The Closers finale and launch of The Music Biz App

The music business really is a game, but now everyone can play it courtesy of Hungry Eyes Film & Television and XMG Studio’s new IOS app, The Mu$ic Biz. Last Saturday’s launch party featured, The Closers duo, Rich Kidd and Son Real, who performed the finale of a National tour to a packed Rivoli venue in Toronto.
Jen Holness, owner of Hungry Eyes Film & Television, who produced The Mu$ic Biz as the company’s first app ever, explained that the game is a simulation of the music industry from production to management to music. “You are a music mogul. You can create music. You run your label. You manage your artists,” she stated. The app will officially be available December 12.
Rich Kidd, who put on an incredibly energetic show with his Closers comrade Son Real, is featured in The Mu$ic Biz, which is why Hungry Eyes and XMG chose to launch the app at the tour finale of the two emcees, explained Holness.

“We wanted the game to have a unique feature. As a music biz, we thought, how cool would it be if you could actually make music within the game? … What if we had another segment in the game with premium beats? Why don’t we reach out to up and coming really solid producers, guys like Rich Kidd. Their music is in the game and you can use and play their beats as premium beats in the game. When it came to a launch event now, what we thought was, these guys are performing, so we’ll do an event where they perform, we launch the game and it’s this cool synergy of game and music. Essentially, what the game is meant to be.”
The wall-to-wall supporters at the venue welcomed Rich Kidd home with an incredible amount of support, providing energy that is usually unheard of for a Toronto crowd, but was well deserved for the pair who had hit up 12 cities on their tour together.

“They approached me earlier on in the year to do beats for the app,” Rich said. “It’s a good opportunity to fuse my music with some other stuff [rather] than just giving it to artists. I jumped on board. They also wanted to do a launch party when we were doing our last show in Toronto so we thought it would be a good idea to mix our shows together, release their app and celebrate the closing of The Closers tour.”
Rich Kidd and Son Real have both contributed to the Canadian hip-hop industry and garnered a name for them independently, but as a pair, The Closers reached the number three spot on iTunes for hip-hop sales. Son says they have accomplished what they planned to when they decided to unite for the joint album. “We did something that was innovative and definitely worth it. I don’t regret anything about it,” he said.

Erik Flowchild makes a comeback

Erik Flowchild returned to the Toronto music scene with the release of his latest mixtape The Chixtape 2 earlier this year and a show at The Rivoli earlier this month, with performances by Redway, Brandon Dramatic and a beat battle featuring some talented upcoming Toronto producers. DJ Soul Child spun the 1s and 2s throughout the evening, as host Marlon Palmer kept the crowd entertained with his comedic antics.

Brandon Dramatic, who performed four tracks with his distinctive lyricism and jazz and soul influenced sound, also executively produced Flowchild’s The Chixtape 2 and was featured on two tracks. “We’re good friends, but we also work well as musicians,” he says.
Flowchild hit the stage to perform tracks off his mixtapes Valedictorian and The Chixtape one and two, with a live band, which included drums, keys, bass and saxophone players. His entire set was high energy and emotion-filled as he was able to show the audience the pain he had been going through with his stage presence and delivery.

Flowchild put on the event not only to celebrate the release of his latest mixtape, but also to launch the comeback of his career and to thank those who had stuck by him through the darkest time of his life. He had created a buzz in the city, when he was younger, but took a musical hiatus over the last few years to deal with a clinical depression that had caused him to lose sight of himself and his purpose.“When everything stops happening for you at once, you kind of lose sight of what to live for and a depression hit me. It was the darkest moment in my life and I was just somehow able to overcome it by looking really deep and telling myself that, ‘I have a purpose, I’m supposed to be doing music,’” he explains. “… When I was going through my depression, I was at one point very lost, very scared, but I was able to at one point just sit and take in what was going on and look at it and actually analyze why I was feeling the way I was feeling and once I was able to do that, I found a new place as an artist and as a person.”

But with the time he spent while away from the industry to re-evaluate himself and embrace his depression, he was able to come back stronger than ever, with a unique sound and a greater understanding of who he is and what he is meant to do.
“[I make] very honest music at this point. I came from a place where I was trying to be honest and positive and because of that, I tried very hard to hide the dirt in my life but when you become an artist, you realize that there’s a lot of things that you have to talk about for people to feel you. It’s one thing to talk about things in a positive light, but life isn’t always like that and I think I found a niche.”

Droppin Knowledge

For most artists, the place to be is under the spotlight. It’s obvious in the way they come alive on stage. In a city with so much talent, but so few outlets for local artists to perform, a growing hip- hop league under the moniker of Droppin Knowledge is sticking artists under the spotlight where they belong.

Stepping inside restaurant/night club Rivoli, on a cold January Friday, a Toronto crowd ready to take in new talent was met with a chill night of live performances, heavy beats, stiff drinks, and good vibes as Tim “Fundament” Stuart hosted his monthly event, an intimate hip-hop showcase exposing many local artists and welcoming others to the city.

Stuart has organized the Droppin Knowledge showcases on the first Friday of the month for almost two years, and the events have grown significantly since the beginning. What started out as a showcase for local artists to introduce themselves, developed into a performance involving Toronto legends like Eternia, Notes to Self and Choclair. Recently, Droppin Knowledge has involved artists from across the border, such as Action Bronson, the Queen’s emcee. The events never lost their motive however, which is to bring exposure to artists and support them by giving them a platform to express their creativity.

“It makes a lot of sense for us to open up the Canadian market for artists that are about to pop and what I see Droppin Knowledge as right now is a platform for artists to get opened up to the Canadian market before they would necessarily have the chance to because I have built somewhat of a foundation and a following in Toronto,” says Stuart.

Toronto acts bizZarh, RayRay Malone and Jake Bluez hit the stage along with New York headliner Emilio Rojas, while DJ James Redi spun the new-school hip-hop ones and twos. Co-host Double X opened for the artists who all vastly varied in flow and style. The female duo bizZarh, which consists of Dollar Paris and Charlie Champ, captivated the audience with a unique niche of dub step, hip-hop and stimulating lyricism. Jake Bluez, who performed at the first Droppin Knowledge event, returned once again to hype up the audience with his energetic set. He also used the event to launch his latest mixtape, Word 4 Word.

Toronto rapper-producer RayRay Malone, who is no stranger to the Droppin Knowledge events, says that the series is paramount to the Toronto hip-hop scene, and for local artists trying to make it in such a difficult industry.

“It’s people looking for an outlet for good hip-hop; young artists on the come-up in the city,” says Malone. “This city is loaded with talent, but the exposure is not really there, the infrastructure of the Toronto hip-hop industry is not as strong as in other cities, and there is not as much money circulating in actuality between people in the industry. So it’s tough for people to get exposure without PR or promo. This Droppin Knowledge scene is a place for people to go to, see good hip-hop, appreciate the artists, follow them, and know about them. And it’s not just about the hip-hop; it’s just a great time.”

New York native, Rojas, headlined the event, charming the crowd with his fresh, dynamic performance. Hailing from Rochester, Rojas has been buzzing in the industry, dealing with hip-hop heavyweights, such as Rick Ross, Big K.R.I.T. and Wu-Tang Clan, yet he enjoyed performing at a venue with local Toronto artists.

“I like Toronto. There are a lot of talented cats out here,” says Rojas. “A lot of good producers and a lot of good artists, and people show each other love, it’s dope.”