2) Slip Away – 4.5/5
It would seem as though Brody doesn’t know what holding back on the production means. However, this is a good quality to carry as an artist, as it ensures people that you are never slacking off. Noetic is the first to grab the mic, and dives into detail about the long hard road of being an artist, being true to oneself, and making quality music. Immediately after Noetic finishes, the lovely Miss Lyndsay comes in soft and soulful, delivering a mesmerizing hook for the masses, telling you to hold on. She also does not take it over the top, which only adds to the likability it. And once again, we are back to Brody, who no doubt holds his own on the track. After listening to the past 2 albums that the group has released, one can only marvel at the growth Brody has shown as an artist. Delivering a rock solid verse for the track, he fades into the background and once again, allows Lyndsay to take the spotlight. The only downfall, in my opinion, is I was left wanting a little bit more from the track. Being the shortest offering on the EP, clocking in at just under 3 minutes, it leaves the listener looking forward to a 3rd verse, or at the very least, a strong bridge from Lyndsay. That being said, it is still a great track all around. Don’t sleep.

3) What We’ve Become Featuring Ka.lil – 4.5/5
What we’ve become is such a feel good track, that one would almost have to be crazy to criticize it. Sadly, this is what I do…just kidding. To be honest, this is the best feature that I have ever heard from Ka.lil aka Khingz, and Lyndsay is so smooth on this track, that one could not ask for more hook-wise. Noetic brings his A-game on the track as well, delivering fun reminiscing bars about kicking it in his friend’s basement. Although the transition into Brody’s verse is not quite as smooth as that of Noetic’s, he still manages to come back and offer a feel good verse about faithful friends. The production is also the best I have heard so far up to this point, with just a simple feel good guitar loop and some nice and basic drum patterns. For some reason, this track makes me think of a feel good summer. It’s something I would bump sitting on my roof drinking a cold one (don’t ask, yes we sit on the roof).

4) Running Away – 4.5/5
Running away is somewhat of a bitter sweet to me. Although I really enjoy the mood of the track, for some reason the drum pattern threw me off a little bit at first. However, towards the end of the track, it started to intrigue me. It truly became easier to listen to the second time around. Lyndsay also sings for the first couple minutes of the track, which is a great change up. For those who have heard the song “Under Promise, Over Deliver,” this track carries somewhat of a similar arrangement as far as singing is involved. When Noetic kicks in with his verse, the drums drop into the background, and this is one of my favorite sections of the track. Noetic also harmonizes some of his verse, which adds a little something different as I have never heard him do it before. It is a cool sounding change up which any R&B fan can appreciate. When Brody eventually kicks in, he goes into depth about the direction that he is heading in as an artist, and being careful about what he is trying to convey. He offers up bars of hope for those who may not be confident or sure where they are going. He also validates these bars with the best kind of affirmation, experience.

5) Troubled Water – 5/5
Brody almost goes completely solo on this track, delivering both of the main verses, with what sounds like Lyndsay humming in the background and Noetic harmonizing the hook. The track is incredibly eerie as Brody talks about a friend who he has tried to help time and time again, but continues to stab him in the back and take advantage of him. Anyone who has had a “friend” like this will be sure to relate. Surely I can relate to this, which is why I chose to give it a perfect rating. The verses are delivered with pure perfection, and although the hook may seem a little rough to some, it is delivered with such passion and honesty, that one cannot help but fall in love with the track as a whole.

6) On The Horizon – 4.5/5
The problem with a lot of rappers today is that they tend to rely on the production to carry them, whereas a true artist can take a beat that is not amazingly crafted and carry it with insightful and meaningful lyrics. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the case on this particular track. Although I’m not a particular fan of the production on this track, with its sinfully simple piano loop and drum kicks, I am a fan of the message, the delivery of the lyrics, and the beautiful hook & verse offered by Lyndsay, which ironically, matches up very well with the production. Brody kicks in right away with the first verse, (which I totally missed the first time around writing this) and really sets the track in motion. When Lyndsay kicks in, her vocals truly go well over the switch up of the hook, with the addition of the guitar low in the background, and she meshes her verse very well in between the keys of the piano loop. Perhaps what really stands out though is how hard Noetic comes with his verse on the track. With hard hitting lines like:

There’s not a chance I deviate from the plan/ never go against the grain/ it’s just part of being a man/ come on/ life will quake/ shake the frame and you’re lost/ some days I fell like loading up and taking aim at the boss

One does not need to question his ability as a full-fledged, well rounded emcee. In the end, the only reason this track would lose the half point it did, is for the lack-luster production. Again, I have to say this is personal preference, so don’t take my word for it, as I’m sure a lot of listeners will truly enjoy it.

7) Rollin’ Featuring Halfcut – 4/5
Halfcut kicks in immediately over the rock infused “Rollin.” I have to admit, that I did not expect him to come as hard as he did. Delivering a fantastic verse, the only thing that he falls short in is the hook he brings to the table. Although the lyrics are great, one may find it hard to differentiate between his hook and verse at first. Other than that, Halfcut will truly impress any hip hop audience with this one. Brody is the next to go, and if you have been paying attention to anything I have been saying, you will most likely have high expectations for his verse, in which you will truly not be let down. Brody’s flow and cadence are on point as he delivers one of the best verses yet to the track. But hold on, the best is yet to come. Noetic brings his A-game to the table on this track, delivering that real hip hop to the masses, and putting on for Canada in the process. With his smooth voice, he delivers a smooth flow over the beat, bringing power with his tone when needed. Lastly, Lyndsay sings to the end of the track. Bringing attitude, and as much as I hate to use the word, a certain swagger to the track. I have to admit though, it is almost strange to hear her curse on a track. Regardless, this is a solid track, and although it may not be the best on the EP, it sure is a good way to go out.

Final Thoughts:
When I first met Noetic a couple years back, I was amazed by his honesty, kindness and sincerity. He has done nothing but cheer me on personally as I have released music over the years. He has also done nothing but improve as an emcee since I have met him. Brody has been an inspiration to me, and to anyone who has seen him grow as an artist over time. He is a testament that we are to always strive to get better. He is also a model emcee in the fact that he has taken the skill he has been given, and molded it into something great. Both of these dudes are an example of what comes from hard work and dedication.

And Lyndsay, she truly deserves a paragraph of her own. Although we don’t see eye to eye on some things, I have been mesmerized ever since I first heard her voice two and a half years back. I still remember where I was at the time as a matter of fact. I was sitting in Jay Jay’s apartment, watching the video for “Under Promise, Over Deliver.” You are a beckon of light for singers and rappers alike. I can hardly wait to see where you take your artistry in the future. With a stunning voice such as yours, how could anyone not be taken away to a place of serenity every time you part your lips.

And lastly, as a whole, you three make up possibly the best hip hop group to ever emerge from Canada. I can hardly wait to see where you guys take music in the future.

Categorical Ratings & Breakdown:

Originality/Creativity: 4.5/5
Lyrics/Delivery: 5/5
Beat Selection/Production: 4.5/5
Concepts/Arrangements: 5/5

All In All: 4.75/5
Amazing Project

The project will be available via iTunes February 26/2013

Q Who else are you guys looking forward to watching?
Richards Bran Van 3000, for sure.
Johnston I can’t wait to see Bad Religion.
Mudryk The Flaming Lips and of course, we all want to see Raekwon and Ghostface.

Q What’s the best thing about touring with an old-school rap star?
Mudryk The coolest thing about touring with KRS-One is that we all made a track.
Richards And he also breaks things down for you and you get to learn, but he does it in his own way. Like, after we played our set, we got a phone call from his wife. She goes, “The teacher will see you now.”
Johnston It’s funny, but it’s also really awesome. He was pointing at the crowd after our set like, “Do you guys see that? You did this to them.” It got all of us really psyched.

Q It must be hard opening for these huge rap acts, though. They tend to go on a little late.
Richards Oh, man. We were in Montreal opening for Rakim and it must’ve been 1 a.m., Rakim was late and we were introduced like, “And now, one more opening band!”
Mudryk The people started 
booing, throwing bottles, cursing at us to get off the stage. But those kind of crowds can be awesome, and these guys were the most 
passionate.
Johnston It definitely gets your blood boiling and that night, when we finished, the audience was rapping along to our words.

Q And what are your plans while you’re in town?
Mudryk Honestly, just to hustle as hard as possible. It’s our first North by Northeast Festival and we came all the way out here — we want to give every moment our everything, hopefully get something to spark.

DoD: I know that last year you were touring with KRS ONE and now you’re touring with Raekwon, what’s it like to be touring with these legends of Hip Hop? Are you learning a lot about your craft and the history of Hip Hop along the way?

Lyndsay: Absolutely, it’s been INSANE. It kind of feels like you’re beside yourself when you’re sitting there shooting the shit with like, the Wu Tang crew and they’re just talking about stuff and you’re like “ok what?”. How did we come from like – this time last year we were trying to figure out how to do our own small shows in Vancouver and now we’re going across the country with Raekwon and KRS ONE, and it’s crazy! It’s insane!

Stokes: You start to realize that the whole hip hop community especially south of the border is a very small network of people and you just start to respect how tiny it is, and you know, that the impression that you give to these people, that speaks volumes and that’s really what’s gonna get you somewhere and so you learn a lot when you’re on tour with them. So you just try to be a sponge and absorb everything they say. Like, you know this tour LA the Darkman, he’s rollin’ with us and just a few days with him and it’s a lesson in the business every time you do it, and the more you do it the more you learn and the better you get at it so the more you get the next time.

DoD: That’s so dope. Now Lyndsay, I read the other day that the Wu Tang crew gave you a nickname?

Lyndsay: Yeah, LCA. Well, John their manager told me that last night he was like “We’re calling you LCA” and I was like “What does that mean?” and he said “Little Christina Aguilera”, [laughs] because I’m small and I’m loud so I will take that!

DoD: Yeah, she did alright!

Lyndsay: [Laughs] Right? I’ll take it!

DoD: Who are some of your main influences? Are there any newer rappers that you feel are on the same wavelength as you or that you feel are dope, that inspire you?

Stokes: When I was growing up I didn’t listen to a lot of rap. I always saw mainstream rap and I really disliked it for its exploitation of so many different things so when I was in high school I started getting more into underground conscious music like Atmosphere, or Classified… just people that were doing something that wasn’t mainstream and weren’t talking about drugs, money and all that kind of bullshit that’s all wrapped up in the mainstream. So once I got a hold of that kind of stuff, like The Roots – Black Thought- Immortal Technique, you started to see a whole other side of it, and that’s really what drew me into it. Anyone that has content in their music, that’s the bottom line for me. As long as you’re keepin’ it real and you’re always working on your craft, it could be nobody or somebody and I still get inspiration from that. I get inspiration from the biggest names in Hip Hop and people that you wouldn’t even know.

DoD: Do you feel that hip hop or music in general is playing part in the shift in consciousness that’s happening to us as humans? Is hip hop or music in general the catalyst we need to change how we think and interact?

Lyndsay: Definitely. I think that hip hop more than any other genre is a form of (obviously) poetry, and just telling your story and the awareness of the things that are going on and the more you fall into conscious hip hop you don’t hear shit about bitches and, you know “fuck bitches get money”, you don’t hear that. You hear real struggles that everybody goes through and I think that if you want to hear it you will. I think it totally depends on the listener with the music, because that person that’s making that music that wants to change people is only going to change the people that want to change, or want to be inspired by that. Because there’s a lot of people that listen to our music and they’re like “Fuck that, I don’t want to get on this happy bullshit”. So yeah, some people really want “fuck bitches get money” and I feel some people have a huge fear of themselves and looking at problems and they like to stick their head in the sand so they don’t want to change, they don’t want to look at the problems, they don’t want to hear music that makes them look at the problems.

DoD: It’s like an escape.

Lyndsay: Exactly! Like somebody who really likes gangster shit isn’t going to listen to Immortal Technique and be like, “This guy is dope; he’s talking about the government!”

Stokes: You can have a drug dealer that has one mentality or a drug dealer that has this mentality. Both do the same thing but they both look at it differently. And people that have gone through the same thing, you’re gonna hear a differrent side of them when they start to write verses. One’s gonna be from one perspective about, ya know, “Yeah I did that, but was it right?” We’ve all made mistakes and we’ve all done that stupid shit, but how do you look at it? How do you reflect on it now? Do you look at it like “Yeah that was dope… I love selling drugs and shooting people”. How do you look at it? You could have gone through the same things but what are you pullin’ from it? It’s the same thing with the listener, like what do you want to get from it?

DoD: Do you have any specific goals in your music career? Like something you wanted from the start like “I want that!”

Lyndsay: To pay my rent [laughs]. No, for me, all I’ve wanted to do since I was a very small child was sing. I’m a writer as well, so I just have always wanted to have a good medium. I love singing the music that I’m making and writing and having fun, and with people that I love, and I’m doing that now and it’s really cool, and I don’t even give a shit that I can’t pay my rent with it, that I can’t buy groceries, that I’ve lost I don’t know, like two pants sizes from pursuing this [laughs]. I don’t care because that’s the only goal I wanted was to sing and be happy. So I feel like we’re getting there.

Stokes: Just to be absorbed into it, to make it your life. To have it be your career and pay your bills with it, and yet still maintain humility when you do it, still stay grounded. That’s what really gets you somewhere. Just not cheating yourself and not being a fake.

DoD: Are you familiar with Tech N9ne from Kansas City? He’s a great example of that.

Stokes: Yeah! Our DJ just got off tour with him on his last Canadian tour, he was DJ’ing for the scale breakers, Noah B. Noah B just left our tour last night and another guy flew in to take over.

Lyndsay: Yeah, just hearing from Noah about meeting him and all the things that he does on his tour and that he’s able to do, and what he’s gotten from just being an independent artist and not selling out or anything like that and just doing what he knows and having full control over it, it’s really really fucking cool. It’s really inspiring.

Stokes: It gives you hope!

DoD: So that’s the dream?

Lyndsay: Yeah, and I know [Stokes] and Noah B also look at people like Atmosphere and Rhymesayers as a huge influence as well.

Stokes: Yeah, anyone that’s taken it upon themselves and done it on their own terms until someone else came to them. They didn’t go begging for anything they just did it themselves, and that’s really the mentality you gotta have, unless you want to be controlled by someone else. Tech N9ne, he’s just, I dunno…yeah, we all aspire to be something like that and as far as handling our business, we all own the label we’re signed under, I own the recording studio. Lyndsay and I both graduated from music production and audio engineering school. So we went and we got our tools sharpened to do this so that after we graduated we could execute, so we’re really into trying to do that and build that team and handle all angles of it because if you don’t you lose that control. So we’re self managed, self produced, self recorded, you name it. We manage everything. That’s how you learn, and the truth is no one else is gonna do it for you. Who else would be doing it? You’re always thinking you need these certain things, “Do I need a manger, do I need this person or this person?” and it’s like how long are you gonna sit around waiting? Just learn it and get out there and do it, and fuck it up and figure out! Make the mistake, because the faster you get that mistake out of your system the faster you learn. Just get out and do it, don’t think about it, just go for it. The people that are successful have tried and failed the most times. You can’t be afraid of goin’ after it and screwing it up.

DoD: How do you feel about the Canadian Hip Hop scene? I know Raekwon recently started a Canadian Hip Hop label (Ice H20 Canada), he’s got JD Era and such so I know that he sees a lot of talent up here. Do you guys agree? Do you think that Canada has been overlooked for a while and that Hip Hop in its purest form is kind of taking refuge up here?

Lyndsay: Oh yeah! We were discussing this one day with LA the Darkman when he was driving with us because he was just kind of asking “It seems like there’s a lot of Hip Hop up here, why is nobody getting signed? Why is Drake the only huge person to come out of Canada?” And it’s mainly because Canada is conservative as FUCK, and all the labels want is another form of Nickelback or Hedley or Jan Arden, shit like that. Stuff that’s watered down, it’s got a formula; they know it sells that’s all they want. They just seem like a bunch of old fogeys and they don’t know what to do with Hip Hop. Like I’m from New Brunswick, and there and most everywhere I’ve been in Canada most people really dig country music. And if you like country music whatever, it’s all good, but that’s the main thing that I feel like the record labels up here focus on, and they completely overlook Hip Hop in Canada, and Raekwon is a fucking genius for bringing that label up here and putting JD Era on there and tapping into that because obviously he sees what’s going on. I think we’ve been overlooked but I think that will change and I think that Ice H20 is going to help.

Stokes: And because there is no support structure really from any labels in Canada, no one’s getting signed or anything, and some of these emcees are the hardest workin motherfuckers. They work their balls off to get where they are. You look at like Evil Ebeneezer, Snack the Ripper, a lot of guys from Vancouver… Winnipeg’s Most, Classified…all these guys. You know how many years and how much time it takes to get to that level without that help? I think that shows a lot on itss own, that the emcees in Canada that are really talented and have that work ethic, they’re not sitting around waiting, they’re going to get it however they can and I think that shows a lot. But yeah there’s definitely a lack of support as far as labels go, they keep regurgitating the same bullshit every year. How many times is Nickelback going to get awarded the Juno? I don’t care anymore, I just don’t care! No one actually listens to this shit! Who listens to this shit? We need some new A&R’s. Where’s the young A&R’s looking at the actual industry? Cause look at us, look at what we’re doing and we’re self managed, we’re 6 deep and that’s our team ya know?

DoD: Exactly! Well, anything else you want to say?

Stokes: Yeah we’d like to give some shout outs to Random Humans, DJ Golden, Standstill Music, and DJ Noah B! Also keep an eye out for some new music coming soon!