Blog - The Movement Fam, Independent Hip Hop Record Label - Toronto + Montréal
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Shot by serial collaborator Richard Bastarche exclusively in the vertical format, "Taste" is one of the first Hip Hop music videos of its kind in Canada. Bastarache's flair with visual FX blend with the Montreal views to create an engaging piece of vertical content, built specifically for Instagram's IGTV platform, and the perfect complement to the summer banger.
"Something Inside" was yet again helmed by King Richard Bastarache, who took care of 5 of the 6 videos from the project (all except the "Spaceman" lyric video). Notion and brother Ceehijacked the Queen Of The World barber shop in Montreal, alongside one of the dopest barbers in the city, Dave "Harder" Dumay, for a trippy, FX-heavy visual for the soulful, hard-hitting single.
The catchy vocal stabs are balanced by the dirty bassline as Cee effortlessly rides the beat, working the "I'll be" and "1, 2" vox into his verses. He confidently speaks on the position he feels he deserves in music, persistence, and the affect the death of his father has had on his life. As real and as poignant as ever while retaining that head nodding vibe, "Kill 'Em" comes in at exactly 2:00 so it's short and sweet, and it's exactly what you need in your life right now.
Listen as we delve into the wonderful and mysterious world of sampling. Say what you like, but sampling will never go away; it's too unique, inspiring and dope to ever let a couple lawsuits stop the true Hip Hop heads. It's too ingrained in the essence of the genre to let go. Where possible, you should always try to clear your samples or use royalty free ones. But c'mon, if you get busted that means you're making enough noise and you're doing something right. Good on ya. For all of us who haven't been chased down by lawyers because your MPC game is too fire, here are a few quick tips and guidelines to get you there.
The video was shot in Montreal on a stormy day in July last year, with the Old Port, Quartier des Spectacles, Benelux Brewpub and annual summer fireworks contest providing the backdrop for Notion's moody anthem. With an uplifting narrative that preaches the virtues of enjoying your youth while you still can, this soulful banger lit up every venue on the tour. Shouts to the Fam Cee, Tiffany Alexis and iLLvibe on the cameo tip.
This project is an eight track love letter to the city of Montreal. It was entirely written, produced, recorded, shot and designed in the 514, with the exception of Notion's mixing and mastering in Toronto (he's part of The Movement Fam so it's cool). Dr. MaD's production is enveloped in the art of sampling, with old Soul and Jazz tunes brought to life by his deft chops, dipping them in Hip Hop on the way out. Cee used this sonic landscape to tell real life stories about his experiences in Canada - leaving his home country of Australia to pursue a dream in the great wide north, the tumultuous move to Montreal, dealings with immigration, and his regular battles with fear, doubt and negative energy. Ultimately, it's a story of two artists connecting through the love of music in order to express their 'amour' for the city, the country and the culture of Hip Hop.
"What better way to wrap up 2012 (the world might even end tomorrow, who knows?) than to drop an original track for y'all? This song was originally written and recorded in 2007 for my boy's compilation album. It kinda kicked around since then; I tried to finish it a few times, it just never worked. Until now. Weapon X is prolly my favourite MC out of Australia, and one of my biggest inspirations, so it was a blessing to work with dude. Stoked that it came out how it did. Enjoy." Free Download: Cee - My Dreams x Weapon X (Produced by Mack Sitty)
It's a sad day. One of the finest MCs I've had the pleasure to work with passed away suddenly last week at the age of 30. Samuel 'Chap One' McNulty was a New York kid living in Melbourne, Australia. I didn't know the dude as well as Notion did, but he was such a talented MC and such a good dude.
Like Chap's Facebook page; check out the unreleased joint 'Friends'; and donate to The Chapter One Memorial Fund.
Chap appeared on two joints from Notion's 'World Domi-Notion' mixtape (2008):
To The Banquet-it My Piano ft Chap One and Cee
We'll miss you, homie.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm stupid late on this. For those who ain't already know, Shad is a Toronto born MC, now living and studying in BC. His latest album, TSOL, is nothing short of incredible. Check the videos below, as well as a 6 plus minute joint of dude just spitting bars.
I caught up and coming Seattle MC J. Pinder live at A3C in Atlanta a couple months back. I'd heard the name, but never heard the tunes. Dude was rocking to a fairly dead crowd, and managed to totally turn that shit, well, upside down (pun intended). And this was the joint that did it - 'Upside Down', which is a fucking incredible track with ridiculous production, dope hook and mean verses. I'm officially a fan. Shame I didn't get to holla at the dude in the A. Peep the video after the jump, as well as an older track off the Code Red EP entitled 'Three Words'. The album, Code Red 2.0, is due to drop January 25th, so cop that.
I caught the messed up news yesterday on Twitter that battle MC/RhymeSayers artist Eyedea (government name Michael Larsen) passed away in his sleep at his home over the weekend. Terrible news for Hip Hop. Eyedea was one of the first battle MCs I ever really heard, so much respect goes out. Sign up to the Facebook Event (Fundraiser), and his mum started a Paypal account to accept donations to help pay for the funeral.
Check some of his work below. The second video is my favourite FREESTYLE battle rap ever (yup, back when MCs actually rhymed off the top).
So y'all know that Eternia is one of our favourite people/MCs/Canadians, so any time folks take the time to interview her, we gonna post that. Dope interview, as usual. E is an inspiration.
Hip Hop Sisters interviews Eternia (Part 1) from HipHopSisters on Vimeo.
Hip Hop Sisters interviews Eternia (Part 2) from HipHopSisters on Vimeo.
One thing that the game is missing is more dope female MCs, particularly in Australia. The homegirl Class A has been killin' the live scene lately, opening for a gang of internationals and rockin' at damn near every Hip Hop gig over the last 6 months. Miss A's solo album 'Me, Me, Me & Him: The Secret Life of a Receptionist' drops October 1st and the lead single, 'So Bad', is a certified heater. Check the video after the jump and holla at the girl on Twitter!
Mista Encore, a producer from Long Branch, NJ, hit me up with this video dude just shot for the first single off his latest LP, 'Elevator Music', which you can grab and stream on Mista Encore's website.
Not only a talented beatsmith, knocking out 10 of the 14 beats on 'Elevator Music', but Mista Encore is an MC, and y'all can check the skills on the video above for 'The World Is Yours'. Smoothly shot, the simple black and white imagery compliment the positive, uplifting lyrics.
Definitely check this cat out, an up and comer with promise.
So this is how dedicated The Movement Fam are to bringing y'all the exclusive. After checking out the Phrase gig and witnessing the above performance in person, I rushed home to upload the footage, not realising that an 750mb+ file takes damn near 3 hours to upload. So I set it up, bounced to the TQ gig (which of course didn't happen) and came back to find the Mac sleeping and the video upload cut off at 95%. Goddamnit. So myself and Theory set it up again and at 5.21am, we have it.
Shouts to Snob Scrilla for doing this for the dude. Show was cool, the popcorn thing was fresh, heads seemed to know what was going on.
Remember that this is the ONLY live footage of the first Bangs gig EVER on the internet and The Movement Fam gave it to y'all first!! Boom!
On Sunday in Brunswick St, I had the pleasure of running into and hanging with Hugo 1, a very talented and humble MC from the UK, who now resides in Melbourne. We seem to have a few mutual friends and we got talking, great guy. Checked out his MySpace, which has some of his recorded material (Hugo is a predominantly freestyle MC). Peep the videos below - these are all piss takers but they're hilarious, definitely worth a look. Big ups, Hugo!
So we've been dealing with a great CD pressing company over in Malaysia for our recent pressings (Polinta CD, check 'em out), and I found out this week that the homie K-Real who runs the CD place not only knows how to make your music into pretty packages, but he is an MC, producer, graphic artist, web designer and all round Hip Hop cat. Wow.
Check out Basementality, K-Real's Hip Hop website with features, news, downloads, mixtapes and portfolios. It's fresh as hell, get in while it's still young! And give dude a shout if you're after any graphic or web design work, dude is sick.
