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Lately there’s been an effervescence ringing through the city, and my bets are on it being from CJLO celebrating its third Hip-Hop for Life this week! The Afro-American music genre transcends itself into an impetus that sparks social change, awareness and community. In addition to curated shows, playlists, conferences, and workshops all dedicated to celebrating hip-hop’s vast and pervasive influence within art, the media, politics, culture, language, fashion and so much more; the magazine team wants to hop (pun unintended) onto the zeitgeist too and show some love. Without further ado, here are Remi Caron’s top hip-hop music video picks. – Kaitlyn DiBartolo, Magazine Editor

    If I were to take on the task at declaring the best movie about hip-hop of all time the title and remaining champion in my book would be F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton, a biographical portrait of the rap group N.W.A. However, I shouldn’t overlook the performances that rappers bring to the silver screens, including Eminem in 8 Mile or Tupac Shakur in Juice. Sadly we lost Tupac too young to see what he would have become as an actor in his later career, and Eminem’s only other acting credit was a cameo in Funny People where he has an argument with Ray Romano.  However, being a fan of music videos as much as I am of film, I have decided to highlight some hip-hop/rap videos that have stuck with me and that you should consider alongside the aforementioned greatest hip-hop movie of all time, and of rappers-turned-actors. 

1. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton 

Since I offered up my favorite hip-hop film of all time, it’s only fitting that I would begin with this group and their debut music video. Off their first album and debut single N.W.A. (​​Arabian Prince, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren) with the comments, “you are about to witness the strength of street knowledge.'' Ice Cube takes the first part of the song where he raps about going two-to-two with the police and the life of being in gangster culture. MC Ren continues with how people underestimate him, however, he is part of the gangster culture as well. Easy-E closes the video with his verse in the same vein. The video itself is timeless as N.W.A. are the pioneer leaders of gangster hip-hop videos that showcase the LA hip-hop scene, as well as the clash that N.W.A. always had with the law and authority. This would lead to later tracks on the album that for censor reasons we can’t publish but Ice Cube has the powerful line about law enforcement: “they have the authority to kill a minority.”

2. Beastie Boys- Sabotage

Directed by Spike Jonze during his music video days in the ‘90s, Sabotage by the Beastie Boys is pure nostalgic fun, alongside the rock/rap combo the group provides. Don’t tell any Weezer music video fans that I feel that Sabotage may be the best video by Jonze from the ‘90s, as he directed the Buddy Holly music video. In the video, the Beastie Boys comically dress up as these cops from a ‘70s themed police detective show, and it works in the same way Learning To Fly works for the Foo Fighters. Showing off a comical side, this video works in truly capturing the energy and spirit of the Beastie Boys; they're like Buddy Rich when they fly off the handle, with a great vision excecuted from Jonze.

3. Eminem- Stan

In the era of MTV music videos it’s hard not to talk about the king of controversy Marshall Mathers, also known as Eminem. I could have gone with “The Real Slim Shady” or “My Name Is” as both were featured excessively in their height on MTV, however I am going with the one that has a little more depth; “Stan.” Directed by Dr Dre and Philip Atwell, the music video features Dido sampling her hit song “Thank You.” The video stars her as a wife to Stanley “Stan” Mitchel (Devon Sawa), an obsessive fan of Eminem. As the video progresses, Stan becomes more and more deranged through his letters to Em, expressing his contempt at Em not responding back to his fans' correspondance. The finale is somewhat of a tragedy where Stan states one of the biggest enigmas to any rap lyric that still puzzles me, “you know the song by Phil Collins, ‘In the Air of the Night’ / about that guy who could have saved that other guy from drowning but didn't / then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?” The final epilogue shows Em trying to console Stan by responding via letter but then states that he read about the tragedy, “come to think about what his name was, it was you / damn!” leading to the revelation. Many accolades went to this music video as it touches on the themes of fame and fortune taken out of context, a theme that Eminem deals with a lot in his songs and personal life. As for the legacy of “Stan,” the term has been inducted into the Oxford English Dictionary denoting, “an overzealous or obsessive fan, especially of a particular celebrity.”

4. Kanye West- Though The Wire

Don’t you miss the old Kanye? I certainly do every single day because he was one of the first reasons I got into hip-hop as a whole art form of sampling. My mom went out and bought me a copy of  Late Registration, when I probably was still too young. Through The Wire was the first video produced alongside Jesus Walks for The College Dropout, that samples Chaka Khan’s hit “Through The Fire” and speeds it up to match Kanye’s pace as he does his best to rap though his rehabilitation after a nearly fatal car accident and his jaw being wired shut, multiple surgeries later only two weeks after the accident. The video itself is a collage video set as polaroids and photo strips on a cork board, post-accident and West’s life up to that point in the music industry. Watching the Netflix documentary, Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, it’s easy to get emotional as he undergoes dental surgery, nothing is stopping him from spitting out the main hook to the song that started it all and proved to Roc-A-Fella Records to put out the album.

5. Jay Z- Moonlight

Re-listening to 4:44 this past week I couldn't think the record isn’t Jay Z’s most personal album where he opens up about issues in his personal life after the elevator incident with his wife's sister, Solange in 2014 where she physically fought him and when everyone was wondering who Becky with the good hair was. 4:44 is a self-reflective video sampling the song “Late Nights and Heart Breaks" from Hannah Williams & The Affirmations and focuses on his relationship with Beyoncé,  addressing his marital issues and past infidelity indiscretions while apologizing for his past behaviour. The video starts with a young Black boy singing a cover of Nina Simone’s “Feel Good" before cutting to a clip of All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story, where Eartha Kitt talks about love: “a relationship has to be earned.” Another person is interviewed after being involved in a hit and run and talks about the nearly fatal accident stating that, “God had shown him too much to take him now.”  A male and female dancer perform an interpretive dance in the music video as Jay tries to atone for his past through his rap lyrics alongside short cellphone videos without any context and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork alongside one of his interviews. The video ends with a video of Jay Z and Beyoncé performing “Drunk in Love” as Al Green’s “Judy” closes the video. “Moonlight” on the other hand takes on the culture of the time, referring to the 2016 film Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins) and the big stint at the Oscars when La La Land was awarded with Best Picture only to have it redacted as an error on the part of the presenters and the award actually going to Moonlight at the very end. The music video starts with a reference to the '90s sitcom Friends by subverting it with an all Black cast including Tessa Thompson, Tiffany Haddish, Lakeith Stanfield, Jarrod Carmichael, Lil Rel Howery and Issa Rae. The result is a reflection on the deeply rooted racism within our culture and Hollywood.

6. Kendrick Lamar- Swimming Pools (Drank)

Addiction to alcohol and how it might be rooted in family history is the central theme to “Swimming Pool (Drank)”. The music video, directed by Jerome D, sees Kendrick Lamar falling backwards until the very end where he lands into a pool of water. There are some partying scenes that are shot in red hue lighting as Kendrick’s conscience starts speaking to him, “okay now open your mind up and listen to me / Kendrick I'm your conscience / if you do not hear me then you will be history / Kendrick I know that you're nauseous right now / and I'm hopin' to lead you to victory / Kendrick If I take another one down I'ma drown in some poison abusin' my limit.” This would be just the start of the innovative videos that Lamar would put out. 

7. Childish Gambino- Sweatpants/3005

Not all music videos need to be ambitious. Take it from Childish Gambino, (Donald Glover), with his one-take videos and humorous verses. Directed by Hiro Murai, Sweatpants is a one-shot of Donald Glover rapping as he meets his friends at the diner alongside some fun references, “more green than my Whole Foods and I'm too fly, Jeff Goldblum.” We get a glimpse of two Donald Glovers once he returns to the diner after exiting for a text message. Soon, all of the dinner staff and patrons are Donald Glover.  Once again going with the one-shot take from director Hiro Murai,  “3005” sees Donald Glover and an oversized carnival plush prize riding a roller coaster together as he laments on love, “I used to care what people thought / but now I care more / man nobody out here's got it figured out so therefore, I've lost all hope of a happy ending / depending on whether or not it's worth it / so insecure, no one's perfect.” Keeping it simple like a one-take with different vantage points as a way to edit things in and out with a director like Hiro Murai is why Childish Gambino music videos work effectively as an art form. 

The popular Montreal Fringe Festival has finally begun. Of all the indoor art, music and theatre performances it usually hosts, this year’s Fringe is back in full swing and expanding to outdoor activities again. Taking advantage of the summer clear skies and this expansion, Plateau Astro has joined Fringe to organize The Night Sky Tour.

The Night Sky Tour by Plateau Astro is an active one-hour workshop that teaches us the basics of using a telescope and also a brief on how to study the stars and planets. This description on the Fringe brochure intrigued the science kid in me. I just couldn’t say no to an evening of star gazing, viewing the magnificent moon in its raw form, knowing how to spot constellations, following meteor showers, monitoring the launch of the International Space Station (ISS) and many more.

Do you know that the width of your pinky finger raised and placed on a backdrop of the sky equals one degree on the latitude? And do you also know that one degree latitude measures four minutes in actual time? That is how the time zones, daytimes and so on are measured. My geography major didn’t teach me that my pinky finger can help me measure time. But Trevor Kjorlien, the founder of Plateau Astro and the host of the Night Sky Tour did teach us that. 

The engaging storyteller that he is, Kjorlien started with a casual talk about how the tour is going to be, then pulled up his tab, and opened this extraordinary app called "Star Walk 2." This was where things got interesting. The app showed us in real time the path of the sun, the places in the sky where we can spot Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus and even Saturn’s magnificent rings. 

It was past 8:40 pm. Ten minutes into the workshop I witnessed a sunset from the northern hemisphere with a new perspective for the first time since I moved to Montreal from India, which happens to be closer to the equator. This explains the slanting path of the sunset. Once the sun has set, he spoke about constellations, zodiac signs and various calendars in the world and how they are related to this path of the sun. 

Nothing prepared me for the extraordinary moment that happened next. He taught us how to adjust a telescope and focused it right on the moon in the clear night sky. The moon with all its imperfections and craters was a sight that made me squeal like a kid. To top this feeling, we took pictures of the moon from our phones through the telescope. 

“Plateau Astro!” shouted a few fans, recognizing Kjorlien with his telescope. People walking by in the park wanted to view the moon through the telescope too. He is a local star, with all the pun intended. He truly is our friendly neighbourhood astronomer.

Summer goes by real quick and according to Kjorlien, June is the perfect time to attend astronomical workshops like these. The last day of the Night Sky Tour with the Montreal Fringe Festival was June 12 but Plateau Astro also has private workshops and tours apart from the Fringe, which I highly recommend attending. 

The JPEGMAFIA "Round by Round, Blow by Blow" world tour stopped in Montreal this Tuesday. The Brooklyn experimental rap artist is touring in support of his newest EP, OFFLINE! - an extension of his last full-length LP! that dropped in 2021.

Before JPEGMAFIA, nicknamed Peggy, could grace fans with his freak beats, Montreal-based artist BACKXWASH (Ashanti Mutinta) warmed up the crowd. The Zambian-Canadian rapper was an excellent choice for the opening slot, as she veers just as far from mainstream hip hop as Peggy does. Bombastic tracks like “Black Magic” were performed by a BACKXWASH dressed in black robes with a face adorned in black and white face paint - an upside down cross running vertical up her forehead. Bringing a vibe that can only be described as abrasively occult, BACKXWASH proved well worthy of having her name on a show flyer with such a legendary headlining act.

JPEGMAFIA took the stage dressed in a blue and red tracksuit and a head wrapped in a blue bandana. Rather than opening with a song, the rapper humbly introduced himself to the packed venue before his set, thanking them for coming and saying that he hoped they would enjoy the show. In a world where most artists want to look like they’re on top of the world, this lowkey-but-down-to-Earth gesture made it easy to understand the crowd’s unbridled enthusiasm for the rapper, chanting “Peggy” as loud as they could whenever they could. The artist then manned the laptop set up on-stage as he queued his own opening track, further showing his humble attitude.

The setlist was full of JPEGMAFIA cuts to the likes of “BALD!,” “I Cannot Fucking Wait Til Morrissey Dies,” and “Thug Tears.” While Peggy’s spoken intro may have been lowkey, his performance was nothing but the opposite, yelling frantic bars into the microphone and getting up close and personal with the front row. The crowd was completely untethered throughout the entire show, with various mosh pits opening and closing as fans jumped up and down to Peggy’s pounding anthems. Quickly there was no one present, save for people on the very sides of the crowd, who weren’t soaked in what one can only hope was water and sweat.

The highlight song of the show was “Baby I’m Bleeding,” as the crowd broke into a bouncing maelstrom when the track’s looping Death Grips-esque beat cut through the venue’s soundsystem. As Peggy delivered the song’s lyrics, fans only got wilder.

JPEGMAFIA will be working through his world tour right through until September, bringing his explosive experimental rap to the rest of North America, Australia, Europe, the UK, and even Japan. Here are the remaining dates for the "Round by Round, Blow by Blow tour." Find the closest gig to you and be there at all costs.

Hunter co-hosts The Iron Club, your weekly guide to the dark and mysterious realm of underground metal, which airs every Sunday from 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.

On a pleasant weekday evening disconnected 35 km away from the busy Montreal island, in a small suburb called Sainte-Thérèse, there was a loud crowd celebrating local bands. It was not any regular evening but the first of the extravagant Santa Teresa Festival which started on May 19th and lasted until the 22nd. 

With closed streets, three different outdoor stage venues and many indoor performances, the Santa Teresa Festival was unleashed in full force for the first time this year after the restricting effects of the pandemic. It is a music festival dedicated to celebrating and encouraging local and budding artists; as well as international acts headlining. The festival's goal is to give the bands access to huge crowds and to also introduce refreshing music to the audience. 

Right next to the welcome arch of the fest was the usually busy ticket counter on Turgeon Street where the line included people, babies in prams and pets on leashes. Even if some of its venues were only for adults and weren’t pet-friendly, the whole fest still had a groovy vibe no one could escape from.

It was about 8:30 pm on the second day of the fest, when the sun just rested for us to party. People grabbed some drinks at the SAQ bar tents and some tasty crispy fries at one of the food trucks before heading to the closest open stage, the Desjardins stage. This stage is one of the venues that hosted free events for all the days of the fest.

Pink hued lights lit up the audience's faces while the crazy, peppy songs of the band easy tiger lit up their moods. The band comprises of Gabrielle La Rue and Sarah Dion who played their recent release "Ibizia." I realised I was too late to the party when their performance ended just as I wanted to go up closer and break a leg. The song, the beats and the energy were very engaging and deserved all those loud claps and cheers. 

The next performance was at the Loto-Québec stage, one of the paid venues for which the audience needed special passes and wristbands to access. It could host a huge crowd, so there were separate food trucks, bar tents, and drinking water kiosks specifically for this section of the fest. 

Food court scenes smelled like fresh fries, fish-n-chips, nachos and churros. They had multiple seating areas for the crowd to take a break from partying. Meanwhile, the stage was being prepped for Hubert Lenoir’s, 9:15 p.m. show. He is a Québécois musician who rose to fame with his 2018 album, Darlène. 

All the venues were based on first come first serve, and I stood in the last row of the audience as I was late to the party. From what my weak eyes could discern, Lenoir wore a white dress for his performance. He didn’t give the crowd one dispassionate second as he swayed and mesmerised the audience with his soothing June 2021 release, Secret. 

The lights, the bass, the boom, and the crowd went gaga over his peppy song “Dimanche Soir.” According to many publications, he was declared "a pop star in any language" and he proved it that night; rocking the huge crowd in a white dress. 

Simultaneously at the Desjardins stage was another band electrifying the crowd with their music. They were Solipsism, a psychedelic-rock band formed in the winter of 2021. The band members are longtime friends based in Montreal and Québec. François Lemieux (Milanku, ex-Dark Circles) on voice, guitar and keyboards, William Duguay-Drouin (Caravane) on drums, Taylor William Fitzpatrick Johnson (White Nails) on keyboards, Samuel Gadreau on guitar and Maxime Doyer on bass and vocals all mesmerised the crowds with their version of rock. 

The fest hosted many other bands and independent artists for four days. From slow, meaningful songs by artists such as Martha Wainwright and Lonny at the Ste-Therese-d'Avila Church, to rap music by Fly Jordy & Wes Castle in the Cabaret BMO to other venues hosting pop music, rock, and punk, the Santa Teresa Festival proved to be truly a groovy, local music fest for all tastes.