Blog - The Movement Fam, Independent Hip Hop Record Label - Toronto + Montréal
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debut album
Produced by LyricVids.com, "Spaceman" takes the listener on a journey across the earth and around the galaxy as Notion recounts and reflects upon his struggles while showing gratitude for where he's at. The trippy and hypnotizing visuals mesh perfectly with the ambient vibes in the production to create a mesmerizing, engaging viewing experience.
Last week on Friday April 28th, Notion released his debut album "Heart On My Sleeve" to the world, and to celebrate, we threw a party to end all parties. Well, even if the cops weren't called, it was still lit AF, as the kids say.
We connected with the guys at Laylow in Toronto, a Hip Hop-themed bar and nanobrewery to brew a beer - a super juicy, fruity North East IPA called "Hops On My Sleeve" - just for the event at their super dope spot, and we invited a guestlist of our favourite people in the industry in Toronto. In a first for TMF, we vlogged the whole thing. Check how it all went down below, and buy/stream the album!
You never forget your debut, and this project means the world to Notion. As the title suggests, "Heart On My Sleeve" is a deeply personal album, containing music he's worked on over his time in Canada and touching on subjects that he's never spoken on before. At times dark, introspective, reflective, emotional, positive, quietly confident and inspirational, "Heart On My Sleeve" has something all of us can relate to. Notion conveys his emotions in a way that not many other MCs are bold enough to put on display, and this admirable trait makes this project all the more important. Written and recorded through an often tumultuous time of his life, the record expresses the whole breadth of human emotions, while the soulful, boom bap vibe is a breath of fresh air in today's brash, disposable musical landscape.
Notion has been a busy man in 2014 - dropping videos for singles 'Young & Crazy' and 'Lift Up (Remix)', and featuring in the visual for Cee & Dr. MaD's 'Another Day' (original and the Fresh Kils Remix); mixing, mastering and featuring on Cee's internationally charting debut album 'This Is All I Know'; hitting up three Canadian tours (The Golden Tour with Relic, Ghettosocks & Fresh Kils; The Palmer Squares debut Canadian Tour; The Bodega Brovas debut Canadian Tour); and opening for heavy hitters like Jeru Tha Damaja, Hilltop Hoods and Black Milk. However, he's been relatively quiet on the new music tip since dropping his debut EP 'Pride On My Cufflinks' back in December 2013.
What's life without having lofty goals? The Movement Fam are 100% independent, yet we have the most powerful element at our disposal to help us achieve a career milestone - YOU. Cee is shooting to at least hit the Top 100 Hip Hop Albums on the Canadian iTunes charts with this LP, and y'all can help him get there!
Any Oz Hip Hop fan who seriously follows the scene will be familiar with one of the dopest crews out of Adelaide, Pagen Elypsis, whether it's through Prime and Purpose's battle record on WRC, or the various mixtapes and features the fellas have dropped over the past few years. The guys have just released their debut album, 'One Way Ticket', yesterday (August 19th), and they took some time out to chat with us about the album, their line up and their nunchuck skills.
Oh - cop Pagen Elypsis's album, 'One Way Ticket', from iTunes NOW!
Cee: What it does fellas? Aight, I gotta ask this one straight up. Where did the name 'Pagen Elypsis' come from?
Pagen Elypsis: Pohetikut & Motive came up with the name in about 06, walking there drunk asses home to a shack during schoolies. The name itself came from synonyms of Pohetikut + Kadowg's first group the "Skeptiks", and Purpose and Motives first group "Figures of Speech" i.e. Pagen (syn. skeptic) Elypsis (syn. figure). So it means a skeptical figure, which suits us just perfectly haha.
Cee: Break down the group for the people. Who's who, what are their skills (ie nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills etc) and why are they better than the other dudes.
Pagen Elypsis: Well the group consists 5 MC's: Purpose, Motive, Kadowg, Prime & Pohetikut. Purpose also handles production duties on a majority of the record but we ALL have equally great nunchuck skills and I feel for whoever gets to witness that first hand.
Cee: So y'all dropped the Double Or Nothing mixtape back in 07. How was that little puppy received?
Pagen Elypsis: Yeah the "007" mixtape did well and opened us up to an overseas market we never really aimed it at. About 6 months after we released it, Purpose and Prime generated a bit of a buzz through an international battle comp called the WRC battle series and it had made its way onto the internet without us knowing haha. Around home it did well, having the Battlehoggs DJs a part of it helped a lot in Australia as they were on the brink of starting their official mixtape series.
Cee: You guys took a bit of a hiatus from the group projects between then and now. What happened in between?
Pagen Elypsis: On the music front in between '07 and now there has been 3 more mixtapes/street releases; a Purpose solo tape, an Aforementioned group release (Motive & Purpose) and the Pagen Elypsis "2010" promotional tape. We were fortunate enough to play some big shows, P Money + Mystro in Melb, Funkoars in ADL, Xzibit in Middleton, Obese Block Party 2010, Obese Car Jack tour 09. A lot has been in the works but its only really becoming official now. Aside from that a lot of drinking, a lot of sex and a lot of hangovers haha.
Cee: A bunch of you blokes have quite the rep in the battle scene. For you, what's the difference between making music and battling? And why do you think so many battle MCs make terrible music?
Pagen Elypsis: Thank you, the difference is really the longevity aspect. A battle rapper is only as important as he is in the moment where he's battling. There are certainly some battle rappers who will always be respected but there are a lot more rappers known for their music who are timeless. That's more the direction we are looking to steer ourselves towards, we had our fun and enjoyed it but we prefer to spectate these days haha. I don't think 'battle MC's make terrible music', I just think some people gather so much attention through battling that they put something out before they're ready to try and capitalize on that hype. It's a genius idea if your music's good, horrible idea if you suck cause you will instantly fall into that bracket.
Cee: So tell us about the new album, One Way Ticket.
Pagen Elypsis: The new album really represents something that we're proud of and that we've been working on since we started. It's a well rounded album that shows all the different strengths of the members of the group and allows us to give people exactly what we've been preparing them for over the past few years since we came out. The production has very much the same feel of an 'Elypsis' album but with a bit more charm to it. I think we really nailed the balance on this album of bringing what people know us for, and what they would never expect from us. That's a hard task to do but we are very proud of the results.
Cee: Did you guys get many features? Seeing as there's a gang of y'all, that might be redundant.
Pagen Elypsis: The only people who feature on the album are producers and DJ Butcher haha. Five rappers is enough, the next album is the Aforementioned album and we got some crazy features lined up for that but this time around it's all Elypsis.
Cee: Who did you get on the boards?
Pagen Elypsis: Purpose kick started the production off, I think he ended up with 8 or so beats on there. We got a few joints from a cat from Brisbane by the name of Cam Bluff who's really crazy, a joint from Answer in Melb and we also worked with some overseas cats by the name of Vokab & Kela who we had used on the Red October release so some familiar faces.
Cee: What's the plans as far as promotions for the album? Will there be a nationwide tour of some description?
Pagen Elypsis: We're looking at putting together a tour for the album towards the end of the year with some shows all around the country so if you think we should come to your city hit us up on Facebook......NOW. You can keep up to date with any new gigs through the Facebook page or Twitter @pagenelypsis.
Cee: Where can the people cop the album? And where can they find you online?
Pagen Elypsis: People will be able to cop the album on iTunes, Amazon, all good independent stores and we're negotiating a JB account as we speak so you should be able to get this bad boy anywhere.
Cee: Any final message for the fans?
Pagen Elypsis: August 19th...DONMusicLtd. So neccesary.
Cee: Thanks for your time, y'all.
Pagen Elypsis: No doubt.
At first I was really diggin' J. Cole. 'Lights Please' was one of my favourite joints from last year. Then he kinda just went bland. But this joint has kinda brought him back up there for me.
Video is cool; looks like it was shot in one take but I doubt it. Joint is dope too; verses are fresh and quite tech and witty, and the hook is catchy and simple enough to stick in your head all day. Keen as for the album now.
