ATSIC S06E07 - Calm
I’ve started a mailing list recently, so if you want a reminder when a new episode of #ATSIC drops on Mixcloud, sign up at the bottom of the page or hit me up on IG with your email. I’ll make sure you’re in the loop.
Below this write-up, you’ll find the track list, complete with artists and their hometowns. You can listen here and follow along, or if you’re using the Mixcloud app, hit the “…” to check out the track list while you listen.
It’s another hour long mix of the best new Hip Hop in Canada, hand picked and mixed by Doobyis. If you want to know what's what in the national scene, stay calm and carry on into this mix.
Lots of good stuff on this week’s episode, it’s all very mellow delivery and bars with some weight behind them. I’d recommend you get good and settled in and relax with your feet up.
The mix begins with a new track from Lethbridge’s own Yahtzen. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from him, (or the rest of the city), and I was happy to hear him hit us with some unexpectedly poignant bars on this one, coming with the introspective slow flows over a melodic and moody jam before doing some of the crooning that he’s more known for on the outro. In the past I’ve thought of him as a singer and (I think) producer who works with other artist, but it’s good to see him continue the growth and stand on his own.
East Vancouver’s favourite, Freelance Flint dropped “Take a Picture of Me” a couple weeks ago, and it’s a healthy amount of head nod and bass with some chopped up vocals as he gets back on his bullshit with a down to earth snap shot of the life of an artist and entrepreneur coping with stresses and proceeding toward his goals while waving at the spectators.
Sometimes I get tricked by artists who don’t have their location in any bio that I can find. “DUMB” from Timothy Robot might be one of those, I can’t tell you with any accuracy where dude is from, but usually I won’t hit follow on an artist unless I’ve seen them claim Canadian somewhere. When this one popped up on my Spotify release radar, it sounded familiar, but I listen to a lot of music so figured it was just a sample I hazily recognized. After buying it I realized why.. I also own a copy of it from when it was released with a credit to Mo Money Matteo, who is a Halifax based artist. That was about a year ago, and on Tim’s IG people were commenting that the original had disappeared off of streaming. I just listened back to the version featuring MMM and I can’t hear a difference, but maybe that credit was what got the first taken down. Now that I look, it turns out that this song was originally on episode 408 in April 2023 - You got me, have another dollar sir - Dumb Dooby Dumb indeed.. Now go make a new song.
“Rat Soup Onomatopoeia” is from last year, but I slept on Hermitofthewoods and Unko Catfish when they dropped “UNKOFUNKO”. When I talked to Hermit on Tuesday he mentioned that promotion for this album resulted in about 3 posts on Facebook, which explains why even the person spending 40 hours a week obsessing about Canadian Hip Hop didn’t find it. Shouts to Epic for putting me onto Hermit’s music though, I was missing out. This one has him and Unko Catfish passing the mic back and forth and flipping some slick wordplays over top of a smokey harmonica sample and some saloon keys. Stick around after the mix if you want to hear us talk about the creation of this project and learn more about this Halifax based artist, he’s got a PHD in Hip Hop (no, actually) and runs a site documenting East Coast Canadian Hip Hop called East of East - so it was an enlightening and well informed discussion. I love it when my uneducated ass gets to mingle with smart folks.
I think it was Roshin who told me to follow Beauge, and I thank him for it, cuz dude is dope. The Toronto lyricist is joined on his new track “Go Yard” by Truss, a Brampton based artist who joins him in lamenting the price of gas and constant inflation, the stresses of chasing the dream, and the self destructive nature of a culture that wants to celebrate negativity. The haunting beat features sombre keys and a soulful guitar lick that leaves plenty of space to elevate our mentals with some gems from the razor sharp bar smith.
BKRS CLB’s front man Raz Fresco is back on “Can’t Judge A Man” with a bit of a switch up, sampling some UGK (I think) for a pinch of southern flavour to mix in with the soaring vocal chop and 808 bass line. His bars are constantly on point, so no surprise here as he celebrates his continued survival with some densely packed lyricism and abstracted wisdom reminding people not to make assumptions or pass verdicts.
Vancouver’s Kaboom Atomic & The Dirty Sample’s new album “2 Cents” brings a wealth of clever bars and solid boom bap beats, and “You Ain’t It” with AzraelRapsGood is a display of lyricism leaping over the bar, with a plethora of references and word plays around Olympians and track and field events that support their stance that other rappers should just hang up their cleats. I talk to these two for Fly in Formation next week, March 11 @ 7pm MT on Twitch!
BackxWash is a celebrated emcee from Montreal who nails the current zeitgeist with “9th Heaven”, which is a monolog of a civilian turned revolutionary soldier and warns that “the dramas coming” while lamenting leaving lovers and society behind to declare war on the opps. This one gives me goosebumps. From activist to activism indeed. A lot of the stuff I’ve heard from Backxwash prior to this featured a lot more rock influence (for a while I was of the impression that she was a full band rather than a lone emcee). I personally love rap that approaches political topics from a human standpoint like this, and wish there was a lot more of it out there, especially right now. Here on ATSIC I try to choose some music that will challenge the casual listener, and this is that.
jev. is a Torontonian emcee who is featured twice on this mix. He’s been delivering rhymes with an artistry that other artists often leave aside in favour of making music that’s accessible to everyone. I appreciate it. On “Marvin Gaye” he fantasizes about murdering the competition, stating he’s “the one they love to hate, but daddy’s home, and *they look like Marvin Gaye” (who was famously murdered by his father. There’s a war going on outside, and sometimes it requires contradicting our usual peaceful mentalities. The movie quote sample is, I think, from “Malcom X”, right? Definitely one of the movies about the civil rights movement, anyways.
Chester Watson & Elaquent (a Toronto based emcee) hit us with some stoner inspired free thought association poetry bars on “fire breathing toad (high note)”, talking about getting out at the right time over a very mellow guitar riff. I don’t know much about these artists, but I’m looking forward to hearing more.
Daxflow from KOTD, (not to be confused with Dax.. it’s unfortunate), floats over some breezy keys and synths and reminds us all to “Relax” while he pilots us through his thought process and keeps on keeping on while moving through a hellish world that seems to offer few solutions. I know I’ve leaned on a pen as my crutch often throughout the tough times, and this one is a good reminder that sometimes being a bit detached is a necessity.
“Book of Massiah” from Vancouver’s Massiah has a bit of an edge to it, but the reminiscing lyrics and resilient look back at being broke matched the message this week. I like the mood changes in the beat, it keeps the song working on different levels simultaneously.
NATIVE WEIGHZ (which I’m told is a rebranding for the homies from Phych Ward Kids, Skreem Machine and Nige) are Edmonton based artitst that dropped a really solid album featuring a lot of prominent Canadians, “Medicine” and this week I played “Summer Jacket” featuring successful West Coast artist Teo Laza, which has them looking back at past relationships gone by while enjoying the blue skies and cold beers while the beat flies high with some repetitious keys and big bass.
Unknown Mizery is an artist from out near Toronto who I play pretty frequently on ATSIC, and this week he was a feature on a track from G-Clef da Mad Komposa & JUS-P’s new drop “Don’t Let Your Light Go Out”, off their “Xavier & Logan” album. More head nodding above the clouds steez and lyrics dedicated to surviving the street struggle, with a healthy pinch of braggadocio.
Kimmortal recruited Shad to kick some everyman raps on their new one “Sunniest of Days” which documents the precarious tightrope walk between hope and doom that I think a lot of us can probably relate to. It’s a vibe, and Shad hits the mark with some grounded and relatable bars centered around staying true to positive intentions. FRANKY is a vocalist who’s addition brings the track to the highest highs on the hook.
Steve, The Connect is (I think) a Saskatchewan based artist who drops a lot of music in many different lanes, some of which get a quick skip from me when I’m listening through the ATSIC Radar playlists. This is where I prefer him to be, relaxed and calmly asserting his forward momentum on a traditional mellow instrumental and expressing his love for his momma, his money, and himself.
Gritfall continues to introduce me to new artists with solid features on their tracks, this time it’s “west_avenue”, who I know absolutely nothing about because they couldn’t be bothered to write a bio (all their listeners are in Canadian cities, so I’ll assume the mansion he’s pictured standing beside in his profile pic is somewhere near Toronto. All we really need to know is he has a mansion, right?/s). Grit does what he does, adding a verse to the spaced out instrumental, celebrating his success in the “life long job search” that is being a musician in 2025. It aint luck!
The mix finishes out with a track that I bought a couple days before Le Zeppo sent it to me - “3 Kings” featuring $aveme, Roshin & JD Era.. who together are, notably, in fact 4 different people. It looks like $aveme is a UK based producer and wasn’t rewarded with a crown on this one. While America’s newly appointed king is causing waves, I’m somewhat entertained by how many canucks have recently declared themselves king to somewhat less fanfare - there was 2021’s “3 Kings” - Junk, Young Stitch, and Snak the Ripper; as well as “Triple Crown” from 2022 with Tona, Drezus & Shad sitting the throne. This one’s a solid coronation for the newest Northern royals over a drumless bass guitar line and some string lines sampled to perfection. Roshin mentions that there’s no blogs left.. and I agree, there’s none that anyone reads.. but it doesn’t stop me blogging like the nerd I am.
If you want to check out what I had to say about this music as I was making the episode, I posted the “Making Of ATSIC” stream below - I’m practicing on the turntables and having fun documenting the scene while I do.
Fly in Formation is flying high. This week I talked with Hermitofthewoods, and for now, Mixcloud is the only place to listen to it in audio only podcast format. He has a couple new albums in the past 2 years, and a few more on the way, so we talked about them all, his Hip Hop doctorate, his East Coast Hip Hop archive website, and a bunch of other important stuff. Tune in every Tuesday for interviews with artists across the country as I learn more about local scenes and artists creative processes, talking to artists we play regularly on ATSIC. I’m looking forward to my next interview for FiF - Kaboom Atomic & The Dirty Sample! TDS has been on the show twice before, and Kaboom Atomic seems like he should be fun to talk with if he’s even half as witty in person as he is on his songs. We talk March 11! Come through, hit subscribe on Twitch, skip the ads, and chat live while we stream.
I buy every track I play on ATSIC unless it’s sent to me directly. Streaming barely pays, so it’s essential to support indie artists by buying their music, tickets, or merch to keep them creating. Listening to #ATSIC on Mixcloud is free for you, and makes sure that each song you hear pays the artist at least SOMETHING. Spotify pays 0.006 CAD per stream, and only if the song hits 1000 plays in 3 months. Assuming a song gets 1000 spins, that means it takes around 125 Spotify plays to earn an artist the same .76 cents they earn from my 1.29 cent purchase on iTunes.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clear also need support. If you appreciate discovering new music without the algorithms, or if you appreciate my efforts to get indie artists music in more ears, consider donating via PayPal to help me buy the tracks and keep the show going. Every dollar helps indie artists and ATSIC alike.
If you can’t donate, that’s all good — people who can afford it are paying, and you get to enjoy a free show while I earn a living. Do me a favour though, and help spread the word to other people who love Hip Hop! Shoutout to everyone who is already supporting financially, by sharing the show, or by coming through in comments and chat to help build community.
Stay up.
