Vancity Raps (2025)

[bunniefuu]

(indistinct)

You got the power

You got the power

You got the power

Yeah, you got the power

You got the power, made this hour

The one we the made it 25th hour

We got them our

We made the flower

Who's the one that's

really just a coward

I hate the law so I break the law

Like the government

when they making w*r

They will control you patrol you

Even try to hold you

Do anything in the

power to try to mold you

Into something that they wanna see

Government don't care,

what you wanna be

They don't give a damn

about people on the streets

Some little class

workers, only the elite

Get the treatment

that everyone deserves

So imma' rip off his skin

Just to get another plan

(metal banging)

(lively hip hop music)

(electronic music)

(suspenseful dramatic music)

(bright upbeat music)

(electronic music)

- [Rapper] Your mic joke,

hit that intro, y'all get up.

- [Rapper 2] Y'all

gonna get some, come on.

(bright hip hop music)

- Oh bro, what you just watching?

- [Man] Oh, hey man, what's

up, how's work though?

- Work was good.

- Just turning on lets

see, work yeah, it's good.

Good, they covered kinda like,

I don't like the local scene in Vancouver.

- Oh yeah.

- t's kind of keeping it up with like

what's trending and stuff.

- I know

- You know you like it?

- [Man] Yeah, I like it.

(beep)

- Hey, what's up, it's

Dangerous, aka The Dream Catcher,

aka the Deli MC aka the Lyrical

Miracle, you already know.

- Give it up party people

for this m*therf*cker.

(fans cheering)

Chances 138, and I call the cops

Fresh off the top on the best city

Black and plus side

Ain't nobody gonna talk

- Rocking with Emotions right

now representing Vancouver.

We rocking live right

now with Vancity Rap.

Time is coming

Come stand by me

I say that

Time is coming

- Yo, it's your boy, JGeezy

and this is Vancity Raps.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- This is Moka Only and

welcome to Vancity Raps.

(fast violin music)

(g*ns booming)

(dramatic instrumental music)

Talk nines talk live

Such a wonderful fun

Spend time kicking rock

Clock ticking into the wheel

Funk with the punk lot plus mine.

So prime, talk nice, spoke love

(rails crackling)

We getting hot right now

We getting hot right now

We getting hot right now

We getting hot right now

(lively hip hop music)

Baby I know, baby I know

I said I'll see ya after the show

Working like that I do not know

(hip hop music playing)

(rails screeching)

Two bombs don't bite,

two bombs go quiet

Two bombs that gonna make a ride

We evolve as the earth revolve

The world gets better

with the problems we solve

Think about all

Girl, you a straight rider

Be a little west sider

So brought a fly lady mess

with the clown jiggers

Hope we rude when to have

them making them figures

The longer the L-I-T-leader, fresh new T

You can be my stalker

(bright upbeat hiphop music)

Say what say what

Rhyme on the top, say

what, say what, what

Say what, say what, say what, say what

Say what, say what,

ride down the street

We are, we are, we the

chance, we the kings

Yeah we the kings

When we just first class

We are, we are, 'cause

we're independent or direct

Fly in the city

We are, we are, we the

chance, we the kings

- What's her name, the South side girl?

Something like that, Ben Saucer.

- Saucer.

The clip zipper

You need that faith

You looking for a fresh cut

You can see that

I thinking yeah...

- Yeah, yeah.

Everyday I wake up and thank God

Every night am working this and I

- [Rapper] I guess, in all essence,

I just wanna find the most diverse,

like I really wanna focus on

the diversity of Vancouver

'cause that part of the film

is definitely shining through it.

(high-energy upbeat music)

(siren wailing)

(electronic music)

(ground cluttering)

(footsteps thumping)

(door thudding)

(footsteps thumping)

(quirky instrumental music)

(electronic music)

(alarm buzzing)

- [Rapper] In Morning of became

a good ferry with her basket

and said, here are gifts,

take one, leave the others

and be wearing, choose wisely.

Oh, choose wisely for only

one of them is valuable.

The gifts were five, fame,

love, riches, pleasure.

- I was born in Surrey British

Columbia, don't judge me,

I then moved out to Trinidad and Tobago,

which is where my father's from,

lived there for a few

years, came back to Surrey.

Dance to the beat

Dance to the beat

Who's got the rhythm

Whose got the wisdom

Whose got the speed

And quickest metabolism

Dangerous a hero

Dangerous a speemo

High hip hop ground

(electronic music)

- You rocked in with Emotionz right now.

Rapper, beatboxer, singer,

DJ, grew up in Vancouver.

Been in and out, lived in LA for a bit

and lived in Montreal

and in Nelson for a bit,

but primarily Vancouver, my whole life.

I had a record deal out

in LA with Dreamax records

and I lived out there for about a year.

Well, when I lived in LA

I was real busy recording.

So pretty much every day

was recording in the studio.

We were working with DJ

Quick, West Coast legend.

So that was amazing.

And my days consisted of like just hanging

with my crew clockwork and

writing a lot of songs.

Favorite thing about LA

is just like inspirations in the air.

There's something special

about LA in that sense,

it feels like you're in one

of the Meccas of just art

and creation and culture and fashion.

And I really like it in that sense.

They don't know the school

Same f*cking punks like before

You know, the ending 'cause

you've seen it before

Prepare you for the w*r

(upbeat hip hop music)

(glass shattering)

(electronic music)

- We get a lot of outta town

a lot of people move here

from other places right.

But back when I was growing

up being from East Van,

everybody sees the east van thing

and it's become this

thing, oh yeah, East Van,

but growing up it really was East Van.

So it was like a tale of

two cities in Vancouver.

(man laughing)

Not, West Vancouver though, the West end,

which was the rich side of Vancouver.

Then there was East Vancouver,

which was the poor side.

It was, you know what,

I'm a child of immigrants.

They immigrated here from the west Indies

and they worked really hard

to provide a good life

for me and my sister.

(electronic music)

- I started smoking weed

in high school, man.

I remember man, it was grade 10.

It was not good either.

It was not a good experience bro.

But, it was just chilling outside smoking

we dropping freestyles, getting into sh*t,

grades had to be on point

though, and the teacher them,

they understood like

in the urban environment

where we came from,

attention was something

that we didn't have

for a long period of time in class.

She knew that, they knew that, so they...

Not that they worked with us,

but they were just like, yo

listen, y'all just make sure,

when it's time to do these tests

and when it's time to get this work in,

you guys get it in and it's whatever,

it was a common ground of respect

in some spot, not all the

teachers were like that.

Some of the teachers were

f*cking assholes m*therf*cker.

(electronic music)

- [Reporter] Daniel Denton,

better known by his stage name Moka Only

is a Canadian underground hip-hop artist.

He has won three Junior Awards,

five MuchMusic Video Awards

and has been nominated

for 11 Western Canadian Music Awards.

- I was born in Canada, actually.

Toia, British Columbia.

- Thick, what, oh my God, Moka Only.

- I was a pretty quiet kid.

I didn't have a huge range of friends,

I was by myself a lot.

But I liked it

'cause I was an introvert

was then, still am now.

And music was on my mind

at a very early age.

My family had a piano in the house

and that was the first

instrument I gravitated toward.

So I started writing

music at a very early age.

First song I wrote, I was

about three or four years old

and wrote a rock and roll song on a piano.

(electronic music)

- Well, I grew up in Penticton.

We used to battle on

the beaches and parties

and freestyle in the cars

and it's definitely a place

where I got a lot of love.

Like I would say the main

source of my creativity.

It depends on the situation

I'm going through, my life at that time.

A big part of it though,

when I created Little T.

was this element of fighting back,

I'm smaller, I'm shorter,

I grew up on that battle.

(bright upbeat hip hop music)

(fans cheering)

So I could use my words to flip it right.

(bright upbeat hip hop music)

Even if I'm going through

something really hard,

I flip that into a positive

by using my writing.

So I would say that is a main source,

but then sometimes even if

I'm in a really good mood,

then I wanna write like that.

But I would say a lot

of it is therapeutic.

Worth the nine to five

They gotta rock the mic

No complaining

I can handle it

Two worlds, but I

continue to balance it

It's challenging, but it's rewarding

Am living now my dreams

And am recording

- Yeah she is harmless

who is this?

She is (indistinct)

Am in an Interview

I living proof that dreams come true

And I'ma keep imma keep,

imma see it through

- Baby C, Baby C

- Baby C huh!

(electronic music)

- I don't think it's necessary

to be signed to a label

with CD Baby and Distro Kid and Tune Cor.

There's so many ways to

like get your music out

and get people listening.

YouTube, people will just

watch videos on YouTube

or stream their music on Spotify.

You don't need a label to do any of that.

You can do it on your own.

And not many people are

buying physical copies.

So it's not like back in the

day when you need a label

to distribute your

music to all the stores,

no one does that anymore, so

I don't think it's necessary.

I do think you need a team

of individuals around you

to help you with promoting your career.

I don't think you can do it all yourself.

So surrounding yourself

with the right people

with the right connections is important

and not being afraid to pay for services

that you need to advance your career.

(high upbeat music)

(electronic music)

(alien expectorating)

- Oh, hey, sorry, I'm late.

(alien expectorating)

oh yeah sorry, sorry,

traffic was a biatch.

You know what I'm saying?

(alien expectorating)

- Oh what was your original question?

(alien expectorating)

- Oh, sorry, sorry, yeah, yeah,

you're right, you're right

I am getting off track.

Vancity Raps, so you want it

to be about the hiphop artists,

the rapping, but not just

the rapping of the music

you wanted about the rapping,

the talking style rapping

to get to know the artist

so that you can shape the story.

(alien expectorating)

- Just want the most

popular artist I remember,

you wanted some veteran artists,

so I went out and got Moka Only.

And Emotions is, I would

consider him a vet.

(alien expectorating)

- Yeah, you wanted the newbies,

you wanted the intermediate

and the veterans

I got them all just

finished filming them all

I'm dead tired.

(alien expectorating)

- And, I'm beat and going to bed.

(alien expectorating)

- Alright, cool.

(alien expectorating)

(tense upbeat music)

- (laughing) That was funny,

make me disappear again.

(indistinct)

(man laughing)

- Wow, that's nuts.

Time is coming

Come stand by me

I said that time is coming

(electronic music)

- I was actually born in

the Dominican Republic

in Puerto Plata.

I immigrated here when I

was about a year and a half

to South Surry, I still rep

the DR, but at the same time,

I'm pretty, pretty Canadian.

I still rep Vancouver pretty hard.

That's an interesting question.

I'm trying to think,

when I'm writing songs

and even when I'm about to perform on,

I feel like everything about

what you do as an artist

is a creative process.

(indistinct music)

Yes I'll say I'm a singer,

but I'm also a performer.

I'm a personality, there's

all, whatever I say,

when people are listening to you,

you have to be conscious of that.

I feel like there's this sort of energy

that I want to share with people.

And I find that when I

perform in front of people,

there's this certain energy

that they give back to me.

A Creative process, it just

comes from how I'm feeling.

If I'm feeling like sh*t,

it's gonna be a sh*t.

It's gonna be a pissed off song.

What I'm saying, if I'm

feeling happy as hell, listen,

we're all celebrating.

So It just really depends on my mood.

- I had a great childhood.

I mean, my dad was like the Joe Jackson,

he was putting a guitar in my hand,

harmonica for my birthday.

I remember it was like 1990.

He got me my first camera

to start making movie.

We actually created

a rap root back then called Blackout Boys

with my best friend, and we

went down to "Star Search."

Did the audition.

It must go down

Going go from the North, to the West

To the South, to the East

I'll eat the beat

I'll drink the beat

To the Mc to see

(upbeat hip-hop music)

To get on "Star Search" with Ed McMan,

rap was definitely not in

the mainstream back then.

So we didn't get past auditions,

but he's always been

pushing me to do music.

(electronic music)

We control reality

- He's my favorite rapper, dead or alive?

I always say myself when

people ask me this question

I think my shades though,

but I also, there's a guy named 37

and I remember talking to

people like my bro and friends

and dude, this guy is

better than cannabis.

I was feeling his lyrics more and mostly

because one of the most

poignant MCs I've ever heard,

he just says things that are

so true about what's going on.

Like there's songs

called "Hand That Feeds"

try to find that.

(upbeat hip hop music)

(electronic music)

Oh, making that pack jump

Making that block, jump

Making that trap jump

Make your hood jump

Just like Chris Crowns

Yeah, I trip so

- I wasn't even the best in my school

in Seattle at rapping, which is crazy.

I was probably like third

best, fourth best, third, best.

There's two guys named Frosty.

Frosty was a 6'7, big black guy

looked like Gucci man,

fur coat, fur Air Force ones to match,

different color every day.

Ice called Frosty had

freestyle raps like Gucci.

This free styles all day,

he doesn't miss a beat.

Street guy, rapper, I

wasn't in the street.

I was playing basketball and

you know, I'll be in the hood.

So, I'm cultured,

but these guys were full time, rapping,

getting b*tches, trapping on that.

Seven 16, I mean 15, 16,

you know, this guy's 17,

but they rock with me, I rock with them.

They g*ng members and everything too.

- I did a song on from Marley & Me

which was a great opportunity

to get signed in

so also some other highlights

were sh**ting in for my city

one of the music videos

The stage is my home

Engaged with the microphone

Ladies love me

We rented a boat and

we had two floors DJs,

music video, and people just

were having a good time.

And it was like, it was

just a blast with your,

Say hey, put your feeds up

Take, put your feeds up

- Did you hear little T did a

track with Snoop Dogg as well?

- Oh, yeah?

- Yeah.

- That's crazy, right?

Scream right up with your face.

Get that one one

I couldn't walk a straight

line if you're letting me crawl

'Cause I'm tow up for

show up and toe down y'all

I need a designated

driver and you've been pin

And once you getting into the peg yeah

- My early childhood.

Well everyone's really

individual my family.

So got my dad who was

like the iron worker type,

very like strong grew up in the 60s

really free loving, really cool,

but also could be, a tough guy.

My mom was sweet as an angel,

very nice Christian lady,

and I always kind of joke around that.

My dad was like the devil.

My mom was like an angel

and I was raised by both,

but they're both very different

when it came to parenting,

(phone ringing)

- [Caller] Ben it's me,

you know what this little hoe say to me

- [Recipient] Man whta that b*tch say?

- [Caller] To hold for

the other night, man,

that little b said it's

prime time in the city.

If I want slide in the

cut or something hop side.

So man, I said, b*tch

you know what time it,

Come and spend fan time

always in the city.

Sure I know what time it is.

(electronic music)

- Anybody that's hung around me knows me

they know I keep it real,

I don't like to talk a lot.

I just find like when you talk too much,

you're saying too much,

you know what I mean?

I'm not one to play like

talking about other people or,

I like to have fun, have a

good time, I like to laugh.

You know what I mean?

So a lot of time, everything

else is just hidden.

I like to just laugh and stay

happy and and keep my joy.

So if there's anything

that I need to get out,

that's not of that nature,

I just let it go when I write.

(electronic music)

- Well, that's a really good question.

My favorite three in Vancouver right now,

trying to remember T, can't say Little 'cause he's he's rebranding.

But T has been doing this

thing for a long time

and I've been following him

all through his Anza Club days

and all that stuff.

People who are really

putting in for the city.

So I'd say T on the top

of my list right now.

EBA Mob, he's really

doing a lot of big stuff.

I'm just following everything he does.

And he just understands how

the social media is working

and he gets his groups and

his followers really vibing

with third favorite right now.

Gotta go with a female, Kimmortal.

Kimmortal been doing some

really big things working

with Snottynose res kids and

JB, the first lady and Missy D.

But my list will go on forever, (chuckles)

I'll just be here all night,

In da club

In da club

Yeah, in da club

You know me VIP

In da club, in da club

Yeah, I'm riding on top

Riding on top

Can't stop staying in penny

Can't stop

Can't stop

In a hot top 20 inch rooms

Can't stop, can't stop

Rolling up, hot rock hard rock

You want me on top

Don't want me to stop

Until I drop to the drop

Flip top tree pop

Tree pop tree pop

Tripping in the swag

Flossing like ministag

Dior in the bag

This a dream I've arisen

To the cream still in the

smoke take my first to

And she spoke

Now I'm rich used to be broke

Now I talk now I talk

Don't play the hard stuff

Just smoke, just smoke, just smoke

(electronic music)

- I mean, when I first

started getting into it,

I have to say everybody sounded the same.

Like from one rapper, hip hop artist

to the other right into the other,

there was probably like one

or two that stood out for me.

and I didn't wanna be the guy

that sounded like everybody else.

My drive as a musician is just

at first I just started getting into music

'cause I wanted to

control my own ride home.

I didn't wanna listen to

somebody else's BS sometimes.

So I was like, I wanna

listen to my own music

on the way home.

Put it my CD in my car,

drive home to it after work.

And that was my whole viewpoint

on getting into music, took me a while.

It took me longer than other artists

to get out there because I

really had to do it my way.

And unfortunately that takes a long time.

I know all you rappers,

musicians, DJs, MCs,

whatever out there that

just wanna it tomorrow.

Will sell their life away in

an instant to get it tomorrow.

I'm telling you it's life is a journey.

Life is a journey, and if you

sell it all in the first year,

you're done.

Riding in my Maserrati ridding

Get tattoos on my body

I be going nowhere

I don't even go there

She me in my hometown

rolling through the top down

My girl (indistinct)

She just turned 19

So many spot was on her dress

We just finished having sex

(high upbeat music)

(electronic music)

- In the mid nineties,

Limblifter was on the radio

all the time, 1996, 97.

Weirdly I didn't listen

to the radio at the time,

so I didn't have a car.

I'm sure I heard it on

the radio at some point,

but we were like heavy rotation

on the big Toronto station,

The Edge, we actually

we won the Casby Award,

which is Edge Radio's Canadian

artist selected by you.

We were also on MuchMusic,

heavy rotation in like 1997.

MuchMusic was just music.

I do vaguely remember seeing video,

it is a weird time.

I was kind of indifferent to it.

- So a lot of...

The rappers are used to

rapping about being rappers.

What essence is gangster rap?

What else is rap really in,

even in the 90s and the

1000s you had the only guys

that could really last mainstream

that wasn't doing gangster

rap was like Ludacris,

Busta, Common, most def like soul rappers

and like party rappers.

But if you if you didn't do a

gangster hard hardcore stuff,

you weren't selling records.

(electronic music)

- This festivals called

Electric Love Music Festival.

It's one of my favorite

music festivals around,

but like I said, they do

catering to the hiphop community.

(crowd chattering)

- Turn it off my headphones

Faster in the game

Things change their same

sh*t cooler from the fame

Just laying from the shame

Heavy on the brain

How we train man in the fish ball

Fill it up, feel at home

Mango might everything sell itself

And sl*ves stay brave

convict to concave

Flip pop, bud flip hop

What a crave try to keep away

Try to keep away

Yeah, it's getting faster in the game

Faster in the game

My still shot moving the frame

Have a still got a million slots

- They always have a big

hip hop upstage there

and actually Travis Turner

and I performed before

mad child last year.

And just cool to be able to perform

for some of these, I

guess higher level artists

per se, but to kinda have them come up

after you and be like,

hey, I liked your drumming.

And that was cool I

wanna do a track with you

it's a really big thing in

my eyes just having that.

(drum sets beat)

(electronic music)

- Moved to Canada, pretty

early in life I came up

when I was about 14.

Under the banner of multiculturalism.

As far as the division

between us as humans, men and women,

and also nationalities,

I really don't believe...

If we believe we'll ever eradicate

that I think we're sadly mistaken,

now of course,

because our neighbors to the

south have a little bit more

of a vivid agenda right

now on the go than we do.

We get pulled into that

because we're so closely linked to them.

So we feel anything that's going on

that reverberates from

what it is they're doing

in terms of their actions.

I think now with social

media, with technology,

with the way we connect,

we can have stories

that come in from around

the world in seconds now,

in terms of knowing what's

going on in the world,

because seeing so much more of it

because we're so in tune

with so much more of it,

of course, we're gonna be way more aware

of it now than we were before.

(suspenseful instrumental music)

Seven a.m in the morning

Checking out the hotel

On the stripper round with Gucci

Dress on the games

Turn to the interviews before the show

We the crowd everywhere

(electronic music)

- So what's my occupation?

I'm a Audio Engineer/Producer

fully artist ADR recorders.

The list was on mixing

engineer, sometimes mastering.

I was born in Poland.

I feel like I had a pretty

interesting childhood,

maybe a little bit more

interesting than some people.

I mean it was a good

childhood, like nothing weird.

But I grew up with my grandparents

that I was about six years old.

Then I moved to Germany

and lived until I was 16

and then immigrated to

Canada where my father lived.

So I've been here for about

15 years at this point.

(gentle instrumental music)

So this is a little bit

of a different genre

and this is definitely more

high fidelity of a beat,

I would say, more pop production,

and again, I just get ads to

sort of have a certain vibe

of a certain song.

And if I could, not

necessarily copy the song,

but give them the certain vibe.

So I sat there and produced this

and with pretty good results, I think.

(lively upbeat music)

(indistinct chattering)

(electronic music)

(warbling music)

- Feel my take on the Vancouver

Rap scene, is it's young.

There's a lot going on.

There's little pockets everywhere.

There's people releasing

tracks with Snoop,

there's people releasing tracks with Dell,

there's underground homies

that have been putting out albums

for years, getting signed to b*stard Jazz.

There's like all these little pockets

of stuff going on and it's bubbling.

(electronic music)

- Where was I born?

Right here, Gilfred City, G Town baby.

There's rainbow rappers,

and there's real rappers.

The rainbow rappers;

that's, everything looks pretty,

they dress and they got the drip

the swag, they're dressed a certain way.

They're always taking these

type of pictures on Instagram

where they're just like posing

and doing all this stuff

and it seems to be about

everything except the music.

And maybe that person

might have like a hot hook

or something and you might hit 'em out

and be like, yo, let's do a song

and everything have gotta be perfect

and tailored to them

for them to make a song.

They can never adapt.

And that's a huge thing that

separates a lot of people

I think, is being able to

adapt to different styles,

different flows, different beats.

That's one of my favorite

things is collaborating

with people because I love the challenge,

especially when the person's

already laid down a verse

or a hook and I've got to kinda adapt

because I want the song to sound cohesive.

I gotta like adapt to whatever they did

and doesn't mean I gotta

do copy their flow,

but it's just like, okay,

you're talking about this.

You're rapping, like, then I just gotta,

it influences the way I write

and I feel like I could do

that with anybody, any beat.

(booming upbeat music)

- One of the hardest things

to get through in my

creative life, artistic life,

maybe just life in general

'cause it was such a big part of me

it such a long time

Was when you know, my

group, "The Family Compact"

when we split up not due to

any bad blood or anything,

some of us had to go another path in life.

Their life was taking them

in a different direction, you know,

and we decided to say, you know what,

well, that's, you know,

that's gonna be it.

And so I started doing my own thing,

I tried to do my own solo

thing for a long time,

but that really kind of took

the wind outta my sails.

And I think its the

time looking back at it,

I don't think I realized

how much it affected me,

until I could, you know, look back.

But, you know, I see that

as one of the big moments,

sort of my professional life was just,

you know, having the group split up.

- [Glimmer] This is Glimmer

from the Hipster Cartel,

you're listening to the

urban renewal project,

with DJ Denise on 100.5 FM.

- Yeah I feel like Vancouver's

scene is, bubbling up.

People are trying to

do their own DIY shows,

and making sure to bring out their friends

so they can showcase what they're doing

and having listening parties.

I recently was invited to a video release,

like a launch party,

which was really cool.

So the person who invited

us came to the studio,

and brought us a hand

like created invitation,

which was really cool.

So people are really

thinking outside of the box

to bring people out to their events,

so yeah, I love what's

happening in Vancouver.

- For music on the hip hop side,

Canibus is really the guy for me.

I mean, Eminem as well,

but Canibus was the first guy

that I would have to go

and like check at the source,

and look up things that he was doing.

His, you know, he had the

most intelligible terminology,

that you'd ever seen,

the level of metaphors

and what kind of syllables

he was crushing into such

a small vortex was amazing.

And so I was always aspiring

to be an artist like Canibus,

very lyrical, very thought provoking.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

Probably in 2009, when I

then said, you know what,

I wanna meet this man,

I wanna work with him,

and I just put it out there,

I just reached out to him.

We got on this track

called "The Dream Catcher",

collabed on it and then I

was like, you know what,

let's take it a step further,

let's do a show together.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

We put that together, we flew 'em out.

(indistinct)

We usually played the truck

and he never said like-

- We put 'em up for two

days and was amazing,

because it was actually

Canibus's birthday the next day.

So to go out and do a show

where he's like, "Yo Dangerous,"

he's like, "You know all my tracks right?"

I'm like, "Yeah",

he's like yeah

"I want you to be my hype man,

like we've been doing

this for like 15 years."

This is a even more so a dream,

so I got to be his hype

man for the whole show,

and then he's like, "This

is your show Dangerous,

you close it out." right

so we closed it out

with the dream catcher track

and it was just unbelievable.

And then to take the man

out for his birthday,

we went for some teppanyaki,

it was just unbelievable.

The stories that this guy

was telling me of hip hop,

of him and, and Mos, and to live,

I felt like I had reached

the pinnacle on my career,

I did nothing else.

I felt like I'd already

like died gone to heaven,

and came back able to

do a little bit more.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

- Like my mom raised me

up learning the piano,

from the age of like

literally four or five,

till I became a teenager (laughing)

I turned 14, 15, and I'm

like, mom f*ck this sh*t,

you know, this is not cool.

I wanna be outside with the cool kids man,

I don't wanna be doing piano

lessons on the weekend,

but I was raised playing

piano, so I did a lot of that.

The fact that now I'm still in school,

so my mom's very happy (laughing)

and I'm also doing other

things, extracurricular stuff,

so she likes that, she's happy.

She doesn't really

understand what it means,

when I tell her I'm doing a show,

she's like, oh you know,

"Good for you," you know,

(both laughing)

she doesn't really

understand you know like

what it means but she's encouraging,

and she's very supportive,

and she loves it.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

- And if you don't know

my name is Dawreckage

I'm the n*gga with the

loud mouth from Vancouver

Whadup' party people.

(crowd cheering)

Well I teach Krump

(crowd cheering)

- I call it an aggressive style of dance,

because I love it, because it's powerful.

It's a powerful style of dance.

krump started in the early 2002,

by two originators are

Tight Eyez and Mijjo.

They created their own style,

putting together different moves,

that they seen in the hip-hop world

from rappers to w*r movies,

from movements and clowning

and movements in hip hop.

And I actually thought when

back when I was in Edmonton,

beautiful f*cking dance.

Like I said, I started in the early 2000s,

and I was actually on a movie

called "Rise," which was dope.

And it showed huh...

My phone is going off just

put it directly(chuckles)

it shows clowning, krumping

and stripper dancing,

and the one I fell in love with was krump,

and I've been krumping ever since.

- Then of course some mad rappers,

gonna like drop some cooler sh*t here.

(instrumental upbeat music)

Big drop here, oh, no I

was wrong sir (laughing)

I gotta set my sh*t up right?

No point in running

It's already here

He had a tale, he's coming

Come face your fears

- I didn't grow up in the city,

I remember having boots on and going out,

and playing and making tree for it.

That's what free time was, you know,

I had a dog growing up,

I had like three cats,

that all either got eaten by coyotes

or something happened to them.

At some point we had

pet rabbits, you know,

and they got eaten by coyote.

We would go coyote hunting,

and we had four acre

farm that we lived on.

We lived on the house area,

but the rest was just like

rented by other people.

And at one point there were

cows living on the farm,

so I feel like I come from a pretty humble

grounded background of

just like wilderness,

and you know I didn't

start getting electronics

until I was older and

even then it was like,

you only were allowed to

use it for a certain time,

you had to go outside and play so-

(lively upbeat music)

- Is it getting signed and not

getting signed on both sides?

I mean, it's fast becoming

less lucrative to being signed,

and then as they say, being

put out to work (chuckles)

so that you can pay

for somebody else to

have more than you do.

So a lot of people are now aware of that,

and once again, with

technology being what it is,

giving the independent artist,

just as much if not

more control and ability

as to what the bigger

people had in the industry.

I think things have definitely changed,

I still think it's okay to

be signed at a certain level,

because big promotion can

really get you from A to B,

but if you're ready for it.

If it's the right part of your equation,

if you set your game plan

and that's the right

time and the right area,

where you're supposed to

be, I think it can work,

there can be a symbiosis there

and they can work together.

- My main source of income

is from my day job (laughing)

So I would love to say

that I could make a living,

just off music but realistically, I can't.

I probably put more into my music,

than I get out of it at

the moment but I love it,

so it's a passion of mine.

But during the day I work

as a physiotherapist,

so I did go to school, went to university,

got my master's degree.

And I work during the day,

like at full time as a

physiotherapist and I love it.

And so that's how I like

make most of my money,

enough to like live

comfortably I would say

if I was just on the grind all the time.

So personally I think it's

good to have a day job,

to support your career

as you're developing it.

And also to have

something to fall back on,

like you never know,

if you're gonna be super

successful in music.

So like for the young kids

coming up they are like,

"Oh, I'm just gonna drop

everything and just do music

and not work a day in my life,"

I'm like, good luck (laughing)

I wish you the best.

- [Delivery Man] By the pizza.

- Yeah so can you get

a pizza for delivery?

- Oh you want Hawaiian?

- Pineapple, green peppers.

- Oh you got our address?

- Yeah, I got your address

- Same place?

- Same place

- Yeah

- Yeah I guess couple of bands,

like ranted was a big influence of mine.

She got me into hip-hop

when Tim Armstrong,

Travis Barker and Skinhead Rob started

this project transplants in 2001.

They did like California Babylon,

I believe they were on

a shampoo commercial,

in the 2000s.

It's one of those tracks everyone knows,

but no one knows the band of.

So that was actually my big transition,

was around 2001 there

listen of transplants

and getting me into hip-hop

and kind of the underground.

That was like the underground

LA low-rider kind of scene,

and that's what I really

enjoyed when I was growing up.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

- The way I look at life is

like, you know sh*t happens.

You know what I mean?

You might be huge today and

might not be so huge tomorrow,

like, you know there's been times,

where sh*t I've had f*cking so much money.

Money I needed someone to help me count,

but then there's been times

where I've been broke too.

So you never, you never know,

I think you just have to

roll with the punches,

but the best advice I can give

is not to believe everything that you see.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

- And I think for the most part,

us as human beings, regular human beings,

out there working

doesn't matter, you know,

if you're working at, you

know, furniture warehouse,

you're mechanic, you're a radio superstar,

there should be harmonic,

unity in all our races.

And we shouldn't have to

deal with the same sh*t,

over and over again,

like the world just keeps

recycling, just keeps recycling,

you know, oh, let's go back to the 70s,

okay what happened in the 70s?

Well fashion was this, there

was this racial uprising,

there was this w*r over in Chechnya,

there was this, okay so then

let's just recycle all that.

Alright put that enter, boom,

let's just recycle a decade,

that's how I feel like the world is.

- Glimmer from the

Hipster Cartel (laughing)

you know that song?

We can't have right now

We can't have right now

We can't have right now

- That's a tough question,

I mean I feel like there's a lot going on,

and there's a lot of people

that aren't necessarily telling the truth,

about what they're doing environmentally.

And not necessarily really does come down

to the individual but you know it does,

using less waste minimalized you know,

I feel like that's an important step.

I feel like my weekends are lazy,

sleeping's, making coffees,

listening to some records,

maybe checking out some new music,

going to different record

shops and thrift stores

and hunting for some gold.

(upbeat hip-hop music)

- My parents were both professionals,

they were both working

that nine to five life.

So grew up with a brother and a sister

and we had everything we needed, man,

we had everything we needed,

not everything we wanted,

but we had enough man.

- I met everybody there like,

we were touring for

like two weeks together.

That was like 2000 and what?

That was super fast 2008 or some sh*t,

not all of them were playing ball,

like lots of their

homies and entourage was,

but Chris Brown couldn't play ball though.

Chris Brown was interesting,

because he was playing,

like ball for like two hours.

And he performs at night time right

like nine o'clock or some sh*t,

so he'd be playing at

lunchtime all the way

to like three or some sh*t,

like aggressive, hard, sweating, yelling,

f*cking arguing basketball, man.

And then you see him go on stage,

I can say is like,

almost like an hour and

a half or some sh*t.

And he's singing and he's doing flips,

and he's running around doing flips,

like for an hour and a half.

And then he's doing it

again at the next show,

playing basketball all day long

and then doing flips all

day for an hour and a half.

Like I was getting tired, you know,

so I'm just like the

long days in a festival,

I'm like, how's this

guy f*cking doing that?

You know what I'm saying so

Chris Brown is just like,

he got energy, man.

That's back in the days

when people were like,

f*ck Chris Brown, he beat up Rihanna.

(indistinct)

Dude that boy's in shape, man,

he's like a UFC fighter, man,

he's like 6'2 in real life,

and he's like lean and he's ready, man.

So I hope you in shape (laughing).

if y'all think I can f*ck

with Chris Brown man,

because it's not walk in the park, man.

(thunder rumbling)

(electricity buzzing)

- How is the documentary coming along

- So where do you reside,

like where do you call home and sh*t?

- Far, far away

- Oh, far away really give or take?

- 1500 miles give or take

- 1500 miles, interesting.

So why'd you choose me

out of all the directors,

you could have chosen.

(indistinct)

- (laughing) really?

- Then that child would

come over to my house a lot,

in 1995 and just bring rhymes,

and we'd share rhymes or whatever.

And you know sometimes

Prevail would be there,

and one night we just had this wild idea,

why don't we combine forces

and try to make like this super group.

Now bear in mind,

me and Prevail already had a group,

we were split spirit, we were a duo.

So in my mind I liked the

idea of this super group,

but I felt like me and Fred,

hadn't really expanded

as a dual at the time,

regardless,

Prevail my child and myself and DJ Kelo C,

decided to form this group.

We had been drinking and

just making up silly names,

Like, what should we call

it? What should we call it?

You know what I'm saying,

the bowling ba*ls,

let's call it the paper plane,

I think I said something like,

yo, let's call it the big dicks,

I was like, no, no, no, no, no,

let's call it the swollen

members and it's it stuck.

We laughed about it but

by the next day it stuck.

- Well I met Moka when

I lived in Victoria,

and this is all before

the Swollen Members stuff,

this is when Moka was

still doing stuff on tape,

like tapes, like you gotta

literally buying a mix tape.

And Jeff back and all those

dudes out there and Moka,

we were just, boy, I just

appreciated his music,

and we were just friends at

first and in that aspect,

and then I just started

doing some tour managing,

cause I was like, yo, blah, blah, blah,

and Moka was like, yeah, sure,

you can find some dates

for me that's dope.

And that was after the

smaller members side of it,

and Moka is just a dope dude,

man, outside of the music,

So that's why I was drawn to him,

to even wanna work with him.

- High school was cool,

I went to four or five

different high schools.

I was moving a lot with my family,

I got kicked out of a

few different schools.

But yeah I had a great

high school experience,

and from moving around a lot

and from changing schools,

I got to meet a lot of different people,

and different neighborhoods

and a lot of us we still cool.

Yeah my parents have always been awesome,

and you know I came up,

my dad was in a band called the "Payolas"

and he was the you know,

songwriter and singer in the group.

So I came up around music

and studios and stuff,

and then my mom's always

been an amazing artist

and poet and sculptor

artists of all different types,

so that inspiration's been really cool.

They've always pushed me to do music

and pushed me in my graffiti

even and things like that,

so yeah they've been awesome.

- I think if you are a

real gangster out here,

there's more ways than showing the g*n,

to show that you're a real gangster.

unlike you were saying,

the realest gangsters speak in silence,

that's been the rule from day one.

You don't need anybody to

know you're at gangster,

Why, what does that do for you?

You know what I mean?

I don't know.

- Hip-hop's gone more mainstream,

and because it's mainstream,

it's less focus on lyrics

and more of you know,

it's all about selling it

rather than what hip hop is.

And hip hop is you know it's

truth, it's about the struggle,

whether that struggle

has a racial minority,

or it's a struggle in terms of class,

in terms of poverty whatever it is.

It's about the struggling,

it's about life,

that's what hip-hop is to me.

And hip-hop got me through

some of the lowest points in my life,

because it was filled

with lyrics that mattered

and now I'm hearing

some of the newer stuff

from like, these lyrics are about nothing,

but yeah like all the newer stuff,

it's just like all the

beats sound the same to me.

I don't know, I'm I getting old?

Is that what's going on?

Like I don't hear any

creativity in the music anymore.

- Grew up as a bit of a punk rocker,

low in the pop punk scene I mean,

yeah, Travis Barker's a big inspiration

for a lot of drummers as

he was for me growing up.

But from there actually,

I had a lot of inspiration

from jazz and Latin.

My drum teacher, Scott Robert was amazing,

I mean Benny grab,

or even go into the more

drum and bass side of it.

(lively upbeat music)

- I watched a lot of hip-hop artists,

and even though

there's some really good

emergence happening,

I still think it's an untapped

market, it's an open market.

- I like to think of

Vancouver kind of like,

it's like a teenager, you know.

Like you know when you

look at like New York,

okay, you look at like,

LA, you look at(indistinct)

identities, and we're like

still finding that, right.

- The day in the life of DJ Denise,

oh my gosh, It is hectic, it's crazy.

So I have four kids,

So to start off, I've got to wake up,

(hinges squeaking)

make sure that my kids

are getting off to school,

and from there I'm usually

checking my emails right away,

getting everything set.

Say we're start talking about a Monday,

I'm making sure that I have

all of my confirmation emails,

for what's happening on the show.

Then I'll be checking out some new tracks,

also for a DJ set I'll

probably have during the week.

And for the rest of the day,

I'm always just listening to music.

- [Man] I think the

biggest myth in hip-hop,

is how they try to tell you

it's a young man's game.

That's just the studio

executives basically enforcing,

a younger signing deal is country music.

You got country music with all old,

f*cking bearded fat guys, you know,

still doing it doesn't matter

how old they are, whatever.

RnB, you got a lot of

older people doing it,

and also rock and roll,

I mean look at (indistinct)

they must be 70 years old.

And I think their last

tour made $105 million,

I mean there's no age limit to music

who have a really young audience,

It doesn't matter what you look like.

(crowd cheering)

(lively upbeat music)

- The nineties are hard to describe,

but well specifically the

indie rock or whatever,

the scene it's so different.

Culturally, there's a huge difference,

I think even though

musically is like so similar,

culturally, there was a

big difference between,

I just mean musically.

All music is very similar,

but culturally there's a big difference

between like indie rock and the nineties,

and like hip-hop, probably in the 90s.

But also now where

hip-hop if people succeed,

or they're doing well or

even if they're not so much,

they blow everything up and

brag about it incessantly,

that's part of the

culture and that's cool.

I mean no one's gonna look down on you,

for talking about how great you are

or how great you were,

or something you succeeded at.

But in Indie rock you're

supposed to be humble,

you're not supposed to

celebrate your success

for whatever reason.

I shouldn't say you're supposed to,

but the the overall kind of feeling

was that trying too hard also trying hard

was also something that was frowned upon

during that era.

It is hard to put your finger on exactly,

why or where it came from,

but it's culturally I

would say interesting time.

(man snoring)

- Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,

I got the goggles.

(robot warbling)

- Okay, I won't do that again.

(robot warbling)

(laughing) that's some good sh*t.

(man snoring)

(robot warbling)

Just f*cking with you.

Alright I gotta go to bed (laughing)

- I don't know why he keeps

telling him this stuff though,

but it seems right, right?

- He was just so dope,

I mean, the stuff that's

on video that you see,

that's on the internet now.

I mean I wasn't at that one,

but that's exactly how it was,

it was an event, he used to have people,

when he started spitting

just coming outta everywhere.

And I was so young, you you

know, it was just New York.

That's how it was I used to see fat boys,

like prince Markie Dee

and all those dudes,

and they used to be everywhere.

Like you just go somewhere,

you like walk in white castle,

and you're like, oh, he's

right there da, da, da.

So to see Biggie before he blew up to me,

he was just a rapper.

He's just some dude on the street,

and then further as you go I'm like, oh,

as I left I'm like, is that the same dude?

I'm like but how many fat dudes,

are that dope with a f*cked up eye?

That's the same dude.

- It's the funny thing talking about that,

nobody really ever knows

for certain, you know,

I could sit here and make

up some glorious story,

but it was just in me from

the second I heard it.

I hear something on the radio or whatever,

my records, literally vinyl records,

my parents were playing,

'cause this was the 1970s,

and I would just want to emulate it.

And it's funny because I remember,

by the time I started

going to grade school,

you know, I'd go to grade school,

like singing the songs I

hear my parents playing,

'cause I thought it was new music.

I didn't know what they were playing was,

you know, from 20 years prior (laughing)

a lot of it or whatever.

People they were like, what's that?

What are you singing, what is that?

You know what I mean but yeah.

- That okay was definitely

my favorite joke for sure,

I got to dance with her, got

to open for a sell out crowd,

and you know, everyone just

super responsive warranty,

definitely ares up there (indistinct)

But yeah with school members,

and then as well as Canibus, D12,

- Someone like Moka Oonly you know, to me,

I looked up to and I still think,

as far as if I can consider

him up here and he's a friend,

because you know he's been

in the industry for years

and he's got just albums of albums,

of albums, of albums, of material.

Like I don't think anyone has

that much material out there,

but then, you know, right

now someone like Mike Mees,

people are saying is

very, you know, successful

because he does have a big following

and he's definitely done

some things that presently.

I would say currently

he's probably, you know,

someone that is doing very well right now.

- Fazz is watching, they,

watching everything,

they love when you drop music videos,

they love when you drop

music video, they love it,

drop it, show all the g*ns you want,

you're gonna get a million don't worry.

(lively upbeat music)

- Are you where you see yourself today,

or did you see yourself as someone else?

I obviously thought I would be,

one of the biggest actors

in the world right now,

Right here?

Hi, my name's Cart.

Can I do that again?

(indistinct)

Anyway, but yeah, I

thought I'd be a big actor,

when I was started out

acting in acting class,

my teachers would pull me aside

and say you need an agent

you should get out there.

You know, you're one of the

best actors in the class,

like straight up saying that to me.

And I think it almost gave me an ego,

that I didn't deserve

to have at that stage.

And I just burned it

out, like I just went in,

like I was the best

thing in every audition,

I'd walk in I mean, I'd book some stuff,

but like I was going up for

some big roles at the time.

And I got close to really close to book

and a few large ones,

but I think I sh**t myself in the foot

because I think I have a afraid

of being famous type mentality and...

Like I don't know if I would want people

to come up to me and like

introduce themselves to me,

say hi to me all the time.

And I don't know like I'm kind

of reclosed that way right.

(bright upbeat hip-hop music)

(instruments clattering)

- The people that follow

that and believe that,

can't really separate

the reality of it that,

most of these people there...

I just saw a rental,

for a 2016 Rolls Royce

for 150 bucks an hour,

That I know for a fact,

is only rented up to rappers in this city.

And like, that's the

thing, it's an illusion,

and that's why I say I like

the hip-hop I listen to,

is a lot of underground stuff

It's a lot of more heartfelt stuff

because I wanna hear the real stuff.

(lively instrumental music)

Lucifiana tap a lady

Grinding now she make

a n*gga wanna man up

Luicifiana, damn you're a bad mama

- Well you know tough

love existed for sure,

but it wasn't anything negative,

like you know nothing like child abuse,

I didn't experience none of that.

My parents were loving without a doubt,

loving they both grew up in rural Kenya,

very traditional up upbringing.

So they raised us with still

that traditional element.

So discipline is an important factor

in that traditional element.

That's how you live your life.

That's how you build a life.

So that's how they raised us.

Everything.

School is very serious.

- The thing I'm trying to

break for every artist, dude.

I'm a young, black

getting it, bro, like dude

and I ain't tied to no

mother f*ck' buddy.

I don't owe no mother f*ck' buddy.

And if I wanna f*ck' tour,

I just tour pay for my own tour.

I don't wait for the government.

You know what I'm saying like,

that's what you,

I own all my own music,

I own my own studio.

I have sh*t like this in my house too

and in my office in Yale town.

But I'm not doing enough

selling drugs, dog.

I'm doing enough opening up

with legitimate companies.

Yeah, we probably also sold a couple QPS

with a couple half pounds,

but my a*s,

once I got my profits,

I never ran to the club to chase b*tches,

I saved my share.

So I sold, quick 20,000, 30,000.

I started to invest into legal things,

opening up studios,

focusing on that,

opening up that didn't make

enough money as I wanted.

Opening up junk companies,

opening up dispensaries,

opening up other sh*t,

you know what I'm saying.

So like, you have do other things

and boom me hit a jackpot

as soon as you don't give up.

You know what I'm saying.

All of a sudden you're able

to fund your music career.

Yeah we ride, yeah we ride

We smooth with the tile

Every block going around

All around

- My parents were against it.

'Cause I got really into it.

I was like, yo man, I

got, I gotta do this,

like I got to style down so,

I was very into it

and I was running around telling people,

oh, I'm gonna be a dancer,

I'm gonna be a tour dancer.

(crowd cheering)

(bright instrumental music)

(crowd cheering)

I go by Wreckage, my

real name is Kofi Amoah

I'm a Ghanaian descent from Africa,

but I just go by Wreckage,

just get the whole name out there so.

- And where I'm from Nova Scotia,

we just had this.

I don't know if you heard it,

the so Brooklyn challenge,

everybody was free styling over this beat.

Just started rapping over that beat bit

in their best verse so whatever.

And it was good to see a lot of people

from where I'm from, coming together

and doing their thing.

But to showcased the talents as well.

Everybody coming over to Woodworks people,

I didn't even know that rapped

was doing it.

And there's a lot of talent there as well.

- So what's my opinion of

the Vancouver Rap scene.

Again, I think it's actually

in an interesting spot right now

because you have all these artists

that were on the come up

over the last 10 years, or longer

that are definitely seeing success now.

So I think it's again

positive in a way.

I mean, I remember when we

were kinda doing hip hop,

it was almost like that

was 10, 12 years ago.

It was almost a little bit dead.

Like there really wasn't too much

coming out of Vancouver at that point.

And now when I look at Junk,

is doing really well.

And I remember that's a guy

that I met at The Anza Club

that was 10 years ago longer.

And you see Snak the Ripper,

you see Merkules.

And those guys are like on

top of the world, right?

And so I really think it's growing

and there's more and more great,

Vancouver hip hop coming out.

As I said again, I'm so Lowkey Bands

and you got a lot of young kids

and everybody's sort of doing their thing.

And I felt like the

community definitely grew,

and it's less about the battle rap scene,

like it was 10 years ago

and people would dis each other a lot.

I felt like

and instead of helping each other.

And to me coming from

the German hip hop scene,

that back then when I left

was very supportive

and you know, everybody was in the crew

when helping each other out

just to make it bigger

because back then German hip

was still sort of underground.

And so when I moved here,

I was slightly disappointed

because I felt like,

you tried to connect with these people,

but they would treat you

like you weren't good enough

or, you know,

or there was just this like

little bit battle mentality.

And I didn't feel like

it had to be there.

- [Man] Really wipe my a*s.

- [Machine voice] I'm unable

to do that for you, sir,

I am a computer generated voice

built to track your

motion and your movement

throughout the world.

- [Man] f*cking useless.

("Little T - For my city")

- My five year goal,

I'm definitely working on my green card.

I'd like to be, you know, in LA,

I work with some people

like Day 1 already there.

So I'd like to expand there.

I see within five years, you know,

touring Canada, North America,

probably Europe.

I also just see myself

producing more movies.

Riding on our bags

Holding down a city street

street tag

Moving through a city

I attached on large

On large

("Baby C - Game Plan")

("Little T - World Wide")

(heavy upbeat hip hop music)

(bright upbeat hip pop music)

We kick here in the door

Ain't got my four four

Air on the mic

They know us, it's raw

Trying to give rich,

live like I'm poor

Stay on my God, they know I go high

Ain't out here trying

to live above the law

Ain't out here trying to be

- Hip hop, always shifts,

it always trying to...

There's always somebody who's not happy

with the way that it is

or they say, I don't

f*ck with it like that.

So I'm gonna do it in this way.

I think, anytime that there's mediocrity

in a scene,

it is an opportunity for the other people

to show off their true originality.

Yeah, I work as a landscaper, I love it.

And it actually can be

inspiring sometimes.

Like you find that

your vocabulary and

your vernacular changes

based on what you're doing.

And so,

you know, I was working in a kitchen.

I had a lot of like food lines

because like heard new new words.

And so like with the gardening thing,

like you know, I wrote

this song like, wow,

and actually we just recorded it

and it's gonna come out

and it's getting good feedback.

The tenant of title is like old leaves

might be called the forest.

But I wrote it like, as

I was raking up leaves.

I'll find a rake for these old leaves

Until the dirt

Till they've grown trees

Maintain the roots

So they don't freeze

See beyond the forwards

of your own needs

It all came to me kind of like,

oh, I'm just raking up all these,

and then you put it together.

So sometimes actually

what you were physically

doing all the time,

like a lot eight hours a day

really affects, where your mind goes,

playing with words, right.

(thunder rumbling)

(electronic music)

- The alien is telling him

how to do the documentary.

(alien expectorating)

- Sorry, can you repeat the question?

Am always your original question?

- The aliens, a filmmaker.

That's outta sight.

I don't get it, man.

Like where did this guy come from?

- Is he wearing a suit,

this alien (laughing)

- No, I think that's his skin.

That's his skin.

- That's real.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah that's his skin.

It looks like a suit probably,

but it's just, it's like,

probably like a latex rubbery texture.

(bright upbeat music)

- First thing, when I came here

and I went on YouTube and Google,

you know, I tried to find Vancity hip hop,

like who is Vancity hip hop,

what's going on Vancity hip hop.

And I saw young Merkules okay.

- [Host] Okay.

- And I said, yo,

this big boy is disgusting though,

this is what's here.

And I never heard of his name in Toronto.

I never heard of this guy's name.

And I heard this guy,

I'm like, yo, this guy is disgusting,

how come this guy is

not busting right now?

But it was at the time when

things were happening now.

he was getting the sway show,

things were popping off.

And actually one of my first shows,

Shout out shout out.

Where head entertainment.

They got me that show

and they got me the open for Merk.

And I got to see him live.

And I'm like, yo, like this guy,

he has the capability

to really open the door

for advanced city hip hop.

And that's just how I feel.

I'm not, I don't ride d*ck,

I don't know the man,

I'm just talking what I'm talking.

And from what he's doing,

he's dropping albums and

he's getting numbers.

He's doing tours,

he's getting numbers.

That's the things that you need

to make it like a thing

where you see like,

yo, we have artists out here

from Vans, he's from BC.

Oh, okay, that's in Canada.

JGeezy from there too.

Let's see what else is in Canada.

Let's see what else is in the country

because right away,

you already know when you hear Canada,

first thing you think of is, right?

Right now,

for everybody to kind of

just ramp through this door,

out here in Vancouver.

Three years ago,

I don't believe that.

Now I believe that.

- My favorite rapper would be Eve.

She inspired me to get into music,

growing up, having her as a role model.

She was a strong,

independent female rapper.

And she wasn't, like all girly.

She was okay with just being like badass

and just like more of a tomboy.

And like her album dropped

when I was in high school.

I think it was in grade nine

when Ruff Ryder's First Lady came out.

And I was just like in awe,

I was, I was like damn,

if she can do it, I can do it.

And to this day,

I just f*ck' love her.

She's amazing.

I wish you would come

out with more music now

'cause like there's other

female MCs that are like more popular now,

she's got a couple tracks,

but like I'm just dying

for her next album to drop.

I don't want her to stop making music

'cause I love her.

10 questions

One Checklist

Betty yet, can you

get us on a guest list

Accept this or reject this

Either way last night was epic

Hop and day, everyday

I should warn you

- A lot of times,

I spend my days writing music,

doing artwork and then,

you know, meetings,

meeting up with different

people, planning out tours

or you know, different ventures and shows

and things like that.

And we also,

I help run a hip hop drop in

Center and East Vancouver.

So we're doing that every week as well.

And just planning out the curriculum,

getting guests, people

to come in for workshops

and then actually

teaching hip hop ourself.

(indistinct chattering)

- What the f*ck men.

(indistinct chattering)

I'm trying to talk to the girl.

(indistinct chattering).

- Man I quit,

I quit.

- And I'm taking these tips too.

(all laughing)

I grew up in North Preston with my family,

we got a big family.

My main source of income right now

was work actually on BC Ferries.

So I'm traveling a lot to the islands,

things of that nature.

So yeah, I got a little

hustle hustle here and there,

but that's just how it goes, you know.

I knew

I said I'd see yah after the show

Where and what if I do not know

Can you tell me where to go

Hey, can you tell me where to go

Ohh, yeah

- I am absolutely not

where I thought I would

be, four years ago.

Life took a really interesting turn

when I did some soul searching.

After the third time of

dropping out of school

and I was really...

Because I'm a perfectionist

and because I'm an overachiever,

I saw myself dropping out of school

as complete failure.

I thought I had failed myself as a person.

I had wasted money.

I thought I had failed my mother.

I thought I was failing my family.

And I really was...

I had no idea where I

wanted to go in my life.

I was directionless and I was lost.

And you never really get out of that.

I just feel like now I'm

a little bit more sure.

(heavy upbeat hip hop music)

- When I moved from Victoria to Vancouver

around 1992,

the scene wasn't big here at all.

You know, hip hop, wasn't

a mainstream thing.

I got a little acceptance,

me and my boy prevailed,

we soon moved to the US,

moved to San Diego.

And people, they embraced us,

tenfold of what,

how we were embraced in Vancouver.

So we really earned our stripes

in Southern California

and had great teachers.

We had a place in the

Golden Hills District,

just in south San Diego,

like south of downtown.

We get up,

we had a band that we had assembled

like a Jazz band,

but you know, we'd have

'em play hip hop stuff.

We'd curate the songs with them.

So most days we're about

rehearsing with this band

because we had some upcoming shows

and we were always doing, working on

doing appearances and all that.

If it wasn't,

doing band rehearsals or

going on graffiti missions,

I'd often take off by myself

and walk around Seaport Village,

which is just a chill place.

I'd take a notepad

and go right and sit by the water.

Seaport Village is...

It's like this true

tourist trap essentially.

With all this marine and

nautical themed shops and cafes.

What-have-yous

It was a special time, man.

Undeniable, I met some

of the greatest people.

And like I said before, the best teachers,

who were very well

educated, in the streets

and in the music lab.

("J-zeey - Mary, Mariah, Toni")

- But there's so many artists today

that they just rather

take pictures on Instagram.

They just rather be in the club,

hosting parties. and this, this and that.

And then they'll have all these pictures

where they might even be

with other Whack Rappers.

And they're just like, they're posing,

they're looking all cool.

But then when you go to their shows

and you hear them performing,

you're like, dude,

first of all, I can't

even hear you perform.

Second of all, it's just a track.

You're just playing the track

but I can't even hear you performing.

It's just a track playing.

And you're just on the stage,

just either dancing around

or doing whatever, whatever.

Stage performances,

that's how you can tell

who a whack rapper is,

is when you see them on stage performing

and you're like, yo,

you had all these views,

all these likes, all this...

You get up on stage and it's just like,

like, what is this?

What am I listening to?

("7eclipse 007- La Short Cutz")

- Like on the littlest

biggest deal on the mix tape,

I got John Merkules.

I'm more battling, I'm raw.

I'm like, I'm hungry right.

On my second album,

it's like back to the basics.

I was really learning

about a lot about myself.

I lost my dad, I lost

people like Randy Ponzio.

I work with David (indistinct),

I work with Moka.

That was that album.

I feel good, I'm in LA

and I'm doing tracks with Doug C.

I actually am...

I've done Marlene (indistinct),

I've done movies.

You know, I've had my TV show.

So I'm feeling like

I can talk a little bit about that, right?

By the time I did T,

Travis Turner was Snoop.

I mean, I was in a really good place.

You know, it just depends where you're at.

- And again, going to the illusion

of it being the untouchables,

and now there's these "Gatekeepers."

And I see all these singing

competitions and of people,

they'll go up on the stage

and they'll just be in tears

and they'll just be distraught

because they'll say things like,

"Oh, I have nothing else to live for.

You know, I'm giving it all."

But I'm like, what do you like...

It's like, they're sacrificing

themselves for something.

And they're putting

everything on the line.

And I'm like, what is that, like for what?

Why would you wanna

live your life that way?

It just confuses me.

And it's like, okay."

So these select people

tell you that you're not good enough.

And then your whole life

is just down the drain.

And then that you're

a failure to yourself.

I think that is not self love.

(bright instrumental hip pop music)

- Yes, I was a 19 year old kid

and I saw a lot of what the Rascals

and swollen members

were doing in the city.

And I just wanted to make sure that

my friends and other people

would be able to hear some of the music.

So I really got myself

immersed in the radio

business, you know, just

getting friends out,

making sure that, they were

able to play their songs.

And just being a part of community.

- Like Steve Nash, my

one and only Steve Nash,

I'm a big basketball head, right?

So I'm like,

yo, I got Steve Nash and

I see another celebrity,

I see another celebrity,

I'm like, damn.

Yeah awesome, that sounds was cool.

I went to like Rascalz school,

you know what I'm saying.

So like, I graduated from Rascalz school.

So like they give back,

they go back to Africa,

they do trips like that

with like Soul guy and like Kemo

and those guys,

they do lots of community work.

So like that was always in the forefront.

Like, no, like when I first

read, like you might think,

like, oh girls, this isn't (indistinct).

The first tour we did

was a high school tour

across the whole country.

It was just Red talking to kids,

staying outta trouble,

all these things.

And then we perform after.

So God, that was the first tour we did

before we was even clubs, right?

So like Red really

put that in us, you know.

Like he made sure like, yo bro,

like these kids need us to come there.

It's not all just about

hitting the club at nighttime.

Like we gotta do the daytime shows,

go to the schools

and like speak to these kids,

so that was just embedded.

Offspring real on release

Sweat peace to Japanese

Will travel, more lases

Paying all these,

switching my face for sees

All day, for the waste, for the waste

It's great, great

- In my life, the way it used to be

is so much different.

Now I live in a family neighborhood.

I take my kids to school,

you know, I'm like responsible

(laughing).

I'm responsible.

I actually am surprisingly responsible.

I don't know where it came from.

It must be my sisters and my mom,

but I yeah I can be irresponsible like

if you're out partying

with me on the night,

I'm definitely

gonna be close to the

wildest one of the night,

depending on the night,

like I'll hit the dance floor, man.

I will be everywhere.

But yeah...

And in this evolution,

I'm not afraid to do any kind of music.

Like I said, I will make a gangster track.

You want a gangster track.

You wanna track, for guys ride

through the hoods of f*ck'

Los Angeles, California.

I will provide you with that beat.

(lively upbeat hip hop music)

I know that street,

that's how I grew up.

If you want some sort of light poppy

Taylor Swift type track,

I'll give you that too.

Like I do not care.

(lively upbeat music)

I'm not the artist that pigeon

holes himself to one thing.

And I'm going out with that label.

Like so that I can always,

you know, branch out,

oh, look what he is

getting into this time.

I don't know if you'll ever even hear

any my music after of this movie,

who knows,

but regardless of all that,

it makes me happy making music.

- That's one of my iconic tracks,

'cause this was a time when

Jay Z did the "22 Twos",

Canibus came out and did "33 Threes".

And I said,

let me come and hit you up with "44 Fours"

and hadn't been done yet.

So this is before then Jay Z came out,

did his own version of "44 Fours".

And I crushed "44 Fours"

and probably about,

I don't know,

a minute 14 or something like that

where it's just like,

Four- 44 in the morning

It's a Longman that

this is the 44th warning

The 44 threat in 44 days

Someone wants me to die in 44 ways

I hear something

I grab the four, four

Four crash through the door

Four fall to the floor

10 minutes later

454 was dressed is steal a mess

But I got the go

Jump in the four door ball of bill

for words to describe me

I'm born to k*ll

Turn on the lights again to clear-view

Suddenly a glance in rear view

There was an Acura trailer

with four passengers

I guess to be four more massacres

Pull a U-turn quickly

Go the other way

As I pass the four,

whether the b*llet spray

I hit all four of my targets

Then I put a car over and I parked it

I'm on foot

44th and Oak

And I remember I got

four joints to smoke

So look around outta enemy and sight

So I grabbed the weed

And I grabbed the light

I stopped blazing

Damn

Believe this is amazing

I stopped dazzing

Next thing you know

I'm on fourth and 40 night

And I got no more joints for light

Do the math

Four joints and 40 blocks

That I heard 40 shots from 40 cops

They're all trying to get me

But just like the matrix

They can hit me, dangerous is

I hear someone holler

My boy Machete with

the six, four power

Climb 444 steps to the 44th floor

At the top was my alarm clock 444

- So everybody's on this right.

Where you get this okie

okie okie business.

So yo, when I was a young youth,

yo I beer Okie top okie dokie talks,

all that was hard.

It was stupid.

And I was like, it was like, yo,

I that's just my sh*t.

Everybody had their line that was mine.

So it started to form into like, okie this

everybody's just started calling Okie

and that's what it is.

And the fresh water thing,

I think was me when,

I started really like, really like

getting into like

my faith and my spiritual,

you know, side and feeling like,

there was a time

where I decided to like

kind of like slow down

and not be crazy like I used to be

and not be surrounded by the

people that I used to be,

knowing the poison that came with that...

So I felt like it was like a rebirth.

So the freshwater thing is like that,

that, yeah, that splash.

- I got to see Sharon Jones

live with the Dap-Kings in Stanley Park.

That was amazing.

That was she's rest in peace.

She passed away now.

But yeah, that was a really special show.

Even then, I didn't know

she was sick or anything.

And I felt a vibe of like,

this is really special to get to see this.

George Clinton and Parliament.

That was a really crazy show.

I liked that a lot,

just he was wearing like a wizard costume

and he had like a wound

and he was like sh**ting

vibes at people in the crowd

and she like that (laughing)

And just the songs were, you

know, like original G-funk.

Like it really captured

the 70s kind of funk vibe.

It was cool to be around that life.

- Just try to keep it

cool with everything I do.

I just try to stay smooth,

keep myself level headed

'cause I'm one of those kinda people like,

I used to have really bad anxiety,

you know what I mean.

So I learned over the years,

how to control myself

and to control my mind,

to just tell myself that

nothing is too hard to handle.

Everything can be done if

you just take your time

and do it right.

So basically, my biggest thing,

when I'm getting ready

for something like that

is what am I gonna wear.

- Welcome to the show,

Travis, welcome back to the show.

- Yeah, thank you very much.

You know, always grinding,

so appreciate being here.

- Well, I actually, I met Maestro

when he dropped the

"Conducting Things Album"

and he was doing a promo tour

and I was in a rap group

called the Maximum Definitive

back then, and back then,

and we had a track called "Jungle Man Out"

and the video was on much music,

but I was wearing the masks,

so I didn't rap in that.

It was just dark

and I believe Roger (indistinct)

and yeah, so Maestro,

we were on tour with him

and we just became, we

were friends since then.

And I, now I'm (laughing)

I did some tour management stuff with him

and his son's godfather big up Chance.

But now I've just kinda

veered myself more into

film and television,

but I still can't get away from the music.

So I just kinda...

Yeah, I always double and dabble,

I always say I'm out, but

I'm always drawn back in.

- As far as major labels go,

I would probably just avoid that.

I've been down that road before

and it's just so many fingers in the pie

and I find it really difficult to know

who to trust or whatever.

I feel with a smaller label,

like a boutique label,

like (indistinct) you know,

I get to know the people

and I have a much greater

sense of security and trust

with people that I've had

a proven track record with.

You know what I mean.

Instead of a rotating cast of

interns and people that yield

probably never even meet some of them,

you know, at a major label.

Yeah, pick your poison and stick with it.

(horn honking)

- What's up J-Geezy.

- What's up man.

- Well, you didn't sign the contract.

- No, I didn't find a contract.

We're not .

Check this out.

Here's this guy online,

DJ More Money.

He claims he is the king of G town.

His song,

video on Youtube just hit

over a million streams.

Now I'll tell you one thing

I ain't signing no damn contract,

unless I can be the number one

undisputed King of G town, you heard?

- Okay, okay, all right,

meet me here tomorrow,

I'll take care of it.

- Okay.

- I'll bring another contract.

(metals clinking)

- [Man] Lily, locate DJ More Money.

- [Alien] Locating DJ More Money.

(alien expectorating)

DJ More Money otherwise

known as Tyrone Power.

(" J-Geezy - It Was All a Dream Pt. 2")

(door thudding)

(metal clinking)

(door rattling)

(footsteps tapping)

(g*nshots cracking)

(footsteps tapping)

(door banging)

(metal clinking)

- Eazy, eazy wake up

- Yo J-Geezy, what's up?

- Yo, contract, signed,

filled, and delivered.

- Sweet, what changed?

- DJ More Money is no

longer in the picture.

Someone took care of him for me.

- Sweet, that's good.

'Cause I really wanna

have you in this movie.

- But the guy just like off that dude,

and now he's getting,

he's getting the papers finally.

- Wow.

- What's going on.

- Wow, that is crazy.

- So my five year plan is

just to keep dropping music,

but to use the knowledge that I've gained

over these last five to 10 in years

and apply it

and kinda think outside the box

and not necessarily do things

the way I've been doing them before

and kinda upgrade my strategy

as I go along.

- Yeah, well I've just been

doing what you said, you know,

eliminating competition.

(alien expectorating)

- Oh, you didn't mean like

eliminate, eliminate them.

You just meant like be better than them.

Like get more like

views and more streams and

more popularity than 'em.

That way better?

(alien expectorating)

- Oh, oh my bad, my bad, I'm sorry.

Hey I misunderstood.

(alien expectorating)

- Huh?

(alien expectorating)

(producer laughing)

(alien expectorating)

- Was that dumb,

I was crawling all over the floor,

you sh*t (indistinct)

everybody's sh*t was whack.

(alien expectorating)

- Sorry, can you repeat the question?

- It all makes sense now.

So what you're telling me,

the alien is the producer of the film

and he hired that guy to do it.

Huh.

- [Man] What?

Producer of the movie.

- What did he say?

- That's what he said.

Right, well you so smart.

He speaks f*cking alien, dude.

Producer, is the alien.

- The alien is the dog.

- The alien is the producer.

- [Man] Wait, the dog

can understand the alien?

- Yeah.

- How often do you guys talk?

- The last, like 10 minutes.

- I need to get high (laughing)

I'm going to bed.

- All right, man, good night.

You wanna watch "Vancity Raps".

All right, let's do it one more time then.

(man singing)

Vancity Raps

Vancity Raps

Vancity Raps

(electronic music)

- So can I have my body back

or yeah can you like

get that thing out of me

that you put in me.

(alien expectorating)

See, it's the end of the movie.

I did everything you said.

Can you get that thing out my body now.

Yeah, just take it back.

Take it in your space shift.

Take off to wherever you gotta go.

But I need to get on life movies done

and I get everything said and yeah.

(alien expectorating)

- So we just finished filming "Moka Only"

good interview.

This is pretty much our last

that was our last interview.

We now got our film

and now we're gonna hit post production.

- Yeah, thank you for having me aboard

"TNT Star Entertainment",

Travis Turner but

more than thank you, everyone

who came a part of the film,

you know, I'm really glad that

we've in one way or another,

we've been working together

over this last decade,

in the Vancouver scene.

So it's really cool to just see

how it's all come together.

- Yeah, totally TNT made a good point.

He said,

Vancouver's got a very

humble hip hop scene

and I think that's a good

way to describe Vancouver.

And I like that.

And you're gonna see that in our movies.

So anyway, peace out, "Vancity Raps"

(lively upbeat hip hop music)