ATSIC S05E23 - Coolin
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My favourite part of this show is building the relationships with the artists where they’ll send over music early for me to debut to the heads. I’m proud to be building a community made up of people hungry for good new Hip Hop, and this week I get to hit them #ATSICEarly with a three piece of unreleased music.
Two are only a day early: “Side”, an introspective look at resisting tempations from Siren City (Donny Sage & K.Stone), and “One Square at a Time ft Moka Only”, a smoothed out boom bap jam from Uncle Fester & Stephen Hero’s new project - both drop July 19 on streaming platforms. Shouts to Stephen Hero for talking about the right wing constantly picking fights with people.
“WGC” stands for World Gone Crazy, and it’s the lead single from King Jus’ upcoming album "Pranayama” - which he named while we talked for Fly in Formation a while ago.
After that it’s all boom bap. Not neccisarily chill music.. but cool out mode is in full effect, lots of music that’ll make you want to put fire to a blunt.
Toronto’s Beauge was an artist I was recommended to check out when I talked with Roshin. For his new one “Akuma’s Shadow Looms” he recruited Adam Bomb for another example of legendary lyricism over some mellow vibes. I liked what he kicked about being rich with friendships and memories.
Out in Victoria, O P Yeti is back at it with “aint dead yet” with his close homies OZ and Brainiac posse’d up once more over an airy soul sample spitting game and flipping word plays.
Big shouts to Frost Gamble, who sent me a care package which was way beyond my expectations, a couple new shirts and a couple 12” albums, his newest drop with Anthony Kannon, “Cautionary Tales”, and his own album “I Missed My Bus” which I haven’t been able to listen to yet (my turntable is too busy collecting dust). I played a chunk of Frost and Kannon’s new one “I’m Dope” from “Odds & Ends, Pt. 3”. Fun little vocal sample to fit bars around. Maybe it’s AI, I can’t imagine where you’d find a sample saying “Im Dope” in that educational old school “Schoolhouse Rock” style.
More cool shit from the West coast’s Kapok and Sythe, who’s new one “The Jump In” makes me wish I had some palm trees to go cruise under in a convertible.
Imperetiv always sends new tracks by for ATSIC, and he’s been rapid fire with Ayoo Bigz, a fellow Torontonian who’s been barring out on his productions and building momentum for a new album. Ayoo kicks some wisdom alongside Loe Badgett on this one over a triumphant ascending sample with no drums but lots of emotion.
Edmonton checks in with CXtotheworld, who’s back with “My Story” where he aims for progression and achieves the goal. A bouncy soul beat carries him along as he talks about chasing aspirations, learning lessons, and making his own path. He says Edmonton is quiet, and I’d disagree.. I play new rap from Edmonton almost every episode.
Legendary Soul Assassin DJ Muggs and Raz Fresco have their new one ready to go, and there’s a few singles up on streaming as I type this. The projects title track was the one I played here, a jazz horn fueled bop called “The Eternal Now” that has Raz chiding people switching their style up in search of happiness. Good shit. Snatching rappers chains to show them real wealth.
Sayzee’s been dropping every week, sometimes twice. This one “NOTA (Not On The Album)” is from an upcoming full album with Tone Mason if I’m not mistaken, but I’ve got a few more self produced tracks in the stash that I’ll have to play soon too keep up with the Niagra Falls emcee’s frantic output. The guitar riff and overall vibe felt like some beach shit.
Another Toronto artist who’s been busy lately is J Shiltz, who’s new album Forever the Artist was full of features and full of music worth hearing. I picked the one with the homie Stonam, “All This Time”, where they take a look back at the path they’ve walked over some headnod drums and sweet sounding keys.
I picked 2 from Myndset & Alja’s recent drops - “What They’re Missing” to continue with the reminiscent “mama I made it” vibes, and “Pressure Headaches”. These guys are from Toronto as well I think. They dropped an album earlier in 2024 with Adam Walsh, but neither of these two were on it, so I’m guessing these are singles from something yet to be released to the public.
Vancouver’s Kimmortal is back with a remix for one of my favourite tracks she’s made, “Stop Business As Usual” - this time with potent verses from Phoenix Pagliacci & Bobby Sanchez to help push home the message. Stop the genocide in Palestine. I’m not sure who Bobby is, but he does a decent job holding his own beside Kim and Phoenix P.
Flowzus is a Hamilton based emcee I didn’t know about until I heard his new one “Sneakerella” which features The Emsee. It’s a bit more upbeat and fun than we normally hear the latter, and I enjoyed the mood shift away from his somber reality raps.
Le Zeppo & 9th Uno brought Lord Juco along for “The Winners”, and he did what he does, stealing the stage a bit. Very dope track to continue the mellow feel of the mix.
“Terminal 4” has Ghostboyrj showing why he’s been recommended to me by several artists now. I’ve been paying attention regardless, but his name being heard more often seems like a natural evolution as he’s been flexing on all sorts of different music lately. More jazz horns here.
The final track is Asun Eastwood with another Tona feature, “Rich, Poor N*****”.. (I dunno if I’m supposed to type that but they used 9’s in the track listing. “Let Me Talk My Shit Too” is his new project with Wizdome Bunitall, and it’s worth checking in for the full project if you like street wise bars and classic feel.
I hope yall enjoy this mix someplace relaxing and cool enough that you aren’t breaking a sweat unless you choose to.
There’s a spreadsheet below with the entire track listing, along with my best guess at which city each artists is repping. It’s an easy way to see what you’re hearing, but so is having the Mixcloud app.
There’s no “Making of #ATSIC” video this week. Normally I stream while I put the episode together from the comfort of my own home, but this week I was in a rush and just did it without going live.
The music is followed by another episode of my podcast interview series Fly in Formation, this time I talked with Mitchell Lawler, an emcee from Edmonton who I’ve known for a long time but never had a long conversation with. We corrected that with this episode. We talked about the Edmonton scene, his recent and upcoming music, music marketing, home studios, and a bunch of other stuff. Check the FiF playlist for an archive of all the past guests. Mixcloud is the only spot to listen to the audio only interviews each week, grab the app, it’s free and there’s all sorts of dope DJ mixes from curators who care about the music much more than an algorithm cares about your playlists on streaming platforms.
Every week, I buy every song I play, unless the artist sent it to me, saving me a buck. I believe in buying music to support independent artists. Making music is time-consuming and expensive. Streaming doesn’t pay much at all, and since streaming has become the way most people consume music, it’s even more important to make sure to buy tickets, buy music (physical or digital), and buy merch from artists you want to hear more from. Streaming pays next to nothing, so if you want artists working on more music instead of working more shifts at their day job, you need to show them love by opening your wallet and giving them financial support.
Season 3 of my interview series Fly in Formation is soaring along in style, with 30 interviews down since January. I’m taking the summer off to enjoy life a little, but I’ll be back for September with weekly talks featuring artists across the country talking about the craft and the industry grind. Make sure to hit follow on Twitch or subscribe so you don’t have to watch the ad breaks during interviews when I’m back in September. I love seeing the community pop up in chat to say hi even if just while I’m gaming or working on my own music. Next week I’ll be up in Edmonton working with my homie Deez Waxx on new music, and I’m hoping I can stream the sessions while various artists come through to cook with us, so don’t sleep on the streams.
Telling a friend is another great way to support the show, I appreciate everyone who helps spread the word immensely.
Stay Up.
