Category: Music

The Airplane Boys: Toronto’s Arthaus Rap

The following article has also been featured on Passion of the Weiss

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but being from Toronto is finally cool again! For the first time since the early aughts, the city can take pride in its Grammy winners and athletic dunk contest representatives as well as the “underground” talent that’s scattered throughout the metropolis. And although Terrence Ross is certainly no Vince Carter and Drake is far from Alanis Morissette (depending on who you ask), the rappers that haven’t yet caught fire on a national stage are some of the best in recent memory.

Take The Airplane Boys for example: the North’s answer to the machine-gun lyricism of such Beastcoasters as The Underachievers and Flatbush Zombies, albeit with more artistic flare. Stylistically, the only thing that separates Beck Motley from Bon Voyage (yes, those are their rap names) is Beck’s slightly more adenoidal and melodic delivery compared to Bon’s near-sneer-and-growl, an observation that instantly makes sense when you see the two of them standing side-by-side. This dynamic duo has been active for the last two years, putting out critically acclaimed mixtapes and preforming at music festivals all over North America and Asia, including a headlining show in their home city that saw their fans literally break the stands by jumping on them too hard.

Their first release, Where’ve You Been, was produced mainly by Illangelo and sampled everyone from Radiohead to White Stripes in the hopes of casting a large net and getting as many faces to un-screw in the city as possible; their second offering, Alignment, took on a more pop feel with a dark undertone as they cultivated their image until it closely resembled what they’ve become now: Arthaus Rap.

Their newest project Brave New World shows both thematic and artistic growth as it breaks down their journey thus far. Lyrically, their bars are overloaded with so many cultural references that you may lose sight of the big picture by focusing too much on the punchlines. For example, on TIDES a rap about the internal struggles of a beautiful female is almost overshadowed by a reference to an R&B one-hit wonder:

She baptized in Chanel
You smelling good, you well and good
but you crying inside they can’t tell
keep going to war with yourself
Thoughts as Blu as Cantrell
do you remember her, will they remember you
for the things you slave to, please be more brave boo
invite the cravings that make them hate you

This tongue-in-cheek songwriting is stamped all over the tape and since it’s the third such offering, it’s becoming obvious that they have no intentions of slowing down. This is a duo that’s been wearing leather pants way before All Star Weekend and if they’re lyrics are to be believed, are receiving letters from Kanye West. In fact, there’s a chance you may have heard an Airplane Boys song without knowing it: they’ve partnered with both Levis and Adidas in order to make these brands seem more “alt”. So get familiar with the hottest export coming out of Toronto before they become popular and the city turns its back on them!

My Rappy Valentine

This article has also appeared on VICE/Noisey

As another year passes, we remember the hard work and valor of Saint Valentine and his persecution under the Roman Empire by giving our significant others flowers or chocolate and expecting anal sex or a properly cooked meal in return. Unfortunately, some of your partners may be expecting a little more imagination on your end this year and for you “non-creative” (read: employed) types, this may be difficult. Fortunately, Noisey wants to assist you by helping you channel what your favorite rappers would give your girl this Valentines day if they had the chance. So stop worrying, because we’ve done all the legwork for you! It’s essentially like a “choose your own adventure” but with rap and romance and broken dreams!

J.Cole:
Cook your girl a homemade meal with whatever ingredients are currently in your pantry. When she tries, and is disgusted by it, apologize profusely with tears in your eyes, promising to do better when you make it out of your current struggle. Alternatively, you could “ironically” make her some macaroni jewelry and put it in a real jewelry box, apologizing profusely with tears in your eyes when she opens it. Don’t forget to tell her how wonderful she is and something about gift wrapping the globe before taking public transportation to see your side-chick in the city.

Drake:
Spend $20 on a gift that you bought at the local subway terminal, but accompany it with a heartfelt poem where you put a spin on everyday sayings. Something like, “I live for the nights that I won’t remember, with the people that I won’t forget. That’s YOU!” or “Lemme Own Venomous Enchantment, that’s my motto for your L.O.V.E”. Then promptly threaten to sue anyone that mentions your original acronyms!

Game:
See what all of your friends are doing for their significant others, then preform a more watered down version of that act. In March.

A$AP Rocky:
Get her a card in which you talk about how lucky you are to have found someone as pretty as you. Partner this touching card with some sort of needless and inefficient token of your love that you’ve preemptively dipped in gold. Insist that she wear this token around her neck at all times or else she doesn’t really love you. Ideas for gold-dipped trinkets include flower petals, monopoly pieces, and/or a lock of your hair.

Lil Wayne:
Reward your significant other with a blank prescription pad or a pack of those IOU sex cards. If choosing the latter option, make sure that you remove all IOUs that mention you preforming any erotic acts on her. When she complains about the fact that you’ve done this, tell her that she should be honored you’re even allowing her to touch you because you’re famous (bring up something cool you’ve done years ago to drive that point home). Alternatively, you could shower her with Trukfit while being a gentleman and not requesting fellatio for each piece of clothing.

Started From The Bottom

This article has also appeared on Passion of the Weiss

What do you do when you drop a just-okay single for your third album? Well, if you’re Aubrey Grahammy, you release some visuals that stretch your two minute song out to at least five while profusely mentioning the city you grew up in (again) and creating a fictional back-story that people can relate to. But just because your skits are funny and there are no less than a dozen winks to Toronto doesn’t change the fact that your song still sounds like it was recorded by a hungover Big Sean or, a perfectly sober French Montana.

I mean, after spending all of 2012 as the go-to guest feature guy with both rappity-rap bars and sing-along hooks about making your semen sweeter, you would think that Drake could muster up more than two minutes of gloating. Then again, this is probably another power move that Aubrey and 40 had planned out months ago in their manifesto (which is bejeweled) about lowering the public’s expectations so that their next project will appear to be on some next-level shit. It’s like what the pick-up artist community refers to as “negging”, except it’s being done on a national stage.

As a Canadian and a Toronto-transplant, I can appreciate all the subtleties of Director X’s unofficial HYFR follow-up: the Toronto Parks & Recreation plug, the profuse Shoppers Drug Mart (it’s like your CVS, but we don’t sell ammo) mentions, the “Oh My Bosh” exclamation. Even seeing Ms. Graham in her B-Girl stance outside of his Forest Hill mansi…er….project housing. All of these are cold and calculated attempts by Drake to convince us that he did, in fact, start from the bottom. Who cares if they’re not true! You listen to Rick Ross don’t you?

The second half of the video just kind of shows Drake doing stuff that you and I can’t afford with his friends. This is where we’re allowed to hate him again. Just look at that cock-sucker, bowling and go-carting with beautiful women! Grrr!

After watching this video the first time, I’m filled with emotions: jealousy, pride, ambition, lust, vengeance, hungry. By the third time, I find myself humming along to the hook. By the fifteenth, I’ve memorized the lyrics and have started working on a remix. So hats off to you, Drizzy and Director X, for creating a video that actually improved the quality of the song. Unfortunately, the song is still super shit when listened to without the accompanying visuals.

 

Making the HOF

This article also appeared on Passion of the Weiss

Every up and coming rapper that I stumble upon while browsing through the Soundcloud can be put into two bins; the ones that unsuccessfully try to sound like A$AP Rocky, and the ones that successfully sound like Meek Mill. I couldn’t even imagine what sort of “artists” I’d find if I went on tumblr. When even Ciara is out here trying to capitalize on the Trap/Trill/Turn-Up wave sounding like French Montana, it’s safe to say that lane has been saturated. So I was pleasantly surprised to stumbled onto HOF, a Miami based rapper whose sing-raps teleport you back in time to 2010, when crooning alongside your bars was both accepted and lauded. I place the blame on the portrait-heavy and leather-studded shoulders of Drake and Future (respectively) for taking a good thing and running away with it to the point where the only place for singing in hip-hop is regulated to the hook.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any crooners spitting right now: Rockie Fresh does it sparingly; A$AP Rocky does it poorly; Riff Raff does it shockingly surprisingly at times. What sets HOF apart is how he pairs his adenoidal and often-off-key gamut of vocals with whimsical production to create songs like Midnight Train, which make you feel as if you’re enjoying a sunny afternoon watching over the waves in the Port of Miami. At just over 22 minutes in length, his debut LP “Magick” may feel a little short, but once you settle into the groove that HOF crafted it’s easy to get lost in the music and accidentally replay a few songs over. Overall, the infectious songwriting and fanciful production are enough for me to put Magick into my regular rotation as well as give me hope that Miami can one day rise out of The Bawse’s shadow.

Riff Raff Flies Air Canada

This article also appeared in Passion of the Weiss

Riff Raff loves Canada. There are plenty of reasons why that might be the case: as a Texas native, the snow might be exotic to him; our strict gun laws make him feel safe; our money better color coordinates with his outfits. Whatever Raff‘s influence, he decided to celebrate his love for the Great White North by releasing a song and video for “Air Canada” in which he tries his hardest to name as many major cities as he can remember. In spite of the fact that the hook is half-baked and the visuals are a level or two below what we’re used to from him, the song serves as a testament to why Riff Raff is the people’s choice. The man butchers the pronunciation of a word as simple as “Nova”, but does it with such flare and pizazz that it makes a lifelong Canadian want to rethink the way they refer to the east coast going forward.

So what if a majority of his Canadian references have to do with ice and/or the fact that it’s cold? So what if the video was shot in front of what appears to be a suburban bungalow in what appears to be the coolest cul-de-sac ever? None of that matters, because he shouted out Tim Hortons, a move that guarantees him a Canadian Hood Pass for life (those are the stickers that you attach to your zipper)! Let the man drive through Toronto in his Tropicana benz with his Grizzly Adam rims!

No one can tell you why Riff Raff does anything, but if my personal experience and the shots used in this music video are any indication, he’s loved by Canadians. ‘Air Canada‘ is likely a thank you masked as a grab for fans masked as an introduction to a random rapper that probably got charged too much money to appear in this video*. Regardless, I can’t help but feel a tinge of patriotism watching this.

* seriously, appearing in a Riff Raff video is not a good look for any up-and-coming artist not named Riff Raff. Especially if you’re going to be an unidentified rapper in a music video celebrating Canada. I honestly thought it was Maestro Fresh Wes until he started spitting about Saskatoon.