This week, Elly gave another RapQueb radio show, the fourth in a series dedicated to Quebec hip hop, rap and instrumental music. It’s a bilingual show, en franglais à l’image de la musique jouée, and it features tracks by Random Recipe, Morti Viventear, Lary Kidd, FouKi, and DONZELLE among others. Check it out!
When your debut album has had influences on the entire hardcore NY rap scene of the mid-90s not to mention having an impact on Bel Air’s own Fresh Prince, it’s safe to say you’ve left your imprint on hip-hop. After 22 years of waving the flag of underground rap, Smif-N-Wessun have certainly come a long way. With notable albums under their belts and collaborations with Pete Rock and Raekwon, to name a few, the Boot Camp Clik affiliates could easily pack up and call it a day.
Instead, the dynamic duo is still active and embarking on a special series of shows in celebration of their classic album’s 20th anniversary. The tour, aptly dubbed “Dah Shinin 20th Anniversary Tour”, will take members Tek and Steele from Boston to Toronto by way of Ottawa. Smif-N-Wessun, who also go by the name of Cocoa Brovaz, will be making a stop in the Capital City on March 21 to give a special live performance to the delight of local fans.
Sure, you may have already seen the duo live in Ottawa as the Brooklyn-based rappers are no strangers to Canada’s capital, having performed 7 or 8 times in the 613. But you’ve most likely never seen them spit their classic debut « Dah Shinin » front to back in its entirety in celebration of one of the most underrated yet influential hip-hop albums ever produced. And that right there promises to be a legendary performance for any respectable hip-hop head that lives and breathes underground rap. It’s unprecedented and a unique opportunity for the heads to relive timeless gems like “Bucktown,” “Sound Bwoy Bureill,” and “Wontime” live.
For the occasion, Bucktown’s own will be sharing the stage with Ottawa rising hip-hop duo Buck N’ Nice as well as locals Ickarus, Prehistoric, Gutta King Chris and Lost Kids. Presented by Kapacity Entertainment, the show is going down at Ritual on Saturday, March 21 starting at around 9 pm. For more information and to grab tickets, check out the Facebook event page created for the show.
Ottawa may not be recognized for its hip-hop scene, but Flight Distance and Buck N’ Nice are determined to changed that. With the release of their new albums, the two local rap groups sure hope to put Ottawa on the map when it comes to rap.Respectively titled High Priests of Low-Life and Us Versus Them, Flight Distance and Buck N’ Nice’s new albums are refreshing releases and a welcomed reminder that Canada’s National Capital is home to some brilliant hip-hop artists just waiting to be heard. They’re two solid projects that certainly shouldn’t be slept on.With High Priests of Low-Life, Flight Distance’s intention isn’t to reach the mainstream masses. A fixture of the local cultural scene since 2004, the trio is known for delivering heavy hip-hop that isn’t quite as accessible as what the likes of, say Classified and K-OS, put out. “I’m not a party rocker, I didn’t come here with an anthem for you party monsters,” spits group member Bender on the track Anti Anthem of the Deadbeat. Fair enough, but for those who appreciate raw and vividly lyrical indie rap, their latest album, which started out as an EP and turned into a full-length project, is a definite must. It’s thought-provoking, underground and alternative in essence, and for any hip-hop head with an appreciation for the art form, it sure hits the spot.
Similarly, Buck N’ Nice’s debut album Us Versus Them aims at setting the duo a part. “We’re trying to be different from what everybody else is doing, while everyone else is following trends, we’re trying to go back to the roots. It’s us versus them in a lot of ways: us versus the stereotypes, us versus the conformity, us versus our own issues,” explains Sawbuck, the lyricist of the group. They may be somewhat new to the game, but that hasn’t stopped these newcomers from setting the bar high with a first release that features a solid production, balancing plenty of catchy hooks and carefully-crafted beats. For DJ and Producer So Nice, it was important that this first effort allow the duo to be a part of the local music community, so they invited several notable Ottawa emcees, like Tukan and Just Jamaal to lay bars on a few tracks as an homage to the local hip-hop scene.
It’s no surprise that Ottawa has had a big impact on the music that both groups produce. As Patience of Flight Distance explains, “we like to apply our locality to what we do. We try and mimic the weather and social and political climate of the city for example. It’s a big component of our music. We could have moved away and been a drop in the bucket in the Toronto scene, but being here works for us. We’re happy to be Ottawa hip-hop artists.” As for Buck N’ Nice, they feel as though if they can’t make it in their hometown, they’re not likely to make it elsewhere.
It’s only right that the two groups teamed up to launch their albums. According to them, the collaboration came naturally. When asked why they joined forced to present a dual album release show, they both answered without hesitation “these are the guys we want to be aligned with, we want to have a good strong celebration for the albums, and we’re more than happy to do it together”. Happening at House of Targ on Saturday, November 22, the lineup will feature live performances by both groups along with opening sets by Tukan and Prehistoric. What’s more, there’s no shortage of fun when you throw perogies and pinball in the mix.
This past Thursday, January 9, Eventful Capital caught up with Toronto-based hip hop duo Philly Moves at Babylon prior to their performance as part of Back to Basics. The pair, made up of longtime high school friends Tynan “Tragic” Phelan and Jonny “Rockwell” Desilva, gave their first live set of the year alongside fellow Ottawa artists Alex Silas and the Subterraneans, Eddie Quotez, Yu$$o and King, who opened up for the headliners.
For the occasion, Eventful Capital got to chat with this dynamic duo to find out more about Philly Moves.
Eventful Capital (EC): You guys have been around since 2009 now and to date you’ve consistently put out 3 EPs, 2 full-lenght albums and 3 mixtapes in between. It’s refreshing to hear the feel-good hip hop that you bring to the scene, it’s different and it sure stands out from what others are doing. I’m curious to know what brought Philly Moves together in the first place and the meaning behind your name?
Tragic: Friendship brought us together to begin with. We were just high school buddies. Jonny’s always been in bands that did really well and I’d always go to the shows and then we started making rap songs on the side until we did the Never Get Famous song in 2006 and realized it was pretty dope. Our previous songs were just jokes so that was the first one that was actually serious and we got friends and other people to listen to it and they were like “woah yea that’s dope”. They really liked it. As far as the name goes, I wish there was a real meaning behind it, but it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s basically a line from a song we wrote. We used to be called Tragic & Noogie and we put out a live video session under that name and then we decided it was gonna get serious. One of the live sessions we made was called Philly Moves cause that was the name of the song. We thought it had a nice ring to it, there’s no artsy meaning behind it (laughs).
EC: Ok, so it doesn’t have anything to do with Philadelphia?
Tragic: Yea well the line was about Allen Iverson it goes: Think twice before I make you look silly dudes/Cause I got Allen Ivy when he played for Philly moves. So Philly Moves was never meant to be its own stand-alone thing, they were two separate ideas which sounded great together so it was more of a business decision than anything.
EC: As an MC/Producer duo how does your collaborative process work when it comes to creating music?
Rockwell: 90% of the time I come up with a beat or I throw Tragic a bunch of beats and he’ll choose one , or there’s one that I’m really excited about and I’ll throw that at him. I really like throwing Tynan ideas because he tends to blow it up into this huge imaginative thing and that’s really cool. We feed off of each others’ ideas really.
EC:Cool. Well it’s obvious that you’re grounded, down-to-earth guys and that’s not always an easy attitude to maintain in the music business. How do you stay focused and what’s your ultimate goal in the end?
Rockwell: To live off of it would be amazing.
Tragic: Honestly, I think that both of us just want to work full-time at making music. If I can make like $20 an hour being a rapper I’d be so happy about that (laughs).
Rockwell: If I can make between 40 or 60 Gs a year somehow I’ll be happy.
Tragic: That’s what keeps us so humble cause we don’t have these crazy visions of grandeur you know what I mean? Like secretly, sure I wanna be the fucking most successful guy on the planet, but obviously we’re realists, we understand that if we can make music and do the shit that we do on a regular basis and survive that would be unbelievable. And that’s what keeps us grounded cause of course everybody wants to change the world but we gotta be realistic about it.
EC: It’s progressive, one day at a time.
Tragic & Rockwell: Yea that’s it.
EC: I’m curious to know what you guys are listening to lately? Where do you draw inspiration from?
Rockwell: I’m a massive fan of the new Drake record and the new Beyonce record is fucking retarded, you gotta take it in, she’s fucking gangster as hell. I don’t want to make this about Beyonce but it’s really amazing (laughs).
Tragic: In terms of underground hip hop, I just took in the new Slaine record and it’s fuckin unbelievable. This Boston guy is unreal, he’s an actor too, he was in Gone Baby Gone and The Departed. I heard about him for so long and all those sketchy Canadian rapper guys that we always run into they all love Slaine and I thought no Slaine sucks but I finally took in the record and it’s unreal, it’s definitely our kind of hip hop. That’s the newest thing I tapped into.
EC: Cool I’ll be sure to check him out. You guys have been generating some buzz around the release of your video for the single Old As Fuck from your latest album Creators of the Lost Art that you recently shot in Toronto.It’s safe to say that I speak on behalf of many when I say I’m excited to see the finished product. Can you tell us when you plan on releasing the visuals? Do you have a set date?
Tragic & Rockwell: Yea on January 24!
EC: Nice, I’m looking forward to seeing that! You’ve performed at Bluesfest twice, at JunoFest, for Canadian Music Week and the list goes on. It’s clear that you’re making your mark on the Canadian hip hop scene. You’re obviously hard working guys and that’s allowing you to gain significant momentum within the hip hop scene. What’s your next move? What’s in store for Philly Moves in 2014?
Rockwell: A new album.
Tragic: Yea, we’ve done the whole hard-working guys that keep putting out shit all the time, we’re always in your face. We’ve done that. So now, this year, we’re putting out a polished, amazing record. We’re not the underdogs anymore. We’ve gained recognition and now we’re using that as our stepping stone.
Rockwell: We’ve never put lots of time into writing. We would just write, record stuff, polish it a little bit and put it out quickly. But we’ve been writing this record for the last 6-7 months, which we’ve never done. We wrote like 20 songs and brought it down to 10 and we’ve never done anything like that so we’re really excited about it. It should be out sometime in August. We’ll have a single out in like April or something to build the hype.
EC: And is that something that’s entirely self-produced?
Rockwell: Yea absolutely, everything is all done in-house. All originals. No samples. I was very heavy producing with chopping records and sampling before, but not this time around, all originals. Legally, nobody can sue us (laughs). For licensing for example, if you want your shit at the end of a TV show in the credits or something like that they won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole if it has samples. So that’s where we’re at.
EC: Well I certainly look forward to hearing the new sounds and I wish you all the best with the production process. Thanks again for taking the time to speak with Eventful Capital and have a great show tonight!
If you aren’t familiar with Philly Moves yet, be sure to take a listen to the feel-good sounds from their repertoire including the latest album Creators of the Lost Art and check out the below video for the track Nicklebag Batman.
As we head into the second week of May, the weather’s getting nicer and the events are plentiful!
This past weekend was ideal for festival-goers who checked out the tulips at the Canadian Tulip Festival. The weather was simply sublime which doesn’t seem to happen often for the annual festival, so people took advantage of this to discover the new sites that have been included this year including Chinatown. You have until May 21 to check it out.
This Thursday, May 11, Doba, who used to be part of the Dobacaracol duo, will perform songs from her latest self-titled album at La Basoche in Aylmer. The show starts at 8:00 pm and tickets are available through Ovation here. You can also get further details on the City of Gatineau’s website here (in French only).
This weekend, A Tribe Called Red will DJ in their Ottawa home-town as part of their Canadian tour. The boys will be at Babylon Saturday, May 12 for the Electric Pow-Wow and I recommend you come early become this is sure to be a busy night! Doors open at 11pm and that’s about all the info you can get at this point in time…! But really all that matters is that this is the place to be if you want to shake your bootay. See you on the dance floor 🙂
For those who love biking and all things related, the MEC Bike Fest is taking place this Sunday, May 13, which also happens to be Mother’s Day (that’s right, you only have a couple of days lefts to get her something…!). Bike lovers will converge at Lebreton Flats for an entire day of family-friendly activities and demonstrations. More details can be found on the MEC website here.
The LOX fans rejoice! Next Monday May 14, Styles P and Sheek Louch will be in Ottawa to do a show at Ritual as part of their D-BLOCK Canadian Tour. Tickets are $30 and you can get all the info by clicking on the poser below.
On Thursday May 17, Babylon presents Montreal-based Jah Cutta with special guest Errol Blackwood for a night of reggae music and dancing. Doors open at 10pm and tickets are $10. Known as the Canadian King of reggae, Jah Cutta will be performing songs from his sophomore album A Me Dis along with a variety of others from previous year.
For Hip-Hop heads, Kapacity Entertainment presents the legendary Rakim on Friday, May 18 at Ritual Nightclub. The NY rapper also known as The God MC will perform alongside Borden and Ottawa’s Bigg Ceasar & TheNamesMillen. Tickets are $35 in advance and you can grab more information below.
Also Friday, May 18, DNA in collaboration with the Canadian Tulip Festival present Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia on the occasion of the Size Matters tour with special guests Nicky Romero and Third Party. The electro-house event takes place at the new CE Centre and tickets are still available online at $49.50 here. You can obtain more info if you click the poster below.
On Saturday, May 19 in the Vieux-Hull section of Gatineau, Senegalese singer and drummer Elage will perform at the Petit Chicago as part of the show-bar’s summer programming. Elage, who is also a musician with Mighty Popo, mixes traditional West African sounds with modern music. The show is set to start at 10pm and tickets are $10 and available here.
After much anticipation and speculation, the Ottawa Bluesfest unveiled its 2012 festival lineup last night during a fundraising gala taking place at the Canadian War Museum.
This year’s programming definitely offers something for everyone. Many people will say that there isn’t enough blues and that it shouldn’t be this way, but haters are gonna hate. There’s some blues alright, but there’s not much. I do agree that the Bluesfest organizing committee should consider changing the festival’s name to something more encompassing, that being said, the line-up announced yesterday is nothing short of exciting for music lovers.
The organizers are definitely targeting younger audiences this season with the new Electro Stage, which is set to welcome many local talents like Aboriginal DJ-Collective A Tribe Called Red, DJ Illo, DJ Kid SL and DJ Drastik alongside internationally-renowned artists such as MSTRKRFT, Chromeo, and A-Trak. Also included in the electro category are Tiesto and dubstep DJ Skrillex who comes to Bluesfest for the second year in a row, apparently pleasantly surprised by his first performance in the National Capital.
On the hip-hop/r&b side of things, Bluesfest hits hards with headliner Snoop Dogg, also returning for a second time, with Ms. Lauryn Hill, with Canada’s own K’Naan, with beloved newcomer A$AP Rocky and with Tyga.
Other great bookings include Seal, Alice Cooper, Norah Jones, City & Colour, Metric, Sam Roberts Band, Our Lady Peace, 2012 JUNO-favorites The Sheepdogs, and Beirut.
You will probably have guessed that my personal favorite remains The Weeknd, I just can’t help it.
Rest assured though as this is just the beginning with more acts being announced in the coming weeks! Until then, you can view the full schedule on the festival website here. Stay tuned 🙂
This is going to be such a great Bluesfest summer! Are we in July yet?
We’ve moved into March and the past couple of days have actually been colder than they have been all winter. Naturally, most of us are tired of the never-ending season and look forward to milder days. Although March is a rather uncertain month when it comes to the weather, it’s still an exciting time ahead if you look at the variety of events scheduled to take place in and around the National Capital Region in the coming weeks.
Here’s a look at what’s to come in the days ahead…
A reminder that Plants and Animals will be at Ritual this Thursday, March 8 to perform songs from their latest album The End of That. Opening for the Montreal-based band is Thus:Owls. Tickets are on sale at Vertigo Records, The Record Shaap or online at www.ticketweb.ca. Event details available here.
Also on Thursday, there is a Biggie Smalls aka Notorious BIG tribute taking place at Babylon as of 11pm. Minimal details can be found on the poster below. For the hip-hop heads who want something to do before the weekend kicks off.
This Friday, March 9, Zaphod’s will be celebrating its 20th anniversary of existence with special live performances by Ottawa’s own Sound of Lions and Exeter . Tickets are only $10 and doors open at 9pm.
On Saturday March 10, Kapacity Entertainment presents the one and only Masta Ace live in concert at Ritual with special guests Marco Polo & Stricklin. The show includes local opening acts Brokenbridge, Stay and several more. Fore more information click on the poster below…
B.C. group Hey Ocean will be live at Ritual on March 15 as part of their cross-Canadian tour. The infectious party-pop trio combines sheer talent, charismatic songs, and offer an undeniably energetic live show, making them a must-see band. Check out event details here.
Friday, March 16, there will be an Open Mic at the Raw Sugar Cafe presented by Algonquin College Public Relations students to raise funds for the Shepherds of Good Hope. This is a great way to give back to the local community while having a good time 🙂 Tickets are $10 and the acts start at 9pm.
On March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day for those who are Irish and also the ones who aren’t but celebrate for the fun of it. Many bars and restaurants in and around Ottawa will be offering specials and providing entertainment. Here are just two of the many St. Patrick’s Day related events taking place in the Capital.
Last but certainly not least, Ariane Moffatt will give a show at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau on Saturday March 24 in front of hundreds of people. Ariane will perform songs off her latest album MA just recently released along with older material and classics from her repertoire. I’m convinced that this show will be beyond excellent! Tickets are still on sale here.
This is it for Eventful Capital until the week of March 25 for vacation reasons! Here’s to hoping there will be no more snow on the ground when I get back to the NCR! Until then, enjoy the events and activities you’ll partake in over the upcoming days and please share anything you feel is worth mentionning with fellow residents 🙂
