ATSIC S04E34 - Filtered

DJ Dice made his picks from my picks that were picked from Spotify’s picks for me. It’s like adding more algorithm to the equation because one wasn’t enough. Triple filtered and hand picked into perfection. Another week of new release rap from across the map, lets get into it.

This one starts with Ruste Juxx and Cappadonna (with a recycled verse). Not going to lie, Ruste’s bars to start this one off got it the placement as the kick off track. That Hickory Dickory Dock scheme was ridiculous. Catch a slippery slap and a kick to the cap or whatever he said. Juxx is scary consistent, and even though it’s always Wu to start the show, BCC aint nothing to fuck with either.

Then it’s on to a single from Asun Eastwood on an Imperetiv beat. Imperetiv has been' busy collaborating with a lot of dope artists lately, and Asun is one of my favs. They’ve got Mav, Ty Farris & Dystrackted on board for “Health it Costs”. Sort of a “that’s a nice health you’ve got there… it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.” sort of vibe.

One of the parts I like most about ATSIC is that I’m not just playing the hard rappers, and I’m not just playing the art rap white guys either. It’s all Hip Hop to me, and it’s all legit in my opinion. There’s less difference between these artists than a lot of people acknowledge, and it’s weird to me that some shows segregate the music. I try to keep as much variance in the picks as I can, on as many levels as I can, and that creates a show where you might get Park-Like Setting, the re-united group of bigmcenroe, John Smith, and DJ Hunnicut, played next to rappers talking about guns. PLS’s last release was in 2001 according to their Spoti bio, but this one, “Struggle Raps (feat. bigmcenroe, Bazooka Joe 204 & YY)” is off their new 2023 release “This, That and the Third.” They’re back and rapping about problems trying to co-parent.. so I can only guess that the same thing happened to them as to every other music group that’s ever tried to compete with a members family dramas. Add this one to the pile of “the kids old enough that I’m back to rapping now” music.

After that it’s back to Calgary to return to “Casablanca”, the new album from TALEBSON. I haven’t heard this guys name thrown around by anyone else on the Calgary scene as I’ve been talking to people on Fly in Formation, so it makes me wonder if he’s one of the type who is intending to sidestep any sort of local rep in favour of creating a completely online following. Could be that he’s just connected to people I haven’t talked to as well. One common thread I’ve found is that artists all tend to describe their local scenes as being cliquey and segregated. I do what I can to stir the pot and combat that.

I think Hope is an artist based in BC somewhere.. but I couldn’t find that info easily and it’s not going to stall me out for any longer. Either way, this one’s some dope motivational shit, and I’m a sucker for hooks that spell out words that are longer than they have any business spelling out. It’s some B-O-B-B-Y-D-I-G-I-T-A-L type shit. Here’s to doing the impossible, and maintaining authenticity in the current era.

We played 2 from John Creasy and Uncle Fester’s new album “Super Villain”. It’s the second of their Villain series, and I don’t really know much about John, but Fester is a regular on ATSIC, producing for various artists over the past few years; Primo Jab, Aquakultre, Hatfield, ect ect. Always reliable boom bap. The new one with John C is wrestling themed, so both “Halloween Havoc” and “Nitro” feature similar themes and similar quality lyricism, with AP the Overlord and Sayzee also barring out on the latter. The switch up beat on HH had me searching my playlist to figure out what the fuck Dice was spinning for a few minutes, before I recognized that it was actually all the same track. Derp.

Winnipeg’s Len Bowen’s “Talk Heavy” was said to be the crowd favourite off his “Late to the Party” EP, with a soul loop and some hefty braggadocio carrying the torch for emcees who aren’t ready to turn to singers.

Doc T was also featured twice this mix, with “That’s Enough” and “ This is Hip Hop” both representing for a stripped down beats and bars ideal of what an emcee is supposed to be doing. I gather that Doc is probably from Sudbury, judging from the the shows he’s hosting recently. I don’t really know how I found him, maybe a feature, maybe a Mickey O’Brien suggestion on FiF.. either way, glad I tapped in. Just rap, that’s enough. It doesn’t have to be so cut throat out here. People should stop being so negative.

Speaking of artists who I have no idea how I found, K.O. Strat recruits Mr. ilango and takes us skyward for “Stratosphere.” Plenty of space for rappity rapping up there.

Shy the BeatYoda isn’t a fan of the algorithm. He’s been relentlessly dropping video content lately, minute long clips where he flips samples that his fellow Dookie Bro suggests to him. Normally it’s been really recognizable commercial jingles and themes to shows, and through October they did a bunch of horror movie themes. All dope. This guy is not only super skilled with the production end of things; sampling, finger drumming ect, but he also raps and DJ’s on Twitch (or he did, his last stream said he lost the spot he was streaming from and would be looking for a new place to set up). Either way, the hustle is very multi faceted over there, and as a fellow indie rap promotion struggle struggler, I feel his pain when he talks about not seeing as many likes as he feels they should be getting. I’d agree. It’s tough to make anything that isn’t a 30 second reaction chuckle go viral, especially when the target audience is 30 or 40 somethings who are jaded and hate/mistrust social media to begin with. Hopefully the grind pays off for him eventually, he deserves it. “Fuck the Algorithm” indeed.

I sometimes think there’s only 100 people who like canadian rap in this whole country, but that’s the name of the game: more new artists into more new ears. Next season I might fuck around and figure out how to fund some advertising to push a bit harder.

Dillan Hoox drops music as constantly as I drop ATSIC episodes, and the output looks like it’s going to just “Keep Going”. Jerome the Prince is another guy who’s determined to maintain the indie grind. Looks like he’s from Macon, GA, USA. Never heard of it, but no one’s going to know where Lethbridge is either. Struggle is real this episode. This one is rappers rapping about having the trait that Touch called the most common trait in successful artists: tenacity. They got it, we got it. Cheers.

There’s also 2 from “Golden Crab”, the new Danny Miles produced project by Swamp Thing; a super-group composed of Chokeules, Savillion and Timbuktu who always drop head crackers. This album is no switch up, it’s catchy hypnotic boom bap and witty bars. “Gorgo” features Ghettosocks, and “Mind Riots” has More Or Les & Wordburglar showing up to help out on lyrical duty. Posse cuts and interprovincial/inter-crew connects for the win.

Connor Price and Haviah Mighty might have a hit on their hands with “Trend Setter”. This shit is fire. I had seen Connor rapping on IG or TikTok clips with so many likes that I just assumed dude was some American on the frat rap come up. Seeing him on a track with ATSIC regular Haviah Mighty raised my eyebrows, but then I looked him up and saw that he’s from somewhere called Markham, ON. I’d never heard of it, but Dice said it’s near Toronto so I assumed he knows what he’s talking about and never searched it. Props to him for repping for his actual city rather than just putting Toronto in the bio. Props to both him and Haviah for linking up and pushing the scene forward through collaborating and making dope shit that pushes more dope artists into the spotlight. I might have to find out if these two are too famous to do Fly in Formation in the 2024 season. Dice got busy with this one, make sure you check the mix.

“Enter the Ring” is, I think, the first solo track I’ve played from J Hen, who I know nothing about, besides the fact that his logo has a maple leaf on it and I think I’ve heard him and started following from some other track featuring some other emcees.. who I can’t remember. This one was cool, I’ll pay attention for more.

I think “Grasp” is one of my favourites from B1 the Architect lately. A more upbeat bouncy instrumental keeps things steadily advancing while him, Sythe, and Grand Imperial Kilocee pass the mic. As I did the voice overs for the episode I was reading the features for the first time and couldn’t quite wrap my mind, or tongue around the whole Grand Imperial Kilocee moniker, but I mean no offence.

Dice finished up the set with “Wild Thing”, a track off of a recent album from Paul Sitter that featured Birdapres. Sometimes the super obvious loops are still fun, it doesn’t always need to be a serious sample hiding labyrinth of layers. Catchy happy shit, but still bars on bars.

After the mix it’s an interview from the Fly in Formation series that I did with Calgary based emcee KTheChosen. He was really well versed in both music an marketing tactics and just nailed down answers for everything I had to ask, even though we scheduled this surprise bonus FiF episode earlier the same morning. Make sure to hit follow on Twitch where these interviews take place live every Tuesday. I think I’ll probably take December off from doing interviews to regroup and figure out some things for the 2024 season, which I’m hoping will be back in January. Stay tuned here and you won’t miss it.

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