have any musical appreciation at all, and it’s reflected in the hip hop

music that’s coming out. It’s music for robots. It’s horrible, alot

of it. It seems like there’s music, and then there’s hip hop. People

are stripping the musicality out of it altogether.”

Buck plans to consider pushing hip hop to new limits. “There’s been times that I’ve seen biographies on TV on classical composers from way

back, and the level of their musical inspiration and the things they created musically, to me, is almost incomprehensible. No one seems to

put that much thought into making a piece of music anymore. | want to

see hip hop be refined like classical music and I’ve fantasized about the idea of a symphony or something created all from sampling. Bit by bit I see people treading closer to that. Making masterpieces out of sampling, aseven minute song composed of hundreds of samples. I don’t

have the means to do that, but I try to accomplish that with records.

“Vertex” is just one body

of work that is continually changing. So much

can be done with the technique of sampling. In hip hop it went so far

and people just grew out ofit. There’s so much you can do, and I’m

just trying to push it as far as I can.”

Buck 65 has anew release coming soon from San Francisco based Anticon

Records. Entitled “Man Overboard,” it promises to continue where “Vertex” left off. You can find more information about Buck on his website: www.buck65.com

Buck 65

Vertex

Four Ways To Rock Records

After dozens of listens, I think I figured out what this unorthodox hip

hop mix is all about. The — whole world seems to be

against Buck in songs about the perverseness of our celebrity culture, beats when other rappers are trying to rip each other off, or having acrush ona waitress that he can’t express his love to. Throughout his battles in life he manages to keep his cool and remain an individual as is expressed in his trilogy of songs about a baseball game. As the story of the game develops his determination helps him win, and the album ends on a positive note with a song where he is ready to take on all challengers in rapping “Sunrise to dawn, From dawn to sunrise, For you to try battling me would be unwise.”

Vertex is the most intelligent hip hop album ever made. It’s more than an

album, it’s a work of art. Buck 65 avoids cliches and his approach to

—

hop is original, yet true to the spirit of rap that seems to be dying as

of

late. His lyrics are unforgettable and his samples creep with atmosphere

like a David Lynch film. Find Vertex, buy it, and listen to it with the lights out.

MacLeod

2 Marc MacDonald PORTS EDITOR

Hip hop music in Canada needs a saviour. It is hard to believe that it was 11 years ago when Maestro Fresh Wes broke through and brought rap music to the national scene. Maestro’s first two albums were successful with songs receiving radio play, but rap music in Canada went back underground. Rap cats like Maestro, Michie Mee and the Dream Warriors continued to produce the music but it never reached the same level as “Drop the Needle” and “Let Your Backbone Slide.” Fast forward to the year 2000 and the number and talent of rappers in this country is the highest that its ever been. There are hip hop acts representing Toronto and Vancouver as well as other artists in smaller centers across the country. Despite the popularity and success ofrecent releases by

|| Maestro and the

Rascalz, many

|| commercial radio stations across the land still refuse to play hip hop. Nowit’s

Choclair’s turn to step

Let’s Ride... With

Choclair

up to the plate.

On the phone from the T dot O (Toronto) I hada chance to talk with Mr. Kareem Blake a.k.a. Choclair about his new album and hip hop in Canada.

Mare Mac Donald

Ice Cold is the new album. Are you pleased with it’s success so far?

Choclair

Oh yeah, definitely. The album went gold faster than I thought it was going to go—I think faster than alot of people thoughtit would. And itis still doing real well in the stores. I think it is a blueprint for Virgin and for other major labels on how to make domestic hip hop artists do well. Itis definitely

setting precedents around the nation.

MM Do you think it, and hip hop and general, would do better if commercial radio stations gave it more air time? Choclair Oh yeah, because people would have been into ita lot more because it would have gotten more play. Those are still a lot of the challenges that we have to overcome. I’m still happy with its success and I

think it’s showing the

ar