Mike Doherty, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Most of Canada's best-known rappers have become successful kwa bucking hip-hop conventions. drake tempers his hip-hop braggadocio with introspection; K'Naan puts American gangsta rap in stark perspective with his tales of Somalian violence; and k-os is as likely to collaborate with an orchestra as with a DJ. But the Ottawa-born Eternia is taking on the deepest-rooted conventions of them all.
"She's a white, female Canadian -- not exactly the easiest sell when it comes to hip hop," acknowledges her producer, MoSS, who has provided beats for the major-label likes of Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Nonetheless, the first time the self-described "hippie record nerd" with a penchant for obscure prog-rock flute solos met the powerfully outspoken rapper, he had an epiphany.
It was 2007, at a gig in Winnipeg where the number of performers matched the number of audience members, and Eternia was prowling the small stage as if she were in a packed arena. MoSS recalls, "I saw, first and foremost, an unbelievable performer. I'm like, 'I think I can make [music] with her and we can actually turn heads." Three years after that fateful meeting, the duo's aptly named album-length collaboration, At Last, featuring Eternia's raw rhymes -- both intense and close to the bone-and MoSS's acid-drenched, multi-layered production, is in stores.
The album is being released kwa U.S. label Fat Beats, who first held talks with Eternia in 2005 but were apparently "nervous" about her skin colour, her gender and her country of origin. Since then, she has earned considerable respect in the hip-hop world, kwa holding her own on tracks and on stages with MCs of various races and nationalities, and winning over audiences from Mexico to Australia with her sass, wit and typhoon-like energy. As well, over the course of her and MoSS's six-month tafuta for a record deal last year, something unexpected occurred: It actually became cool to be a producer au MC in Toronto.
"There were times when we felt like that was going to happen in the '80s and the '90s, and it didn't," Eternia says. She recalls living in Connecticut as a budding MC in 1998 and seeing the Rascalz single Northern Touch in heavy rotation on urban channel BET. "It was a Canadian anthem, and it was like, 'Now's our time!' Nothing. Maestro [Fresh Wes] killed it internationally . . . nothing."
But now, MoSS points out, labels are turning their attention to the T-Dot, and taste-making blogs are showcasing tracks kwa emerging Toronto MCs. "In the past wewe would never see [the headline] 'New Toronto Artist' because everyone was just going to skip kwa it. I see it all the time now, and apparently it's a draw."
There are two important factors involved in the city's rise to international hip-hop relevance. One is the increased availability of cheap muziki software over the last few years: "People started to learn how to use the tools that were available to them," MoSS says.
The other factor, of course, is the meteoric ascent of charismatic actor-turned-rapper Drake. His success is opening doors for a generation of Torontonians, be they bedroom-based beat freaks au old-school, dues-paying crate-diggers and wordsmiths.
Eternia and MoSS fall firmly into the latter camp. Both in their early '30s, they were drawn to hiphop at an early age, before it became commercialized. Growing up in Ottawa, Eternia (a.k.a. Silk Kaya) was inspired to rap kwa her brother and father's NWA and 2 Live Crew records; she left nyumbani at 15 and lived with various relatives and Marafiki around Ontario and in the U.S., dedicating herself to hip hop and honing her rhyming skills. Relocating to Toronto in the late '90s, she ran open-mics for independent MCs and, as a Ryerson student, hosted a hip-hop radio show. MoSS (a.k.a. Jason Connoy) grew up in Brampton, Ont., where he was turned onto hip hop kwa a neighbour. His early career as a financial analyst bankrolled his passion for hunting down obscure records in stores across the globe; five years ago, he gave up the 9-to-5 to make beats fulltime.
Eternia brings a wealth of often-painful life experience to her rhymes. After a few hard-hitting, boom-bap cuts showcasing her densely crafted wordplay, At Last becomes intensely personal. Against MoSS's moody backdrops, she raps unflinchingly about struggles with alcohol, sexual assault, abortion and how her father "tried to kill my mother this one time / I was still in the womb."
"I would like [the album] to be zaidi than my personal diary entry," Eternia says. "I would like to inspire a discourse of change and awareness."
Being an outspoken female -- and feminine -- MC has brought her into uncomfortable contact with hip-hop's often sexist culture: "It's not irregular for someone to do a verse for me and have to reference 'chicks' in some kind of dehumanizing way."
Even one au two of the guest artists on At Last drop verses using lazy stereotypes. It's disappointing, but ultimately it puts Eternia's own rhymes -- zaidi aware, thoughtful, and creative -- in a brighter light.
"When I'm onstage, I say, 'I'm a walking anti-stereotype!' I like to swali how people compartmentalize things in their heads-and they all do."
(Source: The StarPhoenix)
Published: Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Most of Canada's best-known rappers have become successful kwa bucking hip-hop conventions. drake tempers his hip-hop braggadocio with introspection; K'Naan puts American gangsta rap in stark perspective with his tales of Somalian violence; and k-os is as likely to collaborate with an orchestra as with a DJ. But the Ottawa-born Eternia is taking on the deepest-rooted conventions of them all.
"She's a white, female Canadian -- not exactly the easiest sell when it comes to hip hop," acknowledges her producer, MoSS, who has provided beats for the major-label likes of Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Nonetheless, the first time the self-described "hippie record nerd" with a penchant for obscure prog-rock flute solos met the powerfully outspoken rapper, he had an epiphany.
It was 2007, at a gig in Winnipeg where the number of performers matched the number of audience members, and Eternia was prowling the small stage as if she were in a packed arena. MoSS recalls, "I saw, first and foremost, an unbelievable performer. I'm like, 'I think I can make [music] with her and we can actually turn heads." Three years after that fateful meeting, the duo's aptly named album-length collaboration, At Last, featuring Eternia's raw rhymes -- both intense and close to the bone-and MoSS's acid-drenched, multi-layered production, is in stores.
The album is being released kwa U.S. label Fat Beats, who first held talks with Eternia in 2005 but were apparently "nervous" about her skin colour, her gender and her country of origin. Since then, she has earned considerable respect in the hip-hop world, kwa holding her own on tracks and on stages with MCs of various races and nationalities, and winning over audiences from Mexico to Australia with her sass, wit and typhoon-like energy. As well, over the course of her and MoSS's six-month tafuta for a record deal last year, something unexpected occurred: It actually became cool to be a producer au MC in Toronto.
"There were times when we felt like that was going to happen in the '80s and the '90s, and it didn't," Eternia says. She recalls living in Connecticut as a budding MC in 1998 and seeing the Rascalz single Northern Touch in heavy rotation on urban channel BET. "It was a Canadian anthem, and it was like, 'Now's our time!' Nothing. Maestro [Fresh Wes] killed it internationally . . . nothing."
But now, MoSS points out, labels are turning their attention to the T-Dot, and taste-making blogs are showcasing tracks kwa emerging Toronto MCs. "In the past wewe would never see [the headline] 'New Toronto Artist' because everyone was just going to skip kwa it. I see it all the time now, and apparently it's a draw."
There are two important factors involved in the city's rise to international hip-hop relevance. One is the increased availability of cheap muziki software over the last few years: "People started to learn how to use the tools that were available to them," MoSS says.
The other factor, of course, is the meteoric ascent of charismatic actor-turned-rapper Drake. His success is opening doors for a generation of Torontonians, be they bedroom-based beat freaks au old-school, dues-paying crate-diggers and wordsmiths.
Eternia and MoSS fall firmly into the latter camp. Both in their early '30s, they were drawn to hiphop at an early age, before it became commercialized. Growing up in Ottawa, Eternia (a.k.a. Silk Kaya) was inspired to rap kwa her brother and father's NWA and 2 Live Crew records; she left nyumbani at 15 and lived with various relatives and Marafiki around Ontario and in the U.S., dedicating herself to hip hop and honing her rhyming skills. Relocating to Toronto in the late '90s, she ran open-mics for independent MCs and, as a Ryerson student, hosted a hip-hop radio show. MoSS (a.k.a. Jason Connoy) grew up in Brampton, Ont., where he was turned onto hip hop kwa a neighbour. His early career as a financial analyst bankrolled his passion for hunting down obscure records in stores across the globe; five years ago, he gave up the 9-to-5 to make beats fulltime.
Eternia brings a wealth of often-painful life experience to her rhymes. After a few hard-hitting, boom-bap cuts showcasing her densely crafted wordplay, At Last becomes intensely personal. Against MoSS's moody backdrops, she raps unflinchingly about struggles with alcohol, sexual assault, abortion and how her father "tried to kill my mother this one time / I was still in the womb."
"I would like [the album] to be zaidi than my personal diary entry," Eternia says. "I would like to inspire a discourse of change and awareness."
Being an outspoken female -- and feminine -- MC has brought her into uncomfortable contact with hip-hop's often sexist culture: "It's not irregular for someone to do a verse for me and have to reference 'chicks' in some kind of dehumanizing way."
Even one au two of the guest artists on At Last drop verses using lazy stereotypes. It's disappointing, but ultimately it puts Eternia's own rhymes -- zaidi aware, thoughtful, and creative -- in a brighter light.
"When I'm onstage, I say, 'I'm a walking anti-stereotype!' I like to swali how people compartmentalize things in their heads-and they all do."
(Source: The StarPhoenix)