by SCOTT C

By now, most of you may have already seen the new Radio Shack “Respect” commercials, where Kardinall and Dan-EO face off for a makeshift freestyle battle in a 60-second, centre-court cage match over a cell phone. But how many of you have seen the French version of the same commercial with Yvon Kreve and 01 Etranjj? Too bad the French version isn’t being aired on national TV so our South Shore roughneck contingent could get some big-time shine. 01Entranjj just released his new LP TChin on Kilo Records (the one with him holding a big glass of Bakawalooloo juice and a watermelon wedge on the front) so he’s probably happy with the additional promotion. I’m wondering how far this whole “Respect” thing is going to go—the commercials, I mean. While the U.S. fully embraced gearing ads towards the hip hop generation many years ago, Canada is still only just beginning to experiment with a market that is growing all the time. If you watch the commercials on Much or Musiqueplus, they almost always try to play to some sort of pop-culture appeal, but flipping through the rest of your Canadian selection (CBC, CTV, TQS, TVA and if necessary Global for all you non-cable cats), you’ll be hard up to see commercials with the hip hop nation in mind. I want to see D-Shade in a spot for the Garden Weasel, or Bless in some over-the-top ad for American Express. You think Appleton’s Rum would sell more product in Quebec if they had a commercial with Yvon Kreve swigging straight from the bottle on some stoop in the South Shore? Hells yeah! But will it come to that? Probably not.

Don’t forget the Toronto hip hop delegates who will be in town this week to rock various stages. Brassmunk is no slump and should surprise that shit out of a lot of people at the Blackalicious show who never knew. Same goes for Roam, who will introduce himself to Montreal at la Sala Rossa on Saturday, Sept. 13, when he plays the Goods.

Host with the most Rodrigo Vergara celebrates his birthday next week with a tight party over at Living on Wednesday, Sept. 17. For starters, he’s got NYC’s Lazy K for the night, holding it down alongside Redd Dredd and Renegade in the hip hop room while Chris Pronovost, Loco and Pat Boogie work the angles in the house lounge. Nuff music and free sushi too. Go, Rigo! It’s yer berfday…

Special shouts to Philharmonix and the Metronomic point of view, leaving this week to set up shop in Hamburg, Germany. Good luck, man, we’ll talk soon. Still one of the best sites around… http://www.metronomic-family.com/.

Seven reasons you should’ve taken the chance you were given:
1. 01 Etranjj “Blow Blow” (Kilo)
2. Roam “WAR (World Acoording to Roam)” (Choice Cut)
3. Viktor Vaughn aka MF Doom “Let Me Watch” feat. Apani (Soundink)
4. Specifics “Under the Hood” (LP)
5. Kool Keith The Lost Masters (DMAFT)
6. Ayro Electroniclovefunk (CDR)
7. DM & Jemini Ghetto Pop Life (LEX)

Timing is not my friend… fathead@videotron.ca

>> Music Listings