Okay City Feat. Shad

Vancouver hip hop group and BTA friends Okay City will be releasing their new Album Tocsin-B next week. In the meantime they have released a new Track featuring fellow Canadian rapper Shad, entitled 'Cities of the North'. The song can be listened to at their MySpace. Enjoy!

And also a reminder that the guys will be touring with Australian Hip-Hop legends Hilltop Hoods through February.

Feb. 7th Whistler BC - Garfinkel's
Feb. .10th Vancouver BC - The Venue
Feb. 12th Edmonton AB - The Pawn Shop
Feb. 13th Calgary AB - The Gateway at SAIT
Feb. 15th Banff AB - Wild Bill's

Okay City, Hilltop Hoods. West Coast Tour

Okay City, which consists of Bill Maka and Ray Black, is the freshest thing hitting the Vancouver hip-hop scene. Quickly becoming known for their high-energy live performances and hard hitting sound. Any group that starts off with an introduction sampled from Back to the Future is just swell in my books. The guys originally started out in Ontario, connecting through the well known music industry arts program at Fanshawe College. Eventually making the move out west to broaden their horizons and touring with the likes of Sweatshop Union and opening for Swollen Members. Expect to see these guys starting a dance party on stage or spitting while walking on top of the bar. Their performance and ryhmes have already caught the attention of the crazy popular Australian hip-hop group, Hilltop Hoods, and Okay City will be accompanying them as their opening act for the majority of their west coast tour. This along with upcoming collaborations with Shad, means you will be hearing a lot more about Okay City in 2010. Check out the myspace for tour dates. Don't miss it.

The Whistler show with Hilltop Hoods is already sold out I'm pretty sure. The village being like 90% Australian and all... you may not realize how bananas this show will be. If you can find some tickets do it.

Okay City's track 'Potency', which the boys were so kind to contribute to BTA, is a laid back groove with a catchy string melody accompanied with a nice little Biggie Sample. Get it below.

Okay City - Potency

Hillatoppa

Australia Hip-Hop favorites Hilltop Hoods have dropped a video for their track 'Still Standing' off of their recently released album, State of the Art. If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do so. Go I say. Now I'm just waiting for a zombie apocalypse video for 'Parade the Dead'.

Let's Pretend It's Friday Five

A few tracks I've been listening to lately:

Bibio's album Ambivalence Avenue is one of my summer favourites. Remember Badly Drawn Boy? This track is like that, but better.

Bibio - Lovers Carvings

Slow Club's much-anticipated album Yeah, So was released on Moshi Moshi earlier this month. It's really good.

Slow Club - Trophy Room

Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig finally teams up with Esau Mwamwaya for his project The Very Best - how amazing is this album going to be?

The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

You can take the boy out of Canada but you can't take Canadiana out of the boy. I'm a huge fan of the Tragically Hip's more recent work; it seems they've really hit their stride since In Violet Light and new album We Are The Same is incredible.

The Tragically Hip - The Last Recluse

You'd be forgiven for assuming that three white Australian dudes would create god-awful hip hop. Hilltop Hoods are happy to prove everyone wrong. State of the Art was released last month and it's actually very, very good.

Hilltop Hoods - Still Standing

Wizards of OZ

Hilltop Hoods have been present in the Australian hip-hop scene since the late 90's, but their flow has only recently been noticed off the continent. Their platinum album The Hard Road, which hit No. 1 on the Australian charts, dropped in 2006. But the Adelaide based group continued to impress and broaden their musical horizons by releasing The Hard Road: Restrung this year, which harnesses the skills of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Each track has been re-worked with the orchestra to create a new listening experience unique from much of what's appearing on today's hip-hop front.
The symphony demonstrates their talent and diversity on tracks such as 'Conversations from a Speakeasy', which has a great jazzy 1940's sound to it; 'Monsters Ball Restrung', which hits heavy thanks to brooding minor-key string swells; and instrumental piece 'The Captured Vibe Restrung'.
Projects such as these speak strongly about the support that Adelaide musicians seem to give to each other, in this case breaking through the borders of musical genres.

Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road Restrung
Hilltop Hoods - Monsters Ball Restrung
Hilltop Hoods - The Captured Vibe Restrung

- matty b.