My Toronto Sun Column: Week 6

Heart smart
Emotions ran high on The Biggest Loser as the reasons why some of the contestants are here were underscored.
After trainer Jillian saved Craig from elimination last week, she sat down to talk to him about his inspiration for changing his life: His children and the fact that his father had passed away at age 32. Then the Velvet Teddy-Bear, Ruben, visited the doctor and was told that he has diabetes. He responded with three words: "I am afraid." Also, Hap met his newborn son for the first time over FaceTime. How's that for motivation?
At the first team challenge of the season, the blue, red and white teams were shocked as host Alison Sweeney announced at this week's weigh-in: Only one person's weight would count for each team and they wouldn't know who it is until the weigh-in itself. With a roll of the dice at this week's weigh-in, Hap was chosen for the blue team, Tanya was chosen for the red team and Fernanda was chosen for the white team to represent the rest of the competitors with their weight. Hap, who had pushed hard after meeting his son, lost 13 pounds, Tanya lost four pounds and Fernanda became the first competitor eliminated this week after she had only lost two pounds.
Shifting tides
The game just changed again on Survivor.
Laura M. dominated on Redemption Island at this week's duel, sending Brad Culpepper home. Then Survivor host Jeff Probst announced another shocker. After 14 days of playing against their loved ones, they were going to switch things up by drawing for new tribes. Tyson, Gervase and Aras moved to Tadhana and Vytas and Katie moved over to Galang. Katie is now playing alongside her mother Tina, and Vytas is now the only male on the team, while Ciera is the only female. The re-shuffled tribes got to know one another, but it was obvious that alliances and dynamics were in flux. Case in point: Tyson and Gervas seemed to be turning on Aras.
At the immunity/reward challenge, attention to detail was not a strength. Galang's Tina and Laura B. forgot a large part of the immunity challenge, swimming back to shore without their fishing net. That ensured they would be facing tribal council. Ultimately Kat showed she couldn't be trusted when she suggested voting out "over-strategizer" Monica, despite their alliance. That disloyalty spooked her tribe members, who in turn, voted her off the island.
Cold comfort
From Portugal to Norway, the eight remaining Amazing Race teams were forced to take the same flight to the Arctic Circle.
In a nasty detour, the teams had the choice to hang fish heads or make fish jerky before jumping off a bridge into the Arctic water during this week's road block. At least they got the chance to wash off the smell. Teams like the bearded gang, Brandon and Adam, had little trouble with the challenges, while baseball wives Nicky and Kim struggled to keep up with the rest of the pack.
In the last part of the challenge, teams had to use a Ford pick-up to move a giant boulder in order to grab coins and the whereabouts of the pit-stop. But by rushing her ex, Marie left the clue and they headed out with no idea where they were going. They ran into married ER doctors Travis and Nicole on the way, who offered to help them out if the team agreed to hand over their express pass. But the pair of exes declined. Stubbornness is not a good quality to have in this game. The bearded team was the first to reach Viking Longhouse, winning them a head start and $5,000 each. The fate of the remaining teams were left to be shown next week when the race continues.
Glitches and missteps
Technical difficulties proved good news for the weaker performers on this week's Dancing with the Stars, as voting glitches meant no teams were eliminated.
Among those struggling: Bill Engvall and Emma Slater, whose "redneck tango" earned them the lowest score. Most teams fared better. Highlights included Elizabeth Berkley Lauren and Val Chmerkovskiy's empowering cha-cha, which was given the first perfect score of the season.
In a new twist, improvised dances were introduced, meaning the performers were able to show what they had learned. Lastly, Ariana Grande and Mika joined the cast this week to perform their hit song, Popular.

Hefna Qwap interview on shrooms

If you plan on hitting up The Smoker’s Club Tour, get ready for one of the most hectic years yet, as the lineup proves that it’s bound to be one heck of a show. While in Atlanta for A3C, Urbanology Magazine linked up with one of the up-coming acts, who promises to show each city how he gets down and rather than tell us, he showed us. Hefna Gwap and his mob, along with Elegant Caviar’s Sleepy Jeanson and DyMe-A-DuZin were found taking over the fourth floor pool and cabana of the Meliá Hotel while on shrooms on the third day of the five-day hip-hop festival.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN ATLANTA FOR A3C? We feel good, if they could see me right now, they would see me in my drawers on the fourth floor, swimming, smoking weed and doing shrooms and that’s how it feels.
WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM YOUR LIVE SHOW? A lot of gymnastics, but I can’t right now, because my foot is sprained.
HOW DID YOU MANAGE THAT? Actually, with DyMe-A-DuZin himself at Rap Genius. I was playing basketball without a basketball, because I was so drunk. I went up for a layup and I came down and I was in the middle of Brooklyn on the ground screaming…
OUCH… SOO… WHAT INSPIRES YOUR MUSIC AND WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO TAKE AWAY FROM IT? Life really, and everybody around me. Life is beautiful so you should enjoy it. I want everybody to take that away from me. I come from the streets so I just want people to find the best in their life and try and do whatever you need to do, no matter who is talking down on you.
WHAT DOES A DAY IN THE LIFE OF HEFNA GWAP CONSIST OF? A day in the life of me is… At the [Meliá] Hotel in Atlanta with a sprained ankle on shrooms with Spaceman, Jona Grizz and Vinny Cha$e over there. We’re doing backflips in the pool with Roleys on. And DyMe-A-DuZin in the background screaming that we’re going to do a music video for “Lick”.

Q&A with Cortez

“Besides the fact that we get paid, it’s fun again. I’m taking it all on,” Brooklyn battle rapper Cortez from Murder Ave. says before his match-up against John John Da Don in Atlanta, at the A3C hip-hop festival’s first ever battle rap event, presented by URL.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A PART OF A3C’S FIRST EVER BATTLE EVENT? I feel honoured by it. They picked certain artists, because they see what we’re doing beyond the battles. Beasely called me and said, ‘I see what you’re doing. I like what you’re doing. You need to be here and I’ll set you up with a battle here too.’ And when I realized how big A3C was, I was like, ‘I gotta be here.’ I’m appreciative and I’m not a greedy person. I’m happy.
DID YOU TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE SINCE IT IS AT A FESTIVAL? Nah, because it is URL. At the end of the day, URL is the top of the line. You’ve got to come with your bars there and respect the rap league for a reason so I couldn’t play with him. I came here really focused.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MATH HOFFA/SERIOUS JONES INCIDENT AT THE PREVIOUS URL EVENT? Everybody knows Math is my boy, like my right hand man. You see the footage; I was there with him. I’m holding him down. It was an unfortunate incident, but like I tell people, I don’t think the punch was a serious thing, because Serious Jones and Math are from the street corner era, where a lot worse things can happen. It was just the fact of where it happened and the timing. There were investors in the building, but at the end of the day, Math knew he was wrong and it was unfortunate, but it is what it is.
DO YOU THINK IT WAS A STEP BACK FOR BATTLE RAP? I think it could have been, but I don’t think it has. It came and it went.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE SCENE TO NOW HAVE EVENTS AT FESTIVALS SUCH AS A3C? The crazy thing about battle rap is, it came from nothing and I think that we created our own lane of hip-hop, we generate our own revenue, we sell out our own crowds; we’re like an independent movement and we’re cashing out. So, for us to get selected for venues and events like this, it just [shows] that people are taking notes, not just the fans, even the execs now, are taking notes and the people that are in power and make changes are realizing that this is here to stay. I’m just glad to be a part of it.

Chali 2na Q&A

Chali 2na, a hip-hop renaissance man, who wears the hats of an artist, photographer, actor and of course, founding member of the legendary hip-hop groups Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, took a tour across Canada this fall to show his fans that, somewhere between his old-school style and new-school industry mentality, that he’s still got it. With a new EP series and plenty of artwork, the hip-hop legend is giving back to the fans that have been rocking with him for decades.
HOW DO YOU ENJOY PERFORMING SOLO AS OPPOSED TO A GROUP DYNAMIC? To be honest, I just enjoy performing. It’s not really a ‘I’ll take it or leave it’ in any way. It is more so, if I can get a chance to do it, I’m down. It’s an honour to say that I love my job. I’m satisfied being this old still doing this shit.
HOW HAS THE RESPONSE BEEN TO YOUR LATEST PROJECT, AGAINST THE CURRENT? Against The Current is basically a series of EPs that I’m going to try and put out. The first one, I put out earlier this year, the next one I’m trying to put out in November. The response from it has been phenomenal from the way that I put it out. This is some new stuff for me. I’m an older guy part of the old school way of the music business, which is, being attached to a label, having them dudes take all of your money, and all of that stuff. We were definitely slaves to Interscope and Universal Records for nine or 10 years for sure, but that’s what you were supposed to do back then if you wanted to get your stuff heard. Now, the internet has infiltrated and it not only wrecked the music business from what it used to be, but it created an avenue so that artists had to become business men and had to take responsibility for their own shit.
Because of that, a lot of us have learned and a lot of us have fell off, but a lot of us have prospered beyond our dreams. All I did was sit back and go, ‘Okay, there are no more record labels, there are no more record stores, the record store now is iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Soundcloud, so the way that people consume music is not the same.’ It is not an album worth of material. People are going to iTunes, looking at your album, and picking four or five songs. I thought it would be dope to give them a series of EPs based on that principle, five or six songs of my best material.
YOU’VE BEEN DOING YOUR THING FOR A MINUTE, WHAT STORY DO YOU HAVE LEFT TO TELL ON YOUR NEXT PROJECTS? Some of these dudes get caught in the romanticized aspect of entertaining and being a celebrity and me personally, I’m more in love with being a regular dude and displaying that regularness to people in a celebrity fashion. My motto is not star to fan, but rather man to man. I think that just keeps me more grounded than anything.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE LEGACY THAT YOU HAVE LEFT IN HIP-HOP? I’m hoping that my legacy is based on honest, positive, conscious vibes; something that makes people think about something that is able to help them change. The media toys around with the word ‘jihad’, but that word actually means ‘war with the self.’ It’s all about cleaning house and that’s my own personal jihad is just trying to keep this thing clean and hopefully when I’m gone, that my son and his friends and when he’s gone, his son and his friends will be able to reach back. I want to leave something that is undeniable when my name comes up.

My Toronto Sun Column: Week 5

Cher finds her Voice: With the blind auditions over, The Voice's fifth season battle has begun. Cher, Ed Sheeran, Ryan Tedder and Miguel joined the four coaches as vocal mentors as Team Blake, Team Cee Lo, Team Christina and Team Adam were placed in pairs in order to perform dueling duets; only one of the two singers would be saved. If eliminated, however, they still had the opportunity to be stolen by another coach. This week, it looked like not only were some of the singers fighting against their competition, but also their mentors. Cher especially seemed to take her advisor role to the next level. The pop superstar gave quite the scolding to some of the contestants she was mentoring, including single dad Ray Boudreaux and stubborn singer, Monika Leigh. The diva stole the show without even taking the stage.
Wedded bliss? The honeymoon was over for Survivor's married couple Candice and John, who were separated after their arch-enemy Brad wound up on Redemption Island. In an intense puzzle challenge, Brad beat out Candice in order to stay alive in the game. Tadhana became a whole new tribe without their fallen leader. Along with injuries, bug bites and missing toenails, a shift in power began to take place with Caleb at the top, which had a major impact at the immunity and reward challenge, when the tribe won for this first time all season. Galang faced tribal council for the first time and rather than taking an easy vote with Rupert's wife, Laura B, they voted out a great competitor, Laura M in order to make Redemption Island a little more interesting. This season has been nothing but surprises.
Weight and see: It was not apparent in this week's ratings, but The Biggest Loser is back with it biggest season yet as 15 new contestants, including American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, take advantage of their "second chance at life." Trainers Bob, Jillian and Dolvett all helped in hand-picking the contestants, who started off the season weighing in on their past and jumped right into the game with a lot of sweat and tears. When it came time to check to contestants' progress, Dolvett's team weighed in with the Biggest Loser male and female as Rachel had lost 21 lbs. and David losing 38 lbs. That is a lot of extra baggage. Craig, who had lost the least amount of weight was told that he would be the first contestant eliminated, but not before Jillian jumped in and saved him as she didn't yet believe that it was his time to go.
Blades runners: Scratch Oksana Kazakova and Vladimir Malakhov, who were iced from the competition this week. The two, who were the second pair eliminated this season, blamed the judges, including Kurt Browning, PJ Stock and Jamie Sale. Way to be good sports about it. Unfortunately, the ones missing out are iOrphan Canada, the duo's charity, who lost out on a $25,000 prize.
The finished line: From first place to eliminated, former NFL teammates Chester and Ephraim ran into trouble after trouble on this week's Amazing Race. The football friends, the third team eliminated this season, seemed cursed by the airlines, as each flight they attempted to take in order to reach the remaining teams in Portugal from Chile was delayed. There was nothing they could do but accept their fate in the game. Married ER doctors, Travis and Nicole were the first team to reach the pit stop, winning them a trip to Costa Rica. Eight teams remain.
REALITY WRAP:
Biggest Winner:
Dom Streater was named the Season 12 winner of Project Runway.
Biggest Shocker:
Mike Fortunato from this season's Catfish died from a pulmonary embolism.
What the heck moment:
Tadhana's tribe is falling apart with Ciera's bugbites and Katie's missing toenails. We could have done without the close-up.
Quote of the week:
"People think this is a TV show, but it's not. It's a life-or-death intervention. You're checking into rehab." - The Biggest Loser coach Jillian Michaels

Schoolboy Q Panel at A3C

The BQE 718’s Jayson Rodriguez and Shaheem Reid presented a Q&A panel with Schoolboy Q at Atlanta’s Melia Hotel during A3C, the day of the Black Hippy’s headlining Revolt TV performance. The ballroom filled up quickly with fans and upcoming artists interested in hearing about the intriguing rapper, who always has a lot to say. The “Yay Yay” rapper spoke candidly regarding his upcoming album, his TDE comrades, especially regarding the BET cyphers and of course, the infamous “Control” verse.
After stating that his upcoming freshman album, Oxymoron, is officially completed and that he was able to work with many people that were on his bucket list, such as Pharrell, who reached out to him, Schoolboy dove headfirst into the topics on everyone’s minds – Kendrick and “Control”.
“Kendrick is my competition. I don’t go out and f*ck with somebody just because they’re hot right now. You’ve never heard Q put out a song with somebody just because of who they are. I’m focused on music. My homies are my competition. I’m trying to be better than Ab Soul, Kendrick and Jay Rock. I tell them that all the time. They’re my favourite artists, but at the same time, I’m trying to take pride in my shit,” he says.
When asked about where he found out about the infamous “Control” verse for the first time, Q admitted that it was on Twitter like everyone else and how exactly he reacted.
“I don’t really tweet so much anymore, I just scroll and see what’s up. And that was all I saw, people talking about, “are you mad that he didn’t say you name” and shit like that, but whatever, I don’t care about that verse. F*ck that verse, I’m hating. F*ck Kendrick Lamar,” Schoolboy joked. The ballroom laughed along, eating up every word of the comedic emcee.
After talking sports with the two radio broadcasters, Q wrapped up the interview and took a moment to take photos with fans, before exiting the room.

A3C's First Ever Rap Battle

A3C brought URL to ATL last week and created history. The battle rap league, URL, presented two anticipated battles at the five-day festival, which included Rich Dolarz vs. JC and Cortez vs. John John Da Don. Rap fans packed themselves into Atlanta’s Quad, anticipating a body bag match, and that’s exactly what they got.
After some lighting issues, the event began as Rich Dolarz faced JC, in what was one of the biggest chokes many have seen in the battle rap world. After choking in the first two rounds, Rich couldn’t take the “boos” and took his mic off, before there could be a third round. JC, who had taken a loss at World Domination 4 in Toronto against 100 Bulletz, came back with a vengeance at A3C and made the win look simple.
“I’m not going to lie, that was probably the easiest battle I’ve ever done in my life. He didn’t have anything and he didn’t bring anything,” JC says, following the battle. Rich has been known for choking, but he brought it to a whole new level by refusing to continue until the end.
Up next, Brooklyn’s Cortez faced the hometown hero John John Da Don. The two friends only had a week and a half to prepare, but brought an entertaining and intricate battle that ended with no real concrete winner. They each brought stage presence, serious bars and personal information that could only be provided by real comrades, but they made sure not to get too personal or to overstep their boundaries, which some rappers choose to ignore just for a win.
“I respect all these battle rappers for what they do. Especially if I’m willing to battle you, I already respect your craft; no matter how much shit I may talk. I respect everybody, but Cortez, he always shows love and has always been real honest, so you’ve got to respect that,” John John Da Don says after all three rounds, which both rappers had delivered perfectly.
In the end, fans were happy, witnessing a body bag first hand, as well as a competitive battle between friends at A3C’s first ever battle rap event. The event taking place shows how much the movement has grown and that battle rap is now gaining the respect it deserves.
According to John John, he and the other battle rappers are just happy to be a part of the history. “Battle rap is the purest form of hip-hop. You’ve got to appreciate battle rap if you appreciate hip-hop,” he says.