Ian Kamau: artistic reflections on city life
Ian Kamau is a Toronto based artist performing in Montreal for the Suoni per il Popolo festival at a concert organized by Howl!. Kamau is a key underground hip-hop artist…
hip hop
Two songs about Rob Ford smoking crack
The Rob Ford crack controversy has a soundtrack. First we have the bluntly titled Rob Ford Smoking Crack by 21-year-old hip hop artist Corey Charron. The three-minute ditty tells a…
Brother Ali – Mourning in America: ‘a critique of our culture of war and death’
This recent Brother Ali video track is worth checking out. Mourning in America is a powerful piece of work. Brother Ali had this to say about the track and the…
Hip hop artist Rellik with Nathan Cunningham: Idle No More video
A new Rellik single also features country artist Nathan Cunningham. They rap about Idle No More and the threats to our natural resources – underlined with occasional tar sands visuals…
Homer (not Simpson) and the Kaopectate Kid
The doctor diagnosed young son Leo recently with the stomach flu — which is colloquial shorthand for a condition which isn’t the flu, per se. (The most recent editor of…
Spoken Word Homophobia
This is just...awful, weird and creepy, and full of the usual lies about sexuality. The up camera angles are very 1984. I'm sure the young peoples of the hood were…
Spoken Word Homophobia
This is just…awful, weird and creepy, and full of the usual lies about sexuality. The up camera angles are very 1984. I’m sure the young peoples of the hood were…
Spoken Word Homophobia
This is just...awful, weird and creepy, and full of the usual lies about sexuality. The up camera angles are very 1984. I'm sure the young peoples of the hood were…
Hip-hop less hot on Obama: Lupe Fiasco and Lowkey
Barack Obama was famously named “America’s first hip-hop president.” It’s a title that comes off as a little cheesy but back in 2008, the rap connection was a large part…
Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch forbids commercial use of his music
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys (photo by Michael Morel). Late hip hop pioneer Adam “MCA” Yauch has explicitly prohibited any posthumous use of his music for corporate advertising. In…
Montreal-North stand up: part two – An interview with MC Emrical on the fourth anniversary of the death of Fredy Villanueva
While Chuck D’s famous phrase “Rap is CNN for black people,” has been quoted by countless ‘reality’ rappers, there are few artists who have embraced the concept as throughly as…
Blackitude by Vox Sambou evokes the power of resistance
Today we bring you Blackitude, a new music video from Montreal hip-hop artist Vox Sambou, filmed in Batey San Luis in the Dominican Republic by Ariel Mota. This latest video…
Will Ferrell does a mock music video of gangster rap – and it’s a scathingly hilarious critique of the genre
A musical commentary, followed by social and political analysis, followed by hilarious spoof rap videos, and more This is scathingly funny. Will Ferrell does a mock music video of macho…