Saukrates

I wonder what Saukrates' favourite song is to play on those awesome speakers behind him??  We will have to ask him the next time we talk.

Dimetre and I have been massive fans of our guest since the late 90s.  We are so fortunate to have had this incredible conversation.  Saukrates is a literal National Treasure.  We chat about everything, from Play De Record, to Scarborough, to one of Hip Hop's most revered discographies.

Saukrates on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/officialbiggsoxx/

Canadian As Heck is part of Revolution Radio Canada at:
https://revolutionradio.live

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Derek from Canadian as Heck. We gotta, we
gotta talk, we gotta. I gotta ask you something. I
gotta ask you to hit that follow button, that subscribe button,
that whatever button hit Just hit a bunch of keys
on your keyboard.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Just do that.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Just do that. That way you keep up to date
and never miss a new episode of Canadian as Heck.
Thanks so much for listening to Revolution Radio Canada. Enjoy
this podcast. It's gonna get silly.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Revolution Radio Canada. My name is Craig g alongside my
man Dimitrio Leccio are man. Derek Lewis unfortunately is stuck
in traffic as of right now and unfortunately will not
be able to join us. I think he was upbuilding
yurts again Pop North. Uh, so he's fortunately not with us.
But we do have a video clip coming up very
very shortly that we're going to play for our special

(00:56):
special guest tonight that actually has Derek Louise in it. Anyway,
Ge Dimitri, it's Monday Night. It is Canadian as Heck,
this podcast that we do each and every Monday night
and tonight, we have a Canadian legend, an absolute legend,
and we are so so fortunate to have the one
and only Socrates joining us tonight on the podcast. Thank

(01:21):
you so so much for your time, my friend. We
really appreciate you being here.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Thank you, thank you for having me. Man, it's cool
to be invited to the chat, you know. Yeah, it's
always cool to be invited to the chat.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Man, definitely.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Well okay, but and this is an episode one hundred
and ten yeah of this of this poky little podcast
we call Canadian as.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Heck, we've done one hundred and ten of these things.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Yeah, well we're doing We're doing the one hundred and
tenth right.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Now, right, got it? Thanks to me?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Try Yeah, congratulations, congratulator.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
And Socrates has a brand new album out for everybody
to check out, called Bad Addictions.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
And what number album is this? Okay, well, it's single
singular Bad Addiction. Oh sorry, that's okay. I just call
it the Bad Addiction LP. But that's it's one and
not too many. If we start with the Underground Tapes

(02:23):
originally released in nineteen ninety nine. After that, the other
body of work I put up was a group, my group,
Big Black Lincoln. Yeah, body of work. And then following
that I was able to do Season one Socrates Season one,
so solo LP that was twenty twenty twelve. Then the

(02:49):
amani ep in twenty fourteen, Juno nominated. That was fun.
That was fun. We went to Hamilton, didn't get it,
but it's always, like I said, it's nice to be invited,
you know. Then the season two album we dropped twenty sixteen,
and of course, you know a few years after that,
the whole world went quiet and I kind of went

(03:11):
back into the vault for this one. It's when I've
been wanting to release since I was you know, since
I was signed a deaf gam in the early two thousands. Yeah,
I was finally able to remaster it. So I don't
know if we count, it's.

Speaker 6 (03:26):
About the fourth or fifth Okay, yeah, yeah, I want
to I want to start.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
My first question is going to involve playing you a
clip from from an interview we did with one of
your one of your colleagues a couple of years ago.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
So if you wouldn't mind rolling throwing to that Craig.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
You got it, give me two seconds. We'll do that.
We will do.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Ye know, he has to talk himself through the.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Pe will do that.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
We will do this I know good. I know engineers
even even exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Here we go.

Speaker 7 (04:09):
So Cartin All and I have been friends since I
was fifteen and he was sixteen. We both went to
a band camp called Fresh Arts. And in that camp
it was part of a program called Jobs Ontario Youth,
the Joy Program. Shout outs to the Bobery administration. That's
one thing that they did well for the youth. And
so we got paid an hourly wage to go make

(04:29):
music and we met.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
That's where we met actually.

Speaker 7 (04:32):
All summer in High Park. We had facilitators and leaders.
There's a lot of mentorship. Baby Blue kid Cut was there.
He's part of the program. Socrates part of the program,
you know, but we knew them. I was Julian and
Garden that's a Cardin now was Jason Harrow. Socrates is
a Monnie Wailu like we were our birth names.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
We were just these kids, right.

Speaker 7 (04:52):
And so it was when it came time Chacoler got
discovered as far as internationally. First he got signed to
Virgin and and that he brought us all on to
be like singing Hooks and Cardinal and Soccery's were producing.
So I had my voice in there basically being like
the voice of these hip hop songs. And so then
Cardinal got discovered by MCA Records and he was doing

(05:14):
the song working with Sean Paul as well as Baby Blue,
so they needed a voice and I was always available,
like Julie was the voice, like they knew.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
Julie's the voice, and so that kind of became my rule.

Speaker 7 (05:27):
I used to say that I was the wife of
hip hop, you know, I mean, hip hop was a
husband and I was.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
And if I could, if I could just ask something, okay,
so like the first thing I ever heard.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
From Okay, there we go.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Oh we got to get rid of that thing, so
we don't echo. Okay, Gods, it always happens. It always happens.
But that was that was part of an amazing conversation
that we had with Julie Black, the wife of hip
hop as she calls HERSLF you and uh, I just
just that just that story about like Fresh Arts and

(06:03):
High Park. That just blows my mind that that's so
much sprang from that, like just you you, Cardinal, Julie.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
It's like just so much sprang from that.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, and the Baby Blue crew yeah yeah, And it's
like it's like the Canadian hip hop museum like like
camp kind of thing, you know what I mean, It's
it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
What do you tell us about your memories of that?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, yeah, I mean all of that that that, all
that that layout is is all very true. Lucky enough
to uh my mother who had friends who are you know,
downtown and working within the within the system, and had
brought me to this project to you know, basically sign

(06:52):
up a kid from Scarborough, uh, Julie being from Jane
and Finch, Cardinal being from Oakwood, and Vaughan and other
kids being from downtown. This great opportunity to get together
every summer summer job. I can tell you how great
all of those. I mean it lasted about five six

(07:13):
summers Fresh Arts yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, last about five
six summers and towards before it was even over. By
the end of it, I was had been moving so
quickly with the connections that were coming, with all of
the information, the learning, the teaching. Shout out to Motion

(07:36):
Wendy Braithwait, shout out to Motion who ran the music
part of that whole program. Because you could choose theater, dance,
spoken word, visual arts, events, planning, music, so anyway that
was It's hard to equate it to. The closest thing

(07:58):
you get equated to is like some summer school and
you're paid to be there because at the end, at
the end of the summer, you you're learning the commerce
of how to sell your art, how to turn the
business of art the commerce, you know, which is how
Bob Ray was able to you know, you know, interpret
that into how can we pay these kids? You know,

(08:19):
that combined with the summers of you know, a couple
of riots and you know, you know, the youth us
in the early nineties kind of you know, getting wild
in the streets. So this was dedicated mainly to black
and Native upbringing or backgrounds, but it was open to everybody,
the whole public. So just basically so now those who

(08:42):
are in the know, yes, and then we didn't close
the doors or they didn't close the doors on anybody else.
These are my experiences of being there. What they led
to is absolutely brilliant. I was able to put I
was I put my first single out featuring Rick Cardinal
on it before that program was over. I was amazing.
Sixteen still still still caught up from nineteen ninety four, right,

(09:05):
you got it and The thing is Cardinal was called
kool aid back then, that's right. And he said on
the record you got it, you get it? Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Now, now where did steppen? That was a single on
Steppin' Bigger Records? Where did like so?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Was that? Like totally di y? You know?

Speaker 5 (09:26):
Like who who whose label was that?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Eugene Tam, the owner.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Record I want to talk to you, so I want
to if you don't mind me stepping in here, Dimitri. Absolutely,
there's a fellow by the name of Eugene Tam who
owned uh or still does own as far as I know,
a record shop that I spent way, way, way, way
too much money as a DJ. Wonderful place on Young Street,

(09:54):
just just north of of course the HMV Superstore and
the Sam the Record Man, a place called Play a Record,
And this man right here appears an incredible documentary called
Drop the Needle. It's a wonderful documentary on Played a
Record and the Tam family essentially how they got their start,

(10:17):
you know, coming from the Caribbean and then essentially making
their way up here and opening up this incredible record store.
Now you just you spoke so beautifully Socrates in that
in that documentary. I'm wondering if there's maybe something that
you would be able to talk about in kind of
like sort of piggybacking onto what Dimitri was just talking about.

(10:39):
In regards to your first single with Cardinal. Most people
didn't even realize that there was a recording studio in
the basement. As a matter of fact, most people didn't
even know there was a basement. And I'm wondering if
you could describe to us the excitement that you must
have felt, you know, in the studio at seventeen years
old putting out your first record.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, six yes, sixteen years old, yeah, sixteen, turning seventeen. Uh,
and I think at maybe fifteen sixteen, because when it
came time to sign the paperwork, it's I mean, it's
a it's not very long story, but I connected with

(11:23):
a manager while I was at Fresh Arts, and me
and Cardinell and Marvel and Julie and all of us
would go to DJ Power's house to record our demos.
And he charged you five bucks an hour, six bucks
an hour, you know, a little four track, and we
get our demos done. And a guy named Chase, who

(11:44):
had been hanging out with that DJ sound crew, Chase.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
Chase Persons, Yeah, Parsons.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
He had been there and overheard our work, and he
got my contact from DJ Power who was helping us
make the beats and that whole thing, and eventually had
to you know, spoke with my parents, spoke with me.
He said, I'd like to manage you, you know, twenty
two years he's twenty two at the time. I'm fifteen.
He is, I'd like to manage. I want to try

(12:13):
a couple of things. He'd speak to my parents, and
you know, we figured all that out, and that fast
forwards to taking maybe about five six months to create
a body of work at Day's studio Lee Fredericks, which
is Day Productions, right with the Father Time Record Chat Clayers,

(12:35):
Knee Deep, Yes Deep, right with Knee Deep. So I
created a body of work there, that body of work.
Once we figured okay, we have a couple of things
we could play for people, Chase took that to John Bronsky,
who was working with Eugene Tam at the time. John
Bronsky was also a mentor at Fresh Arts. He'd pop

(12:56):
in and teach us about the business of music and
the whole thing. So it was this circle that you
know in hip hop it was churning in the nineties
where it's like it is kind of a diy, you know,
it's like you get up and you do it, you know,
and you talk to this person, you talk to that person.
The truth is if you hit the right connections, which
we did. Eugene and John Bronsky, they liked a few songs,

(13:18):
a bunch of songs off that they said we'd like
to go with that. And you know, I had to
have my mother come down to the studio and in
the basement, Yeah right, go through the paperwork, you know,
because I'm underage, so she had to sign, you know,
sign for me. And and that is that. But the

(13:40):
coolest thing is to be in a store as you described,
which is kind of a mecca of where you get
the latest rarest you know, club knocking, club rock and
music from. That's one of three places you go to
every Thursday or you know, Saturday, sometimes every Thursday.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah right, you know what I mean. Gene would come
in the back with the records.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, oh yeah. So so to be a part of
what when you go down into the basement, you think
there's nothing down there but this narrow this narrow stairwell.
Once you hang a left and come back around this way, boom.
There's this studio that was engineered by Alex g who
ended up moving to Miami and doing a bunch of
production with the in Sync made a lot of money.

(14:26):
It was doing well. Yeah you know, uh, that's played
a record in a nutshell in that era, it was
a beautiful launch and we weren't doing We weren't looking
for you know, we weren't getting rich. It was to
be able. The key was to get it on vinyl.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, Once you got it on vinyl, you can ship
it to New York, right guy. Why you know, it's
like okay, it's Indy, Okay, we get okay, who's paying
for the pressing? You know, It's like okay, yes, we
are doing it ourselves. Yeah, you know, with no major
label endorsements. We got our own, you know, come up
with their own money to press. And once you have
vinyl back, then you get in the hands of the

(15:05):
right DJ. It's certified. You know, it's not like sending
them a cassette or you know, back in those times, Yeah, right,
played a record still caught up. What it what it
did for Jason and the MONI yeah, Greg Cardion socks.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, I mean it was, I just yeah, I it was.
I was so glad to see you in that doc
I knew Cardinal would be in it, and I remember distinctly,
right at the very beginning, I while you guys are
all kind of being shown, like in the intro credits
of like, Okay, here's soccrateers, here's you know, Mastermind, here's uh,
you know, uh DJ Matt c who's one of my my,

(15:46):
you know DJ heroes in Toronto. You know, it's showing
all of you guys. I was literally grabbing a drink
and then I came back in and I sat down
right in front of the documentary, and I remember as
soon as I saw card now, I thought, I hope
Socrates is in this documentary. And sure enough, all of
a sudden, Dimitri, it's a beautiful documentary. You really have
to see it because this man, the way he gets

(16:08):
set up in this documentary is absolutely perfect. Because everybody
that's before him is saying, there's this guy with a voice.
We don't know who he is, but this guy is
going to be huge. He's going to be massive, and
he's going to be signed and I'm literally sitting there
going it's Socrates, like literally, and sure enough, all of

(16:29):
a sudden, Socrates just comes in. He kind of just
sits down on a chair and sort of looks around like,
you know, probably waiting for a person to put a
microphone on you or something like that, right you know.
And it's just like the hairs are standing up on
my arm right now. It's just it's so cool.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
So that is awesome. That is anyway, it's the experience, man,
that's a great experience. And again, it was awesome to
be invited.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, for sure, definitely I had I'm sorry, Dmitri, I'm
really just one more quick question in regards to that
time period. I'm wondering if you could even hazard a guests,
would you maybe know possibly how many songs by the
time you got into Eugene Tam Studio you had ready
to go.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yes, Yes, we were working on ten. We wanted once
we hit ten. That was our goal. Me and Chase's
goal was okay, let's get to ten. I think we
got to eleven or twelve, right, And so to not
get stagnant, you started to figure out ways where we
could start using some of the better songs. Yes, so
there was a goal. There was definitely a second goal.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Nice and this is this like and then you were
signed to Warner Well it's no, that's not the flash
because we stayed Indy. So we go still caught up
with Eugene.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Did well? We oh? Juno nominated?

Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yes, yes, yep.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
First thing a light off the top, well right off
the top. And a lot of people overlook not my nomination.
They overlooked being nominated period, you know what I mean? Uh?
And the truth is a lot of almost every other
genre in this country, when they're advertising their their artists

(18:12):
and their music, even if they haven't won that Juno,
it's Juno nominated. So yeah, it comes with this big thing,
you know. Uh So I even though at a younger
age when I didn't when I didn't get the first one,
and you're a little disappointed, but you know, there's fire.
It's like, Okay, let's let's get him again, get him

(18:33):
next time. We're gonna get him next time, but not
without any without without losing respect for the fact that, shoot,
this is our Grammy, you know. And as a kid,
you know, being out there cops coliseum waiting, you know.
But yeah, moving moving forward, the singles will end up

(18:55):
being after that. Uh is Father Time? Yes, which is
really what helped us get the international momentum going. And
we did that with Day with Dave Fredericks, with Lee Fredericks,
you know, through Knee Deep, Let.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
Me and listening to and listening to the interviews that
you added to the underground tapes, it sounded like you
were you were kind of thrown for a loop. How
much international success you got for Father Time?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yes? Yeah? How can you? How did now?

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Can you tell us a little bit about why that
surprised you?

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well? Well, I mean just being Canadian first of all,
you know your hair stand up like, oh wait, is
this actually working? You know, south of the border you
are still caught up. Did well Juno nomination. Awesome, We
dropped Father Time. We do our two to three months

(19:57):
remember radio burn, remember Vinyl Burn, and be like okay,
you know after that, where's your next single? What else
you got? We went through that in Toronto where just
Father Time was widely accepted. It's awesome, But they're on
What's Next? And this is where my Toronto the Planet
state of Mind comes in. What's Next? The record is

(20:21):
not going to stop here? And that's a great thing
that Chase, being older than us as a crew at
the time and thinking forward and thinking more maturely about
the business, says, Okay, well, let's move it somewhere else.
But they ain't heard it yet. Let's get it to
New York. So him and Lee eventually get it to
Fat Beats in New York City, which in turn connects

(20:44):
Los Angeles, which in turn connects the UK, which in
turn connects Paris, which you know what I mean, because
all of them are coming into New York to get it,
and there's a Fat Beats in LA. So if they
can't get one in New York to get into LA.
And a lot of our records from the Circle B
Cardi Shocks but also including like Thrust and Ghetto Concept,

(21:08):
we'd end up on their wall. They used to have
a wall of independence at Fat Beat Records in New
York and it's like one to twenty and they'd rate
them on how good they are from anywhere around the world,
and a lot of the time we end up in
the top five coming out of Toronto. So there was
no bias in New York. These international DTAs were coming

(21:29):
in to get it. Whatever it was wherever it came from,
and father Time was thrown into that pot brand new life.
That's what got me signed to Warner Brothers.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Did people were people talking to you around that time
about hearing a unique Toronto sound.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
No, no, they didn't. They didn't. A lot of them
just thought I was from Queens or Brooklyn. But really
it just fit. It fit in it. It was the
it was or is is the language of tonality that
you know fit you know, it found its own kind
of angle in that time. But the bounce and the production,

(22:11):
you know, the shout out, gadget on the mixes, everything
that we were able to hit it in the club
DJs when they dropped the instrumental, it's just, you know,
I was told that the club was going off. I
didn't spend any time in New York when that record
was out there, but I was. I was told that
I was up. My name was circulating around the place.
So again, that's why I would assume that helped me

(22:32):
get signed to Warner Brothers in LA for that, and
then that's was before we did that. It was before after,
before we got signed to Warner Brothers. We put out
Hate Runs Deep.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
That's an amazing song. That's an amazing song.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I love that song. Yeah, So that's like the one
thank you man. And that's like the one two three punch,
you know, as an independent artist for me coming up
and then you know, getting trying to get into the
right uh record deal, be it south of the border,
you know what I mean, bigger budgets, you know, go
through the whole circus, the whole rigmarole of it, and

(23:06):
learn from it. But that every artist, I guess needs
a one two three punch to prove themselves. I think
it's still true to this day. We needed it back
in the day. You hear the first single, okay, cool,
you know, you hear the second one, oh damn. If
the third one is rock solid, you can you know,
kind of build a career off of that because you've

(23:27):
found something you can grow with and that people trust,
you know. And I think it's with the same with
artists today. They could drop one hit wonder you love it,
but imagine they had another two They stick around for
a while, you know, yes, some staining power.

Speaker 6 (23:43):
So yeah, fast forward, yeah, and then and then Warner
and then Warner Music Canada shuts down their their hip
hop division, right yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
I mean there were so many you know, we could
go on about label, label building, label destroying, label you know, amalgamation,
can we could go on and on about that, and
that got a lot of that got in the way
of my trajectory, you know. But working around that and

(24:16):
working through it, you know, has has been a thing.
And sometimes it's it's really just letting a lot of
it go. And I think that, Yeah, independence, but being
able to manage your independence, you know, is a big thing,
and that is there's a lot more room for that
in today's with today's technology, in today's market. Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
But but I was just like I was just taking
like we're talking, we're talking like late nineties. And so
that's when you and Chase set up Capitol Hill Music. Yes, yeah,
And and I just remember and I remember that because
like you did that song with Julie called Rallying, which
we need, which we needed, Uh we need a cleaner,

(25:06):
cleaner version of that on the internet or something, you know,
because like that that I I remember that song and
I can't find and why can't we find a good
ford to that anymore? But yeah, but that was on
Capitol Hill, Yes, yeah, yeah, And uh we did Julie.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
And Cardinal's first, uh first album on with the show
that we had, we did we put him out on
on Capitol Hill as well. Yeah we we, I mean we.
It was it was a birthplace for not just like
many artists. It was just a good birthplace for artists

(25:46):
to move on in their business, in their real business,
because obviously Julie, you know, move on m c A
and Cardi the m c A and yeah, with that
start of us kind of doing it on our own
at Capitol Hill and really being a great filter for
the the art, you know, the actual quality of the art.

(26:08):
I think that once that was established, everybody who came
through that label ended up more benefiting from the filter
and moving on so they have faith in their own music.
Rather than it being this huge, you know, indie label
where you know, some get rich quick scheme. I think
it was more of a It was more of a collective,

(26:29):
a production collective, and of opportunities for people to grow.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
That's a really excellent point that you just made because
at the time when you know when sorry, when the
Underground Tapes had come out, it was around exactly the
same time. There was a mix that I used to
do being I'm a DJ, so I used to do
a mix, but I still love to this day and
I still play it from time to time. But I

(26:54):
would start with Roland your track, and I'd pitch it
up to about ninety six ninety six points, you know,
five bpms, and then into that I would mix Let's Ride,
and then into that I would mix Baby Blue Money Jane,
and I remember, I distinctly remember throwing that set down
on a Saturday night at Whiskey Sigon at Richmond Street

(27:19):
and Duncan, and the place went insane as soon as
Roland came on. And then once you once you basically
mixed from Socrates into Chauck Claire, everybody on the dance
floor is right here, right, and then of course you
mix in a baby Blue. That's it. The quality of
the music that you guys were putting out was in

(27:43):
it was insane. Like what I'm wondering is, I guess
the question I'm trying to get to here is all
of you working independently of each other. Were you kind
of feeding off of one another or were you all
just kind of working independently of each other? And it
just for some strange reason, it all seemed to work.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
You know, it's a good question. It's a combination of
both because, uh, you don't have only one producer, about
four or five of us in the crew, you know,
are making beats, quite high quality beats, right right. And
then you know then they've got three or four quality
solo artists. So there's a bunch of bunch of people

(28:22):
who are working on these things themselves, have these ideas.
And then that web, because the web is there. Oh
kid cut call, they said him and Koc said, they're
ready to get the album going. They want to they
want to hear some beats and and you know we
all get we all naturally come together and again that
you know, shout the fresh arts on that because around

(28:43):
that time, it's like we're all feeling a lot of
what we had cultivated right all those summers. You know,
now we're adults, and you know, Universal, Who's who is it?
Sonia came? Who was a Universal? Universal signed Baby Blue?
Was it Universal sign?

Speaker 5 (29:00):
That's a good question.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
I think it was Universe, I think.

Speaker 5 (29:04):
And they and they said it ever Hamilton maybe yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
And they set it up for Baby Blue to have
a great just as an example, to have a situation
where they can do a compilation. Now they can afford
to hire all the local talent that they have a
lot of faith in, which included me. Right, everybody's got
their own beats, and you know, and I'm working on
so many different things that it's literally just a phone
call away and of us eventually getting into the studio together. Yeah,

(29:31):
you know, And and because back then it's you know,
you're not setting it over the internet. It's like okay, boom,
I'm coming in. I'll drop the vocals that Kate Cut's house,
or I'll do the vocals at my house and send
it to the studio.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
You know, you know that must have been so insanely creative.
It's just like you know, like you know, Socrates, just
can you can run over to my house? I need
you to throw down a verse on blah blah blah blah.
And at that point in time, you would you literally
probably have a bunch of verses already like ready to
go and pocket and you would just kind of walk
in and.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, you know, it'd be it'd be maybe you get
a week or two, you might pick up a Beat CD,
or Beat CD might be dropped off to you. You know,
and you're going through beats. You might have a couple
of beats, you have a couple of ideas, and then
when you end up at the studio you've picked one,
or you've written something, you might record it there you've
already recorded it, maybe just you know, dumping all your fouls.

(30:23):
But that that contact, all of that was being made.
And the interesting thing is as amazing an experienced as
that is. That is going along with four or five
other projects that are all being handled kind of in
the same.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
At the same time. Yeah, yeah, you know what.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
I mean, and the same the same talent is being
spread from you know one to five and three to two,
and to have everybody really excited about being involved. It
was a good time. You know. First of all, there
were budgets being put into those albums, right you know that,
you know, Canadian Canadian labels were were taking a shot.
It's like, okay, let's try something. And radio was supporting. Yes,

(31:07):
radio was so supportive during that time, late nineties early
two thousands. You couldn't flow was just you couldn't for us,
we couldn't ask for any better plug to the world
in our city. As Canadian artists of that style of music. Yeah,

(31:28):
oh that it was. It was just it was gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
It was uh it was uh C I U T
had Oh my gosh, I can't well.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Okay, Now now there's a mecca. There's a mecca of
indie radio where it was absolutely amazing. And that's uh
that's uh C k l N.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah, he's he's in the the I U T uh
uh uh c h R y run run I.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Was on one away all those in the college stations. Yes,
that was a mecca. Now when things started to shift
and we finally got our own quote unquote station Flow
playing you know, hip hop and R and B and reggae,
you know, afro and whatnot. They were playing folks from

(32:20):
our city literally two days. If you got it, not
even you need to plug with a DJ. If you
send it in and the DJ likes it starting from
scratch or you know, you know any of the guys
over there they're playing it. Yeah, it's in the mix,
and then all of a sudden people like it. All
of a sudden. Now it's in the programming and you're
hearing the the Keisha Shanti's or the opportunities at at

(32:44):
a at a young Drake you know.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
You're playing Deborah Cox and all of these wonderful Lincoln Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Play Oh they're playing it all. You know, that was
a really good time. And shout out to flow of
that era, you know and people like yourselves who actually
pay attention to to you know, from era to era.
That was a really good one. That was a really
good one, and it helped us all out, you know,
helped us all out.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
That's great. I need to ask you a question. So
we're looking around two thousand and nine season one, how
I mean, how did you end up linking up with
a Wu Tang clean member? I mean, like, I'm sure
you've probably been asked this question, like, how on earth
did all there's there's obviously over the years there's Cardi

(33:34):
with you know, uh, you know, Carrie Hilson and Acon
and and you know all of these wonderful artists where
you've all managed to link up with these incredible American artists.
How did the whole method Man and Redman thing come about?
If you could tell us?

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Okay, Well, the Underground Tapes album comes out in ninety nine,
which it was post which was like a you know
a collection of music that was supposed to come out
under Warner Brothers from before that, and a bunch of
stuff we from before we weren't able to release as
I got off of Warner Brothers. We put out Underground

(34:10):
Tapes independently in the US through Serious Entertainment shout out
to Mike Karen uh big boss down there in California
and uh and then up here through again Eugene Tam
and Awesome Disease with Ill Vibe Records through e m I.

(34:32):
You know, the Underground Tapes. So we put that out
and we had a connection a couple of friends. We
had a friend working at h at def Jam as
an assistant a in ari at a small office and Uh,
I remember a meeting it's with myself, Chase Parson's director
x oh Uh, Taj krisch Lowe was there, Taj Chris

(34:57):
low Uh and another kid named Andrew forget his last name.
We called him Dre but anyway, he's assistant A and
R over there. And we've literally had a conversation about
where I'd like to be signed since I was off
of Warner Brothers, where I'd like to go. This Underground
Tapes album is out. We got nominated for Money You
Love MMVA and the Junos are paying attention. This is
really cool. Where do we want to go? I said,

(35:19):
I love Deaf Jam literally at a dinner meeting, and
the CD was given to this kid, Dre, who just
blasted it every day in his office. Didn't give it
to anybody, just played it. He hear it through the
walls and literally Redman's manager heard it through the wall.
Asked who the hell is that? He said, Socrates from Toronto.

(35:41):
He said, he signed, He said no, and fast forward
within two three days. Let's say that was a Thursday.
On the Monday, me and Chase were on a flight
to New York to with to sit with Redman.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Oh my goodness, that is incredible.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, to sit with Redman and money or love and
that kind of funk that I always looked up to
him and Eric Sermon epm D. I always looked up
to them for that. So imagine, you know, you don't
always want to meet your heroes this one. Yeah, yeah,
you want to keep cats. We hit it off and

(36:22):
we've been family ever since. And because of that connection,
and you know, working getting to no Red and getting
to work creatively in studios in New York and Himstead
at my house, you know, you know, a week at
a time, working in town, when he's in town. It's eventually.
It was eventually as I get to a video shoot. Actually,

(36:45):
even before I got to a video shoot, I think
Redimith popped up in Toronto. I'd signed maybe two or
three weeks earlier, and they popped up at the cool House. Yeah, okay,
I got invited down. I came down and that's when
I first I first met met in the in the
back there, you know, and it's a young kid like

(37:05):
you know, these mcs are like it's like comic books.
You know, I love. I came up on comic books.
I'm into my art and uh like superheroes, you know,
you know, just study the study their poetry, study their art.
And now you're in a room of them. Who have
you there? Because they respect your art. I'm like, man,

(37:27):
this is this is this is heavy in a great way.
So I said, you know, I remember saying the mempher
I said, they nice to meet you, brother, Yes, yes,
very good. Hey, uh whose is that you might have
a crack it? Whose is that is the kanyak? You said,
that's yours five hundred dollars bottle of Kanyac that's yours
shock more where that came from.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
I just have to I just have to.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
I have to go backwards even more now because uh,
because the what about like some of the Canadians, some
of the Canadians that came up before or before you
like like Maestro, like like ghetto concepts, like.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
What did they what did they mean to you? Growing up?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Maestro actually is probably probably the most poignant story of
them all because he was the first for me in
this country. Uh. You know, I'd be at the dance,
the school dance in junior high, you know, grade seven
and the eighth graders, you know, they got all the moves.

(38:30):
I'm like, okay, I got to prove myself and they
drop backbone slide, and it just fit in with all
the other great hits that were playing at the time,
you know, Soul to Soul, Big Daddy Kane, you know
Digital Underground, she name, uh being around the World and

(38:52):
now yeah, yeah Bill Rob dj Z Rocks ye do
that whole that whole movement, and he fit right in
with that. So and and then you see the video
and it's like, oh, I wanted a dope state jacket.
Then my friend one of my best friend Khalid growing

(39:13):
up at the time.

Speaker 8 (39:14):
His uncle is lt d D JAILEDGD. I'm like, yo,
we can't kill It's like we just buzz buzz in
the eighth grade and I'm just like, yo, so close.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
And eventually as we start to put our music out
and father time comes out and I get a chance
to go sit down and see Kale and I get
invited to speak with with dj X our Root show
and as I go there, Wes is is. I guess
he was being interviewed before me, and he was sitting

(39:53):
on the bench you know at Ryerson there, which he
used to be called Ryerson, and and he all, well,
he pointed this out to me, and I was like, man,
he pointed this out to me.

Speaker 9 (40:04):
He said, he looked up. He said, yo, yo yo,
I like your stuff. It's dope. And I said what
did I say? And he said, well, you didn't say much.
I was like, he was like, yeah, but you know,
you keet the cool you know. I was like, okay, okay, He's.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Like my shirt said yeah, yeah, you know, he's getting
ready and cross paths that first time like that, it
was like, oh okay, but as you as you mentioned,
I had almost forgotten. But at an early age sometimes
you know, there's an arrogance that you know, just you know,
you kind of forget about things, or you're too nervous

(40:44):
and don't know how to invite everybody to your conversation
to what's going on, and to come across to have
him call me five six, seven years later, Yeah, and
asked me to produce a couple of beats for him
and write some hooks and perform the hooks and feature verses.

(41:04):
And that never stopped. Every two three years, we've done
many records. Now, So imagine you're a dreamer in the
seventh grade, Yeah, and one of your heroes eventually calls
you to be a part of his journey. Yeah, you know,

(41:26):
that doesn't get us. There's so many stories about about
the many artists that I've worked with, but that one
really takes the cake because of the you know, the
perspectives that are being shared at once, you know, and.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
It probably almost would probably end up bringing things full
circle for you, I would think, Right, it's just.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Literally that's what I'm describing. I mean, maybe too many
words to say that, but it literally came full circle.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yeah, exactly, And.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
It takes it upon himself when he when last year
when he was even his his his big awards, you know,
some big achievement awards. I forget the names of them sometimes.

Speaker 5 (42:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
And and he's at the Juno's and he chooses to
release h an exclusive you know, freestyle for everybody to
to you know, everybody to know that Wes still got
it over over one of my beats, over a Cha
Clare song, you know. And it's just Wes holds a

(42:30):
special place because he is, like, like I said, like
in the comic books as hip hop is and was
to me. He's one of them superheroes that proved to
be true.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Yeah, I imagine that you and Redman and method Man
have talked a lot about comic books. I just have
to know some time, since I'm a comic book geek too,
you know.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah, absolutely everybody and everybody's got their got their name
right obviously Wu Tang. They all got their own comic
book names, right, Yeah, they got and they got their
Gambino names of course, so they're they're good at that.
They got all different names. Uh. Chaos gave me a
good one when one time he said his dad said,
you know, you know Kevin, if you were a Calypsonian,

(43:15):
if you said, if you sang so good, your name
would be the complainer.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
I love it. Oh that's great.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
So we all got zero names, right, you know, I'm
only five eight, but the streets call me big Socks,
So I'm gonna roll with that one.

Speaker 5 (43:35):
Yeah, you get a lot.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
You get a lot of credit for being an EMC
that saying, and you did that, and you did that
quite early, Like yeah, so what what gave you that
confidence to to do that right off the top?

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Oh? Practice, practice, you know, uh, in the you know,
summers at Fresh Arts and leading up to that, in
high school, getting you know, getting into slow jams, always
growing up with music in my in my household, my
parents playing you know, beautiful eclectic collection music from everything,

(44:17):
and getting all those voices in my head, growing up
playing studying classical violin and playing in orchestra. So being
already a musical person by the time I hit thirteen fourteen,
and I sung in choir in elementary school. I even
had to. They forced me to take a vocal class
in high school because to get to music camp every

(44:38):
summer where the bare Naked ladies were born. Scarborough music camp.
To get there every summer, you had to take a
music course. And I'm skipping violin class because I'm five years,
ten years ahead that the kids are playing it, that's right. Yeah,
So they said, nope, you still got to take a course.
I had to take a vocal course. I'm like, dang,
And that was say ten, but by grade eleven, grade twelve,

(45:03):
I'm practicing singing slow jams and you know Aaron Hall,
r Kelly. Then going to old school with Curtis Mayfield
and Marvin Gaye. Yeah, and then Jodicy was was you know,
all the new school, old school everything in between and

(45:24):
shower steam practice. Yes, literally at that age. And once
I started get to get the chop, start chopping the notes,
like oh yeah, oh so you know you might sing

(45:44):
in front of people here and there. I was still
very shy, but I knew I could hold a note
and add the vibrado and even change my tone where
I'd almost do a you know a great impression of
Sam Cook because it's supposed to sound now yeah moved,
Oh this falsett up and my days. That guy gotta

(46:04):
do the al green to fit that music. It was
a lot of morphing into the music that was chosen,
and how are we going to stand out? Especially outcast
is kicking everybody ass and at ninety four ninety five,
and there's so much soul ooze it from those hooks.
And I knew I had it. I knew I had it,

(46:25):
you know, just they were as rappers, they weren't singing it.
I knew I could sing it ninety four five. So
this practice, practice, practice, and eventually get the get one
that really hits well. And that was that would be
for me, would have been money or love? Yes, absolutely,
do you think that? Do you think that Chaos saw

(46:47):
what you were doing and said, let me try to sing. No, no, no, no,
no no. We're two different we're two separate planets. It
is like this, no no, no. He already from his
very first uh Essence record, he was singing. He was
singing the hook, walking up and down Chinatown with his

(47:07):
acoustic guitar strapped to his back, had the pay had
to had the pole boy hat, snap snap fronts, science
as science. He was singing. He was a loner. Uh,
he did not care. He was singing. So we we're
brothers from another you know, another planet. Never planet I
saw on that same groove. It's like ship you got that, Yep,

(47:30):
I got it. One of these days we'll make a group, man,
because when me and him get together, we're likely let's
say the Red and meth you know this thing. That's
why we had so much fun on on that. On
the run of song song, you know, it was just
a calling. It called us. It was mine first. He's like,
I love this, how can we make it ours?

Speaker 5 (47:50):
You know?

Speaker 2 (47:51):
And and we we took a shot and made it
hours and you know, I thank him so much for
for pushing part of that.

Speaker 5 (47:58):
And you were and you worked on that with Nelly
Fortato first.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we free We did a
freestyle in Paris, France. I brought it back, sat with Noah,
who's now forty, sat with him. We chopped it up,
got my verses down, submitted it with my album. They
didn't hear it as a single. Won't sing God, I

(48:21):
won't say who said it? And it sat, It sat
for two years and chaos it had had a copy
of you know the what I thought, I guess was
the final and him and Jazz Little Jazz shout Out.
Little Jazz had been playing it at after parties on
tour for like eighteen months and the place is going

(48:41):
off every time, and he called me and said, hey,
how can we can we do something? Yeah, and yeah,
we found some space for Kevin to get a verse
on it and we share the chorus and I thank
him so much for pushing that because it's one of
our more popular pieces. You know, what did I think
we I think we have to.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
I think we have to talk about Bad Addiction because
because well we're getting on in time.

Speaker 10 (49:09):
But uh, but also I think that this album, which
is so great, you know, I think it. I think
it it's taking every single, every single pinpoint timestamp in
your career and putting the best of it all in
one place. You know, like like your soul singing, you're

(49:32):
rapping and like and and uh the.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
Coming up even like.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
That's a that that you you reach back twenty years
and brought that into the present.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yes, yeah, yes, yes, And I mean it's you know,
I I really like the fact that we're having conversations, uh,
in depth conversations about this album Bad It Addiction and
what it is today because the coolest thing for me

(50:05):
is it is it was already is you know, let
me spoiler alert, it was already done, and I believe
in maybe two thousand and three, two thousand and four
it was. It was done at its peak. Over time,
lose a lot of files here and there, and I'm
trying to pull this back together and that that was

(50:26):
a body of work that I recorded at the time
when I was signed to Deaf Chair. Didn't get a
chance to put that stuff out, So for me, it
was a lot. It was. It wasn't It wasn't too
hard to gather as much as I could to pull
that whole body of work back together, you know, with
the innerludes and all the timing. It wasn't hard work.

(50:50):
It was just took time to blow the dust off
remaster a bunch of stuff and then throw it and
throw it out there, like, you know, barely any new vocals,
barely anything. I think master Ace is the only added
piece that is, you know, less than twenty years old.
So imagine how easy that is for me to just say, oh, shoot,

(51:11):
we got this one. Yeah, let's just pull it together.
And twenty years later we're having these great conversations about it.
And I'll give you I'll give you another layer to it.
What's on all DSPs is our full is the full
registered album, but we also have an exclusive like DJ

(51:34):
mix featuring mister Addict from the Grassroots, the producer who
who originally did the majority of the Bad Addiction album,
which is going to be available on my app that
we're dropping an app second week of February, the Socrates App,

(51:55):
and it will combine all exclusive content such as what
I just described. So this album that you've listened to
is it's so much more color. There's so many more interludes.
You remember three feet high in Rising Ye right, you
put the headphones on, you press play right and that

(52:16):
thing just goes all the little peaks and valleys, the
little interludes and funny songs, funny anecdotes. Then you move
on to h dey La Soula is dead. When you
had the storybook, you open it up when you hear
that means turn the page down. The whole LP experience.
Red Man has done it, ice Cube did it so

(52:38):
well in his heyday. This exclusive version shows that whole thing.
And based on the Pirate radio which you might do.
Pirate radio show which you might have seen or heard
on the album is w S O Triple X Radio
on your FM, do you know posted by me mister vigorous.
You know you want to see Dj Rita on the

(52:58):
wheels a steel, you know, and my homie brother Mophicers,
who runs the helicopter, does the traffic and warms my coffee.
There's a whole there's a whole show about it, which
will be available on that app. So I'm going on
about the Bad Addiction album because we also have two

(53:18):
more singles coming this month, which ones oh oh right,
because you got you got the album right.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
Yeah, I've listened to I've listened to it on title.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Okay awesome, so we come, oh so cold, got to come,
got to come in January. That's the next one. Nice
and any anything about my piece? See that. I love that.
See that. That's why you see there's a reason why
I like you guys. You guessed it. That's number five.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
Oh my god, that is so slick, you know, so
uh yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
You cassed it. I was gonna. I was like, oh,
I was gonna, you know, say, oh, we'll see what
number five is? Very good? Yeah man, And that's and
that'll be January thirty first.

Speaker 5 (54:10):
Oh and then and what and when can we see
you live.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Yes, that's what I was gonna ask.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah, I don't have any shows. I don't have anything
booked yet. The year is young, and normally take the
first quarter of every year to kind of assess what's
happening through the summer and feel the calls. Uh, see
what's see what's happening festival wise, especially in town stuff.
You know. I always love to do stuff for the hometown,

(54:35):
not really touring, just just would be more special, specialty
one offs. But nothing at the moment. But I know
within the next couple of months, by you know, within
this first quarter, we'll definitely be locked in and we'll
keep you guys posted. You know, we'll have some fun.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
Okay, so we have to.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
We've had we've we've occupied like an hour of your
time when.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
We could talk to you for another hour.

Speaker 11 (55:03):
You have no idea, Listen.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
I I when we put out the Underground Tapes, when
we re released it last year, I wasn't really doing
interviews because it's you know, it's stuff that everybody had
already heard. It was just a really cool way to say, hey,
it's back, this is you know, the anniversary and it's
available again. But I vowed to once this new material
came out a lot of unheard material came out, that

(55:27):
there'd be room for new conversation m hm and and
and that I would, I would, I would adhere to.
So I I enjoy it, and I thank you guys
for your time giving me.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Yes, yeah, that's right exactly. Listen. I I've got my
drums right behind me, right here, so I'm all about
the funk my friend.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Believe it it is.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Clyde Stubblefield and John Jabbel starks to James Brown's too,
you know, to kill the drummers, right, So yeah, yeah,
I uh, we cannot thank you enough. Like you are us.
You are literally a national treasure and we just we
can't thank you enough for joining us tonight. This has
been so much fun. We'd love to we'd love to

(56:08):
chat with you again at some point in the future.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Yeah, I look forward to it, right, you know, you know,
when more stuff, more material, more new interesting things come out,
it'd be great to chat about them again. And I like,
I really appreciate the insight that you guys have on
on on the material where it gives, it gives again.
I call it this symbiotic relationship. Right without people who

(56:32):
really dig the music, they ain't no music, you know,
there's no us, you know, so yeah, we gotta we
gotta gotta share it otherwise, you know, there's with the
dance hall to be empty.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Man, you can't know exactly was for us, like Revolution Radio,
so that the things the double rs behind me. This
essentially is Revolution Radio Canada runs twenty four seven, three
sixty five and essentially what we do is it's essentially
for me. It would be what C F and Y
was back in the day when and Chris Sheppard and
Deadly Headley Jones were there. Right, So we're playing like

(57:04):
you know, Socrates is in there. You know, at Akon
and Cardinal are in there. Baby Blues entire ep essentially
is is on the radio station. So we're just honored
and privileged to be able to you know, it keeps
spreading your music as far as things go. So but
again we just we really appreciate you being here.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
So it's been awesome, great to listen. Thank you guys,
and I'll be back.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Yeah, this is gonna be great, all right.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
But before you go, just tell us a little bit
about my pageer Burn Burn up East Side of things.
It's it's a single that you put out last summer,
And how do you think the reception to it went?

Speaker 5 (57:42):
And tell us a little bit about how it came
to be.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
The reception is. I think, I think it's fine once
I let music. Once I've come to terms, come to
peace with the fact I let a piece of music out.
It's been through so many of my own filters, you
know where, I'm so happy with it. I'm just happy
that it's out, you know, so that that you know,
that's and turns conversations like this, Do you do you.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Have a tough time letting music go? Socrates? Oh yeah
you do. Yeah, but your classic you're a classic artist.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's got to be right there once again,
right there.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
I'm just I'm just decided for the world.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
I'm just saying, I'm just going to declare that this
song is one of is one of the best of
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Oh oh, thank you. I'll take that, thank you. And
as far as the process, just that fun and uh myself.
The Homie rote Homie road Dollars part of a big
black linking part of the circle. Back in the day,
we spend a lot of time producing them making beats
and need help with little things here and there, and

(58:48):
red Man beat in and out of town, and you know,
every time you come into town, it's like what you
got socks? You know, four or five six different beats
we could choose from. Again, this is maybe two thousand.
This is like oh two, two thousand and one, two
thousand and two, and we're at Chaplair Studio, which you
used to call Greenhouse down on an Athlete, and we're

(59:09):
going through to get this beat right to the beat.
And the thing is, it's that funk that I always realized.
There are many beats that I can put in front
of Red Man that we can you know, work with,
but they're ones that are just absolutely guaranteed. Like if
I can get that Eric Sermon bounce, if I get.

Speaker 12 (59:28):
That DJ quake or Battlecat funk, if I could get that,
there's no way, he say, no, you know, So I
play a bunch of beats in that one, a bunch
of them struck and that's one of them, and uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
O two we recorded that good thing. Luckily, I you know,
save the two track of it and uh and put
it away. Yeah exactly, you know, and then the coolest
thing is Ace being I got it quickly. I had.
It was three verses, just me and me and Red,
and I kept getting bored of my third verse. And

(01:00:02):
that's why I said, I added one new aspect to
the whole LP and I call Ace. I call Master Ace.
I figured he'd be a really great fit with the concept.
And you know, we go into this colorful bridge type
of averse to have him do the third verse, and
he was honored to do it. Shout out, Master Ace,
thank you for that. And then to let this funk
drop on the city. It's just really cool to hear

(01:00:26):
folks like yourself Dmitry say, man, that thing is rocking
in a couple of my ogs, like you know, guys
seven eight years older than me. They played at their
barbecue and when it came out last summer and they're like,
man that. When they say, man, that beat his knocking,
I'm like, oh, I can still trust my filters. Nice, Absolutely,
you should.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Absolutely good for you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Yes, that's amazing.

Speaker 10 (01:00:52):
How much more do you have to accomplish as an
artist before you can trust your filters?

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Yeah, right, So this is a good one. This is
a good, great example of trusting the funk filter. Yeah yeah,
thank you, thank you for bringing that up man, and
more to come. Actually, even after the next two singles
come out this summer, be cool to chat and catch
up man.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Yes, we'll have to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
We'll have to definitely take you up on that a break.
We'll have some more.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Brand Okay, absolutely, and honestly like listening listening to to
you talk about like funk and I just classic hip
hop breaks.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
This.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I could literally just talk to you for an hour
about old school samples and all of those old school
records that you used to get, you know, the old
school classics that you would get.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Literally drum the drum break records. I just want the loops.
Just give me the look. Got to go. I got
some more. I got some beats. You over here playing
the next you know, the next house deep house record.
I'm like, oh, I might need that. Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
It was a great place for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Awesomest, awesomest. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
Thank you, Socrates and uh and uh yeah this is
we're gonna We're gonna end the show with with a
blowing my pager blowing up East Side of Things by
Socrates from the album Bad addiction.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
Thank you so much for hanging out with us, Sir.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
You're the best, my friend. Thank you so much. Have
a great night, be good. Canadian is hacked Revolution Radio
Canada to turn it beat up.

Speaker 13 (01:02:42):
Nig Yeah coming with big Gay that a flips hit
your frame, so trying to hit this thag, Well the
big just split your brains. Real nigga's in here, fod
lights like just in here, keep it quot house Gillis
niggas beat him rolling boulders, but he gripped my shoulder

(01:03:04):
a shaped like Coca Cola hot see and your dough
though open toe shoes with their pinky rain nails canting
so cute. Now y'all show you what I want you
to do? Here the thing did it's tell you what
I want you to do, shaped like the end of
the month. Bill will still break the legs like a
single drop of sweat was a bruise. And your gets
wet because your huppy he's a free tender. And the
sound of my voice alone each your member. Yeah socks,

(01:03:26):
I say hello, why my afrod's breath bro.

Speaker 11 (01:03:29):
Hies my broad stacks.

Speaker 13 (01:03:31):
I don't give a fuck before repose, keep their eyes
closed when they suck. The greatest trick he played, which
that he never existed. My business number one on your hitting.
It's like Wade sign and who we spent with. She
can tell by the way that he take it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Just to.

Speaker 13 (01:03:58):
Sid yo'all gonna be in the party under now, straight
off my horse back with my two guns on the mouth,
I'm like, whoa easy harnsey grabbed the strap, so no
one easily off me. It's sut down theigger and it's
time to draw. I heat up your whole town on
the iron and boy over the month the same way

(01:04:18):
I do my money. Cops is a bluetrint on what
the dude to hunt me? You need dogs, gotta sniff
through the fall.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
You need little kids.

Speaker 13 (01:04:25):
Got a snitch in the mall. You need that bitch
to suck dick when the call when she blow me,
you're whing them hard. They get dirty off to apply
the vacuum and call off the search for the spot
to shaty you make it go, go with the post
to lap you rug in the phot dose with a
bro to clap you in there to the east side
of the.

Speaker 11 (01:04:50):
Cut. I'm just moving to the east side.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Just huge shot.

Speaker 14 (01:04:58):
You then of cut walking the club for the bb
L soft broad going like CD sales.

Speaker 11 (01:05:05):
It's I vs.

Speaker 14 (01:05:06):
Chicks and tipsy socks, scheming in the corner while he
SIPs the whiskey red body bar, straight sides and holds up, takes.

Speaker 11 (01:05:13):
A long puff from the pit.

Speaker 14 (01:05:14):
He blows up a big cloud in the open air.
I said, I'm sorry, sir, there's no smoking head. I'm Nipsey,
the barb proprietor, the waitress and the great rest. I
hide up because she trained with the special horses to
karate classes and wrestling courses, a big bras when she
packs the hardware. Y'all need to proceed with care like y'ads.
Here they keep it clean like sex from waist up

(01:05:36):
its y'all borns ain't about to tell.

Speaker 11 (01:05:38):
My place up now moving, Yeah, I'm just smoothing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Let him tell you.

Speaker 11 (01:05:55):
Yeah you want to cut? I guess what's that sound?
Must be that nigga Socrates and still.

Speaker 13 (01:06:03):
Show gunning the six fold running with your broad wicked
dumb town the whole saxe. Sock you a little moody man,
I let dudy hang dropping in the hoody tang, nigga,
you'll be veined, I grind him Denim fall a whole
week and want who put the Death and Venom fall
whole Brady Killers chain.

Speaker 11 (01:06:19):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Psimple this flow.

Speaker 11 (01:06:21):
Just rain on paraides to keep your one tunes a
bang on your raids.

Speaker 13 (01:06:24):
Get you with a visual end of your days six
dangerous ways, pick a praise the Bookadamien Danny Crazy at
the Antique road Show cut and appraised me.

Speaker 11 (01:06:34):
Domin's Twins Hot Shine. That's how they raised me. Moving
to the Yeah you cout you have some just moving come.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
You sho Holy ship. That is so freaking wicked.

Speaker 11 (01:06:58):
So wow.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Okay, So if I may really quickly your top five
tunes right now as of this second on Spotify On
the Run Wicked, Play This ninety nine, Father Time, the
twenty seventeen version, Money Your Love Wicked, and number five
My Pager Burning Up. That is your top five right
now on Spotify. Okay, that's the first thing, and the

(01:07:29):
second thing is I just wanted to let you know
while I was enjoying that unbelievable piece of music, I
just I got all of our wu tang names. Do
you guys mind if I read them to you? Yeah,
so my name, my name is smile and Warlock. Okay,

(01:07:50):
Carl Waylou is master warrior. Exactly right, all right, master warrior.
That is that is your Wu tang name.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
I used to know mine. I used to know mine.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Do you remember what it is?

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
No, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
I don't anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Phantom professional.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
So I'm smiling for lock ahead, hanging with the phantom professional. Awesome, awesome,
freaking awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
My wife, my wife, her name, Jen Covent is master Specialist.
Jen remembers that that's awesome. Okay. Anyway, Socrates, thank you,
think you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
You're so freaking a whole song.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
I'm like, okay, yeah, no, no, it's awesome. We really again,
we appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (01:08:44):
All right, I have a great have a great evening, sir,
I have.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
A great night, a great night, and we will talk
to you in the summer. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Awesome, cheers, thank you all the best.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Thanks, good night,