| Where is the hip hop among the condo developments and urban sprawl of Calgary? Catch the sun and take a glance at the spray-painted tattoo placed just below the curve of the Calgary Tower’s neck. Listen to the bead of a beat dripping between the clitter-clatter of the C-train. Just underneath the sinew of steel and concrete, look hard enough and you might see it.
"I don’t see anything hip hop," says Camille in regard to the status of Calgary’s hip hop scene. Armed with beats made on her PlayStation, the 15-year-old from Lester B. Pearson High School is ready to battle her way to the top, but she is already frustrated with the local scene.
"To me, Calgary isn’t a very good place to start," she says. "I mean, Calgary does (have a scene), but it’s too underground. I have gone to one hip hop show, but I didn’t really like it that much. There weren’t a lot of people. There were supposed to be emcee battles, but there were, like two emcees. It was kind of weak."
Not put off by one lacklustre show, Camille stays on the lookout for all ages hip hop events. And she doesn’t believe she’s alone.
"A lot of people want it," she says. "It’s not pushed to the people it should be pushed to. It needs to be pushed to the high school scene."
DJ Cosm isn’t one to sigh, especially before he hosts the Super Fli Wednesdays at the Koi. As part of Dragon Fli Empire (DFE) – a group CBC radio proclaimed to be the leaders of Calgary hip hop – he understands people’s lack of awareness for a scene he helped build.
"Calgary’s (scene) is budding," he says. "All kinds of stuff comes out every day that we haven’t heard about."
Nobody knows the history like Cosm, who can trace the lineage of the local scene. He drops the names of those who came before him with obvious glee – Chris Rose, Nucleus, Vicious Circle, Verbal Assassin. Cosm understands this as the process of a scene in its infancy.
"A lot of people in Calgary seem to have gone through generations," he says. "Like, you could think of a bunch of local crews from the late ’80s, early ’90s. Since 2000, it’s a whole new ballgame."
Teekay, the rest of DFE, agrees with his partner. Renowned for his peanut- butter smooth delivery and positive lyrics, his assessment of what’s wrong with the Calgary hip hop sence is surprisingly hard-edged.
"People just need to get good," says Teekay bluntly. "It holds true for us, too – I’m not holding higher-than-thou status. But the city, overall, really needs to focus on the quality of what they do.
"If you were to divide the quality of hip hop in this city, I would honestly say 10 per cent of the stuff I’ve heard I could really support and get into."
For thekidbelo, one of Calgary’s most respected graffiti artists, the problem with the Calgary hip hop scene goes beyond just quality. Once an emcee, he’s dedicated himself to the oft-ignored element of hip hop – graffiti. Able to find new angles in letters and possessing the finesse of three surgeons and a bomb defuser when wielding a spray can, it took years to achieve what he has. He says that dedication is something the new generation of graffiti artists, weaned on a different breed of hip hop, remain ignorant of.
"This goes for everything in hip hop, the amount of respect kids have now-a-days is horrible," says thekidbelo. "We’re teaching them fast, easy and no work ethic. You adapt that to art – they’re 15 years old, tagging and bombing everything with no style. There’s this cool history and they’ve lost that. Kids don’t care. They just want what’s trendy. They don’t understand it takes time. I’ve been at it for nine years – it takes time to build a name and respect.
"You can’t fake the funk in hip hop – you’ll be found out."
Like punk rockers grumbling at kids in designer Mohawks – scenes change. Support networks and the beginnings of a community are in place, with Camille representing an influx of hungry emcees, DJs, breakdancers and graffiti artists eager to tear down the standards set by their forerunners.
Not afraid of what is to come, DJ Pump is prepared to embrace the next generation that is out to replace him. Attribute it to his faith in the music and culture that made him Calgary’s representative at the 2000 World DMC championships in London, England and a pillar of the local scene.
"Hip hop to me is a cultural movement," he says. "It is the rebellious voice of a new generation just like rock music (was). There’s always the next cat that will carry the art form. I just hope the new generation takes it into the next level, that they learn something from the generation before them. Ten, 15 years later, we’re gonna look back to this as all part of the history that went down."
"I’ve given in," says Cosm of the new styles and hip hop heads embarking on the scene. "We got to accept (the scene) for what it is, whether it’s emo, backpacker, krunk or what. Given that we’re an oil capital and primarily suburban, I just don’t think you can expect the same from hip hop culture.
"Calgary is a good example of where it’s going now and where it came from." |
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