Kevin Jones

Winnipeg and Toronto each provide their own inspiration for rapper Odario Williams, better known as Grand Analog

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Hip hop is historically a local endeavour. From the birth of the genre, when emcees rhymed on street corners to find a way out of the ghetto, much of hip hop has been concerned with all things local, such as poverty, unemployment, racial divisions and violence against women. When Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, they weren’t rapping about global policies, but the problems their lives were locally connected to. Since many of those problems are global, hip hop became the voice of many, despite originating from the voices of a few.

Grand Analog (Odario Williams) is different. He has two hometowns, two separate lives and two muses to rhyme about — the rapper splits his home between Toronto and Winnipeg. This lifestyle choice is evident in his latest collection, Calligraffiti.

Williams is one of Canada’s best emcees, and Calligraffiti is proof. The tunes transcend both his hometowns. Williams makes hip hop that is truly for the masses. Still, he wrote each song specifically in keeping with the city he was in for the writing.

“I was very sensitive to the distinct and different characters of each city,” says Williams. “I am a self-confessed people-watcher, and that trait helped me shape the themes of this project. I thought taking this route would add a unique flavour to the project and help me do things that haven’t been done before.”

Some of the moments on Calligraffiti do have precedents. Williams mixes the flow of Jurassic 5 with the instrumentation of The Roots, the thoughtfulness of Dalek and the ingenuity of Rahzel into one whole. Although it’s his debut release, Calligraffiti is bursting with ideas, flowing from dub to reggae, grime to political hip hop as the story develops. Despite talking about two cities through myriad musical ideas, this debut is brilliantly cohesive.

“I scrapped everything I’ve done in the past and took a new direction in music and in life,” admits Williams. “I approached making the record as though I never had a past. All I brought with me is the mistakes I’ve learned from to ensure I never make them again.”

The record has seen Grand Analog establish a strong fan base across Canada. Both Toronto and Winnipeg treat Williams like a local, despite knowing full well half his album is the result of external experiences. This is because Williams rhymes about affecting, intelligent subjects, wrapping each verse around clever, quirky musicianship, beats and programming. There is no pandering to the mainstream hip hop esthetic that preaches style over substance — Williams has plenty of both as he deals with his subject matter, the first instalment in a planned triptych.

“Essentially, this is one of three projects about the city as a living, breathing, tangible character and my relationship with it,” he says. “Being lonely in the city, having fun in the city, hating and loving the city at the same time, while being influenced by all the sounds permeating within it. All the songs on this project have been inspired by that.”

The second of Williams’s three projects will arrive soon, though he remains tight-lipped about it. This will be the final tour on the back of Calligraffiti, but in the meantime Williams has written, recorded and produced the bulk of a new album, one due out later this year on Toronto’s Urbnet. He’s revealed the title — Metropolis is Burning — and promised to continue tinkering with urban poetry, but the full story will have to wait a little while longer to surface. In the meantime, his stunning debut will have to suffice.