The 4th Pyramid Q&A

The 4th Pyramid has worn various hats in the music industry. The quadruple threat, known for his producing, engineering, song writing and emceeing abilities, recently dropped his solo album The Pyramid Scheme, with Universal Music. The Toronto artist, who is spending more time in the city to support his new imprint label, spoke with Urbanology Magazine about The Pyramid Scheme, touring and the love he receives abroad.
WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF CREATING THE PYRAMID SCHEME LIKE AND WHAT HAS THE FEEDBACK BEEN LIKE? The process was a mixture of happiness, sadness, trying to get shit done, a lot of yelling at people to get shit done. It was a lot of yelling to get the album done, but the response has been phenomenal. I can’t really complain. The reviews have been pretty good, and overall, I’m pretty happy about the entire process of what’s going on right now.
DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION FOR PRODUCING AND EMCEEING COME FROM THE SAME THINGS? It’s probably more innate for me to be a producer, even when I rhyme, I think about how it’s going to be produced, even if I’m rhyming on someone else’s beat. The producing aspect is more encompassing than the rap aspect, but they’re definitely different. For beats, it would be a record or a sample or a sound that may inspire me, for writing, it could be someone else’s verse that might get me inspired, or lyrics. I could get inspired from a beat to write, but I think I get inspiration from different aspects of music.
HOW IS TOURING IN THE UNITED STATES LIKE FOR YOU? It’s a lot of fun. When I go out into the world, I definitely represent Toronto and let it be known that that’s where I was born and that’s where I’m from originally but other than that, I don’t see a difference between being a Canadian or American artist. I think the main difference of going to the States a lot is that it opens up your head, and it opens up your eyes to the possibilities that are out there. You could stay in one small area in America and if you’re not getting out, you’re going to have a more closed mind-frame than someone who is travelling the world and taking in different experiences and realizing it’s a big world, but at the same time, the same things all around the world make people respond to you, especially in music. You start to see that when you do a stage show in 10 different cities and it starts to connect with the people, you start to realize that as big of a world that it is, the same things drive people everywhere.
HOW DOES CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES SHOW YOU LOVE? Right now, especially with this album, and I’m working with Universal and I started an imprint basically in Canada called Silk Ivory, I’ve been back here a little bit more often, because for awhile there I just moved to New York; packed my things and left. That was pretty much for me, an eye-opening experience. By starting my imprint here, I can delve back into the scene out here and see what it is and it’s actually pretty fun and promising; it’s dope. The States, you just have a bigger audience, and there are different possibilities and opportunities out there. Canada shows me love, but I also haven’t really toured Canada. I’ve toured the States a whole bunch of times, I’ve also done Europe, but I’ve never really done a cross-Canada run so it’s hard to compare, but I know guys from the States see Canada, and they want to come up here now like, “You guys got the shit out here.” Every place has its own time so I’m hoping to get out to Canada this summer and go across the country and really connect with the people.