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Maritime
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Halifax MC/DJ/producer Sixtoo is trying to get comfortable right here
in MTL
by SCOTT C
Mirror:
What’s going on, man? Sixtoo:
Ahhh… just dealing with some age-old distributor bullshit. I’m
a little stressed. M: Really? S: Fuck,
man. I’m sooo ready to take a trip and kick some people’s
asses! Distributors owe me money, and nobody wants to pay. They all
owe somebody else money. It’s crazy, man. I’m literally owed
10,000 bucks right now, and have no money for my student loan. I guess
it’s part of the game. M: That’s
the price you pay for being a musical genius, man. So why Montreal? S: I don’t
really know, man. I’m mulling it over now, and things are looking
kind of bleak for me. M: Your
girlfriend lives here, doesn’t she? S: She’s
a big part of why I came. So, in pursuit of my true love, I figured
that with the response that I’ve got doing shows here, that I might
be able to get a club night and do the things I’d normally do.
It’s turned out to be a much harder hustle, though. M: Why do
you think that is? S: I think
Montreal is submersed in club music. My stuff isn’t exactly for
the club, it’s geared more to just listeners. I’m pretty unwilling
to compromise that. It sucks when you’re trying to do something
real and creative and everybody wants to party. I came to wreck the
party, I guess (laughs). M: You’ve
moved around a lot, it seems. San Francisco, Toronto, Halifax. Is that
something you do on purpose? Does it help you creatively to move about
like that? S: I think
it’s good to gain outside influences. San Fran was good for making
contacts, hooking up with artists and networking. I just signed to MUSH,
and most of the rappers I’m working with are from the Bay Area.
I was living there illegal-alien style and couldn’t work, it’s
not cheap. It was during the whole dot-com boom. M: So what
now? S: Right
now, I’m looking into other things, like film editing, multimedia
presentations and stuff like that. This is a beautiful city with lots
of things going on in other areas I’m interested in. M: Why not
do it all, and music too? S: That’s what I aim to do. With Buck
65 at la Sala Rossa tonight, Thursday, May 2, 9pm, $10
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Whether
you know him from his outer-worldly hip hop antics with longtime partner
in crime Buck 65, or from his extensive catalogue of solo stuff, or
not at all, Halifax native Sixtoo will always be making music. His admittedly
left-of-centre thought process has tried to address yet another side
street in the urban underground, but not without resistance. Armed with
a backpack full of his latest creation, Duration, he’s on a solo
mission with strange alliances and many an artistic payoff, but an uphill
battle just the same. The Mirror spoke to Sixtoo over the phone about
his recent move to Montreal.