Killer cuts and a contest

Sniff, sniff. Smell that? Yup, that’s ashes of the Bell Centre after Jay-Z tore the building down last Saturday. Real talk, Young Hov’s return to Montreal after a 10-year absence was more than welcome. The sold-out show turned the 15,000-capacity arena into a mass of coloured faces—young, old, black, white, yellow and brown, all singing every word to Jiggaman’s classics. And God knows he ran through some joints during his 30-minute encore. Just him, a mic and a live band. Class act. I don’t know if his argument that hip hop has done more than anything else for racism in the past decades can be proven, but he sure made a convincing case.

A good way to start the week is by entering the Poirier “Enemies” remix contest, the name of which is taken from his latest single, featuring Face-T, from the Run the Riddim EP. Whoever brings the most fiya on their remix treatment will be included in the digital package of Ghislain’s forthcoming album Running High, due out on Ninja Tune in early 2010. Hop, skip and jump over to poiriersound.com for all the details.

In terms of the boogie, if you wanna catch some dope rhymes and a guaranteed good hip hop show out in Laval tonight, you should go peep Imposs (formerly of Muzion) ripping up the stage with Koriass and MC La Sauce at the Salle Andre-Mathieu (475 Boul. de l’Avenir), starting at 8 p.m. And while we’re unearthing memories of Quebec hip hop’s golden days, another member of Muzion, Dramat!k, releases his new solo album in stores on Monday, Nov. 10, so check him out.

Saturday night, French turntable legend Cut Killer is at Decibel Underground, ripping up the ones and twos alongside DJ Redd Dredd and DJ Mac D. If you don’t know Cut Killer, get familiar by YouTubing (yea, that’s a verb) his scene from Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 cult classic, La Haine. Juggling Edith Piaf—classic!

And save some juice for Sunday night because that’s when Brazil’s multi-faceted singer/musician/rapper Rael Da Rima shows you the meaning of love, alongside guest and friends Nomadic Massive and Bloco Afro Malungo, at les Bobards starting at 9 p.m.

GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL, GOL…
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