Next thing I know he's a big fan but he got those big fucking guns sticking out. Shit is real out there. That's the real proving grounds.' Street rap in Buffalo is therefore capable of tapping into the same mood, the same energy, and the same power that 90s New York street rap had. And although the city communicates these experiences through a number of different (and well-varied) perspectives, Elcamino, with his commitment and focus, is perhaps the closest hip-hop has gotten to Mobb Deep's iconic and signature aesthetic. Although the Mobb Deep comparisons are truthfully appropriate, it's unfair to Camino to solely rely on these comparisons when attempting to communicate his greatness. What Camino has done, is far more unique than other adopters of the style have managed to pull off. Unlike Mobb Deep, Camino has the ability to harmonize his mean-mugged thuggish persona seamlessly into songs and deliver a more soulful interpretation of street life than Mobb Deep was ever able to do. His ability to sing, and sing well, is an underappreciated element of the rapper's toolkit, but has largely made Camino into what he is today. Some of Camino's best work, songs like "Goon Ballad," "James Brown" and "Soul Brother" come to mind as particular exercises in this craft - that stand out as some of my favourites among his catalog. Most of the time, however, Camino blends his verses with these more melodic and harmonized hooks within one song. A track like "Hustle Like Me" produced by 38 Spesh, is an exemplary track; lasting just two minutes and twenty-seven seconds, where Camino ties the knot on his verse by singing lines like: I break it down fast and I'm back on the ave. You ain't fucking with me ni**a. You got a little trap but it don't get no cash. I'm always out first and I take it in last. You don't hustle like me ni**a.' I never go back, so I keep me a bag. Cause I ain't ever have all the shit that I have. You ain't struggle like me ni**a.' There was a certain feeling the listener got when they heard Nate Dogg harmonize and sing lines that felt like they had no business coming out of a soul singers’ mouth. Unlike singers before him, Nate Dogg would sing with the vocabulary of a gangster rapper and make the sentences sound even harder than they could have in verse. Camino, in many ways, is an extension of this same train of thought. Yet instead of occupying the persona of a west-coast, low-riding, gang banger, Camino authentically portrays that of an east coast street hustler - who has seen the glory, as well as the destruction that the lifestyle causes and is here to report back on his life's findings. The mix between the Prodigy-esque rap verses, and the east coast thuggish Nate Dogg-like hooks, makes Camino one of the most interesting and promising rappers to date. The last aspect to appreciate, is something that the new renaissance movement has capitalized on increasingly well. Unlike rappers of the past, who would drop an album once every year, maybe once every two years, today's modern underground rapper seemingly lives in the studio. Elcamino, since 2017, has dropped over twenty projects to his name. This does not include previous work with his group "Local Residents" or solo work put out under the name "Meechy Elcamino" before his style was truly defined. These twenty-plus projects are near perfect. Camino's production choices are absolutely stellar, with full albums produced from greats such as 38 Spesh, Camoflauge Monk, DJ Shay, Bozack Morris, TrickyTrippz, Oh Jay and more. Due to his ability to sing and craft fitting hooks, his feature discography is also outstanding, often contributing hooks to hip-hop giants such as Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Grafh, Flee Lord, 38 Spesh, and plenty others. Camino not only stands amongst the best in terms of style and musical excellence, but his production choice, his consistency, and the sheer magnitude of his catalog must be recognized and appreciated. Unlike Mobb Deep who performed at their peak for three full albums in the 1990s, Camino has delivered that quality for over twenty projects; all of which have been released on vinyl, and have been given the proper album treatment. These are not throwaways, and these are not loosies left to be forgotten. Although Elcamino has released projects under a myriad of labels in the past, including Air Vinyl, GoodFelons, Duape!, Tuff Kong Records, GGBR, Griselda and De Rap Winkel, the emcee is continuing to elevate his status in the game. In August of 2022, Elcamino was handed his chains from Benny the Butcher on stage as he was inducted into Benny's Black Soprano Family. Although he has held close ties and affiliation with Griselda in the past, and his debut Elcamino 1 was released on Griselda Records, this will be the first time that Camino finds himself at home in a group / roster like setting. The upcoming Black Soprano Family album, Long Live DJ Shay will feature verses from Camino throughout and is expected to be released September 9 of 2022. Don't let Camino fool you. He's one of the smartest people - young people - I know. He knows how to play the drums. He can sing. Like he can SING! He could be an R&B singer. He's just talented. Do not sleep on Elcamino. He's going to be a star. A huge star. That's my ni**a. - Lucky Seven [Drumwork] In light of the new project from Black Soprano Family, and as a companion to this piece, I have included below a curated selection of songs from Elcamino's discography. Although his library is vast and well worth a full deep dive, this will hopefully prove to be a catching gateway into the emcee's music. CREDITS Photos by abranisaacc https://www.instagram.com/abranisaacc/ Prodigy. "Survival of the Fittest." Off of Mobb Deep's The Infamous. Loud Records. 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIq4UTgqDAc King Ralph. 'The Renaissance Show.' Season 1, Episode 1. Interview by Alex Kuchma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lgOFnNg9Zk& Roger Ebert. Review of Goodfellas. September 2 1990. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goodfellas-1990 Camino has showcased technical ability on several songs. 'Buffalo's Finest' and 'On Fire' are two good examples. Elcamino. "Camino Season." From Sacred Psalms by Elcamino and 38 Spesh. 2020. https://elcaminoairvinyls.bandcamp.com/ Elcamino. "Field Trips." From Stashbox Chronicles by DJ Nugz. 2019. https://djnugz.bandcamp.com/album/stashbox-chronicles Kenneth B Kinge, 'Elcamino & 38 Spesh - Martyr's Prayer' on the Dead End Hip-Hop Podcast Network. Released May 2021. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VjSXOuN5mZJSDfHyKWeaT?si=1bcf2383318948a1 Daniel Son, interview with Alex Kuchma for The Underground Vault. 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkOJ-2bcqc8 Lucky Seven. 'The Renaissance Show: Season 1, Episode 4.' Interview with Alex Kuchma. Released October 16 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ahXM4jGlmw&

Despite his first record on the label being released only last month; Lord Mobb's Starz Coleman has been a consistent figure behind the scenes of the roster over the past couple of years. Directing music videos for G4 Jag, Flee Lord and others, it's unsurprising that this relationship would have eventually incorporated Starz' musical talents as well. With two albums under his belt and a viral music video with the comedic "I Eat Ass", Starz Coleman is ready to blend his ingenuity and stylistic output with that of the Mobb. I first heard Starz Coleman earlier this year with the release of Canadian producer IM'PERETIV's Burial Plots and Pyramid Schemes. Appearing alongside G4 Jag, the emcee held his own among a star-studded cast. With lines like 'I seen the bitch drowning and I ain't even throw a lifeboat.' Starz proved that he was worth your attention with a flow and hard lines reminiscent of a hungry Meyhem Lauren. Fast forward a few months and Flee Lord himself has given him the chains - propelling his label debut For the Views into new heights. With a colourful and eccentric cover art, it's evident that Starz is bringing something new to the table. This is not alike what we've seen from Lord Mobb in the past. Last year, Lord Mobb introduced Jameel Na'im X (JNX) to the roster with the Mephux produced record Viktor. A favourite of the year, this was a clear departure in sound from what Lord Mobb had been known for. The melodic trap elements of JNX clashed with the hard and abrasive elements of the labels attitude and identity. Viktor worked. It was a great record that indicated a directional shift for the label as a whole. A year later, Starz Coleman adds to that directional change, highlighting Lord Mobb's willingness to experiment and push their own borders outside of their comfort zones. While For the Views is not the wildest Starz has appeared, the record showcases his enthusiasm and character on the mic enough to distinguish it from the rosters prior releases. The record immediately raised questions. I became interested in Starz as a personality and was curious how an artist of his stature found himself in the hands of the one of the grimiest labels out. What was Flee's vision for the label? And how did Starz fit into that vision? Furthermore, what was next for Starz Coleman? Would future records expand on the fun and charismatic character that Starz has created for himself? Or would we see the emcee further gravitate towards the dominant sounds of the label? I would like to thank Starz Coleman for taking the time out of his schedule to sit down with me over the phone and discuss these topics. I learned a lot from his story; and if you're interested in Lord Mobb and the artists who make up this new rap renaissance, then I'm certain this interview will be a good addition to your morning reading. Grab a coffee and enjoy the read. What was your introduction to hip-hop culture? Not even necessarily injecting yourself into it in any sort of way, but just from a fan's perspective? What were your earliest memories of the culture? My mother was a jazz singer. She'd keep me in the studios at night. Trying to keep me out of trouble. So, she'd be keeping me in the studios with her. They'd go through a lot of Sugarhill Gang, a lot of hip-hop that she liked. Then of course my Dad, when he was around when I was younger, he would play a lot of his favourite music like Kool Moe Dee and stuff like that. So that's how I got into it basically. My parents were hip-hop heads. Where abouts did you grow up? I was born in Newark. I basically grew up a little bit of everywhere. I was born in Newark, but I was raised in Plainsville, New Jersey. Spent time in Harlem for a few years. Spent time in Charlotte, North Carolina for a few years. So, I've been around a little bit. So, you're in New Jersey as a kid and you're being introduced to hip-hop culture. At what period of time do you start to realize that there is a scene local in Newark, and in New Jersey? Obviously, it's close to New York, and there's that proximity... but New Jersey has had its roots in hip-hop culture. Even on the underground tip you had cats like The Outsidaz in the 90s, you had Shawn Lov, of course people like Chino XL who ended up moving to the west coast. But you had this local scene that was brewing out there. At what point do you begin to realize that there's a scene locally that you could participate in? Umm, never. Because the way an artist thinks of New Jersey is that we're always going to get pushed to the side. Even Redman, the people who we looked up too, it's 2022 now, we really haven't had too many Jersey rappers in the game since the early 90s. So, we kind of looked at it like New York will always overshadow us. We're going to have to fight by doing everything. Everyone who came out of New Jersey did a little bit more than music. Some might have did comedy such as Redman. Some might have did movies such as Queen Latifah. We try to be a little more than rap. Because we know we have to keep our hands in all of the pots in order to get in the door. Someway, somehow. As a creative, do you think that influenced the decisions you made, early on in your career? Maybe not focusing on rap so primarily, maybe focusing on other avenues? Or do you find yourself just wanting to rap. Of course. I've always been a class clown. I've always did the thug shit as well. I just always wanted to have fun in life. As I grew up I kind of just seen that there was a pattern of always tough rappers. Always everyone wanting to be gangster. I always looked at it and said 'Maybe if I try to be your Redmans and stuff like that, maybe that's how they got the How High movies and things of this nature. So, I always looked at it like that. Do a little more and see what happens. At least from my perception of you, from the music. You feel like a larger-than-life character. You feel energetic. You feel fun. There's a sort of looseness that comes with how you deliver lines. Maybe you don't take yourself as seriously. Of course, some of the singles like 'I Eat Ass', there's that comedy factor. Now this album doesn't necessarily have that straight up comedic relief, but there's still that tone to how you deliver yourself - it feels as though you are THAT presence, and it feels authentic. Yeah. I mean, the intro and the outro has some comedy. And the 'I Eat Ass' thing was something that was based upon true life. I don't like to lie in my music. I ate a girl’s ass one time and I was expecting her to say 'wow, that was amazing.' But instead she said 'I ain't never had anyone eat my ass for that long.' I said 'You know what? I'm going to make a song about this so you don't try to put me out there.' Know what I mean? If I make a song about how I eat ass, now everyone know I eat ass. You can't embarrass me. That's why I did that. That was for all the girls who try to embarrass me. You can't do that now because now the world knows! You feel me? [Laughs]. So, at what point do you start taking music more seriously? So, you're a fan. You're growing up in and around different neighbourhoods. New Jersey primarily. You're a fan of the music. At what point do you start saying 'Hey, this is something I actually want to do. This is something I want to take seriously.' Maybe you can start using some of the recording studios that your mom is frequenting? At what point do you take that leap? Well, my mother back in the 90s she sung at The Apollo. I was so scared for her. She got on stage - cause The Apollo was rough back in the days. You got booed, Sandman would come out and drag you off stage. I just didn't want that to happen to her. She ended up singing very well, gave me goosebumps and the whole crowd gave her a standing ovation. Right then and there I said 'the way there screaming for my mom? I want that for me.' I had to be maybe five? Maybe six years old? Feeling like that? There really screaming for my mom... that amazed me. I said, 'I want that to be me one day.' So as early as five, you had this dream. At what point do you start materializing that dream? Because I heard of you in 2022. You're thirty some years old. You've been around for a long time. This moment is from the 90s - this is 20-25 years ago that we're speaking of. I know your Spotify discography goes back a little bit longer, but still only in the last couple of years. At what point do you start materializing that goal - that dream for yourself? Do you see yourself freestyling at lunchroom tables and shit as a kid? Or is this still something recent and new? Nah that's exactly how it started. Ended up just battling kids at school. Ended up being the top guy that everybody wanted to beat. Beat everybody. Then it moved on to just battle rap basically. Then I went on to 106 & Park. I ended up winning there. Not all of the weeks, but I won like two weeks. And just winning the audition gave me confidence through the years. The streets got to me for a little while. That's why I wasn't taking it serious as the streets was heavily indoctrinated. After that, I just put the streets down and said, 'let me try this rap thing.' And it just started working. But then rap kind of slowed up a little bit, I said 'man I don't want to go back to getting a job. Let me see if I can get nice with videography.' And then that just opened up more doors for me, and that's where we're at now. So, you've been around for a while. And you've obviously been a fan of hip-hop culture for a while and you would have therefore seen the different eras take fold and the rise and declines of certain movements within this hip-hop thing. And I would say 2015, maybe 2016, maybe even 2017, you really begin to see the start of what we're in now. You can call it The Renaissance, or what have you. Just this new movement of underground rap that is seeming to carry a lot more weight. I was covering hip-hop as a journalist in 2011, 2012, 2013 and we seen the early beginnings of it then, but I don't think we really understood people like Roc Marciano, or Planet Asia, we didn't quite understand the weight that they would have in the hip-hop scene. We understood they were making really good music, and we understood that they were authentic and that they were credible within hip-hop culture. But I personally didn't expect there to be this new wave of your Griselda’s, your Lord Mobbs, your Da Cloth's, your 38 Spesh and Trust Gang's... I didn't expect that movement to really end up picking up. To me, it seems like a breathe of fresh air. It seems like something really unique and cool that's going on in the underground hip-hop scene right now that's beginning to enter into kind of mainstream conversations that didn't happen with your Jedi Mind Tricks and Army of the Pharoahs, and Vinnie Paz and all that kind of shit. You just didn't find those conversations taking place. You find yourself now hopping into hip-hop culture in a more dominant way within this new wave, this new movement. I wanted to ask you; how have you seen that evolution of this scene that you now find yourself in? And when did you start to become aware that there was something brewing? Well, to go back to the timeline - I pretty much started taking myself seriously in 2009. We came out with mixtapes and everything like that. I always wanted to keep that 90s sound because of your Planet Asia's and stuff like that but it was sad to see a lot of the south stuff make up north rappers rhyme southern and get on southern beats. It was sad to see that. I just wanted to keep it authentic. As I kept digging for that kind of stuff, then I came upon your Griseldas, your Roc Marcianos, your different people and I said 'oh there's other people doing that.' Cause no one predicted Griselda to actually blow. It was just a great situation to know that there are other rappers who rap the way you do and think the way you think. So, I say the same timeline that you're saying. 2013-2014. I think John Forte had come home. I'm not sure if you remember that artist but a couple of people had came home from jail and started back up again. It's like it formed a world all in itself. Once Eminem stamped it? It just took a world on its own. So about probably 2013-2014 that's when I seen it, and was like 'Oh, hopefully this can grow even larger.' and it did. I see that with other artists as well. Like Grafh for example, or Ransom... These are artists that come from a different era and they had their respect within that different era but they never fully felt like they belonged. And it feels like this new scene has allowed them room to be themselves and be appreciated for being themselves in a way that they just never got to fully materialize before. Do you feel like that's the case for yourself with this new scene and a home like Lord Mobb for instance? Oh, for sure. All of us. I mean, I’m not as known as a Ransom, but we all had the same thinking. At the time we were all listening to your Fabulous's and everything, and then that world shifted. The South took over. So, everybody was put in a fritz. Some people tried to follow along, other people failed. So yeah. We are all on the same timeline. Everybody. And now that it's back and it's prominent again thanks to the Griselda movement, and Eminem stamping it - because that really was important for the political side of it - it's back. I'm not sure if it's here to stay, I hope it is, but we are damn sure going to keep working to keep it strong. Let's talk about Lord Mobb specifically. How do you get connected to Flee Lord and the rest of the family over there at Lord Mobb, and how do you negotiate those ideas to be a part of that crew? So how I look at it - back in 2015, one of my best friends got locked up. He's in the feds now. Free my boy Larry. He got locked up and I really needed to find other ways to get money. I've done a lot of things with a lot of celebrities. I got songs with Sheek Louch, Beanie Sigel, linked up with a lot of celebrities through my travels and I just felt so embarrassed to go get a job again. So, I grabbed up a camera, started shooting my own videos, shot locals, and as I got nicer at the locals - my boy Bad Lungz did a song with G4. G4 took a liking to me. Shout out to my brother G4 Jag who took a liking to me. I started shooting G4 Jag's videos. Got nice at that. Flee started seeing, like 'who do your videos G4?' 'Oh, a guy Starz from New Jersey.' Started doing Flee Lord's videos... Then Flee Lord found out I actually do music, and it was on from there. What was that first video that you ended up doing for Flee Lord? I think it might have been one for him and Roc Marciano. That might have been the first one. Then the second one was for the Delgado album which was "Breeze in the Porsche." So, I think that was my first video I shot for him. I could be wrong. I don't remember the timeline but it was either "Breeze in the Porsche," or the other one. What was your first impression when meeting Flee Lord? My impression - just from being a fan of his music - is this guy is truly one of the heavyweights in the scene. Like not only is the music... the music speaks for itself, it's powerful, it's music that almost demands attention from the listener - but the cultural credibility, the cultural clout that he's been able to gain within hip-hop spheres is so well recognized. What he's been able to do with Lord Mobb feels powerful. It feels like there's something truly special here that we're going to be able to look back and recognize him as one of the greats. What was your first impression meeting Flee Lord? Did you get that impression from him? I don't look at Flee Lord as everyone else. How I met Flee Lord was just by being a great person. A great friend. A person with a great heart. A great father. A great family man. Just a great person all around. I mean, I was a fan of Flee before I met him. Of course, I knew his music before and actually, I knew a lot of his songs by heart. But when I finally met him and I seen how normal he was? Like me but shit... in some places actually a better man than me. So, when I realized that, it took that away and just kind of said 'Yo, this is a great dude over here.' Actually, I want a lot of people to know that. I don't know how people look at Flee Lord, but that's how I look at him. Just a great person. A great heart. Loyal! Even if it kills him, he's still going to be loyal to you. Just a great dude. We're friends-friends. Brothers-brothers. We say, 'I love you,' 'I love you' back. All that. We talk about how the kids doing, all that types of stuff. I don't look at it like that, I look at him just as a great person. If music stopped today - if Lord Mobb were to just cease today, that'd still be my brother. I'd still come visit him. G4 as well. Those two people are just great people. Well said. When it comes to Lord Mobb, I feel as though there have been a sonic aesthetic from the brand. And they really haven't deviated much away from that. If you look at someone like G4 Jag, or Flee Lord, or others that belong to that roster - there's a cohesion to the sound. That hardcore, eerie... maybe a little less eerie than people like Da Cloth do, but yeah. That hard - spooky - almost Griselda - but it has its own little flair to it. And they've kind of carved out that pocket of the underground sphere. I really enjoy it, I really fuck with it. But what I've seen recently with not only your signing, but also JNX (Jameel Na'im), you guys operate a little bit outside of that bubble. I think JNX maybe even a bit more so than you. He's kind of on that trappy wave a little bit, but he bounces back and forth. Does both ideas very very well. A big fan of the records that he's been able to put out. And listening to this new record from yourself - and especially when listening to some of the earlier cuts and singles - it certainly feels like 1) there's a little bit of a bounce, almost like your Redman type persona that almost bleeds through, and you bounce back and forth between different styles. You have those sombre moments off of the record like Figure 8, but then you have cuts like the one with Flee Lord which is super hard and aggressive song. And even on those, you have the rapid flows, you bounce back and forth between different styles on the mic - it sounds natural, it fits, but it certainly seems like Lord Mobb is going into a slightly different direction, or at the very least becoming more comfortable with experimentation. Did you feel that your style was going to fit in with Lord Mobb's roster? Or did you already get the agenda that 'we're going to try to expand this label a bit, we're going to try to play with different sounds.' Because at this point, JNX is already in Lord Mobb, and I’m not sure how familiar you were with his music, but that is a little bit of a different stylistic approach to what they were doing. Did you feel like you as an addition was going to fit in? Or did you feel like you were going to be an outside cast to put into this click? Yeah, that's off the rip. And JNX, that's my guy. I was a fan of JNX before I met him. I knew a lot of his stuff from 2019 and 2018. A big fan of JNX. Yeah, I already knew that. They knew that too. When you have an artist coming out with songs like "I Eat Ass," you already know what direction this guy's going into. It's not your norm. It's not something that's serious, gangster, shoot em up... So yeah, they knew that off the rip. And I knew that. Like, 'listen, I'm trying to push this label, and this culture forward. In a whole new way, that ain't been seen in a while.' And they were with it. So, we've discussed Flee and JNX, but what is your relationship with the rest of the cats out of Lord Mobb? Aye man, those are the brothers. My man G4 Jag, he's the one who brought me into the whole situation. I was shooting videos with him at first. And then Flee took a liking to me. Mephux took a liking to me. And it was pretty much a wrap from there. Everyone from Tianna, to T.F., to Mummz, to Young Act, to Flee Lord, to Mephux, to G4 Jag, those are all my brothers man. I love them dearly, and we're riding to the wheels fall off man. I want to talk about the new record. Do a little bit of a deep dive on some of the ideas and decisions you made when making this thing. When I listen to this thing, it feels as though there's choices that are being made in terms of cohesion, stylistic endeavours you want to partake in. There's certainly diversity when looking at cuts like "Figure 8" to the Flee track "For the Views." These are very drastic choices but there is a sort of cohesion. What I don't see you including is a cut like 'I Eat Ass' on there. Can you explain to me your thought process in terms of cohesion when approaching an album? Cause there are different ways you could have done this. You could do it the way you did. Or you could have had a bunch of cuts like "Figure 8." Or a bunch of cuts like "For the Views." And let's be honest, Lord Mobb's roster is full of artists who make albums filled with cuts aesthetically similar to 'For the Views.' And they work. They sell out vinyl, and the artists do it very well. You have purposely went into an album and made something that has a little bit more diversity, but not to the extremes of what you're capable of. Can you talk about that decision that you made. Yeah. Well, little do people know, For The Views is actually an experimental album. I just wanted to see how to move for my next album. How I approach each album is every album has to have a concept. I've never wanted to be an artist who just rapped. If you notice on certain points on this album, I'm actually saying things that are revolutionary and maybe even controversial. I'm doing that to mix it up. Not everybody listens to the teacher. But if the teacher has a gold chain on and Gucci than they might listen. So that's how I'm approaching this. I'm actually trying to be a bit more of a political rapper. But I also want to be more entertaining. Each album that's pretty much what it's going to be. So, each album is just approaching it with a nice concept, to make people think, use their brain. Each video has secret messages, and secret things that you can interpret on your own and then realize that it's way deeper than what you think you see. So, look again. I just want to play with people’s brains. I love Kendrick Lamar. People like that inspire me to just be little bit different and put some messages into your music so that the music can live on longer than the microwave music. I'm glad you touched on the idea of adding substance to the content of the record. I picked up on a lot of individual lines. Not so much full conceptual concepts for songs. Maybe something like "El Jefe" is a little bit more in that direction, but there's lots of individual lines that are sprinkled throughout this that are really thought provoking. One of the lines that stood out to me was near the end of the record where you say something to the effect of 'Penny for your thoughts? I made a million off of paragraphs.' That line required some meditation for me. You mentioned Kendrick Lamar, and there's a Kendrick line from the 2015 cut 'For Free' where he says 'Ou America, you bad bitch. I picked the cotton that made you rich. And now my dick ain't free.' This idea that Black America had to fight to be valued but now we see Black men and women in the country demand value from the most inconsequential aspects of themselves. That idea is powerful. In your lyric, I think it touches on the same idea. Here's a man, you, who has spent time in prison. Lost chapters of his life to bullshit. Who has been put in an environment where you have to battle to be heard, to have their voice valued. And when we do proclaim value to a voice, we will say 'penny for your thoughts,' but here you are, that same person, who is now able to make a million off of those same thoughts. Those same thoughts are now in demand. Transitioning from those realities ought to be powerful. And reflection on that change - I can't even imagine what that does for someone. I'm not even sure my question here, but this album was filled with those lines that hit - and provoked real internalized dialogue. Yeah, it's surreal. It just shows you the power of words. That's why every rapper wants to be a rapper. When they see that their words can actually change people’s lives. You see people passing out at a Michael Jackson concert - that has to make you say 'mann, I want to be like Michael Jackson.' Because of the power of words. Or you might wake up in a bad mood and I might throw some Anita Baker on and feel totally different. Music is almost like a drug in a sense. Yeah, just to go off of what you're saying, it's just crazy, just surreal. I wanted to ask about the feature line-up on the new record. For The Views has three guest spots from Flee Lord, T.F. and Lenox Hughes. So, you've kept the guest list small, and there's many past collaborators missing from the tracklist. Can you talk about how you went about picking the guests for this album? That was actually easy. I wanted to showcase my talent for this one. I didn't want this album to be a banger because I had Roc Marciano on it - who's my man. I didn't want it to be a banger because it had all these features on it. I didn't want my first album to the public to be like 'Ahh, it's only good because of these people.' I wanted to shine on it for me first. Which means I can always take that with me. Like 'You know, my first album had no features on it.' Even if it don't get the greatest streams. But that's just how I wanted to do it. The next album is going to be full of features, right? We're going to have some big features on the next one. But just this one I wanted to showcase me, and a few other of my guys that I really adhere closely. So, that was the science on that. You said something interesting there. You referred this this as your 'first album to the public.' Now you have other releases under your belt - that are available on Spotify, streaming, etc. Now those weren't released on Lord Mobb, but nevertheless they exist. Do you actually consider this your first album to the public? Oh for sure, I mean, the difference between being a local rapper and a national rapper is the fact that when you keep coming out with these records before you get on any platform, because we already know, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know, so when you come out with records and you just have your local fans liking it and maybe a few of their friends liking it, you're always going to be stuck in a box. So, Lord Mobb provided me somewhere where Alex, you, can hear my records. Or somebody in Canada or somebody in California... So, this is just bringing me out to a bigger market where I can get more ears. So yes. To me, this is my first official album that hits the record books basically. Because I did everything else that never hit anybody's radar. So, this is the first album that I consider hit the record books and being tallied down as being an actual album that he presented to the earth that was pretty dope! And people are praising me for it, so... One of the aspects that's often overlooked on a record is the cover art. But this cover really stood out. It's bright, it's colourful. A lot of personality. You've pulled the trigger on a gun to your head and out comes all of these social media icons. Who drew this, and how did you come up with the concept for the cover? Well, I just want to tell you man... LSD is a hell of a drug! It's a wonder drug. Just smoking, thinkin'. I've always been a conceptual guy. I always wanted to be thought provoking and make people think. And the world we live in now adays, you know, you put a collection together of what we've been doing as humans throughout the years and you put it in front of the faces - and it's like 'Oh wow, you bring reality.' So, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to bring reality. I wanted to remind people the type of world we're living in right now, where everything is being done for the views. People are going crazy. I mean like literally; people are losing their minds. Some people are depressed. I heard Kevin Gates say that in an interview like 'man, I'm always comparing myself to someone on Instagram, it makes me depressed.' It makes you want to blow your brains out. That's how I came up with the idea for it. Actually, I actually got the artwork done on Fiverr. [Laughs]. I know a good guy on Fiverr who does album covers on the low end. I already had the idea and the cover, it was very easy to execute once I told him the idea. So, it was easy for him, easy for me and we got it done. You say you already had the idea for the cover. When you posed the idea to the Fiverr artist, did you include the request that it be bright and colourful in the way that it is? Because if you look at For the Views, at the very least if you contrast it to the rest of the Lord Mobb catalog, this is a very bright and colourful record in a lot of ways. It's not a pop record by any means, it's still a hardcore boom-bap rap record, but nevertheless, compared to other Lord Mobb releases, it's a lot more bright. Did you have that idea for the album art as well, or is that something that the Fiverr artist ended up incorporating on his own? Yeah, everything you see is pretty much my idea. The Fiverr artist just turned it into a cartoon. I had the cover and everything already. So basically, as I thought of it is - Lord Mobb artists - everything is very dark. The sound is very dark. Mine isn't. There's a few that might be dark, but i'm really trying to be the new Redman, or the new Busta Rhymes of this. I wanna bring a little character, a little comedy to it, keep the hip-hop going by just doing something different. I am the most colourful artist right now when it comes to the comedy. I don't see people incorporating comedy with their music and things of that nature. So, I just wanted to stand out and show everyone, including Lord Mobb that I'm very different from everyone else. And I can prove that through time. The records been out now for a few weeks. And although there's longevity of a record in the long term, in this new climate we find ourselves in, a few weeks is typically enough for the fans to move onto something else. How have you found the reception for this release? A lot goes into making a record, time, thoughts, artistry, business maneuvers, do you feel as though For the Views fulfilled what you wanted for it? Ahh yeah. Like for me, I'm not going to fit into the box of what artists is going through. I would say I'm more of a Kendrick Lamar type thinkin' person where I don't care if everyone else consumes their music fast. If I want to take a year or two to come out with the next album, I will. Because I don't want to provide microwave music. The reception that I've been getting the first week, has been great. The producers, you know, Flee Lord, Mephux, they already said, 'hey man, this might be the album of the year,' but we want the people to say it. But the reception is great. I just don't want to fit into the popcorn music. If I have to take another year to come out with something great, then I will. If that takes three months, six months, whatever, but yeah. What are you working on next? What can we expect from Starz Coleman for the remainder of the year, and if you've already begun planning 2023, maybe you could speak on that as well. Okay, well, what's coming up next? I'm definitely going to be dropping another album. I'll probably be working with Historian and my man Ford again on the next album. The actual next album that's coming out faster than my next album, will be my movie soundtrack. I'm working on a comedy movie called The Elrod. It's like Harold and Kumar, meets Half Baked, meets Friday, meets How High! It's going to be the funniest you ever seen in your life Alex, I promise you. You picked some of my favourites there! Harold and Kumar go to White Castle is a continuous go-too, and I watched the shit out of Half Baked when I lived in BC for a while - we watched that on repeat over and over and over and it was great. Hell yeah! A little bit of Silent Bob and my man Jay. So, it's going to be a mixture of all those movies all mixed together and we're coming out with a dope dope movie soundtrack. Which will basically be my album 2.0 but it will be for a movie soundtrack where I have features from the Mobb, and whatever other features I can get. That will be my next music compilation I put together will be for the movie soundtrack. The movie will probably be coming out the top of 2023, maybe even this winter. We're getting it done as we speak. Monday, I shoot some scenes, we're getting it done. So yeah, that's the next venture. Onto the comedy movie, then onto another album. And just keep pushing out the comedy movies. So, I'm already giving you my te-year plan! Know what I mean! Thanks so much man for taking the time out of your day to speak to me, I appreciate it, and look forward to doing this again. CREDS #1 - https://www.instagram.com/p/CXCgWl4MmtV/ #2 - Starz & G4 Jag by Lex https://www.instagram.com/p/CYF3tKesRfC/ #3 - Lord Mobb by New Vegas Films or Dough Networkz (?) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYA89sjOHd-/ #4 Starz & BadLungz https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbkds5BL99V/

The rap collective plays an important role in the landscape of modern underground hip-hop. With Griselda at the top; families across the nation have spawned to add fuel to the fire that the Buffalo giants ignited. In today's climate, belonging to a well-respected collective, carries weight. The identity adds legitimacy and confidence for the unfamiliar rap head. Much like the best crews in the genre's history; these collectives have sustained quality control. In the past, crews such as DITC or Cella Dwellaz have occupied a space in hip-hop closely tied to the streets. Although acts like Fat Joe or Big L received some mainstream attention at various points in their career, the brand that they stood for remained strictly underground and strictly for the heads. In much the same way, are the stories that follow. This article will highlight the stories of three important collectives in the scene. The Umbrella, Da Cloth and Brown Bag Money. Understanding these stories will provide a foundation for understanding how modern underground hip-hop operates as a whole. Although there are plenty of crews not represented in this piece, the three covered have certainly maintained prime real estate in the weekly release schedule for the past several years. Following each story, is a curated playlist which will serve as an entry point into the artists covered. A special thank you to those who agreed to be interviewed for this piece, including Pro Dillinger, Allah Preme, Substance810, Rigz, M.A.V., as well as both Daniel Son and Asun Eastwood who shared their stories last year during an interview for a separate article. The Umbrella: One of the more unique collectives in the modern era is that of The Umbrella. Appearing in circles as a masterly curated supergroup of buzzing emcees and producers; the crew's ethos and structure is not alike anything else we have in the contemporary rap space. Now consisting of ten emcees, and an onslaught of producers - The Umbrella's origins date back four years ago with online conversations between New York's Pro Dillinger and Snotty Dinero. Pro Dillinger: I didn't really have an idea that the underground was going through a resurgence in a sense. I didn't know. But I knew there was something happening there. So, I kind of just started deep diving. I was getting in - trying to find the producers - following the people that were in the comments that looked like they were doing something - following other rappers and stuff like that. And in doing my research, leading up to my first underground release - I encountered Snotty under a comment. What caught my attention initially was his name. Like 'that's a dope fucking name... like 'snotty.' It made me want to see who the fuck this dude was. Right? So, I checked his profile and saw he's a rapper. I clicked the link on his bio and that was it. I was amazed. He had just came out of jail and he released 'Columbian Snow Talk' and I was really into the project. Frequent conversations between Dillinger and Snotty quickly materialized into something greater than the sum of their parts. Out of an apparent necessity for resources, spawned the idea of a common collective. One that could lower budgets - and surround the two artists with likeminded talent - who could push - inspire - and motivate. Pro Dillinger: [Snotty and I] were going to go at it - try to find our way in the underground, just me and him. But we had no resources. We were both still getting beats from YouTube and shit like that and the few people we did know. Cause Snotty was making his own artwork, I'm buying artwork from people - and we're getting beats from other people we don't even know. One night we were having a conversation. Regular shit. Me and Snotty would call each other every night and just chop it up. Like plan and plot and shit. And one day I said to him 'Wouldn't it be dope if we didn't need to reach out to anyone? If we had all of our shit in house? and he was like 'Yeah.' And I said to him 'Like under the same umbrella.' And he was like 'Yo cuzz, that's it! The Umbrella!' In a conversation with Umbrella member Allah Preme, he noted the origins and claimed that it was the 'Gunbrella' symbol that the crew had adopted that gave The Umbrella an identity within hip-hop conversations. Allah Preme: The Umbrella is founded by Snotty and Pro Dillinger. They had created the Umbrella as a way for us to have resources. So, we would have producers under The Umbrella, graphic artists, other rappers, so that we wouldn't have to reach out for no features for nobody. We just wanted to create a network of resources that everyone could have at their disposal. That's what The Umbrella really was. It wasn't no rap group. It wasn't even a collective yet. It was just a band of dudes who came together and pooled their resources together. As time start going along - we start acquiring new members and the Gunbrella Symbol was made. And this is what changed it. Cause now this was a symbol that everyone could identify. Like 'Oh that's them dudes These guys run together!' And the people kind of made The Umbrella what it is now. We really didn't see it like this in the beginning. The people made it this. Today, The Umbrella goes strong. In 2020, Insomniac Magazine wrote that The Umbrella is the "ultimate collective of MCs, producers, and artists set to dominate the Hip Hop scene." That statement, today, holds true. With emcees Pro Dillinger, Josiah The Gift, Mickey Diamond, Snotty, Substance810, Jay Royale, Allah Preme, Big Trip, John Creasy and Mvck Nyce; the crew has established a discography totaling well over 100 releases. Each gaining traction in the underground hip-hop landscape. In May, the collective reached new heights. Despite geographic separation within their roster; the crew held their first live performance as a single identity at Chelsea Music Hall in New York City. The show, hosted by ID Rich and Shaolin Luciano was an opportunity for artists to collaborate, build rapport, and break bread. Speaking of the event, Umbrella emcee Substance810 claimed: Substance810: The comradery was off the charts. It was dope. Meeting everybody in person. It really felt natural. It's not every time that you meet people that you've never met before and it feels natural and organic from the jump. And it just felt that way from everyone - that is as far as the people I hadn't met prior. It was just a dope ass night. We had only agreed that we were going to do it like a month before the show. We put it all together and it was successful. [...] It was just a fire ass night. I know in my mind it was just the one to kick it off. We have so much more coming it's going to be crazy. Pro Dillinger: We got to meet each other. Live in the flesh. Stay at each others houses, host each other, shit like that. That was - for me - the best part - having the whole Umbrella in my driveway bro. Drinking beers, cracking jokes, smoking weed. It's like when you go to a BBQ or a family reunion and see all your cousins. Like you didn't miss anything - you didn't skip a beat. That's how I felt. It was good to just see all of the guys just kick it. And when we got to the show, it was amazing. There was a moment where I was standing there with my wife and we're just talking, socializing with people, and I look down the block towards the venue and the whole block is filled up with just people. It's just mad people catching a vibe, enjoying the vibe. I was like 'Holy shit, I can't believe we did this.' The event was live, energetic, and triumphant. Despite the show being cut short during Pro Dillinger's final set, he took it to the streets, and rocked for fans outside of the venue for an impromptu performance that Substance recalled as 'legendary'. This was hip-hop in its most raw and primal state, and the fans took notice. Pro Dillinger remembers: Pro Dillinger: I feel like that was - not only an important moment for The Umbrella, that was just an important moment in our space of artistry. I feel like that was something that needed to happen for a number of reasons. I feel like the way it came together - was so last minute - that it's amazing that we were able to produce a product of that quality in that short span of time. There was some hiccups, and there were some things that could have went a little better but at the end of the day - it was a moment. I know it definitely was a good moment for me. As even though my set got cut short, I was able to recover and capture another moment after the show. I really experienced something special with the people who came to support us. It was good for everyone involved. What's next for The Umbrella? With an ever-impressive list of releases out in 2022, the collective has been actively discussing the potential of an Umbrella crew album. Despite no release date in mind, everyone seemingly agrees; it's going to happen. Roadblocks in the way are contained only to the logistics of constructing a project with over a dozen individuals. Allah Preme: When it comes to the Umbrella collective. Me personally, I've put out two compilations; I put out one called 'Govament Cheeze,' and I put out another one called 'Stealth Assassins.' Where I kind of just put out my favourite tracks from everyone and put them on. As far as The Umbrella collective album, yes. The Umbrella collective album is going to happen. It's talked about all the time. More than people know. It's just we are trying to really establish the work that we've been doing - and establishing ourselves so that when the time does come, first and foremost everyone is ready. And it's hard. We are a big crew. It's not that no one wants to do it, the challenge is just getting this many people on the same page. Pro Dillinger: We talk about it all the time man. My biggest thing, and everyone else's biggest thing is... we don't want to rush it. We don't want to make it to the point where we're offering our supporters false hope. Like 'The Umbrella album is getting this close to getting done...blah blah blah' you know what I'm saying? Then on top of that; we don't want to record it through emails. We want to all be in the same spot recording it. It has to happen organically, or it's just not going to happen. At some point - we're going to have an Umbrella album. But we don't want to rush it. We don't want to cheat the people. We don't want to give the people just a compilation album. As we could have easily done that. We all have songs together. So, we could just take a bunch of songs that we have together and slap them together on one project and give them that, but it wouldn't be the sauce, you know what I'm saying? It would just be something to pacify. And that's not what I want to do. I don't want to pacify anybody. Fuck that. I want all my guys in a lab. We got to lock in for five to seven days. Nobody go to work. Nobody call their girl. We just gotta work. That's how I envision The Umbrella album. Nothing forced. Put a beat on. Whoever gets on this beat gets on this beat. Whoever doesn't, get on the next one. Shit like that man. No distractions, just come in here and do business. Over the years, The Umbrella has formed a singular identity in the underground. What once began as an opportunity to pool resources, has turned into one of the most respected names in the scene; commanding respect for all that carry the name. If you're new to The Umbrella, there's no bad place to start. That said, below is a playlist crafted from joints within the collective. If you care about underground rap, and find yourself unfamiliar with the brand, then listen intently. Da Cloth: A favourite among heads of the underground; Da Cloth has put their stamp on the landscape over the last handful of years. Consistently providing us with a cohesive array of mood setting albums - their quality control and production choices are something to be marveled. Consisting of emcees; M.A.V. (Maverick Montana), Rigz, Mooch, iLLanoise, Times Change, Symph and Rob Gates - Da Cloth have cemented their legacy in the scene. Unlike The Umbrella, Da Cloth's regional identity is important. Hailing from Rochester, New York, the crew has painted a portrait of the city that has defined the region's identity within the culture. The origins of Da Cloth date back to 2012. While Rigz and M.A.V. have familial ties, the two were well acquainted with the others who all occupied spaces within the local Rochester music scene. Originally consisting of M.A.V., Rigz, iLLanoise and Symph, the collective bonded over shared principles and a vision for each other's craft. M.A.V.: We started doing some music together. That was me, Rigz, Symph and iLLanoise. We started featuring each other on each other’s music and one day after some thought had been put into it, it was like 'Listen, we can really make some noise together. Like everyone's going to continue to make some noise by themselves, that's a given. For the most part, that's something we have all continued to do. But together, I feel like we can be a force to be reckoned with. And I'm not even sure who truly initiated that conversation, but I know that was the root of it. We're pretty tough individually, but together this could really turn into something. At that time there were only four of us. Rigz: The vision was always the same from my perspective. I can't really speak for everybody else but as far as my vantage point? I always seen our collective strength, but it started with our individual strength. What I see in Gates is different from what I see in MAV. What I see in Mooch is different from what I see in Times. So forth and so on. So collectively when I bring that vision together, we all are different, but we all stand for integrity. Like different things outside of the music? We felt wasn't relevant. And when it comes to the artistic side? I felt like our creativity, the way we flow, the way we approach a beat? It's just something fresh and something that isn't really out. So, my vision has always been the same with Da Cloth as far as just getting it out there to the point where it can be acknowledged, and hopefully it can influence something else to continue on and push it forward. The first addition to Da Cloth came quickly after its formation. By early 2013, Times Change had been added to the roster. As a battle emcee in the area, Times had begun a working relationship with M.A.V. after appearing on an early tape titled Angels and Demons. After impressing the rest of the crew, it became a no brainer to syndicate his talents with the group. Rigz: He was brought in, honestly off the strength of M.A.V. - M.A.V. put him on the map as far as me. I was aware of him as he was in the battle circuit, and he was cooking dudes here, but I hadn't really heard any projects from him per say. But M.A.V. had him featured on one of his tapes. I think it was called 'Angels and Demons.' The original one before he did the ones with Hobgoblin, he did one way back. But he featured him on there and I was like 'who the fuck is this?' The way he was showing up on the records was like toe to toe with us. It was a no brainer for me once he brought it to the table. Like yeah, we should fuck with him. His caliber as far as his pen game is ridiculous. And when I met him as a person we gelled. So that's how that happened. But M.A.V. was definitely the one that brought him to my attention. Everyone else in the crew already knew of him. 2014 saw two new members added to Da Cloth. This would be the last alteration of the roster, permanently solidifying the core talent of the crew. Childhood friend of Rigz; Mooch was added to the crew at this time along with Rob Gates. In Rigz' view, this made sense; as Mooch was always present in the conversation, despite not formally being inducted into the collective. Gates on the other hand - was inducted due to his skillsets as an emcee and the fact that his authenticity resembled that of the other members. Rigz: Mooch was always in but he was in off the strength of me. Because I was working with him prior to anyone else. So regardless if he was pulled in or not, he was involved as he was involved with me. So it would have been like a Method Man and Redman thing if he didn't get pulled in. Like he's always going to get standing because of me - period. But the original four was me, iLLanoise, Symph and M.A.V. Then the next was Times. Times was the fifth member. Then Mooch and Gates came in at the exact same time. But like I said, I had been working with Mooch the whole time. Rigz: When I heard Gates, I became a fan of Gates instantly. Because the authenticity on the record, his energy, then who he was... he's the epitome of a diamond in the rough. You know what I mean? He was a star as soon as I seen him. When we met, we had a lot of the same characteristics that we get from the pavement. Everything else was just solid after that. Despite much of their early catalog being unavailable online, the sonic template that the emcees adopted was very much akin to their current sound. Blessed with production from the likes of Eto, and other Rochester natives; Da Cloth's sound is distinct. Eerie and chilling hip-hop with hard drums and potent lyrics that reek of authenticity and street realism. When it comes to the space they occupy in the underground scene, Da Cloth makes some of the most cinematically grimy records out. M.A.V.: Listen, the sound that we do now, is still of the same cloth as 2011-2012. That sound has been part of the Rochester sound for lord knows how long. It's just based on the producers that we used. A lot of other artists started using those producers after hearing what we were doing with them. Those would be guys like Truth the Producer, Fifth, Eto. Eto has been making beats - and Truth and Fifth, those guys have been making beats for eons. I'm talking about early 2000s. Maybe even sooner when it comes to Eto. But even the sound that you hear Eto doing? That's been the sounds for a long time. Like before you heard Beat Butcher anywhere else, you heard him on Eto's music. That sound is like probably more Rochester than anywhere else. Rigz: [The sound] was extremely similar. It just evolved as the producers that we worked with evolved. Everything we stood for evolved. Life evolved. It just grew. But we dropped stuff from 2012-2013-2014. I think 2011 was the earliest. But none of that stuff is on the internet. We're probably going to do some re-releases next year. Just to give a history background of the stuff we did prior. But it's always been the same. Just evolved. In recent years, Da Cloth have grown to new heights; actively collaborating with some of the most sought-after artists in the scene. 2019 saw the first of the Big Ghost Ltd collaborations as Rigz and Mooch teamed up with the Japanese producer to release their album The Only Way Out which got a vinyl pressing through De Rap Winkel. In 2020, Rob Gates and M.A.V. dropped The Dark Side of Nature also entirely produced by Big Ghost. Rigz, earlier this year took a step even further with the record Gold, a record produced by the legendary Soul Assassin himself DJ Muggs. Toronto producer Futurewave, whom has worked with the likes of Rome Streetz, Boldy James and others has also laced Da Cloth with excellence, producing full length projects for both Mooch as well as Rigz respectively. These production credits have not only won over fans, but have proven to elevate Da Cloth to the pillars of culture; with many of their solo projects actively engaging the rap community upon their release. At this point, their legacy is cemented. To date; Da Cloth has released a handful of crew albums. These include their 2015 debut with the XXL inspired Salute the Few, 2017's Broad Day Kidnaps, the DJ Kay Slay hosted Fixtape in 2018, and the follow up joint Da Fixtape in 2020. In 2022, they are hard working on a new joint effort which is bound to drop by the years end. Speaking with Rigz and M.A.V., the two noted not only that the project is near completion, but hinted at a producer list chalked full of Rochester talent. Rigz: It's 98% done. It's called Cloth New York. And it'll definitely be out this year. The tape is basically us putting our flag in the dirt a little deeper. It's us representing our part of New York. It's going to be nice. It's going to be fun. I'm not going to sit here and say 'Yeah it's the best! It's all that!' I'm not here to do that. I want ya'll to hear it and give ya'll opinion. But I’m certain ya'll are gonna enjoy it. It's fun. Just a good joint. M.A.V.: The artwork is being created as you speak. That's a project that's been in the works probably immediately after the first one. Immediately after 'Da Fixtape.' It's sounding good. I actually listened to some of it a couple of weeks back. It's sounding good. We're just trying to make sure that the art work is what it needs to be. And it's definitely a scale up from what 'Da Fixtape' was. And I truly truly enjoy my contributions and hearing what some of my brothers did when it came to 'Da Fixtape.' So yeah, we got one brewing for you guys already. M.A.V.: If you pay attention to the very first 'Fixtape.' On the 'Fixtape' we kept everything predominantly Rochester. So, I know we got some heavy production from Chupra on there. I know there's some Fifth production on there. I think we actually went outside of Rochester for some production on it as well. Cause some production on it for me - listening to it - from the control room - I'm familiar with the production but I can't quite put my finger on - like who could this be? A lot of times I'm listening to that project, and when we're getting ready to go into post-production mode - I just close my eyes and listen so I don't really have any distractions. But we definitely have a heavy element of Rochester production on there. Maybe some Riley Dennis on there. There may even be some Eto on there. I'm really really not positive. Stay tuned for the upcoming joint record from Da Cloth. In the meantime, like the others on this list; take a few out of your day to bump a playlist made for those who slept on the crew. Da Cloth has become a powerhouse. They have some of the most unique voices in the underground scene and are certainly worthy of your attention. Brown Bag Money (BBM): Like Da Cloth has done for Rochester, Brown Bag Money has very much defined what Toronto hip-hop has become over the past several years. Beginning as a high school click in the early 2010s, BBM has experienced multiple iterations of its roster since the inception. However, at present, BBM contains some of Toronto's most sought after and skilled emcees and producers, including; Daniel Son, Futurewave, Asun Eastwood, Saipher Soze, Family Gang Black (formerly Black Nazi) and Snackz. In its earliest days, BBM was founded by Daniel Son and friends as a way to identify themselves as they hustled within the parameters of the city. Though Daniel Son was already involved in writing music, the crew and the name had little to no association with hip-hop music. Speaking with Daniel Son, he noted: Daniel Son: I started that shit back in the days. Me and my friends all had Blackberries. We're all doing our thing. Hustling. Getting our little money. And we would always type through BBM. I just flipped it' like Brown Bag Money. Cause that's what we were doing at the time. Hustling. So, I started that back in the days. It wasn't even some rap shit. Just me and my friends doing our little shit, getting our little money. By 2013, things had changed. Though still fronted by Daniel Son, BBM had a real solidified roster, and had already begun crafting music as a unit. In April of that year, the mixtape Grand Theft Audio 1 was released via DatPiff. Surprisingly obscured to this day, the tape was a glimpse at what BBM had to offer, and an early look at Daniel Son as an emcee. A look at the credits on DatPiff reveals a nearly completely different roster from that of what we know now, including: C Will, Skuddy Rankz, Juvey Don, IC Cash (Cory Cash), as well as the only consistent member in that of Daniel Son. Over time, the roster took on alterations. As others began to shift their priorities away from rapping, Daniel Son kept the brand and continued to add members who stylistically complimented the sounds that the emcee was already curating. Fans of Daniel Son may recognize The Rumbar. Often referenced in his lyrics, The Rumbar was a basement apartment that became the catalyst for many relationships to form in the Toronto hip-hop scene. Not only was the location a breeding ground for community bonding, but it was the spot where multiple early BBM related projects were recorded and produced. Daniel Son: So my dude Blizz. He's on a couple joints. He's on Remo [Gaggi]. He's on 'Divizion Rivals' as well. He had a spot. I rented a room there. It had all the studio equipment - cause he's a big reggae artist. He's got joints with Sizzla, a big reggae artist out of Canada. He went to Jamaica for a month, he's like 'Yo, I'm going to need you to learn all the recording equipment." I mean I've been recording my own shit for how long? Right? I just wasn't familiar with the program Logic. He's like 'I'm going to need you to learn this for when I get back so you can record me." So in that month that he was in Jamaica? We pretty much recorded 'Divizion Rivals,' we pretty much recorded that. I was just learning and working on his setup. And that shit became 'The Rumbar.' I don't know if you ever heard me mention The Rumbar in any of my tracks. But yeah, that was like the hangout spot. Finn and Blizz were friends since they were little kids. It was just a big coincidence. I moved over there, and everybody that was hanging out over there was like an older generation of people I already knew. So I was hanging around Soze, and Soze's older cousin Crisco was hanging around those guys. So, it all just came full circle. I moved in there, recorded so much music. 'Divizion Rivals.' 'Gunner's Tape.' 'Remo Gaggi.' 'Moonshine Mix 1.' 'Moonshine Mix 2.' I think 'Moonshine Mix 2' was the last project I recorded there before I moved out. But yeah, I was there for like five years just living in The Rumbar man. Crazy place. A lot of people in the basement smoking. Listening to reggae. Drinking rum. I'm trying to record, my dude Blizz is over there cutting hair. Sometimes you'd have like 20 people there waiting for haircuts and I'm in the corner recording. I have to tell people 'Yo yo my friends, please keep it down I gotta do these records and shit.' And then they'd be like 'oh I didn't even know you rapped.' So, I would play them the joints, they would fuck with them so it was cool. It was like a whole little community down there. How many times me and Finn recorded in The Rumbar till like 3-4 in the morning? Just me and Finn. Everyone else has gone to sleep. Me and Finn are just down there just recording. The fucking water heater would turn on. We'd have to wait 30 minutes for the water heater to turn off and start recording again. I knew Finn before then but that's when me and Finn really started linking, was in The Rumbar. Ironically the day that I moved in - there was a raptors game too. So, Finn was talking up to The Rumbar as I was moving in. Literally I saw him the first day I moved in there. Yeah man, history ever since. These sessions at The Rumbar were monumental in the development of the Brown Bag Money collective identity. By the time Daniel Son left the complex, a new roster was in full effect. By 2018, Futurewave had replaced Giallo Point as the go-to producer for the crew's art and had even become a legitimate part of the BBM team. Asun Eastwood, who had been steadily building a discography in the Toronto scene, also had become a full-fledged member that year. More importantly, it was Asun Eastwood who brought in the remaining members of the crew with past relationships with both Black Nazi (now Family Gang Black) as well as Snackz. In an interview with Asun Eastwood, he recalled his early connections with Daniel Son as follows: Asun Eastwood: So, when I saw Daniel Son... I ended up seeing someone with a cover that had like the CN Tower. I was like 'What? There's another Canadian?' I thought I was the only Canadian dude in this realm. So, I was like 'What the fuck? Who's this?' And Instagram and social media allows you to go and research. Easily. That's how the FBI be fucking us up anyway [laughs]. So might as well get real FBIish with this shit and see who these people are. So, I saw Daniel Son and I hit him up. 'Yo you're dope. You’re around the way and you do this?' then he told me his age. I'm like 'Yo you're real young and you're into this?' Then I started seeing that he's been on shit. Like he's been really doing this since 2012-13 something like that. And I was like 'Yo, you've really been there for this new era.' Like he had a joint on the new Eto shit and I liked Eto. Like 'this guys really in it.' So I just asked him; 'Let me get a feature!' That was the Nimbus joint. And from there, when it came out, I was like 'Yo, let me come check you.' And I had to pull up in my Jag, at that time I was pushing a Jag, and he was like 'Yo, what the fuck, who are you?' and I was like 'Who are you?' and it was just natural from that point. We started going to studios and linking up. And we're from the same spot. A lot of the energy was the same. We're degenerate. We like getting fucked up. Drinking. Talking shit. He introduced me to the Soze's. He introduced me to the Finn's. I brought Black [Nazi] and Snackz into the fold here. And other than just production - I knew some people out here. So, we're just joining up and kicking it. That turns into music, and it just became something. We started making projects. His name was buzzing after 'Remo Gaggi' with Giallo Point. That buzz, they were calling for him in the States. They were calling him in New York and New Jersey to do shows. I'm one of the guys who can travel, and he's like 'I'd love for you to come with me and get some stage time at the same time.' But it was for him. It was his show. He's buzzing. So, I'm just going for the ride but I am getting to see what this really is. Meeting Crimeapple early. Meeting Al.Divino early. Meeting Estee Nack early. We're shaking hands. Everyone. All the guys you see right there? We pretty much shook hands with all of them. Today, the members of BBM have all left their mark. Daniel Son has appeared on projects from 38 Spesh, Rome Streetz, Estee Nack, Buckwild, Al.Divino, Flee Lord, and plenty of others. Futurewave, the in-house BBM producer has produced full length joints for Rome Streetz, Mooch, Rigz, Al.Divino, Boldy James and a healthy cast of Canadian acts as well. Asun Eastwood, has material with Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine, and Saipher Soze and Snackz are not too far behind. Though the crew has seemingly no immediate plans for a collective album, any look at the rosters discography will discover an ample amount of collaborations within the team. Interestingly, the original roster for BBM has not been forgotten. According to Daniel Son last year, a follow up to 2013's Grand Theft Audio is in the works; sporting the original cast of characters from that project. Daniel Son: But the original BBM was me, Skuddy Rankz. Cory Cash and my dude Juvey Don. And now I’m back working with those guys. We go to the studio every Friday. So, there's going to be like an original BBM member tape coming out soon. My dude Study Ranks? He's the nastiest out of everybody. Out of all the sick artists I know? This guy is the nastiest. He was always the nastiest. Since we were like 16. He's one of those dudes, just an example of cats that could be like the illest rappers but don't really rap. I have to be like 'Bro, we're going to the studio on Friday. Make sure you write something every day of the week.' and now he knows. He has the potential. There's nobody seeing him. I'm just trying to push that. Cause he deserves it. People are going to wild out once they hear that. Though the lead-up to Grand Theft Audio has yet to be released, fans ought to be excited for the prospects of the project. Brown Bag Money, today, has secured itself in the canons of Canadian hip-hop history. They have broken the mold, have become accepted by their New York peers, and have created some of the most authentic and vivid street rap to be released from the skrewface capital of the world. As with the others, I encourage a listen to the playlist below and for the hip-hop connoisseur to take the time out to familiarize yourself with the crew in question. Colombian Snow Talk by Snotty : https://therealsnotty.bandcamp.com/album/colombian-snow-talk Govament Cheeze by Allah Preme : https://allahpreme.bandcamp.com/album/allah-preme-presents-govament-cheeze "Stealth Assassins Compilation" by Allah Preme : https://allahpreme.bandcamp.com/album/stealth-assassins-compilation Da Fixtape by Da Cloth : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0Da4WCKNmw God's Work by iLLanoise : https://illanoisemusic.bandcamp.com/album/gods-work Angelz & Demonz by M.A.V. : https://mavmusic3.bandcamp.com/album/angelz-and-demonz The Dark Side of Nature by M.A.V. x Rob Gates : https://bigghostlimited.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-side-of-nature The Only Way Out by Rigz x Mooch : https://bigghostlimited.bandcamp.com/album/the-only-way-out Gold by Rigz x DJ Muggs : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-T5_5ub09U Salute The Few by Da Cloth : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUnSrsP0xqQ Broad Day Kidnaps by Da Cloth : https://nineorbetta.com/album/971751/broad-day-kidnaps The Fixtape by Da Cloth x DJ Kay Slay : https://www.datpiff.com/Da-Cloth-Presents-The-Fixtape-mixtape.785797.html Grand Theft Audio 1 by Brown Bag Money : https://www.datpiff.com/BROWN-BAG-MONEY-Grand-Theft-Audio-1-mixtape.473136.html Divizion Rivals by Daniel Son x Saipher Soze : https://www.datpiff.com/Saipher-Soze-Divizion-Rivals-mixtape.820617.html "Party Time" by Blizz ft. Sizzla : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBio-Am97M Moonshine Mix by Daniel Son : https://brownbagmoney.bandcamp.com/album/moonshine-mix Nimbus by Asun Eastwood : https://asuneastwood.bandcamp.com/album/nimbus

Toronto Hip-Hop: An Extension of Up-State New York Figure 1 L-R: Daniel Son, 6th Letter Futurewave, Daniel Son, Asun Eastwood, Lord Juco, Raz Fresco, Finn, DNTE, Falcon Outlaw, Sibbs Roc, Bozack Morris, Saipher Soze, Vic Grimes... If you have been tapped into the underground hip-hop release radar over the past few years; it's likely you are familiar with these names. Hailing from the city of Toronto, this cast of characters has contributed to the soundscapes of up-state New York's triumphing hip-hop enterprise in recent years. What's more impressive, is that unbeknownst to many, Toronto has finally achieved a long-lasting goal; for its artists to be recognized on an equal playing field with New York artists and be respected by hip-hop culture at large - detached from their Canadian identity. Contextualizing Toronto's Hip-Hop Community in Relation to New York: Ever since the inception of hip-hop in Toronto, the city has actively fought for acceptance in New York. Perhaps the earliest example of success in this regard is KRS One's introductory co-sign to Michie Mee and L.A. Luv's Elements of Style in 1987; a record which sported the instrumental pallet of the Boogie Down Production's own Scott La Rock,. Boogie Down Productions is proud to introduce Canada's greatest musically inclined - future rap representative of the rap industry on a whole. A major breakthrough for female emcees everywhere. Her name; Michie Mee. This is BDP reporting live from Canada! - KRS One, Elements of Style. Figure 2: Michie Mee & LA Luv - Elements of Style 12" In the 1990s, this effort for acceptance continued its prominence. Artists such as Citizen Kane, Da Grassroots, Da Circle, Crooks of the Round Table, Mathematik, Frankenstein, and others clearly embodied New York's signature boom-bap aesthetic and trips to the Big Apple were frequently made to seek record deals and career opportunities. The talents of these artists were undeniable. Arguably some of the best hip-hop to come out of the mid 90s featured Toronto emcees and producers. However, this fact was rarely known outside of the city of Toronto, the artist community, and the odd devoted hip-hop head that pursued independent music on a global front. Rarely were these Canadian artists successful in obtaining US-based record deals, or US-based collaborations. Even more rare, were instances of American artists paying Canadian talent for collaborations on their records. In the 2000s, though the efforts largely remained the same, the results did begin to change. Artists such as Kardinall Offishall - who began rapping in the 1990s, saw some commercial success and appeared on albums from Tony Touch, Clipse, DJ Green Lantern, Akon, among others. To a lesser extent, emcees such as K-Os, Belly (Ottawa), Saukrates and Choclair shared a similar fate; however, these artists acted as one-offs, and never allowed Toronto as a community to fully escape the trappings of a Canadian identity. The most successful Canadian rapper of all time; Drake, too has played his part in this story; transforming Toronto as a landmark within hip-hop's discourse but failing to create a meaningful path for other Toronto emcees to follow. His OVO movement is notable, as is his impact on many Toronto-based artists who have embraced Drake's signature musical aesthetics - however the fact remains that Toronto has not been accepted as equal to New York in any meaningful measure. Griselda, Up-State New York, and a new hip-hop renaissance: It's safe to say that readers will be familiar with Griselda's impact on the culture. Since 2015, the Flygod and extended family have been dominating underground hip-hop's weekly release schedule and have since changed the direction of the scene both sonically, as well incorporating business innovations largely non-existent pre-Griselda. Upon Griselda's 2018 signing with Shady Records, this reality was only exacerbated. Figure 3 Griselda. L-R: Benny the Butcher, Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine Griselda's rise saw many hip-hop acts within the up-state area come out of the woodworks and receive prominent fandom as well as financial security with their art. From 38 Spesh’s TRUST label, to Rochester’s Da Cloth, to Lord Mobb's; Eto and G4Jag, among others; these artists have thrived in the scene that Griselda has pushed and helped popularize. Despite the due-focus on up-state New York, the sounds of Griselda have far surpassed this geographic region. Artists such as Red Lotus Klan's SCVTTERBRVIN from the West Coast, New York City's Flee Lord, New Orlean's Jameel Na'im X, and a plethora of overseas producers such as Superior (Germany), Giallo Point (Britain) and Big Ghost LTD (Japan), all exist within the same sonic bubble and owe - at least some of their success - to Griselda's imprint. As previously mentioned, the impact of Griselda has amounted to more than simple stylistic innovations that have permeated throughout the scene. With Westside Gunn's heavy reliance on hype-beast culture and his insistence on treating physical product (both in the form of merch and physical media) as collectible art-pieces - the way of playing the game has drastically altered from the previous generation. By producing small runs - with the guarantee of selling out - Griselda has single handily made the purchase of a cassette, or vinyl record an investment with a near guarantee of market inflation if the consumer is lucky enough to secure an order before the inevitable sell-out. As the artists grow in popularity, these runs become larger and larger, while continuing to produce less than the market demands. The latest installment of Westside Gunn's Hitler Wears Hermes series (#8 Side B) was released earlier in 2022 with over 5,000 copies pressed, priced on average at over 100 dollars per unit, and sold out in under five minutes. This sort of dominance has created an atmosphere where Conway can confidently - and truthfully - claim, "I do your streaming numbers with the vinyl and the CD." Though others in the scene lack the demand that Griselda has curated, this model of high-priced, ultra-limited vinyl, has proven to work for others that fall into the same sonic template that Griselda has developed. For fans of Griselda's sound, participating in this subcultural economy is exciting and worthwhile - even if the products are not exclusively derived from Griselda's main roster. Those who associate with Griselda either through mutual connections - geographic proximity - or sonic template - have been able to follow Griselda's business models with similar - yet scaled down - success. The Modern Toronto Connection: Although Toronto is not the only Canadian city contributing sounds to this movement - it is by far the most dominant Canadian city on the scene. An artist such as Nicholas Craven in Montreal - may be arguably more prominent with production credits for Mach Hommy, Tha God Fahim, Your Old Droog, Ransom, among others - but he has unfortunately been the sole representative for his city within this new rap renaissance. Toronto on the other hand has - in a few short years - curated a scene of rappers, producers, and DJs so synonymous with Griselda's sound that the city has arguably become an extension of the up-state New York region. It makes sense. Toronto - a mere two-hour drive from Buffalo, is the closest metropolis city to the Griselda capital; with New York City being more than three times the distance away. Those that occupy the Niagara region such as G4 Jag and Jamal Gasol, are in fact even closer to the screwface capital. So how has Toronto broken from its past to be accepted as peers south of the border? It's pretty simple; it's Griselda. This is my opinion on the hustler mindset. Seeing early - [Griselda] dropping - and they weren't big yet - they'd drop 1000 [units] and they're selling out right away. Like that's not enough? So now, this genre also creates a lot of music. One project a year? That's nothing. You can't do that in our genre. Now you look at Griselda and it's like 'oh shit, these guys are collecting that bag.' And that math isn't hard to do, that there's money to be made. - Asun Eastwood, interview with author. It is important to recognize the diversity of Toronto's hip-hop scene; and the varying origin stories that occupy the community. Some artists, such as DNTE and Bozack Morris, have been long standing members of the Toronto hip-hop community - with DNTE (previously known as Al Sham) dropping his Street Visions album in 1999 with his partner KP, and Bozack Morris occupying Toronto's airwaves as a DJ for multiple decades. Raz Fresco, a younger cat on the scene, had signed a deal with New York's Duck Down Records in 2014 and appeared on Buckshot's Backpack Travels that same year. Daniel Son; arguably one of the most prominent in the scene today; began rapping in 2015 with his Brown Bag Money (BBM) click and quickly began collaborating and building relationships with artists such as Rome Streetz, Estee Nack, Al.Divino, among others. The Belizean born Asun Eastwood immigrated to Canada at a young age and began his run of releases in 2017 with projects such as Nimbus and Hollywood Briggs. And Lord Juco has occupied a distinct market with his soccer-themed run of projects with Californian Cousin Feo as the duo Death at the Derby. Despite this complexity, there is most certainly a strengthened community of hip-hop artists within Toronto. Nearly all these artists actively collaborate with one another - and have combined their skillsets to help one another grow and succeed in this hip-hop environment. This has become more evident with labels such as Gold Era which house a large collective of Toronto producers such as Sibbs Roc, Finn and Slang Hughes. A brief look at their webstore will see full album collaborations with Daniel Son, Asun Eastwood, Family Gang Black, Saipher Soze, Lord Juco as well as a plethora of peers originating from the United States. Figure 4: L-R: Finn, Futurewave, Sibbs Roc The collaborations with their United States brethren are important. Unlike previous generations of Toronto emcees, that found it difficult to seek mutual respect with their New York counterparts - this new community is often inseparable from upstate New York. Not only do you see New York artists featured on their track listings (a feat that remains achievable by simply buying guest verses from well-respected rappers), but credible New York artists as well as overseas producers will actively feature Toronto artists within their own creations. Daniel Son for example has been featured on 38 Spesh's 1994, Rome Streetz Street Pharmacy, Estee Nack and Superiors' BALADAS, Buckwild's Music is My Religion, Al.Divino's SUNRAW, and Flee Lord's Lucky 13 just to name a few. Futurewave; one of the scenes most active producers; has full length projects with a variety of well-respected heavyweights in the up-state New York community; including Mooch, Rigz, Rome Streetz, Al.Divino as well as the most recently released MR.TEN08 with Griselda's own Boldy James. This embracement of Toronto's hip-hop community is a new phenomenon. Sure, artists like Drake have achieved one-off success in mainstream hip-hop circuits, but Toronto's hip-hop scene as a whole has never been able to compete on equal footing within hip-hop culture until now. In addition to the artist support, fans have likewise embraced Toronto's talent in a major way. Through the adoption of Griselda's hype-beast model of merchandising, the Toronto hip-hop community has succeeded to ride the wave of Griselda's extended family. One look at Futurewave's WAV.GOD storefront will cement this reality. Futurewave's last major output with Rome Streetz Razors' Edge had multiple variants of vinyl, totalling over 1,000 units produced (between both the WAV.GOD online store as well as the German vinyl distributor Vinyl Digital), and sold out within a 24-hour period. These pieces of wax were priced between 60 to 150 dollars per unit, creating significant financial incentive for each album release. Perhaps the most interesting decision made by this artist community lies within their own constructed identity. Unlike generations that came before them, or the Canadian hip-hop community at large - the artists mentioned in this article rarely portray a distinctly Canadian identity. The themes in their music are generalized, rarely devoting song topics to Canadian topics of interest. Their social media bio's rarely mention Canada. Stylistically - although original - do mimic that of a New York sound. And they refrain from collaborating with those who do hold more transparent Canadian identities. In my encounters with hip-hop heads - often fans of these artists will be oblivious to the fact that they reside in Toronto, mistakenly believing that artists such as Daniel Son or Lord Juco are from New York. This dynamic has separated the scene in question from the Canadian hip-hop community more broadly. Canada has had a rich history of hip-hop with labels such as Battle Axe Records, URBNET, Hand'Solo Records, Peanuts and Corn, Side Road Records, Clothes Horse Records, etc. however these artists have acted as family and kin to one another and portray clearly and distinct Canadian identities. There is simply no mistaking an artist such as Moka Only's nationality. In an interview I conducted with Bozack Morris he claimed: Hip-hop is like this high school shit where people sit at the table and if you're not at the table - you might go to the same school - but if you're not at the same table - people don't acknowledge it. I think that's just what it is. It sucks because I know all those dudes. I know all the people that are in this kind of "Canadian-Toronto" ecosystem and I have seen how much they embrace each other. I don't really care to sit at their table. I just want to make the music that I make. [...] It's funny how when people talk about "Who's from Toronto?" they don't mention anyone in our scene. The quote on quote "Toronto" hip-hop, they aren't mentioning us. They aren't mentioning Daniel Son or Futurewave, and those motherfuckers are putting up numbers. They are eating off this shit more than a lot of these other motherfuckers that ARE getting the props. - Bozack Morris, interview with author. Figure 5: L-R: Lord Juco, Futurewave, Daniel Son Conclusion: Toronto is at a unique place in its own history regarding hip-hop culture. For the first time, Toronto hip-hop artists have successfully blended in with a dominant hip-hop culture. These are not one-off cases such as Drake, or the occasional appearance of Kardinall Offishall on a top 40 billboard hit. This is an onslaught of artists who have commanded respect and received it from hip-hop at large. They do not prioritize their region when forming their identity, and they represent a sound that is becoming more and more associated with upstate New York. I argue that the scene comprised of Buffalo, Rochester, and Niagara Falls, must also include Toronto as an active participant in the scenes sound and success in recent years. About The Author: Alex Kuchma is an award-winning oral historian focused on the history of hip-hop in Canada. With over ten years of experience as a music journalist, Kuchma has conducted nearly a thousand interviews with hip-hop artists and members of the broader hip-hop community. In 2021, Kuchma authored the dissertation 'It's Underground Shit Fool!': The DIY Ethos of the Vancouver Island Hip-Hop Community, 1980-2000. The dissertation examined the creative and innovative techniques that the hip-hop community on Vancouver Island practiced and how the community created a distinctly unique experience for which artists could thrive. His current work through the Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University examines Toronto's hip-hop community throughout the years and the social capital that individuals of the Toronto hip-hop community have garnered with New York state hip-hop scenes. Kuchma is currently working on a general audience book which will use oral histories to convey the story of Canada's participation in hip-hop culture. https://linktr.ee/AlexKuchma Photo Credits: Fig. 1: Daniel Son x 6th Letter photo by Lucas Espinola (https://www.instagram.com/lucas_espinola/) Fig. 2: Michie Mee x L.A. Luv (https://www.discogs.com/release/463959-Michie-Mee-and-L-A-Luv-Elements-Of-Style) Fig. 3: Benny The Butcher x Westside Gunn x Conway The Machine (Robert LeBlanc) Fig. 4: Finn x Futurewave x Sibbs Roc (https://www.instagram.com/p/CTushDyl6Fl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) Fig. 5: Lord Juco x Futurewave x Daniel Son (https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ6xPyrrJYk/)

Dew, stained into the very infrastructure of the concrete pipelines. Lines that paint the city a web. Lines that however neutral, organise the inhabitants above. The underground becomes the heartland of the city. The grime, the hustle, the hardened shell - originates beneath the city streets. The subways not only move the people but encourage those people to participate in the city itself. For the homeless, the underground is shelter. As metaphor, the underground remains home to even more. Black markets, organized crime and subculture all root their identities in this imagined space. For most of the world, the underground represents death and decay. In the urban reality, the underground facilitates life, but of a variety not far removed from the cemetery's grim. For hip-hop, this underground has always been home. As the divisions between hip hop's corporate and the culture's grass roots grew - the very aura of hip-hop was dug deeper and deeper beneath the concrete slabs that made it. Before hip-hop had an identifiable 'underground,' the culture itself understood that it was this environment that spoke to them - over that of the sunlight above. When we started seeing the recordings, a lot of us in the Zulu Nation stayed away from that at first because people thought once it got into vinyl it was going to kill the culture. - Afrika Bambaataa. In Flemingdon Park, Toronto - these imaginations were realized. Although hardly a unique story, by the late 1980s, Flemingdon Park (or Flemmo as it is commonly referred) had incorporated hip-hop into its literal underground terrain. With underground pathways connecting building complex to building complex, through underground parking, and nearby subway routes - Flemmo had an underground that the youth felt particularly fashionable, alluring, and more importantly; hip-hop. There's no better example of this than the Loxy. The name given to an underground storage room for the duration of one summer, sometime near the turn of the decade - when hip-hop turned from Public Enemy to The Wu-Tang Clan and when African Medallions were being traded in for martial arts VHS tapes. The sheer obscurity of the space demands a sense of allurement - of myth. 'It was Johnny B's step-mother,' Chris Jackson remembers. She was the one who owned the joint. Deep in the basement of a Flemmo apartment complex was a regular storage room. However, to kids with access, this was an imagined hip-hop playground. A meeting spot for heads - a privatized community hub that catered to the hip-hop tradition. Furthermore, this was a space that felt, despite the opposing legalities, owned and operated by the hip-hop community - their own space, with their own name and identity attached to it. To many, this is just what kids do. But if we wish to understand how hip-hop was engaged, then we must admit, that we are speaking of the activities of the youth. 'They were the older kids,' Jackson remembers of Johnny B and his friends. They would bring boom boxes, cassette tapes of their favourite albums, food and drinks - all the ingredients for a good night. For Jackson and his friends; Fathead and Headquarters, they had an invite. The Loxy was basically an interpretation of what we thought New York hip-hop was, and what we wanted Flemingdon and Toronto hip-hop to be. [...] It was like a half door, so you had to scrouch down to get in. I was only there twice. But it was something that some of the older guys [would occupy]. We were all part of the hip hop scene in the city. In Flemmo. We had rap crews, and dance crews, and DJs. The older guys turned that room into The Loxy. They turned it into a space where they would just go hang out, play music, do some freestyle sessions. - Chris Jackson. Far too often a history is drawn from memories. Capstones of success within the timeline of a particular person, region, or industry are isolated and used exclusively to formulate a history. Yet remembering a highlight reel chooses to forget the mundane. The day to day lives that make a culture what it is. Hip-hop was, and still is, a youth movement. Although there's value in a macroscopic viewing of the culture, moments like the Loxy represent much of what hip-hop had been made of. Kids being kids; engaging in the culture that they love in the most authentic ways that they know how. The Loxy was shut down by the end of a summer. Johnny's step-mom discovered the enterprise and the operation was put to a halt. But Chris and his friends, Fathead and Headquarters, they continued. I'm sure in some capacity, so did the older kids that frequented the space. They found new ways to incorporate hip-hop into their lives. New spaces to occupy to build community, friendships, and art. For them, the Loxy was just a moment. For everyone else, it was forgotten. Underground subcultures, particularly of the New Yorkian variety, often take this shape. Hip-Hop, the Beats, the Fairies of Chauncey's 'Gay New York' - articulations of underground, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative, but always tinted with the identity of the culture itself. For the Loxy, this literal underground was not vandalized into a hip-hop aesthetic, but for the hours of the night that it was the Loxy, it was hip-hop through and through. From the music, to the clothing, to the dialect and to the mood - it was hip-hop. We don't want no trouble we just came to hang. Maybe sip a little something and shoot the breeze. Some of us high on life, others use the trees. No bloods no Crips, no guns no clips. Just a bunch of fellas running off at the lips. Cause hanging with your friends be the thing to do. Let me see if I can explain my gang to you. - Masta Ace, Me and My Gang https://alexkuchma.com/

"Urban renewal means negro removal." - James Baldwin 'My area? Niagara? Everybody wanted to be a rapper,' the emcee notes during an interview in August, 'everybody wanted to be a star and to come back and give back to their community where they grew up.' As an emcee, John Creasy has made quite the splash in recent years. With more projects than I can count with my hands, Creasy has contributed his fair share to the onslaught that this renaissance has created. Within the Western New York rap scene that has dominated modern underground waves, Niagara has received little attention. However, artists such as G4 Jag of Lord Mobb, TRUST's Jynx 716, Jamal Gasol and Creasy are just a few examples to indicate the significance of Niagara's contribution. This story follows that of John Creasy and Unity Park; a housing project near Highland Avenue in Niagara Falls, New York and subsequently, John Creasy's childhood residence. Creasy has publicly represented his roots before. Last year, the emcee recorded and dropped the song, aptly titled 'Unity Park' which illustrated the influence that the area had in shaping his identity. Exploring the history of Unity Park revealed patterns of government neglect, systemic racism and struggle; a story that finds itself woven into Creasy's lyrics throughout his catalog. My aim is to communicate the meaning of those threads. Unity Park 'N****s slight me. That's why I give them extra bars. They didn't think a n**** could do it out of Niagara Falls' - John Creasy, Bomb First. James Baldwin had once stated that urban renewal was equivalent to Black removal. A read through The Color of Law or The Origin of the Urban Crisis will prove just that. The story of Unity Park exists as one of a handful of anecdotes the city of Niagara has contributed to this failure of Americanism. The project, originally developed under the name 'the Lehigh Project' in the early 1970s, was a response to what Michael Boston describes as a demand for housing among Black Niagarans. In the late 1940s, America, under the Truman administration, developed the 'Housing Act of 1949,' an effort to fund urban renewal projects, highlighting a need to eliminate 'blight' and clear slums. This 'slum clearance,' as it is referred to in the act, allowed many municipal governments to secure funding that they hoped would better their community. As Niagara Falls began to enter a period of decline in the early 1960s, efforts were put in place to request federal funding for a series of urban renewal projects in the city. These projects, as Boston notes, predominantly affected the regions Black community. Areas that housed the Black community were often deemed 'slums,' which allowed for the government to clear the land and construct new units to house the now dispersed population. By 1971, after a series of these projects had taken place, the city of Niagara felt necessary to construct additional housing units to house many of the dispersed (often Black) members of the community. The topic of race was not ignored during the creation of Unity Park. Unlike the past urban renewal projects that the city had undergone, Unity Park was designed as an integrated housing complex, meaning it would house a mixture of low income and moderate-income residents. The aim was to diversify the demographics of the project, in hopes to prevent decay in future decades and appease much of White Niagara's racially motivated concerns with concentrated African-American neighbourhoods. In a meeting that took place in March of 1971, a resident of the neighbouring McKoon Avenue, stressed to the planning board, asking if 'Unity Park would be totally black?' The response from those in charge was clear; 'no one can guarantee one way or the other, but considering the rent structure the danger is that it will be all white.' Additional comments during this meeting proved, with hindsight, to be of note. Anne Myers of DeVeaux St. noted that she had 'never seen a public project that didn't fall to pieces in 10 to 15 years.' In this, she was asking who would be responsible for the upkeep. Charles Baker, who held the office of the president at Wright and Kremers, the developing corporation selected to construct the units, claimed that the units would be maintained by Wright and Kremer, and that rent money would be sufficient for any maintenance. Speaking directly to Mrs. Myers, Baker claimed, 'you're visualizing something that's never going to happen.' Two decades later, both of the objecting citizens’ concerns had been validated. Unity Park, had went from a mixed demography to a nearly all Black housing complex. Additionally, the units had begun to fall apart. By the late 1990s, the city was already beginning touch-up jobs and band-aid operations to help with the deterioration of the Highland Avenue project. This is the Unity Park where Creasy was raised. When I was younger, I would play basketball a lot. So, I had to go to different neighbourhoods and different community centers around, so I seen it all. The first time I ever held a gun in my hand I was seven years old. I was riding my bike, going across the street to Ms. Doominsting's house. That was our candy lady in the neighbourhood. She sold penny candy back in the day. I was riding my ten speed to her house to go get some candy, and thought it was a rock but I hit something and fell off my bike. I picked it up, and it was a big ass [gun.] I'm seven years old, right? it was an all-black joint, had the leather handle on it. So I wasn't sheltered at all. I seen everything. I seen crackheads overdose in front of me. All types of shit. So, I wasn't really sheltered at all. Just being around it, you become accustom and used to it. But yeah, me just seeing a gun and holding it in my hand at seven, I could have almost killed myself. But my cousin seen me - I had it in my hand - he like ran over to me. It was loaded and everything. It was a glock too. He ran over to me, grabbed it from me. So, I wasn't sheltered. I had seen needles; we'd be playing around the playground. There was used needles in the playground, empty weed bags, empty crack bags, empty crack pipes everywhere. So, I seen everything. Creasy was raised in 14 E Peace Walk in Unity Park I - an area of the units that was labelled 'Last Court.' South Gate, Center Court, Last Court, and the neighboring Jordan Gardens were all distinct sections of the Highland Avenue neighbourhood. These sections, consequently helped define the territorial borders for local gangs. A fact that the Niagara Police repeatedly emphasized when reporting to the press. As Creasy notes: You had people beef with different territories even though we all lived in the same apartment complexes. You could walk across a little pavement and you're in a whole different apartment complex. I mean, it was your average neighbourhood. It was gritty grimy, people selling drugs out there, doing what they gotta do to make a living. But [gangs] were prominent as you had older people out there showing you the rope. Younger kids trying to do what they see the older dudes do. [...] You had your top people. You had your captains; you had your bosses under them, you had your workers under them. Unity Park in Niagara Falls was on the west side. We had a different apartment complex over which was called Jordan Gardens. And Center Court was like down the street from Unity Park. So, you had these three different sections. Within Unity Park [you had] everybody beefin' with each other. By 2002, conditions had continued to worsen. From 1995 to 1999, the vacancy rate for Unity Park had increased by sixteen percent, with nearly forty-five percent of all units vacant by the turn of the century. The vacancy had become a means to nest further crime. Vacant buildings represented opportunity. 'You're giving people an opportunity to come to the buildings and do their thing in the vacant building,' Creasy spoke, 'when I was growing up, everything was coasting. I was a little kid, having fun. But by the time I got up out of there, it was definitely time to go. There was more drugs being sold out of there, there was fiends being hanging around out there.' Crime in Niagara had escalated. From issues of petty theft to gun violence, citizens stressed feeling unsafe with where they lived. Even larger displays of violence seemingly had the ability to fade in and out of the weekly news cycle. Perhaps the most grotesque example occurred on New Years Day 1997 at 3M's bar on the corner of College and Highland Avenue when a gunman entered the facility and 'opened fire' causing hundreds to flee the premises and six injured. The 1997 New Years mass shooting disappeared out of the media in a week, it simply wasn't shocking enough to the city of Niagara Falls for a permanent scar to be felt. As predicted in the 1971 meeting, Unity Park had come full circle. Within three decades, decisions were made to demolish the units and build anew. The process of urban renewal had failed - and the circumstances the process had intended to fix had returned. It's important to stress the feeling the city had in 2002 regarding Niagara's blight. Though the Niagara Beautification Commission was fighting the problem, community members were vocally fierce, frequently addressing their concerns in local papers. One citizen described Niagara Avenue and 18th Street (outside of Unity Park) as sprinkled with 'graffiti-stained eyesores, overgrown yards and blighted buildings.' To those in Niagara, Unity had become the worst of the worst. On August 24 of 2002, the residents of Unity Park wrote a formal complaint of their conditions and published it in the Niagara Gazette, the cities most widely distributed paper. The headlines read 'Neglected at Unity Park,' 'Residents complain apartments owned by state are falling apart,' and 'Unity Park II in disrepair.' The call for action was bold and powerful. 'Welcome to Unity Park II, the 35-year-old apartment complex where boarded-up windows, broken glass and peeled siding are the rule, not the exception' the statement read. The article raised several complaints with the maintenance of the properties. Residents had reported the neglect from management for issues ranging from broken screen doors and leaking roofs to pipes freezing and falling down cupboards. In one instance, residents received notice that the fuel company was soon to be turning off their power, a utility that was the responsibility of the landlord. For one house alone, the government was in arrears for nearly four thousand dollars in today's currency. A 1999 letter sent to commissioner Joseph Lynch from the State Comptroller revealed that Unity Park had been in mortgage arrears for an excess of two million dollars and that foreclosures were imminent. At this point, over sixty percent of the units were vacant. For those forty present that remained, they wrote 'something needs to be done out here. It's terrible.' The response should read as familiar. In light of the public outcry, just one month after the August write-up, headlines were made again as the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency and the Niagara Falls International Airport had agreed to 'renovate' the housing projects. In assessment, they determined that eighty-six of the apartments were unable to be repaired and had planned to demolish them. The remaining one-hundred-and-twelve would be renovated. Forty-three percent of all units were destroyed. The demolition and renovations began in 2006. The neighbours presently occupying Unity Park II experience improved living conditions, however a decline has already begun to be felt. Interviews in the community revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic was felt particularly hard in the neighbourhood - as jobs diminished and the appeal of illegal money became increasingly enticing. The cyclical nature of urban renewal does not appear to be over. John Creasy Raised alongside three brothers, Creasy was born in Niagara Falls and raised within Unity Park. His mother was a nurse from North Avenue and his father, a factory worker from Jerauld Avenue near Hyde Park. As a child, Creasy was into sports and idolized the great basketball legends of the 90s like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Rap, would come later. 'I wanted to be a basketball player growing up.' Creasy reflects. As basketball became more serious, music was beginning to resonate. As a middle child to twin older brothers, Creasy's musical influences were readily accessible in his home environment. Youth in the Highland Avenue region identified with street rap in New York City, primarily that which was coming out of Queensbridge. Havoc and Prodigy's apocalyptic vision of New York street life was powerful and intimate and reflected the circumstances Unity Park residents seen at home. QB area. I would say that's how Niagara Falls is set up. So, Nas, Mobb Deep, all those people from the Queensbridge, so I definitely related to that. The first song I ever heard was 'Trife Life' from Mobb Deep on The Infamous joint. I fell in love with that song. Everything they was going through, we was going through too. It may not be New York City, or Queens New York, but it's still Niagara Falls New York. It's still part of New York. We upstate, but the same thing that they was writing about, I was living the same thing too. As Creasy grew, priorities in basketball began to decline in substitute for rap music, weed, video games and having fun. Once again, Mobb Deep played a critical role, as Creasy claims it was Prodigy that ultimately made the choice clear in his identity; John Creasy wished to be a rapper. Prodigy man, he made me want to be a rapper. When I first heard P, he reminded me of myself. I'm a short dude in stature but I got a commanding voice. When I first heard Prodigy on 'Trife Life' I'm like; 'who is this?' My brother rewinds it back, I got to hear joints like 'Right Back At You', 'Survival of the Fittest', all of them joints. That's what made me want to be a rapper. Around that time, I should have played basketball, but I kept listening to music more. I'd say Mobb Deep had a heavy influence on my area, my hometown. That's all anybody was playing in Unity Park. Rap music was popular in Niagara Falls. As Creasy notes, everyone he knew in Niagara either wanted to be a sports player or a rap star - however it proved difficult for Niagara talent to be recognized on a world stage. As a result, Creasy and his friends began a rap crew called, 'Wild Squad.' While still in high school, this was an opportunity for friends to better their craft and take a plunge into hip-hop culture. As a unit, Wild Squad went through various iterations and names. 'Homicide Crew' was the active namesake for some time, then ultimately to H.O or 'Helluva Outcome.' Creasy's first performances were with H.O. and helped him come more comfortable with the idea of being an artist. Like most local rap groups, individual growth and life circumstances prevented the group from reaching their aspirations. Although some members had become disinterested, the brand was still loosely used in 2015 when Creasy decided to step away to focus on an alternative path for his artistry. Creasy remembers: We're still all cool, but we all kind of stopped. I personally, stopped repping the Helluva Outcome brand probably around 2015. That's when I thought I'd go off on my own and let my name speak for itself. A lot of people had their own vision and went and did their own thing. I figured I might as well do the same thing. But we all still talk. We're all family. That's one thing I can say. We may not all still do music together, but a lot of people I was doing music with before, that's my first cousin, or I grew up with this dude, so we're all still cool. They still check out my music. They still rooting for me. But as far as us being a group, and us being known as that - I would say around 2015-2016. That's when I decided to go my own way and do my own thing. In 2018, outside of Niagara Falls, emcees Pro Dillinger and Snotty were tossing strategies back and forth over the phone. How to make it in the underground rap space? The Umbrella came about from a necessity for resources, and the belief in an almost artistic socialism. The Umbrella was envisioned as a space for artists of a similar discipline and ethos to share resources and develop, grow and prosper as a unit. As a super group, the Umbrella has been responsible for some of the most exciting music to be coming out of the underground hip-hop landscape. When Snotty and Pro Dillinger were considering who to grab, John Creasy was in the initial roster. Dillinger recalls: I got cool with John Creasy. But Creasy was with Jamal Gasol and Piff and all that so I didn't think he would go with it, but he came with us. And that was like our first immediate roster. As Dillinger described to me, Creasy was 'an OG member made from the first cut.' The affiliation with The Umbrella had proven successful for Creasy. From rapping at talent shows over Mobb Deep instrumentals, Creasy reached a point where selling out vinyl units was the norm - built off name alone. From 2018 to present, John Creasy has dropped a barrage of releases and has written guest verses at an even more impressive rate, all of which had been under the Umbrella brand. In the past four years he has released over a dozen projects; a mixture of both LPs and EPs; ranging from works with Jamal Gasol, Wavy Da Ghawd, Ol' Man 80ozz, to the Unity Park producer Prxspect. A rapid fire release schedule that is only appropriate for this brand of underground rap. His latest vinyl drop; a deluxe edition to his 2018 project Power with producer Enrichment, is out through I Had An Accident Records, a label which has consistently released vinyl for artists within this new wave. The album, with bold and hardened artwork by C Dyer will undoubtably sell out as his other releases on the label have. Creasy has, at this point, solidified himself as a significant contribution to the rap renaissance. To Creasy however, his work is not over. Recently, John Creasy announced that he would be departing with the Umbrella brand but made it clear he wished to continue to push forward and further his own name within the industry. For Creasy, there's a more important mission at stake. Recognizing that his artistic output has had impact, there's a sense of urgency to 'put on' for his hood and do bigger and greater things. It's a big weight on my shoulders. I think of that every day. I want my hood to be a legendary spot in my city. Where one day I can go back and they may have a mural put up of me out there. So, I feel a big pressure and I want people to understand when I do my music, where it comes from, where I grew up and all the lessons I learned and everything. So, it's definitely a big weight on my shoulders. I think about that shit all the time when I do music. I feel like I've been a good representative. But there's still more work to do. I'm definitely not done yet. But as a representative of where I'm from, and where I grew up at? I feel like I'm doing a hell of a job of that right now. There's nobody that grew up with me, or grew up in my area, ever been on Shade45 before, just building relationships off of this music. Unity Park is my heart. I believe in that shit with every pump of my heart. Every breathe I take is always Unity Park. For me to be able to put on for my city, that's a major accomplishment for me. Once it does happen. Last year, the emcee wrote the Prxspect produced 'Unity Park' for much of these reasons. Creasy remarks that "when I do music, I don't want people to get it confused. I like to let people know where I'm from. Where my upbringing is from.' To Creasy, he figured the song would let himself 'paint a picture' of his childhood residence, to give fans a vantage point, some context, for the lyrics he raps. 'When I got that beat from Prxspect, to me, it talked. The horns on there, the loud rock joint, the drums, everything talked. It was Unity Park.' The song features video shot and directed by Nova Vision and was released on March 27 2021 on the Paka the Plug YouTube channel. Much like the story of Unity Park itself, John Creasy's story has come full circle. Today, he's able to return to Unity Park with love, support and a feeling of youthful nostalgia. 'It's a good feeling. Even though it don't look the same, it's still that same feeling. I get a warmth in my heart. I feel comfortable there,' he reflects. Through every lyric and every action, John Creasy is a product of Unity Park and the failures of the Americanized process of urban renewal. The struggles reflected on by Baldwin, or scholars like Sugrue and Rothstein, have renewed themselves in the twenty-first century and will be remembered in time through the stories of those that endured and the art that they create. John Creasy, is that art. It effects it a lot. How I grew up. The lessons I was taught. The shit that I've seen. The shit that I've done. The people that I've been around. The lessons that got talked to me. Looking up to my older brothers, my older cousins, I got taught a lot of game living there. If I didn't grow up there, I'm not saying I wouldn't have been a rapper, but my presence, my cadence on a track? Everything comes from me growing up in Unity Park. I'm very much thankful to Cecilia, Kevin and Richard at the Niagara Falls Public Library, Jeff at the Book Corner, John Creasy, as well as Ashley and Mike of Niagara who agreed to be interviewed for the article. The Origins Of Urban Crisis by Thomas Sugrue - https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691162553/the-origins-of-the-urban-crisis The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein - https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/ Housing Act of 1949 - https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-10349/pdf/COMPS-10349.pdf Blacks in Niagara Falls: Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985 by Michael B. Boston - https://sunypress.edu/Books/B/Blacks-in-Niagara-Falls2 "Falls Planning Board Approves Unity Park After Public Hearing [March 23, 1971]" by Laura Winchester for Niagara Falls Gazette via Niagara Public Library. "Unity Park II: Complex Problems" by Rick Pfeiffer via Niagara Gazette - https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/unity-park-ii-complex-problem/article_9f4d704d-776c-5300-9bf9-18351454778a.html John Creasy Photo by 1000words - https://www.instagram.com/p/CeG3i8VL9or/?hl=en Power (Deluxe) by John Creasy x - https://ihadanaccidentrecords.com/album/power-deluxe-edition C Dyer Artwork - https://www.facebook.com/CDyerArtDesign

There's a lot to be said about Canada's presence in the hip-hop landscape this past year. On one hand, the Toronto camp of Daniel Son, Futurewave, Asun Eastwood, Finn and others have been steadily gaining notoriety south of the border and making waves in the dominant underground hip-hop thread of the culture. At the same time, new movements from the likes of Raz Fresco and BKRSCLB are beginning to solidify; terraforming their roster from 6th Letter, Brisk and Raz to a powerhouse of some of the most creative and promising emcees the country has to offer. Montreal's Nicholas Craven has continued his run with projects from the usual suspects in Fahim, Mach-Hommy and Droog, but has furthered his position in the game with the joint Fair Exchange No Robbery with Griselda's Boldy James. It wasn't a bad year for Canadian hip-hop royalty either. Toronto's Thrust released Broken Arrow as well as Like It's 1994, both under a new moniker "Thrust OG" and entirely produced by BoFaat. Saskatoon Folk Rap Records have continued the Prairie rap tradition with releases from Rove, a fun music sampler and the long overdue re-release of 8:30 in Newfoundland by Epic. Moka Only continues to fail his retirement efforts by giving us project after project. This year Moke gave us the vaulted Summer 2002 Vol. 2 as well as the next installment in his Martian Christmas series Martian XMAS 2022. Perhaps the biggest surprised-return this year was Buck 65, a staple in Halifax hip-hop lore who's been absent in recent years. In 2022, he released three projects. One of which, he teamed up with Tachichi for their collaborative Flash Granade album; giving Tachichi an album with both Sebutones artists in the past few years (the Sixtoo joint was old material, never released). Additionally, Buck 65 put out The Last Dig with Canadian legend Birdapres. Lastly, Buck's solo joint King of Drums is exactly what you'd expect from Buck 65; 21 tracks without track-names and just as odd and adventurous as he's ever been. Hand'Solo Records, URBNET and Black Buffalo have continued to supply the demand of the Canadian sound and giving a viable home to much of the indie rap scene that has defined Canada's since before the turn of the century. From The Dirty Sample, Mickey O'Brien, Primal Winds, Ambeez x Uncle Fester, Ghettosocks x DK, DJ Moves, Fresh Kils, and Moshiri of Sweatshop Union to two albums from Swamp Thing. Peanuts and Corn have also made an impact, with mcenroe dropping multiple projects and Pip Skid releasing his album, A Really Nice Day with mcenroe on the boards. We cannot end this discussion without acknowledging that Backburner has delivered their third studio album release with Hand'Solo Records, Continuum. Dropping earlier in the year, the Canadian supergroup features: Thesis Sahib, Jesse Dangerously, Ghettosocks, Toolshed, Wordburglar, More or Les, Ambition, Fresh Kils, Frank Deluxe, Savillion, Ginzu and Mister E. If you've never heard of Backburner, they've been around from the early 2000s and represent much of what the East Coast hip-hop scene has been since their formation. Now scattered across the country, crew albums are rare. Continuum is a record many have been waiting for. Lastly, this is my list. Of course, these things have some subjective qualities to them. I'm a supporter and a fan of Canadian hip-hop and I hope that a list like this puts people on and celebrates what we have. My intent is not to divide. A note on the list: Canada has a wide array of hip-hop artists; producers, rappers and DJs. I've decided to allow entries onto the list which only reflect Canada in one part of the record. Essentially, if a Canadian is named in the artist credits, then it qualifies. This means that projects like DNTE and Onaje Jordan's, African Medallions can feature despite it being produced by Chicago native Onaje Jordan. This also means that Your Old Droog and Nicholas Craven's, YOD Wave can see inclusion, as Craven, the beatsmith, is from Montreal. Oh, and lastly, alphabetical by project name. Sorry but not sorry. Listen to them all. It's worth it. African Medallions DNTE x Onaje Jordan This year I've grown to love cats like Hus Kingpin, Willie Da Kid and Smoovth who all have adopted this laid back, pimpish, cigar smoking rap music modelled after cats like Roc Marciano. Unfortunately, the criminal fate of hip-hop culture has led to a severe lack of appreciation for Toronto's addition to this camp: DNTE. DNTE, previously Al-Sham from the group Al-Sham and KP (they released Street Visions in 1999, check it out) has been on a roll the last handful of years with some of my favourite cuts. This time he links up with producer extraordinaire Onaje Jordan for a full album. Conscious street rap with that suave persona that I have grown to love. Don't miss this. And add DNTE to your list of favourites, his back catalog is well worth exploration. A Really Nice Day Pip Skid Mcenroe and Pip Skid are back together for a whole album. What's not to love? Or hate? The grumpy but comical Pip Skid is an absolute gem as always. The album starts off with the title track "A Really Nice Day" with a hook that chants 'What a shitty day,' but hey, at least he's white. None of these guys take them themselves too seriously. Peanuts and Corn never really has. These aren't street dudes, but they are mad hip-hop lovers and fun and quirky personalities that you just grow to love. It's hard to sell this with an honest description, but out of all of these albums? This might be my favourite release of the year on a Canadian tip. Listen to this, and enjoy the little Farm Fresh reunion we got on our hands. As the Crow Flies Futurewave x Daniel Son x 36 Cypher I had never heard of 36 Cypher before this album. Hell Sweet Home was released elsewhere in the year also entirely produced by Futurewave, however, As the Crow Flies with the wav.god staple Daniel Son, is easily the preferred project of the two. Songs like "Riot" and "PTSD" are some of the hardest anthems of the year. If you like dirty, grimy, and sludgy hip-hop. This is what you need to listen to next. Apocalyptic gutter rap and my favourite joint from all three personalities this year. Blood on the Bills UFO Fev x Finn Step aside Futurwave! You are no longer such an anomaly in the Toronto production space. Finn has been on the rise in the coming years working with the same cast of characters as his contemporaries: Asun Eastwood, Lord Juco, Daniel Son, Family Gang Black, etc. Recently however, his name has expanded. This year he dropped with HWY 308, UFO Fev and his Gold Era brethren Saipher Soze and Sibbs Roc and he's already planning an upcoming release with Umbrella's Snotty in the new year. Out of all of these, Blood on the Bills stands out. A modern staple in underground hip-hop, Fev delivers some of his most polished verses yet as he continues to build as a song writer. This is a standout of the year even outside of a Canadian context. Listen to it. Bokleen World Mike Shabb I heard a lot about Mike Shabb this year and it took the release of Bokleen World to finally pull the trigger and check him out. This is something special. From the jump, the track "JB Speaks (RIP)" cements the audiences comfort. You're in good hands here, this is going to be quality. And it is. Features from Raz Fresco and Chung, this is poetic, adventurous boom bap. For fans of Mach Hommy, Raz Fresco, and something brand new. You'll become a fan of the emcee after first listen. I certainly did. Mike Shabb might just end up being Canada's next star in this thing. He's THAT good. The Bush Doctor Daniel Son Two projects with Futurewave. An EP with MichaelAngelo, an LP with Kostia AND a solo album? Yep, Daniel Son absolutely buried another year. The Bush Doctor represents growth for Daniel Son's discography. As an emcee known for the grimiest beats and rhymes known to date, this album shows maturity in beat selection and a new brand of confidence for the emcee. Even the album cover is proof that Daniel Son is confident in his brand, departing from the imagery of his genre in place for a collage of his personal life. Tracks like "Don Sonzarelli" show the Toronto emcee experiment with new patterns and backdrops, while songs like "Cartel Wheels" with Eto show you that Daniel Son is still the dude you fell in love with. Because that's the thing, this album may show maturity, but it's not an overt departure from his sound - this album is GRIMY. There's no mistaking. I'm excited to see the direction he goes for 2023. That BBM shit! Burgonomic Wordburglar If you're not already up on the Wordburglar, then you should change that. It may sound silly, but it's rooted in a real authentic hip-hop aesthetic. And hey, there's nothing wrong with a bit of silliness. Wordburglar is one that just gets better with time. I first heard this album deep into a chess game at the house. Rapid chess immerses you in the tangled adventure of the board, when the Buck 65 joint "Wordburglair" kicked in, we both looked up from the board and smiled. The song had changed the setting of the game. That may not resonate with anyone, but it's a huge compliment, trust me. This whole album sparked frisson from beginning to end. Fantastic, fun and just really really dope music. Wordburglar is always creative with the concepts and rhymes, this is no exception. Just give it a listen, become a fan. Burial Plots x Pyramid Schemes IM'PERETIV IM'PERETIV has been on a run ever since he released "Bricks" and later Under the Scope with Benny and Rick Hyde. These were some of the hardest anthems of 2021, both of which made it onto his 2022 solo producer album Burial Plots x Pyramid Schemes. This is no joke. Hard hitting rhymes from the likes of Daniel Son, Falcon Outlaw, Pro Dillinger, Starz Coleman, Asun Eastwood, Benny and more. If you're looking for a new beatsmith to add to your favourites, look no further. He also dropped an album with Chayna Ashley during the year called The Precedent. You don't want to miss these. The Complex Asun Eastwood x Wavy Da Ghawd Asun Eastwood released two albums this year that got heavy rotation on my end. This, and the new album with DJ Merciless and Benny the Butcher (I need to return to Don't Reach). That's right, Asun Eastwood did a joint with Benny this year. Well, kinda. Benny's not on the title, but Benny's on 7 of the 12 songs. Anyhow, check that too, but this album with Wavy Da Ghawd is maybe my favourite joint that Asun has ever put out. Features from Rigz, Smoovth, Rim, Daniel Son should give you a hint of what we're getting. The grimy, twisting beats by Wavy Da Ghawd are exactly what the recipe called for. Favourite joint off here is "Fish Fry" with Daniel Son. Peep it. Continuum Backburner Backburner returns in 2022! It feels like we've been waiting for Continuum for ages. As Canada's largest collective matures, they've become swampier! Slightly darker, slightly more moody, but the personalities still carry that throw-back boom bap fun that Backburner has always fucked with. Favourite cut on here is "Mystery Machine" with the Thesis hook or maybe "Press Eject"... or maybe all of it. Have fun with this one, it was worth the wait. Craven N' 3 Nicholas Craven I missed this when it was first released. Thank god for mid-year lists because I was quickly made aware of this gem. The Montreal producer has become a favourite in recent years for his work with Ransom, Droog, God Fahim and Mach-Hommy. Well, here is the third installment of his producer album series. No skips. It starts off with a Stove God solo track. Can we wish for more? This is my favourite producer (non instrumental) album of the year; with Buckwild's Diggin in the Tuff Kong Crates being a relatively close second. As Stove God says... 'We wonnnnnnnnnnn.' This is Craven's victory lap. Ducking Indictments HWY 308 x Finn I never heard of HWY 308 before this release. Later in the year he dropped the S As in Slime EP with Jesse Green Beats which was also dope, but this Finn release is MAD dope. From the jump this is some of the hardest music of 2022. HWY 308 made me an instant fan the first 30 seconds of the album and he's someone I'll be checking for in 2023. 20 minutes, features from Juco and Asun Eastwood. You're in for a treat. Gold Era. Eight Quarters Bigmcenroe Ft. Yy Yy and mcenroe! Or shall I we say bigmcenroe... This is great. Fun throwback boom bap hip-hop, all dope. For real, Peanuts and Corn makes some of the best music. And maybe this is a controversial take, but I think these cats are getting better? Yy's second run of albums since An Uneven Eleven has been absolutely top notch, and I can say the same for mcenroe. Burnt Orange might be my favourite mcenroe release and that's way late into his career. This album holds up to both of those modern Canadian classics. Every song is golden but my favourite cuts are "Compound Interest" and "Carry the One," both with Yy. ePIFFany The 6th Letter & ALS I've been a fan of 6th Letter for a minute now and ALS has been a staple producer in the BKRSCLB camp for some time. This LP however, blew me away. This might be my favourite BKRSCLB release yet, and that includes all of Raz Fresco's discography. The song "Too Much" is quite possibly my most listened to song of 2022. If you haven't heard it, stop this, and check it out. Classic boom bap hip-hop but made by perfected songwriters. This BKRSCLB is more than just Raz Fresco, and this proves it. Say they got drip but it ain't the same fluid. Fair Exchange No Robbery Boldy James x Nicholas Craven Boldy back at it again! He released four albums last year, and although Fair Exchange No Robbery is not exactly my favourite of the bunch, it's undoubtably one of the biggest looks for Canada this year. The cut back, soulful production stands out amongst a discography of hard Alchemist and Real Bad Man beats. Instead, Nicholas Craven elevates Boldy's position on the mic. The melancholy backdrop emphasizes the pain in every syllable the emcee spits.. There's something special about this one. True art. "Stuck in Traffic" is my favourite track. That vocal chop? A+. Grim Day Allah Preme x Uncle Fester Allah Preme had one hell of a year in 2022. Releasing dozens of projects and dumping more music on the culture than Tha God Fahim in 2017. Two of those projects were produced by Nova Scotia beatmaker and DJ Uncle Fester. Fester, known best for his role in the Backburner collective, also produced albums for Ambeez and Swamp Thing this year, but his work with Allah Preme stands out. Not only is it a departure for Fester into a new terrain of underground rap, but it's one of Allah Preme's best albums of the year. And that says a lot. Grim Night A.P. Da Overlord (Allah Preme) x Uncle Fester Where to begin. This is the follow up to Grim Day earlier in the year. Preme and Fester are a match made in heaven and a great look for both artists. "String Beans" with TYRNT is one of my favourite cuts of the year, so is "Grim Night," also with TYRNT. So is "Ice Tea" with Indigo Phoenyx. Damn, another stellar project from AP Da Overlord and Halifax's Uncle Fester. Pure excellence. Do a deep dive into both of these cats' discographies and you'll see two vastly different careers, but you'll find a ton of new gems. Do it, you're welcome. Griptape Gritfall Another new addition to BKRSCLB. Where to begin? This cat is young but one of the nicest you'll find. Remember that feeling when we first heard 1999 by Joey Badass and it felt special? Like who was this KID who had that 90's sound so authentically, but pressing for mainstream attention? Gritfall feels that exciting. Without perhaps the commercial push of Joey, Griptape is a debut album to be proud of. Super jazzy, dusty production handled by Raz Fresco and Eric Right. This cat is nice. As an emcee, Gritfall is promising. I'm excited to see the directions he takes and I can't help but encourage that exploration. BKRSCLB is really onto something. Always. Marvelous! Her Loss Drake x 21 Savage This might be my first Drake project I ever truly loved. I heard the first four songs of this joint when it was released on my way home from campus. I was loving what I heard but had to pause it. By the time I would have resumed the album, I had been inundated with reviews and opinions on the joint which all claimed that the album got wack after the first four songs, complaining that there wasn't enough 21. Well, it took me nearly a month to listen to the rest of those joints due to that feedback, and I'm left dumbfounded by the response. I never knew I wanted anything from Drake, but apparently, this is what I needed. Drake is talking shit on here and actually sounds good doing it. Did Drake have more shine than 21? Sure, but did Drake out perform 21? He sure did. This was a Drake album and it was for the best in my books. If Not Now Rove Oh damn, this was cool. A producer album from Rove that flew completely under the radar. A fun, diverse collection of interesting ideas. 2Mex, Subtitle, AWOL One, Sole, Jihad the Roughneck MC, Epic, Megabusive... Real gems on here by a cast of absolute legends of indie rap. My favourite cut on here is "Pieces of Blue" with Epic. BTW, Epic also re-released his 8:30 for Newfoundland tape this year. Check that out too. Desperately waiting for a new Epic LP over here. I'll take another from Rove too. Saskatoon Folk Rap, pay attention. The Introduction EP Axel & E.J. The Introduction to two new cats from BKRSCLB. Stepping into Toronto underground royalty is big shoes, but these cats, and Gritfall have all nailed it. This is 6 songs, full of creativity, and DOPE hip-hop. Raz comes in on the intro "Macatia" with perhaps my favourite Raz Fresco verse of the year. "Tonight" with Mike Shabb, and "Liminal Sound" are some of my favourites. Oh and "GODAMN" too with Kevin Na$h. I like this whole thing, it's 10 minutes, add it to your list. And follow BKRSCLB. They are not disappointing and are ACTIVELY expanding their roster. Raz seems down to track down the illest talent. No idea where he finds em, but he does. Life and Times of BriskInTheHouse BriskInTheHouse Apparently Brisk is out of BKRSCLB. But that shouldn't stop you from following the dude. BriskInTheHouse is continuing a strong run of releases with the Slick Rick inspired cover Life and Times of BriskInTheHouse. Produced partly by Raz and partly by Max Melanin, a producer which I was not familiar with prior. This dude is clearly inspired by Dilla and embraces the chaos on the beats - but is waaay dustier and filthy. Brisk sounds dope on here and there are a lot of highlights for a short run project. 26 Minutes, with my favourite cut being "Aloha" with The 6th Letter. The MacGuffin Device Wordburglar More Wordburglar! Are you familiar with Ugly Duckling? The rap group with Dizzy Dustin and Andy that was on Fatbeats in the late 90s early 2000s? That quirky, fun, silly yet boom bap and authentically hip-hop group? Yeah, Wordburglar is like that, but way more eccentric, and he embraces both ends of the spectrum. The McGuffin Device might even be better than Burgonomic. Actually, I think it is. This album is loud, bombastic, energized and epic. With the same witty rhymes that Wordburglar is known for. Unapologetically Burgie, someone should give this man his flowers. Favourite cuts are "Input Blitz," "Barter in Nostalgia" and "Verbserker." All with DJ Irate, who laced numerous cuts on the record. Magnetic Raz Fresco MARVELOUS! This is a thing of beauty. Years in the making, this exclusive piece of vinyl was unlocked only for those who had purchased Magneto Was Right volumes 1-9 through Tuff Kong Records, with each piece representing a puzzle piece with all nine forming together like Voltron. Magnetic however is more than simply a sum of its parts. The 13 song LP is entirely new, and works as both a celebration of the series to date, as well as a continuation of the grind that brought Raz to this point. This is an exemplar piece of art and is exactly what we can expect from the BKRSCLB unit. Mr. Ten08 Boldy James x Futurewave Boldy! Futurewave appears elsewhere on this list, but can we take a moment to appreciate Boldy's adoption of Canadian talent this year? Between the projects with Futurewave and Nicholas Craven, Boldy James has legitimized a Canadian production scene in an impactful way. Heads were aware of Futurewave before, especially with his work with Rome Streetz for both Razor's Edge and Headcrack - but despite the underground's fandom, nothing yet has quite competed with the level of notoriety and weight that Boldy James carries. Maybe the Pitchfork fans will start eyeing the Toronto scene now, we'll see. Anyhow, this album is great and is my second favourite Boldy album of the year (behind the Real Bad Man Joint.) Hard beats and hard raps, delivered in the typical monotone fashion that Boldy has been celebrated for. Futurewave also laced this with some of his most colorful and eccentric beats yet. Pam Grier's Kids DJ Moves Another full length Moves produced album. One of the most impressive discographies for any producer in hip-hop and Moves is still killing it in 2022, some thirty plus years after his beginnings in Hip Club Groove. A lot of diversity on here, but a LOT of greatness. Just dope shit. The Blaq Poet track "Loyalty" is a standout of the year, plus we get some classic Stinkin' Rich material on "StankinSpechledSocks" with Jeff Spec and Ghettosocks. Also, Governor Bolts! When's the new Bolts album coming? I want that. Great album, and my favourite thing from Moves of the year. Pocket Operations Raz Fresco I first heard the instrumentals to this joint and didn't realize there was another version with Raz on the mic. This thing was entirely made with a Pocket Operator, a drum machine that literally looks like a calculator. I thought the novelty of the gimmick was interesting enough to check it out but was instantly surprised when I started hearing some of my favourite beats that Raz has produced. Creativity at a high. The fact that Raz is a fan of cats like Dibiase, shows on this album. All this said, listen to the OG version with raps. Raz carries the 18 songs with just two guest verses. One of which being a particular favourite from Lord Juco on "Toothpaste." Fantastic. Check it. BKRSCLB. Son Tzu and the Wav.God Daniel Son x Futurewave This started the year off. We don't often get this kind of stellar material the first few weeks of the year, but Son Szu and the Wav.God was an exception to that rule. Daniel Son and Futurewave were back at it again. This got overshadowed I think by Bush Doctor later in the year, but this is arguably even more of a highlight. "Field Trips" with Rome Streetz, "Death & Taxes" with Pro Dillinger and "Stove Dance" are strong takeaways for the year. Yet another high-quality release in the discographies of both artists. The best rap music out of Toronto you can hope for. Supervillain Team Up: Injustice for All New Villain x Onaje Jordan One of my favourite discoveries of the year was New Villain. A recently established part of High Heat Records alongside Falcon Outlaw - New Villain has proven this year that he is hungry and willing to compete with the rest of them. Joining forces with Onaje Jordan is a good look. Not only is Jordan's production exciting and as hard hitting as ever, but the brand of Onaje Jordan brings the necessary weight and credibility to a project such as this. Along with dope art work, I think this album introduced many to what New Villain has to offer. Other albums from the emcee this year included Evil Flowers in Full Bloom, Exquisite Villainry (a stand out), and Supreme Villainz. Don't sleep on this cat. He's here to stay. Velvet Hammer Saipher Soze x Sibbs Roc Don't let Finn's uprising shade the quality of his Gold Era brethren Sibbs Roc. Roc and Slang Hugh are among the great producers of this new wave of underground rap and are often overlooked by heads. Not no more. Sibbs Roc did two projects with Saipher Soze this year. This album, as well as the EP Tres with the help of Finn. Saipher Soze, a member of Brown Bag Money, is also not to be underestimated. Long time collaborator with Daniel Son, Soze's production pallet is typically slugdy hard drums and dark sample pallets. This album on the other hand, is a complete 180. Think what Finn did with Lord Juco. This is a bit more jazzy, a bit more soulful, but Soze's voice has weight on the mic. This is heavy music. If you're a fan of Guilty Simpson, Daniel Son, and Big Twins, check this. A favourite of the year no doubt. YOD Wave Your Old Droog x Nicholas Craven Droog has followed in the tradition of the Dump Gods this year by releasing five albums in the YOD series; The Yodfather, Yodney Dangerfield, YOD Stewart, YOD Presents: The Shining and lastly, YOD Wave. Although Nicholas Craven is present on a majority of these releases, YOD Wave is the only album of the five that is entirely crafted by one producer. Easily my favourite of the series; Craven supplies Droog with these calm and reflective piano loops that sound good in any environment. The features add to this elegance with cats like Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim. Game also has a track on here with "Purple Rain Freestyle." My favourite cuts include "Scooby Snacks," "Lost Love" and "Body Right, Mind Right." No skips. 18 Minutes. All dope. This will be remembered as a hidden gem among the ever-growing library of Canadian rap in years to come. words by Alex Kuchma https://alexkuchma.com/

INNERVIEW 019 was conducted by Jameka in August 2022 following the release of OQ’s recent project ‘94. The interview is truly an inner view of the artist, his creations, processes and community that helped create a soulful ode to the Northside Houston community of Acres Homes. After a year in the tuck INNERVIEW 019 has surfaced right in time for the one year anniversary of ‘94. | CROWNTHEM ENT. x SDE. I really enjoyed ‘94 and wanted to learn more about it and about your artistic process. Yeah, for sure. It definitely was a process for me, and definitely was something that I had to dig deep to correlate. I could feel that because it's a very soulful project - from every aspect, from your production to the skits that you chose, the little clips and your hooks and your verses, it's so soulful. Yeah, that's the feeling I definitely want to give. What was your process? What I was mainly trying to do was kind of really reiterate my last project, which was Do or Die. It was kind of like, I guess you can kind of say my debut album. It was my first big album, a long project that I did, and I just felt like it was a lot of dated songs that I had that were great songs, but it didn't feel new to me when I dropped it, so I kind of wanted to do something fresh. I want to do something with a storyline or more of a perspective all the way through. Each song kind of, like, takes you to a different corner of my life. And that's kind of how I tried to write the songs and produce the beats and just really paint a picture. That’s the reason I chose my album art. It was me painting a picture with my words, and you see that with the album art as well. Yeah, that's one of my favorite aspects; how it all syncs up like that. I saw the album art, I was like, okay, cool. This is some cool art, you know what I'm saying? And then you go through the song titles and you go through the different stories that you're telling in each song, and it all aligns with that album art. Like the “O-Lan O” and the “Acres Homes” and all that. It's all there. I thought that was really creative on your end. Yeah, and I'm really big on my community. I'm really big on, like I said, storytelling and where I come from, because I think your influences help you get to whatever point in life that you're trying to get. So the things that I was able to experience, good and bad, had a lot to do with my community. I try to kind of bring that side to the light. I try to bring it with me. And a lot of rappers do it. They talk about where they're from and whatever, but that's one of the biggest things I want to do with me getting bigger and getting on a bigger platform. I want to shed more light on my community because when it comes to music in Houston, it's never a big thing for the Northside of Houston to be a picture of music. Everything is more so the Southside. You see a lot of the bigger artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Travis Scott and even the Geto Boys, everybody's from the Southside. So it's never been, I guess, a national superstar from the Northside of Houston. I just kind of keep that in my mind as I continue my journey. I see where you're going with it - that's important. What was it like for you growing up in Acres Homes? It's pretty much a typical low income community/neighborhood or project, you know what I'm saying? A lot of poverty and lower class families. But from my day to day, like I said on a lot of songs, like “O-Lan O,” is kind of like a staple in my community, which is like a meat market, a grocery store, and even like a fast food spot. I also have a song called “Will-Be-Force” and that’s like a play on the street name Wilburforce, which is right across from O-Lan O. Those things remind me of what it was like growing up as a kid and my early childhood stages being with my uncle and he let us run free. We started off on one street and by the end of the night, we done hit six streets. We was just running around Acres Home and taking in the community. We would start at one of my cousin's house then we'll leave and go to another cousin's house and then we'll end up being at somebody else’s. It's really just being all over Acres Homes and being in every place we could. Because in every hood or in every city, a certain part of a neighborhood could be a clique. You have certain parts of Acres Homes where other parts of Acres Homes don't like that side. I've been in all those territories and all those places to where I'm more of a neutral person, a lot of people know me and vice versa. I still play ball with a lot of them to this day. I've never really been a gang member or anything, but it was, and is, always just the ultimate love and respect between myself and a lot of them. When you're a kid, obviously you don't really understand hood politics and all of that stuff. But as I grew older, I kind of started to understand the culture of that “clique lifestyle.” I guess you could say there's nothing about lifestyle that I was really into or was able to get drawn into. I guess you could say everything that I did, I was just around the right people at the right time. It's so easy to get influenced and do the wrong thing, I understood that we walked a very thin line and one slip left could’ve changed my life completely. But yeah, I could say really just hanging out, whether it was playing sports or being at the park with my family, that’s what influenced and guided me. I know that was a big thing in Acres Home in the 90s and I was also born in 1994, hence the project being called ‘94. So I'm just playing off of those 90s vibes at the park. Everybody, all the cousins at the park and playing chase and football, that's the vibe that the project gives me and that's how I try to kind of reiterate it without having to go back to the actual sound. But I'm giving you that feeling at the same time. How did your community receive the project? I think for my inner circle, I think it definitely was received well. A lot of people, even in my family, were astounded to hear themselves in my songs or me dropping their name in a line or something. It's almost like they're famous or something. But as far as outside of my circle, people that I wouldn't even expect to were liking it. Because my sound is so Hip Hop, I'll be honest, a lot of people in my community really wouldn’t gravitate or run to that sound. A lot of people tell me I sound like Cassidy when I rap. That's an interesting comparison. And I feel that I was in high school, even when I was freestyling on the bus on the way to the basketball games, people would say, you sound like Cassidy. And I never just really took it as a slight because I've always known Cassidy as a rapper you know what I'm saying? Real MC. Right? But it's not the sound that's popular in my city or in my community. But you have to respect what I'm saying. When I play a song for somebody like “Fire” off of my project, it's like it might not be a song that you can turn up and party to, but when you turn it on you can see that I really write, you know what I'm saying? So they can kind of tell the difference between what I'm doing and I guess what they listen to on a daily basis. But I guess that's just how it is, everybody listening to it. A lot of people always say that, like the people in your city not going to mess with your music until somebody else in another city or other places give you that stamp. But, I mean, I think it's working this way around. Like people still hit me up to this day and be like, “yeah, I checked out that one song, or I checked out the album and I liked it.” I mean, it does pretty well. It does well. But, you know it's still a sound that's unfamiliar to the people in the culture because everything that's from Houston is slowed down. That’s the popular sound down here. But of course, you have other people that listen to the trap music and the turn up and all that. And even that is something that I dabbled in, I can't lie. I have a project called 25 Summers that's more so in that area. Hip Hop is my core. That's what I want to be noticed for. And I also make beats, so whatever sound that I'm making is kind of what I'm going with at the time. It just happens to come out that way. Yeah, that was another aspect of the project that I really enjoyed - hearing the clips of different people from [I'm assuming] they're like, dear family and friends. And there was one, I think it was on, like, “Riles Corner (Interlude by Kay.)” I thought that was a really cool interlude that served as a reflection or an ode to Acres Homes, geography wise, content wise, story wise – and so for her, she's breaking down, like, how to get somewhere these directions over by and it just gave the project so much more authenticity and played into the theme even more. I'm curious - how did you gather those clips? Were they random[?], planned? Well, that’s something that I always wanted to know, and Kay is my mom and whenever you ask a question that's like back in the day or historic question she knows everything about it. I dedicated a song to her on the project too called “December 8th.” So at that time, when I actually knew I could kind of get something for ‘94, I really wanted her to kind of narrate the project without narrating the project. I started getting clips of her talking and rambling about these facts about Acres Homes. I asked her about our family and the neighborhood and that’s when she started talking about [Riles Corner], which was a corner in Acres Homes that her dad's brother, her uncle, owned. So we had a corner in Acres Homes that our family owned. It had all of the stores and she was just telling me about the history of it and I was like, man, that's amazing. I actually drive by that place often, [Riles Corner,] to go get my haircut. She was telling me about it and how it's abandoned or whatever, and I was telling her how it was a goal of mine, [that once I made it] I wanted to buy that piece of land back, start some kind of business or something along those lines. She was just giving me the inside scoop on it, and was telling me what family member was running it and who was running the shop and how it came about. It was just like a piece of my history and a piece of Acres Homes history as well, so it made sense. And then right after that, of course, you got the song “The Corner.” So I kind of try to do those things like that to kind of, like you said, give it more an authentic feel, you know what I'm saying? Taking the music in a different view. To hear you say that, I really felt like I did what I was trying to do. You know, got the job done on that. Yeah, you did an amazing job. And I like it even more [after this interview,] I know for sure I'm going to go run it back again because talking to you about it, it's lifting some layers for me to be able to see it in a different light as well. I know that you produced and wrote the whole thing. What is your process with being the producer and the writer? Do your beats come first / does your hook come first? Tell me more about that. It’s definitely an interesting process, but I kind of let it flow naturally. What I would do is I would sit down with an idea of what I'm trying to do and start there. A lot of people would say, okay, I want a song called this or that. The name of my tracks probably come after the verse is written or the hook is written. And as far as beats, it's just whatever feels right at that moment. A lot of times when I'm making beats, I never try to force it. If I like it, I would loop it up enough so I could write to it and not fully make the beat. I just make a partial version of the beat and then I'll put that beat on my phone, and as I'm going out throughout my week, like when I'm going to work, coming from work or on the weekends, wherever I'm riding to, that's when I normally finish my verses. My writing process reminds me of something I said on one of my songs. I'm running through these lines, trying to write this song. I kind of use that to get everything out. I might experience something on the drive. I might be driving through Acres Home. The process is always different for every song and that's the unique thing about it. Because listening to every song, I can think back on the process. I was at this place or I was going through this light or I stopped hard at this red light when I was writing this song. It’s very unique and it's very different. But I find that's where I get better verses and my best songs. When it comes to things like that, I can't just sit down and write a verse. It’s very rare when I do that, I have to just be stuck in that mode. But most of the time I have to take the song with me. I have to really get out. I have to ride around. I have to see things, experience things. And then that's how it all comes together. I hear the process is different for everybody. I guess it's my unique process and how I do it. Do you ever battle or have challenges with your process? You mean as far as writer's block? Yeah. Or just like, thinking or assuming that maybe it would come to you in a different way than it did? Yeah, definitely. I think “Power of Prayer” was like that. When I'm doing what I just told you, the process I have, and it’s just flowing out, it’s all good. Then sometimes I have to adjust that process. I know what I want this song to be about. I know I need to rap to this, I just have to figure out how to get it out. And sometimes when I write a verse, it's not the IT verse. Sometimes I have to be like, I'm going to record that and then I'm probably going to change it, because I need to see where to take this. Every song that I put on ‘94, I wouldn't go back and change a thing. I felt like I said everything I needed to say and didn’t waste any bars. I don't want to be like, I should have said this or that after the fact. Everything was a permanent feeling. So that's kind of how, like you said, if it's not giving me that feeling, I can’t be satisfied with that... I have to make sure that it's the right word, right flow, right cadence, right pocket, things like that. So sometimes it calls for adjustments, but like I said, it's just I might have to do one or two things differently and then I'll get the final result that I expect from myself. It's always so interesting hearing how different artists persevere and make it happen. If someone comes up to you and asks you [like they ain't heard your music before,] and they ask you, how would you describe your sound? Hip Hop. I would ask, do they like Hip Hop. There’s music connoisseurs, one of my closest friends, my business partner, Vo, and he's a music connoisseur. He probably has a sound that he keeps in his pocket permanently, but he listens to everything so I respect his opinion.. If I can make a song or project or whatever and it moves him in a certain way, then I know it's something special because he takes in music in a different way than the average person. So that’s what I would ask somebody, you know, what's the sound you prefer? You know what I'm saying? Cause I'm more of a backpack/boom bap Hip Hop type of person. Like, I listen to Young Thug and Future and other big name artists, but that's just not traditional Hip Hop in my opinion, even though it’s hard. When it comes down to the sound that I produce, that's what you're going to get. A lot of people compare me to like Kendrick Lamar or J. Cole and they call it conscious or whatever, but that's what I'm going to make the best out of. I can make a song that you’d want to hear in a club or party, hard 808s and high hats, but you're not going to get a better song than me making a song on a real Hip Hop beat. So that's just what I tried to tell myself. Like, yeah, that's the popular sound right now and everybody wants to listen to that, but you can make that song and be considered somebody riding a wave or you can do this sound that not everyone gravitates to, which also happens to be what you're great at. That's probably how I have to explain it to them. I have that unpopular Hip Hop sound right now. So, if you want something that you can, you know what I'm saying, just vibe out to, then I have songs that's more up-tempo and it's not just all in your head music. But then I also have things that you got to really listen to and it stands the test of time. Art always caught me, Lil Wayne Jay-Z, people that use a lot of metaphors in their songs and like triple or double entendres. That's something that always caught my attention, because in order to understand it, you had to really listen. That’s one of the biggest things that really got me into rapping, to being able to do that. Because my favorite subject in school was always reading and writing. So it was always something that I was able to correlate with the music I love. That kind of leads me to my next question. I love to ask - when you were creating this, what was your intake? What were you watching, reading, listening to? That's a good question. What I try to do whenever I'm in that mode of writing something, I think of a project, or rather I try to listen to my biggest influences a lot. Before I made ‘94 I listened to like 444 - for me that was the last project where Jay-Z was going through something in his relationship and being honest and vulnerable in his music. He was able to basically do what I'm trying to do; paint a picture for you and tell you what happened without telling you what happened. You have to listen to the songs. I might tell you a couple of things in this song and then go to the next song and I might say a couple of things in that song. I go back and listen to a lot of old Drake songs and how he put certain things together. J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and then really listening to my old songs. A lot of times I'll go back, listen to my old songs to see where I was at, think about how much better I've gotten and how far I've come. That kind of motivates me too. Then I'm able to use bars and different subject matters to kind of use for the newer music or the newer project because I'm able to see the difference now. As far as what I was watching, I'm not sure, but I know a lot of times, I'm watching something like a documentary. I think around that time the Kanye documentary had just came out, (he's like one of my top five producers of all time) so that might inspire me to make one or two of those types of beats. Things like that would be what triggers me to get on the computer or pick my phone up and hit my notes and try to figure something out because it'll get my juices flowing. There are little things I pick up on like that sometimes. But certain situations, other situations, it might be a feeling of complacency in my life or I’m tired of working a 9-5 grind. I might just be like, okay, when I get off work, I'm going to make a beat and I'm going to make a song and it's going to take me out of here and that might be a song that I might use. So, certain situations come from those scenarios too. Let it flow. That's a difficult thing to do for a lot of artists is to naturally let it flow. Because depending on what kind of artist you are, you very much like to control the way your stuff comes out or not, you know what I'm saying? It feels like magic. The magic of it all is really just being like water and letting everything just really, like, influence you and pull you in the way that you're supposed to go. That's what you're givin’ every time you're saying something, and it's just like it just feels so natural. Yeah, it honestly did. I try not to force anything. A lot of times, like Jugg, Nadarian, he knows it could be days I haven't talked to him, and then all of a sudden, I would just text him a song. All he'll get is a song. He'll know how I'm feeling, or he'll know what mood I'm in and a lot of times, that's just how it happens. Like, I tell them, you can be at home eating a bowl of cereal, and then I have 5 songs done out of nowhere. You just don't even know what happened. But that's just how our process has always been since we started doing this. It's just always been a burst of whatever. And my first project came like that in a day. It was 5 songs. I made 5 songs in one day. And it was just like a burst of creative juice and creative energy and that's just how I like it to happen. I don't like sitting at the computer every day searching for a radio hit. And I know it's a different lifestyle you live in once you in the lifestyle, you're pretty much living in the studio, but when you're not already there, I feel like you said the experiences and things happened to kind of ignite that fire, because other than that, you'll just be just making things that are bad. I try to, like you said, let it flow and let it come to me. In that way I can get the best out of it whenever I'm doing it. You can’t rush the process. That's what I say. You can't. You can't at all. You can't slow it down either. No, for sure. You definitely got to put in the work. I've never been the type of person to try to just work for the sake of working, you know what I'm saying. It's not in me. I'm the type of person when I know I got something in the palms of my hands, I get active. I have always been like that. So if I'm not getting that feeling and if I'm not in that mode, then I know it's not nothing. I think I've done well with my process. I was just telling myself on my way home like, man, this year has been some of the best work, I've probably rapped the best I ever have in my life. And I've been in higher places in my life, like, I've been in higher planes and modes. Sometimes I don't even know how I just rapped the way I have and I'm just taken aback by it because I don't know where it comes from. That's why I think when it happens like that, people write every day. People always say you got to write every day. But for me to make ‘94 and as good as I was rapping, I wasn't rapping every day, it wasn’t an everyday process, it just came out of me and it flowed naturally. So. that's what I mean by just let it flow. The words that come to you, the ideas that come to you, you just got to open your mind and just let it come. Yeah, I think that's a good point though, because, you know, as being a writer too. I always heard that too. You have to write every day and that shit would stress me out. I don't want to write every day. I want to write when it feels right and when I feel like I'm actually going somewhere with it. And I think that just points to what you were saying. Everybody's process is so different. Yeah, it was like that for me at first. I was stressed out and it just became a moment to me where social media wasn't helping me because I would see people on social media and they might seem further in a rap career than I am. Somebody's on, somebody's thinking like they are higher than they really are. And it became so much to me and I know I really wanted to drop a project. I really wanted to drop ‘94. I cut myself off of social media for like six months, seven months, and that's how I was able to really get majority of ‘94 done. Once I had the skeleton already built, I kind of poked my head back on social media and I was able to get a few more vibes from social media. A few of my beats came from different song ideas from social media. Some ads that came across my Instagram where I was able to find some drum loops and some samples. I'm not saying it was fully, you know what I'm saying, beneficial, but it was definitely useful as far as the writing process. I was really able to just really just hone in on my craft and really get it done. Like block it all out. Because I feel like when we are on social media, we're hearing/reading everybody's thoughts and they’re going thru out mind. And it's not even like when we're getting a lot of time to sit with our own sometimes, you know what I'm saying? Like, what is really my thought and what is really what I'm trying to say, you know? Yeah, see, that's a big one. What is really my thought? Am I writing this song or somebody else's writing it? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think that's cool that you were able to take that much time off - that shows a commitment to the craft. Off of ‘94, do you have any favorite songs or moments right now? I think my favorite moment or my favorite song, [and that's only because I enjoyed both processes the most] was “Left The Nest.” That beat was one of my best. I do a lot of chops and samples in my beats and you see that on display in that song. I love sampling and a lot of people may say it's cheating or it's not original, but to me if you're able to take something and scramble it and make it into something brand new, that’s original. It’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. It's a magic trick. You're taking something that's good and you're potentially making it great. Some of the best songs that we ever heard in life were samples. I just really enjoyed the process of making that song. Then I was able to write such a good verse. I was done with the first verse. And then the second verse came the day before I went to the studio the first time and I literally wrote it on the limb. Like I was writing it on my way to the barber shop. And then I came home. And I had an hour until I was going into the studio. So I'm just sitting in the car. My girl was calling me on the phone. I'm just sitting in the car writing the song because it was flowing like crazy at that moment. That process was pretty much the whole reason, well not the whole reason, for why I love that moment. That one scenario is basically the whole project. I think I enjoyed that process the most, and it's one of the processes that I remember the most. Like, every time I listen to that song, I remember what it took to make that song. So that song was very unique to me. I think “Fire” definitely had a similar concept to it, where I kind of wrote the song in increments. I would write, like, I probably say, 16 bars, and then I send it to Jugg and I'll be like, what do you think about this? And he's like, man, that's hard. And then I'll be like, I feel like it needs some more. Then I write a little bit more. Like, what do you think about this? That's even better. And then I keep going. That's what I remember about “Fire.” It was just kind of like a three step process where it just needed more and then I finally got to the conclusion, and it came out pretty dope. I agree that's one of my favorite ones when I first listened through that was the one that really I felt in my soul. I mean, all of them after a while, you know what I'm saying? But our first listen, “Left The Nest” - I was just like, yeah, this is the one. Yeah. And that's kind of how I wanted it to be. That and “Fire” was one of those songs where I named dropped a lot, you know. I said my mom's name, I said my aunt's name for her business and everything. When I sent that song in the family group chat, it went crazy. Everybody was like, “oh my God, you heard what you said.” When I sent it to my cousin, that's when she sent me the voice memo and was like,” oh, my God, you really go hard.” It's like, yeah, I have been for like three or four years now. You all just thought I wasn’t there yet. But people don't know ‘til they know. Right, You know what I'm saying? You don't know until you ride in the car and you got the radio on. Oh, my God, that's my cousin on the radio. I've been doing this for a while, but, I mean, it's not unique to me. It's a process that almost every rapper goes through. Your family not going to just fully believe until you're making some money from it or you're on TV. I don't hold it against them. But I still use those unique situations that I've encountered in my life, and I kind of try to highlight moments in my life, like the second verse of “Left the Nest.” That was pretty much about me and my other three cousins. That’s also why I like “Left the Nest,” too, it's so unique to me that I can remember exactly what I'm saying and how I put those words together. It's amazing to me. That's all I listen to. I only listen to my music and that’s no slight to anybody, I just know what I can do and what I’ve done. Like those songs I definitely hold dear to me and everything else. All the other songs, like you said, are really good songs. I think that was definitely just chips that were puzzle pieces that were put together to kind of make the picture of ‘94. So, yeah, I think I did pretty well with it. I think it's going to be like that music that gets better over time, so I'm excited. I'm excited for you, as well. So I just got a couple more questions for you. What is SDE? SDE stands for Still Dreamin’ Entertainment. It's something we came up with when we were in high school. It was primarily me, Jugg and Vo. It initially started out as us just having fun and making songs together, then we all got home from college, everybody came back from wherever they were, and we started to take it a little bit more seriously. Then everything started to elevate a little bit, different from what we could imagine. We haven’t gotten there yet, but we can definitely see the bigger picture more now than we did back then. We started at Nadarians, Jugg’s, house in the closet, just rapping. We were using a first responders mic, his dad used to work for the 9-1-1 call center so we had one of those headphones set up with the aux card. It was very bad quality, but it was something that was ours and that made it special and dear to us. That blossomed into what we’re doing now. How long ago was that? This was probably in 2011. We were either in the 10th or 11th grade when we actually started rapping. We were friends way before then, but we got comfortable as friends to the point where we started spending the night at each other's house and getting close with each other’s families. And that's when I started figuring out, oh, this person knows how to rap. Oh, this person is funny. We kind of started learning from each other more and then obviously I was the one that was always rapping and beating on the tables. That was kind of more so my character, what I brought to the friend group. Yeah, it came out the way it came out. That's really cool. What do you hope people get from listening to your music? I really hope that they just really understand that I can really rap. Because like I said, it's Hip Hop and when people think of Hip Hop, they think of East Coast boom bap. So, I think it's a good lane to be in, as far as my position, because nobody's really doing it here in Houston. I have a sound that derives from [that era] of Hip Hop, but I’m from the South and you can hear those influences in my music. Where I'm at when they listen to ‘94 or any of my music, I want people to understand that it's a different sound here. I'm from Houston, I say it in my music, I don't hide from it. I don't try to sound like I'm from New York. I say I'm from Houston, I'm from Acres Home, so you know where I'm at. I just want you to understand that and take the music and understand that I'm making these beats I'm rapping on it. I'm writing these songs, like 90% of the songs that you ever would hear from me, I made the beat. I have a hard time buying beats from other people because I'm like, I can make a beat that's similar or the same beat or whatever, but I have bought a few beats that I was proud to rap on. When someone listens to my song, I really want them to understand that I really can rap. So that's kind of like everything in a nutshell. I can really rap and not just know ABCDEFG, nursery rhyme rap. I really put thought into my raps, and like you said, time into constructing my projects and skits and all. I really just wanted to take it in and just live with it. That's the biggest thing. I imagine and hope that’s what people would think when given the opportunity to listen to your music. I think they will hear you. I sure hope so. But hopefully through this interview we'll get a few more ears on it, for sure. When I was writing down notes, when I was listening to the project, I didn't even put, like, rapper. You know, I can only really refer to you as an artist because you do so much of it. You're a storyteller. And I felt like the more that I listened to this project, I almost felt like I could draw a map of what you were speaking on. The music creates a map of where you're from. I just think that that's very unique in itself as well, because like you just said, there's not many people coming out of the South at large that are doing just strictly Hip Hop music [although there is a growing number,], but especially out of Houston. You're not only able to give a different sound, but also provide that production and give a different type of storyline than what we're used to, I feel like this is a very catalyzing project if and when the right ears get on it, if it's not already catalyzing for yourself. But you know what I mean? Catalyzing outside of just you. Yeah, that's my goal, too. Like you said, shed that light on it and make sure it's perceived as that, because I think it's a sound right now that's going around. - and you can see that it's not trap, but it's that middle wave of, I guess you could say hip hop or pop or whatever. But I think what I'm doing is very 90ish - like the songs that I'm making are very similar, in that sound front. But I mean, it's just how I feel. It's just, you know, like you say, it's the feeling. And that's all I want for the project, is for you to kind of, like, get a grasp of what I'm saying with all 12, 13 songs. I know I said that was my last question, but are you planning on putting out some more videos? Yeah. Right now we're in the process of doing that, which is very big for me because I think that'll be the next step of really putting the painting to the music and actually being able to see it because people can hear it if they see it a lot of times. So that's the process that we're in right now. Like I told Jugg, I really want to map it out because the videos can't just be a video of me in front of a car, it really has to capture the sound. If I'm going to do it, then I want to do it to the best of the ability of the song. I don't want to waste the opportunity. I don't want to pay no money, and I don't really get it because I critique my stuff hard, so I don't put out any visuals and it's not the visual of the song. So we're in the process of mapping some things out. I got a photo shoot, a photo spread that I want to do. It kind of brings light around the project as well. Going back to the old staples - other staples in the Acres Home community that I grew up in and kind of capturing those moments. I got a whole plan for the second half of the project that I want to do right now that's probably going to get ready to hit the social media sites in a little bit. '94 AVAILABLE ON ALL DSPs. ALL PHOTOS ON EDITORIAL [WEB / GRAPHICS] BY CORY HILL + NADARIAN. INNERVIEW, LAYOUT + DESIGN BY JAMEKA. OQ: https://www.instagram.com/itsnotyouitsq/ + https://twitter.com/itsnotyouitsq Still Dreamin' Ent.: https://www.stilldreaminentertainment.com/ + https://twitter.com/ForeverDreamSD + https://www.instagram.com/foreverdreamsd/

CROWN VIEWS 002 is a visual playlist of 100+ music videos from Q! that were found notable or worth sharing for various reasons; illuminated a song off a project, color palette, textures, unique frames/POV, aesthetics, editing, etc. While making CROWN VIEWS 002 a few questions arose: In the social media era – 1) what is the significance of the music video? + 2) what does the future hold for the music video? When I posed/posted the latter question on CROWNTHEM’s socials a few different replies were given. Some think that it will inevitably look like tiny snippets/chops of full music videos and reaction videos to said videos. Fragmentation due to decentralization platforms for artists. Immersive videos, 3D experiences noted by a few others. Glass Protocol was mentioned. One artist in particular stated that impactful videos will take more creativity and time while also figuring out new ways to roll out the video – but, will the snippets receive more views than the actual video itself? What will make the audience follow-up on YouTube, Vimeo, etc. and watch the full video? In the social media era the music video will and is undergoing a significant transition. A lot of transformations we will be able to predict but a vast majority of the transformations that will take place for the music video will venture into the unknown of innovation and vision. Additionally, there has been chatter trivializing the impact of the video for an independent/underground artist; some say they aren't as important as they seem and that artists should spend their resources and time on other aspects of their art. On the other hand, some view music videos as an undeniable and pivotal aspect of an artists' trajectory. There is an equilibrium to be met - realize the truths on all sides - but, essentially, it all comes down to how creative, out of the box / forging of news paths an artist is, coupled with execution of those visions. To engage with the conversation noted above view here or comment below. Without further ado – The words came out differently this time. The poetic blurbs may not fully analyze the music video in a traditional sense - but, if you watch the videos you might catch the moments of intertextuality, imagination and where the words and visuals coalesce. “BIG DEBO” by Shady Blu | directed by madebyJAMES Already there - already where she placed her intention, where she puts her attention. Maybe they ain’t listen; maybe they’ll wait ‘til they see the star glisten. Burns blue, luminous hue, massive talent comin’ thru. “ALLAT” by Mark Lux | directed by Dhyaan Patel ALLAT, al-Lat, personification of the Sun out the slums. Gods, Goddesses and androgyny is worth sumn. Radiance of the L.A. gradient; creativity is Heaven Sent, Heaven’s Scent. All that. “Close” by Bocha x Corey G | directed by Zach Olson Close, close enuf. To run up - to throw the stone 'n hide the hand. To go to war or forfeit your land. Endeavors + bands. You must understand, close the door, open the window to be grand. “Free!” by Maxo | directed by Vincent Haycock Free! What does it mean to Be? Some openings close yet still need entry. Conversations of adversity with Me ‘n Me. In healing, to bring warmth and burn out disease. Creative energy flows with ease. R.I.P. Uncle Jerry. “Broken Glass” by Passport Rav | directed by Future Industry A big tooth broke all the ceilings in the room. Swinging on cut outs of creation formed w/ strings + glue. I've inherited the Spirit of Buddha - found a way to laugh as my unorthodox passport is stamped. “D.A.R.E” by ICECOLDBISHOP | directed by Erik Rojas Dare to be different + dare to have life feed into you instead of what you consume. They put it in our face, crippled to their various ways OR jump to another page - still with rage. Destruction only means the beckoning of a new age. "for your EYES” by theOGM x Elete | directed by EYEDRESS FOR - YOUR - EYES, no I’s. Time works for you when you find your pace, inside. Living by Truths ‘n crossing out lies. Hills in the hoopty, on my life. CROWN VIEWS OO2: (no particular order except the first 7.) ARTISTS FT'D: KAMEO, FUNERAL Ant Bell, Bryce Savoy, Radamiz, Yoshi Vintage, SONNY, Monday Night, 3WaySlim, Asun Eastwood, Kamaiyah, Sada Baby, Donnie Waters, Da Gilly, Apollo Brown, Aj Snow, Jansport J, P1, ALLBLACK, MeechBOLD, Trent The Hooligann, BoriRock, CRIMEAPPLE, Starz Coleman, GodBlessBeatz, Maze Overlay, SadhuGold, JNX, Shun Gawd, Alex Bond, YOH, CARRTOONS, FrankieOG, MacArthur Maze, RTC Profit, Jyou, Isai Morales, ihateyouALX, Smoke DZA, Sleepy Loco, Jonathan UniteUs, Reuben Vincent, Rapsody, Hugh Augustine, Walt Mansa, Shloob, B. Cool-Aid, Devin Morrison, Pher Turner, MoRuf, Pink Siifu, UFO Fev, Spanish Ran, Los Kemet, Times Change, Mike Shabb, Nicholas Craven, Payroll Giovanni, 2 Eleven, Problem, League, Donavan Ransom, Larry June, The Alchemist, G Perico, DJ Drama, Lord Sko, Andy Savoie, Jesse Desean, Ahmir, Malz Monday, O Dawg, Thunderous Caption, RIPXL, Bucky Malone, Innanet James, Big Jade, Che Noir, 7xvethegenius, SZN, Kash Doll, Icewear Vezzo, Swooty Mac, Devy Stonez, Freddie Gibbs, Rucci, Bankroll Got It, Deniro Farrar, Huey Briss, KeMarilyn Chanel, Archibald SLIM, Lola Brooke, Hit-Boy, Rim, FINN, Shootergang Kony, Jireh, DaBoii, C Plus, Heno, Elujay, J.Robb, Lord Apex, Slumlord Trill, Nym Lo, Statik Selektah, Curren$y, AvenueBLVD, Chase N. Cashe, Mello Buckzz, Latto, Jae Skeese, Da$H, Silky Southern, Sincere Hunte, Recognize Ali, Sibbs Roc, Will Hill, Slim Guerilla, Genshin, YeloHill, Airplane James, Young Nudy, Isaac Castor, Ricky Mapes, Jim Jones, Hitmaka, Don Quez, Rahiem Supreme, Nappy Nina, Tafia, Ferris Blusa, Jah Monte Ogbon, Young Drummer Boy, Bizarre, Charlie Smarts, DJ Ill Digitz + Toosii. WORDS / CURATION / DESIGN BY: JAMEK