School Days: freshmen MCs show promise

A dream recently came true for local rap-crew Typecast, as they opened for their hero’s Blackalicious in front of thousands of concert goers at last week’s sold out Concordia orientation event. In a genre of music where credibility comes through years of paying dues, Typecast is relatively new on the scene, having formed only nine months ago after meeting at the McGill Hip-Hop Society.

Sighting MTL veterans Butta Babees and Loe Peshi as inspiration, the trio of Concordia Creative Writing major Aaron Ableman, and McGill student’s Derek Desa and Louis Deering, also known respectively as Boxcar Willie, D-Cyphur and Muse, are beginning to turn heads for thoughtful writing and animated performances. The trio took turns answering questions from The Concordian.

Concordian: How long have you been writing for?

Muse Money: I’ve been writing rhymes since high school, mostly just out of being a hip-hop enthusiast and wanting to experiment. I think it’s pretty natural for anyone who’s big into hip-hop to sneak into their closet one night and start writing rhymes.

I’d say any head who’s got more than ten hip-hop CD’s has got a rhyme hidden down somewhere, you’ll find it if you look hard enough.

Concordian: When do you write?

Muse: I get my illest verses written during final examination study period: something about having to sit in a library for ten to twelve hours at a time is very inspiring.

Concordian: What makes you different from all the other upstart rappers out there?

D-Cyphur: I find Typecast to be an interesting collaboration of sounds. We’re three emcees from different backgrounds, Thunderbay [D-Cyphur is also a member of Thunderbay rap-crew Wax Philosophic], California and Minneapolis, and we each bring our own style to the mic.

Muse: When it comes to song writing we’re really experimental. Judging from the music we created so far will in no way give you an indication of what our next song might be about. Our first track was about a mystical battleground (laughs).

We’ve written about music being the origin of life, another song was about the fear of not knowing where your food’s coming from. We also wrote a song where we took the story of Icarus reversed the theme of it and said go chase your dreams.

Concordian: What was it like to open for Blackalicious?

Muse: Unbelievable and crazy. We did the whole range of emotions over the last few days, insane stress. I wasn’t really worrying about anything else going on. I sometimes wouldn’t be eating all day (laughs). I knew I had to practice, get everything tight. The day before the show, I was just quiet and ready and right before we jumped on, everything flew out and we let loose! The energy just took over.

Concordian: What are your long-term goals?

Muse: Our goal is to produce an album that we can feel strong about. I would like to have a backpack full of albums and be walking around on the streets selling them as if they were cookware to people that have never heard of me, I would try and convince them to buy our album. It should be out in January.

Concordian: Any pre-performance rituals?

Muse: Coffee as a wake-me-up to get me focused, chamomile tea to coat the throat, two red bulls with two shots of gin in them for energy plus to relax me, and a combination of soymilk, water on stage.”

Boxcar Willie: I just break-dance my yoga and then do summersaults.

Concordian: How will your concert at Le Swimming be different than the one at orientation?

Muse: At Blackalacious there was a lot of pressure on us. This show we’ll just get to be ourselves which is sweet, cause we have all been waiting for this show for a long time.

Typecast will be performing at Le Swimming Thursday night with Specifics. The show is free for Concordia students.

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