The Argosy sits down with Sackville’s new hip-hop duo.
The group formerly known as SackCity has been getting a lot of buzz in our quaint little town. Sackville has notoriously been folk-o-centric until the recent resurgence of heavier sounds. But this up-and coming rap duo, BMP and Red, are shifting the focus to rap and hip-hop from the traditional music one would find on a typical Sackville Saturday night. The Argosy sat down with the duo at Downtown Diner to talk about what its like being the black sheep. The two were very candid in their discussion, which was punctuated with laughter and snarky remarks on both sides of the table
The duo had their first performance at Stereophonic 10 and just recently performed at Pickle’s Deli. However, they have been writing, recording and producing their music since the beginning of this academic year. The two stated that it was entirely by chance that they met up with one another – BMP said that he heard there was “some redhead rapper” that was lingering around campus and set out on a mission to find him. “Every redhead I saw I was like, ‘is that him?’ but I got really judgmental because I would say, “no that can’t be him, he doesn’t look like a rapper.” It was not until, by chance, the two had studio time in the production room at CHMA one after the other that they finally met. “Yeah, it was kind of an awkward meeting but in the end it was pretty sweet,” said BMP, the two exchanged laughs as they reminisced.
Soon after that the two began to hit the studio and discover that they shared some common interests. “We are both dirty so it worked really good” stated BMP, “we just went into the studio one day last summer and we laid down this beat and both had some dirty verses, which eventually became ‘Sex Rap,’ after that we kept going to the studio more and more,” added Red. As of today, the duo has one song up on their Bandcamp site, redthemaniacrapper.bandcamp.com, titled “Red Light District” but is currently working on an EP for the Sackville RPM Challenge that is due out sometime in March.
The two were cordial with The Argosy when they explained about their humble upbringings, which led them to becoming rappers. “For me I started in high school but it wasn’t until when I got to university one of my friends, his father is a musician, and he used to make beats for me so I started to think about it more seriously,” stated BMP. “I started because no one wanted to start a band with me,” claimed Red, “I was trying to start a metal band but no one wanted anything to do with that. So, just like last year I started going to the studio and would make beats and rap over top of them.” The two said that is has been a fun process working with one another, that in their past solo attempts to write and produce this style of music has been hard. “It was good to have someone to rap with and have them to bounce stuff off of, versus going in by yourself,” said Red.
The duo also spoke about their writing process. As rap artists, there is a different process for writing a song than there would be for a folk artist or four-piece band. “Once I got going it came really easy because you’d always be thinking about it. I would be walking down the street and stuff would come to me then we’d go to the studio and get it down,” says Red. He continued, saying that, “a lot of it is getting something recorded in the studio and working off of that. Right now we are working on an EP, so we make a beat, write some lyrics and get those down, then go back and tweak everything until we get something that works and that we’re proud of.” The whole production side of the creation of a song is something that is not typical in other forms of music, but for BMP and Red it is an essential component. BMP also said that this process, which is performed in stages, makes it easier to work the stylist and dynamic aspects of the songs.
BMP and Red are a part of the up-and-coming rap scene here in the Maritimes. Of course there are the well know act such as Classified and Buck 65, and there are hip-hop DJs, such as Getthosocks and The Wordburglar, but there this is an emergence of young hip-hop and rap artists coming into the scene. BMP and Red named, Justin Rant, Abstract Dot, and Wills from Saint John as being some of the Maritime acts that they are influenced by. Lobstar was another act that they raved about during the interview.
One thing that makes this rap duo unique is that when BMP and Red preform live, in case you have not seen them in which case you should, they play with a live drum. Percussion phenomenon, Evan Mathews accompanies the band during their live sets, which, as the two claim, “adds a whole other level to our music.” Also during these live shows, the two are known for giving shout-outs to people or things, in attendance. They wanted to make sure that Evan and Kory D’Entremont got a shout-out in this article. Be sure to keep an eye for future appearances of RED and BMP (formally SackCity) and check out their EP to be release on an undetermined date in March.
