by SCOTT C

Once again, it’s time for yet another one of Montreal’s summer staples, with the Under Pressure international graffiti convention happening this weekend. Along with the influx of graffiti artists, DJs, breakdancers and skaters, the annual live hip hop show at Foufounes is always a great place to check for up and coming Montreal MCs, as well as the odd out-of-towner. Local MC and Offsides member Malicious has been on a solo tear as of late, building momentum for the release of his debut, Music Starts With M, in the fall, and he’ll be gracing the stage at UP. The Mirror spoke with him while he drove back from Caribana in Toronto.

Mirror: I was thinking back to when I first saw you and the Wreck Hard Crew at Isart in Old Montreal, years ago. How big of an influence was R-Kade on you as an MC?

Malicious: I was doing the hype-man shit back then with Lo-Key and Bailey, and R-Kade was letting me get a piece of the stage, getting me in the studio and letting me know that there were heads who really listened to hip hop and not just the shit on the radio. That was a really good start for me. R-Kade is my cousin, man! There was an age difference between the two of us, so I had to make sure that my rhyme game and whatever I was doing had to impress him. He’s the one that introduced me to all this, and also gave me the name Malicious.

M: I guess you’ve come a long way since then.

Mal: I would say the best way to describe the difference between then and now involves going through it. Doing different shows, checking out different places in the world, seeing how people respond to the music there, and just taking my time and not rushing shit. I started hitting the stage when I was 15 or 16 years old, and now I’m headlining my own shows. There’s a lot of things you learn along the way. Back then, I was a sponge, just soaking up everything around me, and now I’m trying to squeeze all of that back out and give it back to people.

M: You’re just coming back from Caribana in Toronto, right?

Mal: Yeah, man. We were on the BET float in the parade. I got to hang out with Baby Cham, and I got to rock it live on the float with Kardinal, so it was a really busy weekend. We did a lot of good links between Montreal, Toronto and New York.

All over the board

M: Does it feel like you could have been making the connections and hooking up with these people in the past, or is now just the right time for things to be happening?

Mal: I know everything happens for a reason. There’s got to be a reason why it took a certain amount of time to get to this point. The whole Offsides team made the decision to go into this project when we came back from Asia, had done the two videos and the first album was out. We just decided, instead of doing a new Offsides record, to start introducing ourselves individually, so that people can get a better understanding of who we are. Right now, we’re just blessed with all the people we’re able to meet and vibe with.

M: So the video for “Heavy Metal” is out, and getting some play, but what’s next?

Mal: The next single is “Heatwave,” produced by my boy H2O. We’re gonna shoot the video again with RT, who directed “Heavy Metal,” but I think we’re going to Toronto to shoot it. That’s in about two weeks, so it should be pretty cool. We want to show the ladies that we can party too, y’know, bringing the vibe back to a club level that people can turn up in their systems. The album is slated for fall and we didn’t pull punches, man. We got the engineer from K-OS and Talib Kweli’s record, so it’s gonna be dope. A lot of the guys from Toronto don’t hear a lot of stuff coming out of Montreal that isn’t French, so it was a breath of fresh air for them as well. We just want to have the right chess pieces to win the game.

With Atach Tatuq, Ceas Rock, Northern Horde and many more at Foufounes Electriques on Sunday, Aug. 13, 9 p.m., $5

>> Music Listings