July 6, 2011

In the spirit of all the recent Canada Day festivities and having just celebrated our great nation's 144th birthday to kick off the summer, Monsieur Darby and Sir Strombo approached me with yet another "Can-Con" challenge. You may remember some of my previous appearances as the hip hop enthusiast who above all else loves Canadian hip hop!

My challenge this week was to find the greatest Canadian hip hop summer tracks of all time. No particular guidelines, but the difficult part was narrowing it down to only six songs. You can listen to George and myself discuss the first three choices here, and make sure you tune in July 17th to hear the rest. If you think there's a song I missed this week, shoot me a tweet @TheCanConDon and I may just use it in my next selection.

To kick off the summer selection, I wanted to go with something that just makes you feel like you're on a beach somewhere hot, and nobody better to do it then Vancouver native Red1 alongside reggae veteran Barrington Levy with "No Fuss".

This song is the perfect blend of hip hop and reggae and you'll admit it once you notice your head is bobbing to the beat. With still so many first and second-generation Canadian families with roots leading to the West Indies, it's clear that Canadian hip hop borrows and in many cases fuses it's sound with reggae. This fusion of hip hop and reggae seems to be a perfect formula for creating summer anthems so here are a just few of the many I didn't get to play that I thought were great.

Kardinal Offishall is the ideal cross over artist between hip hop and reggae as he slips in and out of Jamaican Creole also known as "Patois" and cleverly blends the Caribbean and hip hop sound. Check out one of his biggest summer time songs "Ol Time Killin".

Although Blessed is predominately a reggae artist, I chose his song "Reggae Time" because he is a Canadian that truly embodies the authenticity of his West Indian roots, which so many Canadian hip hop artists are known for.

Although the authenticity of this next artist's Caribbean roots have been questioned in the pas, his music has still been influenced by the same culture. Not my favorite song but I just felt the need to post this, for humorous reasons...

For my second selection I wanted to go with something a little more traditional and recent from one of my favorite Canadian artists. I chose "I Wish I knew Natalie Portman" by K-Os featuring Saukrates.

Strombo gave a great explanation on the title and how Natalie Portman is meant to represent mainstream America, make sure you check it out if you missed it. You may have also heard me mention that K-Os released his first single in 1993, which currently gives him 18 years of being in the music business. I want to share some of the other great K-Os songs that I didn't get a chance to play but at the same time show his wide range and growth over the years. So watch these next few videos in order to get a feel of his music...

K-Os - Musical Essence

K-Os - Crucial

K-Os - Sunday Morning

For my final selection this week I decided I would take it back to the late 90's which is hands down one of my favorite time periods in hip hop. Monsieur Darby requested I play "Let's Ride" by Choclair and I must agree it is undeniably one of the greatest Canadian hip hop summer songs of all time. I know the majority of you reading this are familiar with the song and video but it's just too much of a classic for me to not post, so here it is! Enjoy a very young Choclair, Saukrates and Kardinal Offishall ridding around the city of Toronto to that unforgettable piano hook.