by SCOTT C

Leading the ranks of Canadian MCs to watch very closely over the next little while is Reign, a Scarborough yout’ who knows how to arrange his words just right. While the hip hop masses start to pay more and more attention to what this articulate brother has to say, Montreal will get an exclusive taste of Reign’s unique flow this week when he performs as part of the Pop Montreal contingent. The Mirror spoke to Reign over the phone from Toronto.

Mirror: How would you describe the difference between you and most MCs out there right now?

Reign: I’m coming from my own perspective. We all basically talk about the same things. We just find different ways to put it together.

M: I find that everyone who’s written about you has referred to you as a “spoken word” force, or some sort of storyteller. Is that a label you can live with?

R: I would agree with that to an extent. I mean, it all starts from MCing and that’s the root of it.

M: You’ve never done spoken word before?

R: No. Poetry is the root of all of it, and that’s the main reason it could be seen as either one. I’ve performed my stuff a cappella in a spoken-word fashion, but not enough to call myself a slam artist.

M: So right now you’re affiliated with Saukrates and Capitol Hill Records?

R: Yep.

M: You must have been approached by ’nuff labels over the course of the last year though, right?

R: (laughs) I can’t tell you that, man!

M: That’s a yes if I ever heard one! I know you’ve been approached, simply because you’ve got that thing that everybody else wishes and strives to have—style and presence.

R: I still plead the fifth, man!

M: Making music in T.O. is getting a little crazy these days.

R: There’s a lot more available to us now in terms of outlets, so everybody’s doing shows, trying to get their sound tight, both lyrically and production-wise.

M: You think more people are shooting to get on the radio with stations like Flow 93.5?

R: Not everybody. I wasn’t shooting for the radio, but I got a song on there now! n

With Euphrates, Rugged Intellect, Apokalyptik and Loe Pesci at Saphir tonight, Thursday, Sept. 25, 9:30pm, $6

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