| | Q1 : How did you get your alias/rap name? | | There's a certain 1983 Michael Keaton gangster farce that inspired the adverb, and Jesse is my real name even though I am a boy. "Rap Legend"
I have added in an endeavour to make the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis work for me, and let the language create reality. Is it working? Do you find me legendary? | | Q2 : What year did you first get into hip hop? | | 1989, the number, another summer. My friend told me it was like funny songs only they talk instead. | | Q3 : Who have been the major influences on your career to date and
how? (musical or other) | | The Halifax rap scene in the 90s, specifically Buck 65. The independent rap insurgency of the late 90s and early 00s, east coast to west.
Canadian rap homies who have aligned with me along the way, especially Backburner and her charter members. Indie artists who never stop touring and never wait for someone else to make them famous or get them paid. My partner, Audra, who keeps me fed and hungry at the same time.
Any rapper, producer or DJ who's ever blown my mind, too many to list, and made me want to blow minds for a living. Anyone who won't shut up about politics but still gets invited to parties. | | Q4 : If you could perform or record with anyone dead or alive - who
would it be and why? | | When you say dead I immediately think of Too Poetic, Grym Reapa from Gravediggaz. His offbeat/onbeat, slightly melodic style was such a huge deal for me as a kid. But would we be a good match? I don't know.
Other than that, most of my heroes are still alive and just either fell off or stopped releasing material. The list of who I'd be excited to work with is literally hundreds of MCs deep, but really there probably aren't all that many who would mesh that well with me. I'd rather put my favourite MCs on posse cuts together, over beats I picked from my favourite producers, maybe in groups of four or five at a time. It would take a while to get through the literally hundreds of artists I believe in... but it would be a better testament to hip-hop than anything I could do myself. | | Q5 : What countries and cities have you most enjoyed performing in?
Any interesting stories to tell? | | I've only performed in Canada and the USA, and right now my favourite city is a toss-up between Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Bayfield, Ontario. Bayfield is almost just a stopover between other southern Ontario shows, and to be honest London has way better crowds, but Bayfield is a pleasure to play in because no-one has ever treated me or my friends so well as The Black Dog Pub & Bistro. Close runner up for hospitality was Sydney, Nova Scotia, which is also dope to play, but Saskatoon has an amazing and vibrant rap scene that's almost like a time capsule from the late 90s to anyone who was involved with underground rap in those days, and can remember the support of having a mobilized and hungry fanbase in addition to (or instead of) a million bedroom rappers who don't go to shows. It feels like every second person is a DJ, when everywhere else that's a dying art in hip-hop. I'm sure there are other dope communities out there, but right now Saskatoon is what gives me hope for the future of indie rap in Canada. | | Q6 : Across your career to date, what highlights will you hold onto
till you die? | | There are so many memories of good times on tour and in the studio, I can't get into them specifically but just the camaraderie of performing and creating with like-minded people is something that never gets old or tiresome. That and also when you make something and listen back to it and feel like... if someone else made this and I heard it, I would LOVE THEM FOR IT. And the excitement of anticipating other people really relating to what you do... and the thrill when it actually happens. The highlights for me are a million little moments like that. And accepting friend requests on MySpace from Sha Rock and Kwest the Madd Lad. | | Q7 : Vinyl and analog have played such a massive part of the
development of hip hop, how do you feel about the shift to digital? | | Unless you count the Mellotron, there's no such thing as an analog sampler, so it's hard to get mad at a shift that started slightly before I ever heard my first rap song. The whole format shift doesn't really affect things on an artistic level unless you allow it to - MP3s only replace digging if you stop digging. Serato takes the exact same skills as mixing and cutting wax so it can't really be seen as a step down. So like anyone who came of age at one time and now lives in a slightly different time, there are things about how technology has affected the way things happen that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable to me, and while I listen to an MP3 player instead of a cassette walkman now I'm probably always going to collect vinyl and buy music like an old caveman. Some people respect the same things I do and some people don't and it's always been that way. I will say that the proliferation of access to things like MySpace and YouTube and user-created content has flooded independent arts with mediocrity just by cranking up the volume of participants... but whose fault is that? Things change. | | Q8 : What advice do you have for young, aspiring artists
(MCs/DJs/Producers)? | | Do the knowledge. Read the histories and most of all, listen to the old masters. Not just the canonized greats, listen to their contemporaries and get a sense of the context they worked in. You don't know hip-hop just because you've heard all the records by Nas, Biggie, Tupac and Rakim. If you can find old mixtapes from the early 80s to the early 90s, they'll do more to ground you with an understanding of rap as it once was and could be at its best than any modern rendition.
Also, don't do what you think you're supposed to do. Do what you do best and like most. Don't rap about thug shit if that's not you, don't rap about nerd shit if that's not you, don't rap about rap shit if that's not you, don't just sample the records everyone else already sampled, don't be what De La Soul called a "brainwashed follower". Rap is a very elastic idiom, you can make it be whatever you need it to be.
You're only going to look like a clown if you try and fake the funk.
Don't call your collection of half-finished, unmastered tracks with jacked beats a "mixtape". Have more respect for your art and the whole artform than that. Make a real mixtape or make a real album, don't just use the word as an excuse to not do your best.
Don't wait for the world to come to your door and get bitter when it never happens. Your myspace page is not an international media presence. Get on the road, play shows for strangers who don't like the way you look, prove yourself, grab the attention of the press. You got something so valuable going on? Prove it. Never stop proving it.
Don't be boring. Be amazing. Anything less than the best is a felony. | | Q9 : What one thing in your career you would most want to be
remembered for? | | Uncompromised perfection in every aspect. Either that or my righteous beard. | | Q10 : What other activities do you enjoy doing when you're not making
music, rehearsing or performing? | | Reading, writing, watching movies, spending time in good company, talking about art and culture, getting apoplectically angry about politics. Old video games. Boning. | | Q11 : Why hip hop? | | Nothing else makes me feel so good. Hip-hop stole my heart away. It's not the only thing I appreciate, I love and partake in many kinds of music, but like Do-It-All Dupré said in Chief Rocka, "hip-hop and rap, yeah that's where my heart's at". Nothing else makes sense the same way. I think I might be crazy? |
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