Dope-A-Lot

Just catching up on some shows I caught recently. This was Ivana Santilli‘s awesome set at Revival. Jamesking was the opener and both acts absolutely rocked it. Ivana’s solo debut album, Tony is definitely worth a listen. Grab it on iTunes right here.

Click on the pic below for the rest of the set.

Written by Sean Ward | Photography by Philip Litevsky

It has taken almost two decades to bring Big Daddy Kane to Toronto. But Substance Group made it happen on March 26, 2009.  And if you weren’t there, you will likely have your hip hop head card revoked.  The talk outside amongst the crowd after it was done was pretty unanimous: This might have been the best show we’ve ever seen.

This wasn’t a concert.  This was a gospel revival, and the Word was Hip Hop.  Toronto is notorious as a hard crowd to rock, but Big Daddy Kane commanded this audience like he was molding Play-Doh.  This audience was the true hip hop audience, serious scholars and aficionados of the artform, and we all knew how important and urgent a moment this was: we were watching one of the greatest practitioners in the history of the artform – potentially the GREATEST EVER – demonstrate his mastery.  This was like an art lover getting the opportunity to watch Da Vinci paint.

The guy comes out and he’s dressed in his flyest pimp threads.  No opening act, just out he comes dressed to the nines, shaking hands with the front row.  Then he launches into his set and his technique is so razor sharp that you can barely believe you’re seeing it live.  His presentation is so deftly crafted that the audience has been reverted to wide-eyed children in awe of the thing. He is so gifted a showman that everyone there shoots their hand in the air or screams at a deafening level at the merest suggestion.  By the time he’s performing choreographed dance routines, you are so out of your head that he show could be flying around outer space and it would make perfect sense.  And then perhaps the most brilliant move of all: he left the stage and ended the show while the energy was still high and the crowd was still hungry.  Hip hop acts often forget the importance of leaving them wanting more.

If Kane had been tempted to rely on a hype man to cover up or fill in some of the more difficult phrasings, we never knew.  Kane is utterly committed to being the best, and he has no hesitation in showing you, over and over, how and why he’s earned that stature.  Nor how much fun it is!  For all of the shouting and chanting and enthusiasm, no one was having more fun than Kane himself who savored every syllable of every word like it was really expensive chocolate.  For a hip hop fan from way back there is no sensation to compare to the feeling of watching Kane, after swaying and wiggling his hips about the stage for the ladies, casually lean over the audience with his foot on the speaker and let the lyrics flow.  And then switch it up to double time.  And then double-time it again.  By then I thought people were going to faint.

I know KRS-One likes to call himself The Teacher, but I couldn’t escape the idea that big Daddy Kane was a professor and class was in session.  Everything you need to be a successful MC was being handed to you.  You could have sold this show as a seminar and called it How to Hip Hop.  If KRS proclaims “I Am Hip Hop” and represents the truest essence of hip hop’s conscious and political side, Big Daddy Kane personifies the other side, the side that has a lot more to do with the everyman’s daily life.  The side where Jay-Z, Puffy, and most current artists find their success.  The side where life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money.

The hip hop generation is still coming of age but at least they’re not stumbling and learning as they go any more.  If Big Daddy Kane is going to go up there, 40+ years old, still making money, still the flyest dressed man in the room, still pulling off those moves, and still having that much fun, then we can rest easy knowing that we have a role model like Kane to look up to.

Written by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky

It was a jammin’ evening at Revival on Monday night. Uncharacteristically for both the night of the week and for this city’s rap crowds, those gathered were brimming with enthusiasm, and the acts onstage deserved the love. This city’s own Notes To Self went in and wrecked shop.

Their content is a little pedestrian, but there’s a reason that the call-and-response chants, the crowd-pleasing fast-rap, and the familial crew vibe have turned into clichés: it’s ’cause they’re seldom not fun to watch unfold on stage.

As lyricists and as mic presences, the Notes fellas are perfectly legit– not always exciting, but better than your average T-Dot cats, and more than good enough to be worth supporting, especially Roshin, whose lightning-fast spitting was what turned the Notes’ appearance on fellow local celeb Abdominal’s recent “T. Ode” cut into pure win. And it was big homie’s birthday, to boot.

As much as there was to like about Notes, and about the awesome scratch set by the estimable (and, as a stage presence, very personable) DJ Babu, the night was stolen outright by a guy I’d barely heard of, a name most of us won’t know, whose song titles I couldn’t even name, but who absolutely ripped shit up.

Brothermack’s name was Rayhaan, and he let fly with a series of dope joints, including some resickulous rhyming over that amazing Shawty Lo “Dey Know!” beat. I’m not sure about what his personality’s like on-record, but his live show was electric, and in a city of likable but humdrum rap cats he’s someone who has the spark to be able to go places. Watch the sound!

Written by Ace Six | Photography by Philip Litevsky

I’m really happy I went to this K’naan show.  I first heard his music in my man Rainbow’s car when he was still living out west and I remember being totally impressed at his charisma and flow patterns.

However, I’m guilty of being the type of guy who will hate on someone just because everyone starts championing them as the new hot shit.  This is exactly what happened when K’Naan became the talk of the town amongst the extended circle of friends I run with.

My next exposure to him was when he tried to hit on my now ex-girlfriend while I was in a store buying something, and obviously that did little to change my serious haterade sipping towards the dude.  Fast forward a couple years, I’m a lot less stubborn and more open to listening to what everyone has to say regardless of preconceptions.

This is exactly the state I went to the show in this week and I’m elated that I went with an open mind with the intention of taking in K’Naan’s music.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed at all.  He is definitely worthy of carrying the torch for our city and his homeland and is a truly talented and powerful artist.

Highlights from the night for me were his approach and sense of humour, since he has a lot of songs that discuss war and civil unrest in his homeland in a violent and detailed tone.  He is capable of making them seem uplifting and inspiring just by delivering the message with a smile and showing that this current stage of his life was well worth the adversity he endured to get here.  I’ll definitely be picking up his new album, Troubador and also his back catalog to play catch up for the last 5 years that I was missing out.