Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dan-e-o: Toronto Mike'd #621

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

Mike chats with Toronto hip-hop artist and actor Dan-e-o about his Electric Circus origin story, Dear Hip Hop, his prolific recording and acting career, his rap influences, recording with Kish and Maestro Fresh-Wes, VideoFACT, and much more.

Welcome to episode 621 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville StickerU.com create custom stickers, labels tattoos and decals for your

home and your business and the Keitner Group they love helping buyers find their dream home, text Toronto Mike, one word to five nine five five nine if you have any real estate questions about the gta or to get the zoom link for saturday's virtual open house you don't want to miss that i'm mike from torontomike.com and joining me is hip hop artist and actor Danny. Oh,

what's going on, Mike? How you doing, man? Awesome. So glad that we could connect. Thanks for doing this, man.

I appreciate you hitting me up, bro. I had to holler at you cause you had my homie Kish on, uh, recently. So, uh, I thought that was really cool,

man. he's doing big things so i appreciate when people give him the opportunity to talk about it because he won't do it himself you know he's humble like that either way uh it's good to be on your podcast 621 episodes don't lie man good for you brother keep it going and uh that's not like a ranking of excitement of guests because uh like this 6 man, it was worth the wait to do this. And by the way, uh, we're going to talk about Kish later in the show, because I got a jam that has, uh, Kish in yourself and, uh, FOTM Maestro Fresh West on it. We're going to talk about that later, but I got to say, uh, I know him as Kish and, but when, when I had him like

just the other day, he recorded a piece of audio, I played on this series I have called FOTM, Kick Out the Jams. And he calls himself Big Kish. Like he always puts the big there. Yeah, that took place over the past decade or so, because as you very well know, after having him on your podcast, he's gone on to bigger and better things in the world of voice work in L.A. But, you know, it's not like he ever left hip hop or hip hop ever left him. But I guess a lot has changed. He's grown up. He's become a big man. So he's now big Kish, not just Kish anymore. And, you know, there was sort of a reestablishing of himself, too, as a musician, which he claims to credit me for, of himself too as a musician, which he claims to credit me for because I put him on a mixtape 10 years ago to actually talk about the fact that he had never left the microphone, even

though a lot of people may have assumed that, not having heard him rap in a long time. So he made the transition to Big Kish and continues to do big things. He never left the microphone, but he left the country. Yeah. And that sounds like it was to benefit his, you know, and rightly so, to benefit his bank account. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, listen, every single Canadian artist, whether you're a hip hop singer, dancer, actor, athlete, you name it, you know, I'll put them in that category too, eventually has to find a way to find a bigger market. We all know, obviously, the market is bigger down there just by way of population. You know, living in Canada, especially you and I living in Toronto, I think we sometimes forget how relatively small our country is because our city is so big, right?

But yeah, I mean, there's just so much more happening in the world of entertainment down south that'll help your career that, you know, a lot of people say they're going to gonna leave and never do but he's not someone to talk he's someone who does so i have so much respect for him and he continues to inspire me and you know help me sort of as i had my little foray into the world of acting over the past couple decades he's been a big inspiration man so more kish coming up but uh did you listen there to the Toronto Mic'd theme song? Yeah, I did. Do you recognize the voice on that? No, I couldn't hear it as well as I'd like to,

but it sounded dope. Who is that? Well, here, let me see if you can hear a bit here. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to plug in a headphone set real quick. Okay. Good, because I'm going to play a lot of audio in this episode, so I want you to hear it.

Okay, I got my headset on. Maybe this will help. Okay, we're going to play it again. Here we go. And this time I won't talk over it. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check.

Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Okay, does that... I won't put you on the spot. I'll help you out if you like. I don't want to wrong guess it, but I hear what I think are familiar voices. So that was an original composition by local rapper producer Ill Vi ah okay that has to go back a little bit man i know he's flipped his style up since then okay yeah well this podcast yeah he recorded that in

i want to say 2012 okay okay that's my dude right there shouts to to Ill Vibe, man. I asked Illy. So Illy's a good FOTM, been on the show. That was the theme song for episode one. And it's still the theme song for 621. So I asked him about you. Wow. Yeah. He sent in a couple of notes. He said, the one thing he wanted me to know is that your love for classic soul music knows no bounds. That's quite true yeah definitely do you have a favorite like a favorite classic soul jam there there are tons but uh one of the first things that comes to mind is um the fact that i had the opportunity to interview the

whispers um you know the whispers are actually still touring and you know they came into existence in the 60s started putting out albums in the 70s and I mean to this day they're you know they were five members they're now three because two have passed on but the fact that they're still going is unbelievable to me and often when I bring up the Whispers to people people go uh who's that who's that again and then you got to sing them a little bit of and the beat goes on or rock steady one of their bigger hits. And they're like, Oh yeah. So it's like, they're the group that everybody knows, but nobody knows. You know what I'm saying? And to me, they're so inspiring because they got so much soul funk R and B classics. Um, but their longevity is what really inspires me so uh when i got to interview

them it's all it's on youtube you can actually anyone out there can youtube daniel interviews the whispers and it's a two-parter uh back in 2015 and um it's it's just incredible to be able to like i was sitting around legends and uh they have so many classics man and uh like i said i'm so inspired by the fact that they have you you know, albums galore, but longevity in a business where they could be in their 70s and are still on the road. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Illy also wanted me to know that your live performance is airtight.

He says you have lightning fast raps and true to record vocals at every turn. Thank you, man. Big shouts to Illy, man. I have to shout him out too. And he knows this firsthand because we've gone on the road together. And I have him to thank for booking me on a couple of the Southern Ontario tours that I've done. We've done together. So he definitely knows what I'm made of as far as my live performance goes.

And to be honest with you, that is actually my favorite thing to do in this business. Like I wear a lot of hats in the world of entertainment, but number one that tops the list is being on stage live. And I just enjoy it. I grew up in the golden era of hip hop. So I watched artists on stage and studied every single one. So the ones that involved the crowd the most that had, you know, audience participation, the ones that had energy um inspired me so it was more than just becoming an mc by way of writing lyrics but like rakim said mc means move the crowd and i live by that well i was gonna say shout out some of those inspirations man uh well the first one i can tell you because i remember it very clearly is the very first concert I went to ever was special ed

at the concert hall if I'm not mistaken this is 1990 and I was in grade eight I went with my boy J Trill who to this day is still my boy and my barber you can I haven't seen him in a while but we so my dad drove us there and picked us up and special ed was on stage. Now to all, you know, old school hip hop heads who know special ed's top claim to fame at the time. And I guess to this day was that song. I got it made and he ended his concert with it, which made sense, but there were technical difficulties. So for whatever reason, the music tripped out right from the DJ and, but his mic was

on. So he was about to perform. I got it made, but there was no beat. So I remember the entire audience started going better, better, better, better. And he, he performed the entire song over the crowd clapping and doing the, the riff. Uh, and I just thought that was incredible. And it taught me immediately as a 13-year-old, the show must go on. And to be a professional is to never let your audience go. You got to rock with them the whole time.

And so that's definitely a huge key. It was my first concert, my first inspiration. Was that a DJ Ron Nelson production? Yeah, I believe it was. To my recollection, yes. Yeah, big shout out to Ron Nelson production? Yeah, I believe it was. To my recollection, yes. Yeah, big shout out to Ron Nelson, man. Honestly, like, I mean, we talked about him in the Kish episode

in great detail, but, you know, you know, whether you're talking about, you know, Dream Warriors, right? Yeah. They recorded and the legacy begins in his DJ Ron Nelson's home studio. But, you know, you talked to Maestro Fresh West, for example, and it was like getting on Fantastic Voyage on CKLN. That was the, uh, the start. Yeah. I heard, I heard Kish talking about it

on your show as well. I think I came into it sort of on the, I would say on the cusp of, of Ron Nelson really being at the helm of like underground hip hop in Toronto or really like lifting the scene to where it would eventually go. I did visit his studio on more than one occasion. I think I was there. I remember working on something where I needed his, his DAT machine, but I never got the full experience the way other artists went in there and recorded full projects. Grade eight in 1990. That explains it.

Yeah. You were too young. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I was, I mean, I'm still of the, I mean, I'm of the age where the maestros and the Kishes and the Dream Warriors and the Mishimis of the world were my inspirations, my pioneers, my heroes, the people that I looked up to as a kid saying, you know, I want to become like them.

Exactly. As you hold up the Mishimi record, I see the Metro, you know, I want to become like them. Exactly. As you hold up the Mishimi record, I see the Metro Backbone slide. I love that woman. I love that woman. Hell yeah. And, you know, it's amazing, man, because, you know, my foray into this game, like you said, I mean, or like I said, it really started off in the early 90s. But I was a kid. And to this day, to be their contemporaries, and I can call myself a friend of Kish, of Wes, of Mishi, all of them.

They're my heroes and they're my friends. So it's an amazing culture to be a part of here in Toronto. This whole hip hop thing, it's really like family. Okay, more on that. But speaking of family, before we dive in here, how are you holding up during the social distancing and the pandemic? Like, how are you holding up during the social distancing and the pandemic? Like, how are you? I'm good, man. Thank you for asking that, bro. It's been an interesting experience for me because the majority of the work I do, even within entertainment and outside of it, I'm a writer.

I do from home. So working from home isn't like totally out of this world for me like it is for others. And secondly, I've been spending a hell of a lot of time with my daughter who turned six on the 23rd of April. and she's my ultimate joy in life. So being around my little girl, obviously she's not in school at the moment, taking on this new role as teacher, you know, doing the homeschooling thing with her. So I've been able to maintain maybe better than, you know, a lot of others. Cause like I said, I'm around my little girl so much. And when I'm not, I'm so busy doing what I'm doing in a place where I'm usually doing it anyway, man. So

keep it healthy and keep them positive. Thank you, man. So we got something in common there because, uh, my third born, uh, turned six in April as well. Is that right? April nine. April nine. That's big, man. We both have six year olds born in April. What do you know, man? We can zoom them in together to do, maybe you could teach my kid i don't know some exactly she'll she she gotta get they she'll interview my daughter well yeah it's uh him though yeah but yeah he'll he will he will yeah that's right hey there's a gentleman named mark mcdonald who uh tweeted at me and said can you ask Danio about how musical,

let me get this right, musical watching a live Blue Jays game can be when he and his brother are together? I'll never forget the hit song, Double in the Gap. That's amazing, man. Well, he obviously knows my brother and I. My brother and I, Brian and I,

obviously, you know, Toronto born and raised mega huge Blue Jays fans. If I wasn't wearing a Raptors tee right now, it'd be a Blue Jays tee. And of course, I'm missing the fact that, you know, there's no baseball or basketball or anything else. But when there was baseball there, you know, many times my brother and I would go to games. We even play together on the same softball team. One of the things that tie my brother and I together is that we're clowns and we like to turn everything into a song. So Double in the Gap is essentially, can you still hear me by the way, Mike?

Yep. You're still here. Okay, good. Because I had a battery issue on my phone. I'm going to plug it in in just a second. Double in the Gap is actually just a random made up freestyle song my brother and I made in an effort to encourage the Blue Jays to get a hit. So, you know, if there's a guy on base or whatever, or maybe in scoring position, or maybe we're down by a run or two, whatever it is that's going to help us,

you know, sometimes a good double in the gap. So we'd turn it into a song, be like, double in the gap, double in the gap. I want to see a double in the gap. we'd turn it into a song be like double in the gap double in the gap i want to see a double in the gap and that's just one of many you name the hit you want we'll turn it into a song so uh that's how musical uh to to his point a game can get when we're watching it live because we we will sing our way into a victory that's normal for us i love it man and you know i'm a little i'm a titch like a titch older than you not much but uh i gotta share a little memory i have that ties into something that some sad news we got yesterday but the first i think it was 82 i want to say in 1982 i went to my first blue jay game in exhibition stadium and bases were i'm at the time i really loved baseball and i remember thinking at the time i thought the greatest baseball, and I remember thinking at the time, I thought the greatest thing

in baseball was a grand slam. It felt really rare and special. Now it seems less rare, but at the time it felt really rare and special. The Jays had the bases loaded, and Damaso Garcia was at the plate. I remember he hit it deep. I'm at a game

live for the first time, so it's kind of tough to gain perspective, but it goes off the top of the wall it ends up being a bases loaded triple but for a moment i thought it was gonna i was gonna witness a grand slam and i was so damn excited so right i never forgot this bases loaded triple by damaso garcia and it was just sad news to hear that uh damaso although we knew he was very sick for a very long time, but he passed away. And we lost Damo. We did. It's sad. And I'm also still heartbroken over losing Tony Fernandez as well. He was my favorite all-time Blue Jay.

And both Tony and Damaso, if I'm not mistaken, were on the field when we won our first pennant in 1985. Correct. And one of my, you know, favorite memories, in fact, it's probably the memory that solidified my love for baseball and wanting to play it myself, was George Bell making that final out in left field and Tony being right there to high-five and hug him. And, you know, Damaso was part of that team as well.

And so, you know, it just kind of shows our age, that, like, our heroes growing up, those sports heroes are passing on, unfortunately. And in the case of both Tony and Damaso, they had, you know, medical issues that took them still, I would say a little younger than would have been, you know, good. So yeah, it's, it's certainly a sad time in general for us all. And the last thing we need is, you know, to hear more of our, our, our heroes passing.

So yeah, these are tough times, but God bless and rest in peace to Damaso Garcia, Garcia and Tony Fernandez, two great blue Jays, man. And Garcia, I remember he had a,

like, I always liked George Bell because he had a passion in the belly. Like I liked the feisty passion players, but Garcia was like that in that hot headed guy. And I remember, of course, uh, he burned burned his uniform i think it was 86 oh yeah i think i remember that like well you know what you gotta love those guys who have passion i mean you know speaking of my brother and singing those songs we've always been very passionate about anything we do so you know never you know never on a professional level certainly where baseball is concerned but my brother and i you know, never, you know, never on a professional level, certainly where baseball is concerned.

But my brother and I, you know, we grew up being those kinds of people where even if we were in, you know, our own little competitions, it was always a big deal. And sometimes that's where things would get heated. So to us, you know, I understand passionate players and respect them. What's that there? Okay, I'm holding something up to the camera that only you can see, Danny. It's a can of Great Lakes beer called Electric Circus. Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm holding something up to the camera that only you can see, Danny. It's a can of Great Lakes beer called Electric Circus. Oh, yeah. Okay, I see that.

So a couple of notes. One is, good news is they just brewed some new Electric Circus beer. So everybody who was trying to get a case, you can actually, I think on the Great Lakes brewery website, so Google Great Lakes beer. Make sure you get the Toronto location, not the Cleveland location. But they have a Shopify link where you can order, I think the free delivery if you live in a certain part of the city.

By the way, where are we talking to you from right now, Danny? Oh yeah, man. I'm in Scarborough. So yeah. So if you're in, within certain boundaries, I think you have to be,

I think, south of the 401, I think. But within certain boundaries, but are you south of the 401 i think but within certain boundaries but uh are you you're yourself for the 401 i am actually okay so great lakes will deliver beer to you for free if you got to buy uh cases and you can get cases of electric circus and other beers so you should do that but the guy on the can, speaking of Blue Jays, this guy is Kenrick. His name is Kenrick Pompey. No way. Kenrick, the cowboy hat. You know.

Wow. Is that really him on the can? Yeah, and he blessed it. So Great Lakes, he approved it. And the way we got a hold of Kenrick was by tweeting at Dalton and Tristan. Dalton Pompey, of course, and remember he was on third base when

Kansas City, I don't even want to remember, but I think it was nobody out and he was at third base. We were down by a run if I remember, but this is all haunting me now. I don't even want to go into it. This is 2016. 2016? Yeah. Or 2015. Yeah, those two two years they're all blurred together but

if it's the royals it's 2015 yeah all right because the amish guy remember that honest amish son of a bitch okay so what am i talking about why am i talking about this just to say that uh there is a blue jay connection because dalton was a blue jay and his dad is the cowboy famous from uh electric circus so danio can hold on hold on a second hold on a second you're telling me that blue toronto blue jay dalton pompey's dad is kenrick the cowboy hat dude from electric circus correctamundo holy shit are you Are you for real? That's insane. That's crazy. Do I look like I lie about something like that? That is the most amazing piece of Toronto trivia I've ever heard in my life.

Have you heard Kenrick as Kay Pompey? He recorded a 12-inch dance single in, I think, 1990. I'll send it to you later. Did not know that. Please do. It's called Summertime, Summertime. That's amazing i did not know that at all no i'm full of useless information like this man you should uh oh

hang with me more often that is toronto trivia man that's amazing so let's take you back man uh how that's amazing you know famously uh maestro Fresh West performed on Electric Circus, and Stevie B was in the crowd, or Stevie B was there, and he hooked him up with a U.S. record deal. Right. How does Electric Circus play into your origin story? Well, it's funny, man, because my story kind of starts with that one, man. I remember, 11 years old, I watched Maestro Fresh West perform Let Your Backbone Slide. That 12-inch sitting behind you has that version on there. It's the power mix that appears on the album.

There's a different mix. The original Backbone is what he performed on Electric. So I'll never forget it because I love the beat, love the lyrics, love everything about, I mean, the dancers, his tuxedo. love the lyrics love everything about i mean the dancers his tuxedo and i remember watching that going if this guy from toronto you know is this good a rapper i was inspired to say hey that's something that i was rapping for maybe a year at the time you know as an 11 year old i had tried my hand at rapping already for a year and i remember stevie b being on there then i remember the whole story of stevie b having um signed him to lmr because i actually have symphony in effect on vinyl and it's the american pressing with the lmr label not the

attic label that said a couple of years later so that was 88 so now so three years later approximately um electric circus was hosting a wrap-off contest and the first wrap-off contest they hosted, so maybe this is some trivia for you. I'm going to throw this this way in case you didn't know this. The first wrap-off contest Electric Circus hosted was for MC Hammer tickets. And I was like, meh, you know, I didn't need any MC Hammer tickets. I wasn't thinking of the big picture yet, okay? Right. So I remember watching the contest on television when it finally happened.

And a dude named frank morel won the first contest and frank morel would then go on to get signed by simply majestic and put out a record as brothers from the ghetto featuring frank morel uh shout out to starting from scratch he was part of that at the time. And an FOTM. I'm sorry? Starting From Scratch is an FOTM. That's a friend of Toronto Mic'd, which you are now as well.

Sorry to interrupt. Hell yeah. FOTM, all day. So from them winning that contest or him winning the contest and putting out a single in video, I thought, yo, that was like dream come true levels for me

to be able to do something like that. So the second time they had their contest, it was for LL Cool J tickets. Now, not only was I a much bigger LL fan than an MC Hammer fan, but I'm like, yo, this, this is my ticket to get on. I literally was thinking of it from that perspective. So I put together this track called Can't Test Me. I was a bold 13 year old um and i hooked up with my bredgen lindo p who was older than me and discovered me at like kids birthday parties he would dj at them and he discovered me because i would rap at these kids birthday parties like kids my age i'd go to their birthday party and rap and freestyle so we put together this cassette and i'll never forget

labeling the cassette mc dan O and DJ Lindo P. Can't test me. Trust me. This is the winner. I wrote that on a piece of paper, handed in the cassette, and we were selected as 10 artists who eventually performed to get on Electric Circus in May of 91. And you were 13. For the wrap-off contest.

13 years old. And when you wrote Danny O, was it Dan-E-O? Absolutely. It's always been spelled that way. So thanks for mentioning that because it has been almost 30 years and I still can't get people to spell it correctly. So let me just say it is Dan-E-O, but for everybody who capitalizes the E and the O, unnecessary. It's Dan-E-O. don't capitalize nothing except the d and yes that's how i spelt it then and um interesting part of that story is you can youtube so to this day listeners you can youtube uh danio or actually partners in rhyme can't test me electric circus and you'll find this footage of me as a 13 year old performing and we performed as partners in rhyme because the night before

we actually had to perform at a club against 10 other artists or against nine other artists to get on Electric Circus the following day. And I went on there, as you'll see in the video, with my high top fade. And it was me and Lindo P. And Lindo P was my DJ at the time. He was on the ones and twos, but there were no turntables. Now, I didn't even know at the time that Lindo P was actually like a reggae artist as well. So without the turntables, he got on the mic to do some, you know, his dance hall chatting. And someone yelled out.

I'll never forget this. Someone yelled out, hey, it's Kid N Play. Seeing the light. Right? And I said, nah, the name's Danny O. You better remember that. And everyone oohed and aahed because this little kid actually had some sort of backtalk then ripped into this song Can't Test Me which was totally in the vein of Big Daddy Kane I was trying to be Kane anyways long story short we obviously got

selected along with Gifted and Black my man Gabri big shout and we were the two finalists the next day on television May 4th 1991 a day I'll never forget because that's what really kicked things off for me after winning that contest on electric circuit okay remind me uh i mean i don't need to be reminded but remind remind people this was the host was monica diol at the time that's right that's right and george lagagenis was part of it he's still uh cp24 broadcaster he was uh part of it as well absolutely yeah he used to hold the hold the camera right that's right that's right that's right man yeah i had a crush on monica those days man so it was amazing to have her introduce me bro it was crazy i still have i still have a crush on monica

yeah yeah it didn't go nowhere it's just that's when it started but that's when we became partners in rhyme because we weren't m Daniel and DJ Lindo P anymore. He was more than a DJ. He got on the mic, too. So anyways, that's how it all really popped off for me, man. OK, I'm going to play a jam and then we're going to talk about this here. So, OK, pardon the potato quality of the audio here. Dear Hip Hop. Yes, sir.

Which holds up, by the way, because I've been listening to it a lot the last week. It still sounds fresh. It still sounds great. Thank you, man. Yeah, I appreciate it, brother. That's obviously the song that put me on in terms of being a recording artist. we're circa you know five years after the story we just told about electric circus as

a 19 year old that got released on rap essentials volume one which today still recognizes a seminal hip-hop compilation for canadian hip-hop and um yeah i was blessed to be part of that and obviously the dear hip-hop record got selected um to be on there i was able to be part of that. And obviously the Dear Hip Hop record got selected to be on there. I was able to tour the country with Shot Clear and YOK, have my video in rotation. Those were some good times, man. And to this day, of course, I'm appreciative of you saying that because so many people still holler at me about Dear Hip Hop. And it's a song that really resonated with people. And I obviously can't do a show without performing it.

Yeah, man, it has held up throughout the test of time. a show without performing it. Yeah, man. It has held up throughout the test of time. I'm glad for it. I've done so much more music since then. Sometimes I have to remind people. But I'll never be upset about the song I call A Gift and a Curse. I'm so glad that people love it after all these years. But it's like, hey, want to check out the other couple hundred songs they have? You know what I mean?

But yeah, it's all good. I can imagine, because even last week when Big Kish recorded that little voice track for me about one of his favorite songs of all time, the song he was kicking out was Let Your Backbone Slide, okay? Right, right, right. Let's face it, you know better than anybody,

Maestro's still dropping new music that sounds amazing that's right right but the only maestro song you're going to stumble upon on terrestrial radio is let your backbone slide yeah it's like i said i call it a gift and a curse because some people don't have these so-called gifts right that one undeniable classic that left an indelible mark on people um i can't speak for west but i know for me you know i put my heart into that song writing it as a 17 year old so to be in my 40s and to have people still message me and i'm talking about worldwide bro like this album the dear hip-hop album was pressed to vinyl in 2014 by a french label and it's been remixed by producers in Japan and pressed to vinyl out there.

So it's like, for some reason, it's had this worldwide impact that I think even people here in Toronto and in Canada don't even realize, even though it's considered a Canadian hip hop classic. So, you know, if I never make another song, you know, I can still be able to say, hey, I recorded that that held its own for for decades and people still talk about so something to be proud of but in spite of the fact that yeah i want people to hear all the other stuff i've done but i totally respect what you're saying gift and a curse because you had that moment and you said it the words and i think

they're appropriate which is a canadian hip-hop. Like I think for sure to your hip hop is a Canadian hip hop classic, but you were very young. Like how old are you when you record that? I recorded it at 18. Wow. Wow. I have an 18 year old son. Okay.

I can't get him to like, I can't get him out of bed. You recorded that song when you're 18, which is amazing, but it's the gift gift but it's a curse in that uh do you find people are they just want to hear that again like is that part of the curse for for me personally the the curse only comes by way of if that's all people know of me i mean if that's all people like of me i don't have any problem with that as long as they've checked out

the rest of the stuff been able able to compare it and go, nah, I prefer Dear Hip Hop. People who do know my catalog, thankfully have given me a lot of love for, you know, the rest of the music I've created over the past couple of decades. Sometimes the curse part comes by way of,

like I told you, when Dear Hip Hop came out, I was touring, the video was in rotation on an actual station that used to exist that played, you know, music videos. So there was so much more, actual station that used to exist that played music videos. So there was so much more for me to be placed in a position to seem like I was just as big a star as anyone else you saw on TV or heard on the radio. And a lot of that has dissipated since then. And so today, most of us, Wes included, we function as independent artists who push our own music, who don't get the exact same type of push that our records originally got when they came out all those years ago.

So to some people, especially depending on their age, Dear Hip, there's people like, yeah, man, what's he been up to since Dear Hip Hop? They don't even know that I'm like all these albums deep and everything. So that's that's the curse part when they haven't really, you know, heard about the rest of it to know that there's more. Well, let's play a little more. I'm going to play some more. In fact, I got a few more jams. Don't worry.

It's not going to just be Dear Hip Hop. There's a lot more here. But let me play something and talk to you about this one. Sure. Wow. But still get served like pastry, it pays to be A true MC for what it's worth in this The beautiful is not new to this, a rock reality They rock the mood of Christian foolishness

I knew that this would happen, once it started rappin' Your brain's clappin' in submission Utilize my position, mind the movement of distance Send a nigga's vision for the missing link We on the brink of the vision of stink You will soon see it will soon be Neural unity and left in mystery, like dinosaurs in history Animalistic instincts coinciding with tranquility

Spread through our facility, a monolithic ability No chivalry, viciously running shit like Bob Fosse Wow. Now I heard monolithic there, so let's... Yes, sir. Monolith, right? Your crew. Yeah, man. You know, to be fair, I think... Dear Hip Hop is most definitely not my only... I won't say gift or curse or classic even,

because the Monolith crew definitely was able to make its mark as well. I'm very proud of that fact that, you know, the whole crew, what you're playing. By the way, where did you get that? Because that's plan A from the long awaited EP. And I just had someone literally yesterday go, hey,, I don't have the cassette because that's how we put it out at first and on vinyl. Could you,

is there any way to get my hands on it? I'm like, I have no idea. I got a couple tapes left that I won't let go of but I'll see if I can send you a digital copy.

How do you have planning? Well, let's tell people plan A, the A is E-H. That's right. So fair, but you can find it on YouTube. By the way,

real quick, Danny. That's right, of course. That makes sense. See, that's how old school I am. I forget. But you can find it on YouTube. By the way, real quick, Danny. That's right, of course. That makes sense. That's how old school I am. I forget. Are you scratching? Is there a microphone you're scratching against?

Oh, okay. I'll tell you what. Tell me if this sounds any better to you. I'm going to unplug. Can you hear me? Yeah, you sound great. Is this better or worse? Better.

I thought maybe you were scratching along to plan A, but now i realized it was accidental so yeah man i apologize um i had put in a headset which contained a microphone that was probably rubbing against my shirt gotcha gotcha gotcha i've been told to get rid of this thing okay so how many how many members on the the monolith crew well the monolith so that project so plan a is off the long-awaited ep and um it ties into this story because after dear hip-hop came out in 96 uh sunlight by yok another member of monolith also appeared on that same album rap essentials volume one and it became pretty clear to us pretty quickly that you know we weren't signed recording artists so we decided to put

together our own label, One Rock Records, and effectively create this project together called the Long Awaited EP. Plan A is the first cut off the EP. What, there's like 12 of us. I lose track of the numbers sometimes. And so, and to this day, I'm happy to tell you

that, you know, the monolith still exists. We're still crew, we're still family. In fact, there's a record on my new album, The Day It All Changed, called Family Stays, featuring Grimace and Charisma. Those are the first two artists on plan A that you just played. I'm actually the third on plan A. So the three of us are back together on a track

talking about how monolith is essentially a family. We all have kids now, and we're raising a whole new family. And a lot of people ask about monolith as if Monolith is a past tense thing, like whatever happened to that crew. And it's because they recognize us as a music group, when to us it was always so much more than that. Like we're boys who like, we're godfathers to each other's children, and best man at each other's weddings.

Like this is a group, the crew, the family that we are. So that was a project that dropped in 98 was another claim to fame for us man would you be able to name drop every member of that uh of the crew back then easy easy grimace love charisma uh rashard uh earths which is black cat and cory d's niche rocks blitz equipped landscape. Um, uh, hopefully I'm not missing anyone missing anyone. Who else did I, did I, I hope I said everyone I might not have. Uh, let's see. I think I got them all a desk Joe, big shout to Destro rest in peace to Destro. Um, and there was many members of the crew actually,

who weren't part of the music group. So there was a time I want to shout out people like Daryl, the third, who's still making a lot of noise on the graffiti scene and case. We had graffiti artists in the crew. We had DJs in the crew, producers in the crew. But the family that stuck together is pretty much, you know, a lot of those guys you see in the video, the rappers, producers who, like I said, stuck together as a family. You ready for another trip down memory lane here? Sorry, you know what? Now that I've taken the headphones out, I can barely hear you.

Okay, you can stick, if you promise, you can put them back on if it helps you hear me because you got to hear me. Let me do that and let me not, this mic doesn't get off. Okay. Okay, I'm going to, I can hear you better and I'm going to hold this mic so it doesn't hit off okay okay i'm gonna oh okay i can i can hear you better and i'm gonna

hold this mic so it doesn't hit nothing beautiful man sorry listeners you were asking about the crew i think sorry uh actually i'm gonna play another jam and we're gonna talk about this so uh another another trip down memory lane here all right Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh Hardness, go hardness, hardness, go hardness, hardness, go hardness Hardness, go hardness, all the lyrics, blender in you You make my head drop, and you work for the time I dare all y'all to say to my face what you say behind my back Find me whack, why is that? You always rewind my track Mind your track, to the wrong person when you dissing me

Differently, it's the key that'll finish you instantly My history's grooving, I repeatedly get into you Ignorant dudes, like going, know what I'm saying? In interviews, venting you, become accustomed to since I'm getting vibes All these regressing vibes, on stages the question stops Like, what's the deal? It's monolith, the illest crew around you No gap, like noise in libraries, you wish you were deaf Who in half? The hell are you punking off? You done so soft

You been thinking I'm so sick, they yelling, hold your step and call You can hurt my pride, your whole clique, I suffer with rhymes from stable The staples couldn't hold your shit together, and if ever you talk about battle rhymes You should hide your hood, lookin', cause I'm so good, I'm fine Oh, man. I love it, man. I love it. This is B.O.D. B.O.D. You were ahead of your time.

That's the B.O.D. Now, that's from the Book of Daniel. So this is your debut album. Yeah, that was a fun video shoot man as you can tell yeah you can find bot on YouTube too we had a mansion rented for that back when we had those big budgets but of course we had to you know ask for via grants um yeah so the book of Daniel dropped in 2000 um also on one rock record so a couple years after we did the monolith EP of course the monolith pretty much did that entire album with me.

So in that very song, you'll have Charisma and Spider-Man. Charisma produced it as well. He continues to be my producer to this day. And thankfully to a lot of my fans who, you know, send love my way, they keep bringing up the book of Daniel, too. And they call it a classic, even though listening back to songs like that, I think, wow, how many, you know, what a difference I would, you know, so many changes I would make to it. But I think the beauty of putting out records that are now 20 years old is it helps you to even remind you of your own growth and your own development as an artist. And it was fun. You know, songs like Bad was just us talking about how bad we were on the mic. And like, you know, these days I have so much more to say. But then we were just having some fun and just trying to prove ourselves as MCs. So, Bod was one of those kind of monolith joints because there's three of us in it.

And like I said, we were, you know, Video Fact, if you'll remember. Of course. A lot of us got, you know, got grant money to do our music videos. And I remember that one, the producers we were working with and the directors like, yo, we're going to try and get a mansion and we'll do this whole video sort of making fun of the way that all these rappers do videos which is pretend that you're rich and uh but it was fun though that was fun man that was for sure bro and now there's a fun one to perform too now there's toronto rappers who don't have to pretend they're rich. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's amazing. So often I think about EPMD's crossover and that line from Paris Smith where he's like, still, I haven't seen one rapper live comfortably. And it's amazing. That was what, 91, like today, young artists get into the game with the assumption that it's going to help them live comfortably, more than comfortably to to become a rapper, to get into this music thing.

And it reminds me that we came in. We came in in an era where we took nothing for granted. You know, we're even finding hip hop on television. You know, we're even finding hip hop on television. You know what I mean? Like you talk about Electric Circus, like we watched that show knowing that it was a dance show, but that you might see some hip hop videos. You might see a hip hop artist perform because it wasn't as readily available as it is today. I mean, it's night and day. Today, obviously, you can stream anything you want, anytime you want. Back then, we were sitting and waiting and hoping that Rap City was going to play a video or something like that.

And we had to really fight for what we loved and respected and wanted to be a part of. So easy now because seemingly, you can become rich and famous by rapping. That wasn't the reason we did it. We weren't assuming it was richness and fame that was going to be the reason that we got into it. Oh, man, I got so many questions. Yeah. And by the way, you reminded me of a memory I have where I would... I liked...

Munch Music would do this show called Spotlight where they would just play videos from one artist. I had VHS cassettes and I still remember recording the public enemy spotlight like they're going to play everything like from uh uh black steel in the hour of chaos night of the living bass heads like when were you going to find night of the living bass heads on much music i know you know i loved i love spotlight it's funny you say that because to this day i still think of my videos in terms of because they would put the song title the group title the label then they would show the album in the year it was released and i would that would always stick with me like you know so i'm like you're talking about useless trivia earlier i won along with my homie nish rocks from monolith a hip-hop trivia contest it was some downtown toronto that game night it

was a hip-hop trivia thing and we won it because i have all that stuff lodged in here like release dates and stuff like that man so trust me like you i have a man i have a box of at least 20 odd vhs's of of hip-hop videos which of course no one needs now because you can get them on youtube but bro i got those my book my buddy ed from retro ontario would uh would would rip those for you can get them on YouTube. But bro, I got those. My buddy Ed from Retro Ontario would rip those for you and get them archived. Oh man, I would love it because I'm pretty, and this is how much of a hip hop nerd I am. I would save, so I had like this old computer where essentially I would type out every video that I recorded on the VHS. So I'd have a track listing and these tapes might take me a year. So I would actually title them. I call them Hip Hop Vision. So I had Hip Hop Vision 93, 94, 95.

And in each cassette is this piece of paper with the typed out list of every video on the tape. You're cut from the same cloth as me, man. I do the same kind of shit. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Yeah. I mean, maybe it's funny by today's standards because I mean, I don't even have a VHS, VCR to play them in right now. But yeah, I have those. So who knows? One of these days I probably should digitize them. You know, it sounds like you're a natural born archivist and man, I'm thinking now I'm thinking you should have your own podcast. Well, it's funny you should say that, bro, because I do.

And oddly enough, it's perfect timing because it literally only just restarted. So for anybody out there who knows me through this vein, I started or I co-founded The O Show in, I want to say, 06. And it ran for about six plus years. And it was actually, we called it like locker room talk show. Me and my homie, Big Daddy Donnie, co-hosted the show, which actually had professional wrestling and MMA as the foundation for our conversations. And then all of my music would get thrown into the mix. And because of the coronavirus pandemic, we're all at home, obviously. Similarly to you being on the microphone

right now, we decided to start it up again. So it is not called The O Show, but we have just started literally as of three weeks ago, a brand new podcast called The Godfathers of Podcasting. And the reason it's called that is that Donnie, long before The O Show with me, had started a podcast in the 90s with his friend and and uh still friend chris tidwell also known as the notorious tid he was a professional wrestler so today he's combined these two shows and has tid myself and himself as the godfathers of podcasting and essentially it's all over the place and including live on facebook uh for those who follow us wow that's yeah he's the og og of podcasting going back to the nineties.

Crazy. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah, man. I'm going to play another jam, but I got to ask you a followup about the, uh,

the, the, the, cause I know those much fact, what was it called? The, uh, the,

the much fact or fact. Yeah, it was, it was called video fact. And then it was called much fact. And it's gone now. I guess, you know,

bell media. That's it. Yeah. You're, you're, you're done. I mean, uh, as far as getting grants are concerned. Thankfully, today, the technology has so vastly improved that through, as I'm sure you know,

handheld cameras, you get much better quality than what we were paying tens of grand for two decades ago to shoot on a film. Right. Now, can you tell us, us normies, like what the hell, because I remember many, like whether it was Mr. Metro or whatever I would watch that much would have the, you know, yeah, I shouted them.

I love that song, Mr. Metro. Yeah, classic material. Yeah, Devon, right? Or Devon? Devon, yeah. Devon, Devon. I think he pronounced it Devon. Okay, yeah. I'm not good at pronouncing anything, but. Or Devon, Ion, yeah. Devon, Devon. I think he pronounced it Devon. I'm not good at pronouncing anything.

Or Devon, I don't know. It was great, though. Do you remember the song by Shinehead, Don't Give Me No Marijuana, Crack Crack? Do you remember this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was obsessed with this. They would play it once in a while. It would just go on the much video flow once in a while.

Shinehead, I used to like that. I might act crazy, but I don't smoke crack. And I was just like, I love this thing. I don't know what happened to Shinehead. But if you know, let me know. But tell us about video fact. How much money could you get out of that thing? And how did it work exactly?

Well, to my recollection at the time, you have to think of an era when we didn't have this technology, where your friend next door did not have a 4k camera or an HD camera to go around the block and shoot something that looked crisp that did not exist. So if you're a musician, and you want to put out music videos, the only way to do that, of course, if you had no budget like us was to apply for it sorry my phone went dead again here I am my was to apply for it through video fact so video fact essentially was a body I believe you know run by I think the government of Ontario or Canada actually either way that you would apply for it all all hard copy like you're filling out pages and pages of papers and stuff sending in

your photo and your bio and stuff, sending in your photo and your bio and your music, all in an effort to get a treatment for a video, a synopsis, the treatment, how it was going to be shot, the whole deal. And you would apply for it. You'd wait probably a month or so for it to go through the jury system and hear back to whether or not you're going to get funding. To my recollection, I think they gave up to $15,000, I think maybe at another time up to $20,000. And I was fortunate enough to get, so that's how Dear Hip Hop was shot,

I think on a $12,000 budget. So think 1996, whatever $12,000 Canadian dollars meant. Bod, the song you played earlier, I think we did for 10 G's margarine corrida de toros those are all off the book of daniel and then i did one more video after that on my second album see no evil hear no evil called tnt and i think that was the last of the video fat grants that i got both monolith videos plan a and at the top were also video fat grants so again anywhere from maybe if you were lucky so like like, I think five might've been

the minimum and maybe 15, you know, so you're working between 10, 10, call it 10 to 12 grand as an average budget for a music video. And yeah, man, if you're one of the lucky ones, you got it. I was, uh, I mean, we, we got it fewer times than we applied, but we did get a few. And again, without them, I mean, I don't know what my career would have been like without a dear hip-hop video considering that that's how much that's how many people know me so right you know gotta shout them because it doesn't exist anymore like you said so what a big deal for us yeah i mean it's literally you get the grant or you don't shoot a video because there's plenty of other songs i would have shot videos for but had no budget that today that we wouldn't even be discussing it because we find a way right right man yeah so it

was uh it was really it was really crazy man but you know sad to see it go although in a way hopefully what this means is people got to invest more in themselves i think some people really laid back on it hoped for funding as opposed to opposed to really investing in their own careers, which you got to do. Time, energy, and money. Now, I would only assume that part of Bell Media's reason for killing it is that they don't do that anymore. Much music is different now, right? Now it's for Simpsons reruns. You know what's so insane about that, Mike?

I remember, not just as an artist, but as a fan watching music videos. I mean, you brought up all those Public Enemy videos. I got every single one of them on one of those bunch of those hip hop visions. As you know, all those songs had to be clean edited, like radio edited for television. You can't cuss. Some of them had to have images blurred. I remember there's even videos where they wouldn't even just cut out cussing, but you couldn't show a gun. They would blur words like rob or steal or, you know, things like that. Or allusions to smoking marijuana. Like if you said smoking green or whatever, they would censor that, right? That's right. Exactly. Perfect example.

Smoking, marijuana, all those words would be blurred out. And today, the exact same station is, as you said, not just The Simpsons, but a whole other movies. I've seen content on Much, and I'm like, yo, they haven't blurred out a word at all. But I get it. Maybe it's 20 years later. Maybe our ears are less sensitive, whatever. But dude, it was a hassle and a half in fact to this day the dear hip-hop video that's made its way onto

i believe if i'm not mistaken the one that's made its way onto youtube is the one that much music used to air and they even blurred out a couple of words in dear hip-hop that it just like it's all i can tell you is that they kind of they cut the song so in other words the only way to blur it would be to blanket completely so the beats gone the vocals are gone like they chop into your audio and you have to have it um closed caption so there was all these rules that you had like if you didn't do it you weren't going to get it broadcast and now they're broadcasting all kinds of stuff that would have never made it on television. Yeah, but now nobody's watching, so it doesn't matter, right?

I guess that's the point, too. You know, in one of my songs, you know, I want to do a quick segue here called Return to Sender. It's on my third album, Inevitable, and Return to Sender is actually a sort of reply. It's a sequel to Dear Hip Hop. And that hip hop has finally written me back. It's finally responding to after all these years after I wrote him that first letter, Dear Hip Hop. And that hip hop has finally written me back. It's finally responding to after all these years after I wrote him that first letter, Dear Hip Hop, he's responding. And in it, he says, you know, thank God for YouTube. Because, you know, the way that television and

radio is carrying on isn't keeping it true, dude. I think I said something like that. And I think that's one of the, I won't say one of the reasons for YouTube's existence, but definitely one of the ways in which YouTube is used, obviously, is where much music wouldn't air a lot of our stuff. Because I have videos they wouldn't air, by the way. Right? So yeah, you saw me on Much, but there are videos they wouldn't air. obviously airs anything you upload pretty much. And it's the new way to find music. It's the new way to locate an underground artist who, instead of sitting in front of a TV, hoping that it comes on, but as long as you can punch in a name,

you'll, you can locate what you're looking for. But Danny, who's curating it? Like it's a sea of content, right? There might be some diamonds in the rough, but we, and this is for better or worse.

And again, much like beer, hip hop being a curse and a blessing for you. Like I was introduced to so much music because much music aired it, which meant they were like the gatekeeper, right? They're the gate. They're curating that content for me.

And they're deciding which Danny O tracks I get to, you know, uh, absorb. But now I find on YouTube, it's a big ocean with a lot of shite, some, some diamonds in the rough. But where is the, like, I almost need like a DJ Ron Nelson to like be like, here, you should hear this jam.

It's from this guy. He's from Scarborough. And here's why I like it. Here it is. Like, kick out the jams for me, you know? Well, here's the thing, man. The new gatekeepers are brothers like yourself, Mike. Well, here's the thing, man. The new gatekeepers are brothers like yourself, Mike, because by you having a podcast, 600 plus episodes deep, I think what you've done, you establish, first of all, the new, is that you put us in a light to say, this is someone worthy of you knowing. This is someone who's passed my gate, so to speak, for you to hear him on my podcast. Therefore,

unlike the litany of trash you might find in going on a YouTube search, here's a particular artist that will be archived on this podcast that is your exclamation or your declaration to the world that this person is worth your time. Go check out his music or whatever content, you know, because you can't otherwise. I agree with you. That is the gift and the curse of the Internet in and of itself is that literally anything can be uploaded between the trash and the treasures. And you got to sift through them to find what it is you love i love what you're saying man but i actually have to like i have to be i have to go rogue and break the rules to do what i'm doing right now like i can't i can't play public enemy legally

on my pod i do it like i'm telling you i do it i'll play the whole freaking song i had chuck d on this program okay Okay. I will, I will play rebel without a pause, which I did. And it's, but I'm doing it and it's like, come at me, bro. Like, it's like, I, I have no legal way. There's no legal channel for me to play a licensed piece of music legally. Like I can't go pay some kind of a, so can, but did you not? But when you had Chuck on the show and you played Rebel Without a Pause did you have any issues

doing that no but in theory Apple today Apple podcast could say violation we're removing your podcast from our channel like and they're like they're you know so Toronto Mike being removed from Apple

podcast today would hurt me as a podcaster because so So Toronto Mic being removed from Apple Podcasts today would hurt me as a podcaster because so many people get their podcasts from Apple Podcasts. But they can do it because I violated the rule, which is you can't play unlicensed material. But I would say, and again, this is a side rant, but it ties into what you're saying is, I would love as a business expense,

because producing podcasts is my business, I would happily cut a check every year if it's a reasonable amount. I would cut a check that would allow me to play some music on the podcast that I obviously don't have the rights to. I would happily do that, but this does not exist. Yeah, that's a tough one, man.

It's hard from that angle because to be brutally honest with you and i probably speak for the vast majority of artists that you know and have interviewed we do that shit anyway you know what i mean right on down to sampling i mean you played bod earlier that dropped in 2000 that's a heavy you know there's a marvin gaye record that was sampled for that um that has been since sampled by other artists. And it's like, dear hip hop, my claim to fame, which is going on now, and it's what, 2020, almost 24 years old, that song. No one's ever come at me and said, hey, did you ever clear that Ramsey Lewis sample? You know what I mean?

But we both know why. Because if Drake did that, they'd come at him. 100%. And again, you could probably even subtitle this episode, The Gift and the Curse, because that's another part about being an independent artist who owns all his masters, who's been able to essentially have complete creative control over his career, but hasn't reached Drake level so that no, they are not coming at me, nor would they come at me for the, you know, the piddlings or whatever they, I owe them in royalties because at the end of the day, even the way my song has been consumed, the way it's been played, whether it's on the radio or in a club or on a podcast or whatever, has it been by way of them being able to locate what type of royalties they're owed anyways? You know, DJs and MCs and everyone else who's part of this culture, you know, we do shit

rogue anyways, you know, and to me, that is part of the culture. It's to say, listen, we're creating music in our way. Hip hop came from like funk and soul and rhythm and blues and all, you know, and sampling and recreating is a part of the culture in and of itself. So to this day, to be able to do that, even if you want to say playing a clip on your podcast by way of not getting permission, it's just the way we've always done it. And until you become Howard Stern and I become Drake, who cares? It's funny. Do what you got to do, man.

Okay, two things. One is that you're pretty much describing the song Rebel Without a Pause, right? Sure. This is a sampling sport, right? And the other thing is, I think what you're saying makes so much sense, except algorithms don't have feelings. Yeah, of course.

And what's going to happen, because Spotify is already, I'll just say Spotify, I have a sort of an offshoot called Kick Out the Jams, and Spotify has an algorithm that's crawling audio and it's saying hey this is a this is too much janet jackson okay right goodbye and it's not like a human being said ah man he's just promoting a local he's just promoting right you know and he's just a look he's this this isn't here to pirate music. Algorithms don't think that way.

No, and the crazy part of it, again, I mean, I see the good and bad to all of this, is that in a way, there's a way for me as an artist to even get what's supposed to be coming to me. So, for example, now when someone uploads my music on YouTube, there was a time where I'd punch in my own name and be like, what are all these videos? People were uploading my audio like crazy. And I'm like, how are they able to do this? And now what I've noticed is, you know, YouTube, I even contacted my own label about this. I'm like, what's going on?

Am I getting royalties from this? Anyone who uploads a song, one of my songs, as you can see, like underneath the video, it'll show like where the song, you know, comes from. So apparently that becomes part of my streaming revenue. So I don't get mad at the fact that a YouTuber or Spotify is essentially in that particular respect, looking out for the artists and going, well, if you're using this, this artist deserves, if this is how it works, a stream and therefore revenue that's supposed to come by way of that stream. Because in the past, we didn't really have that outside of like, obviously registering your music with SoCan and hopefully having, you know, whoever registered the fact that they're playing your music with SoCan. But again, at the pennies a glass that

we receive for it, I'd much rather have people like you go, hey, man, I'm going to play you a bunch of Daniel tracks on this podcast. It doesn't bother me, but you're right. I can't speak to how these algorithms work because that's the sad part of it is as much as we don't care, they are seemingly trying to look out for our best interests. And you said the penny's a glass or whatever. And I've had many Canadian famous musicians on who laugh at the streaming royalties. Like they have a great laugh and they like to tell me about the time they got that check for 89 cents or something. Yeah. Yeah, it's ridiculous, bro. I mean, I'm also from the old school. So like you probably, you know that a unit is an actual, you know, one copy of an album or whatever, a CD, a record, a tape. When I heard that 1,500 streams equals one unit, I'm like,

who came up with this ridiculous math? 1,500 streams. Even if you bought a CD, your favorite CD, I bet you haven't played 1,500 times. You're probably right, yeah. So, I mean, whatever. You know what I'm saying? I'm from the school of, here's the thing, bro. One thing I can tell you that being, you know, the age I am now and the number of years I've been in this business is I think to be in this business for this long,

you, without saying, have to have a passion for it that goes over and beyond the checks that come your way. And that's why the checks that come my way come through a variety of different avenues. You know, you mentioned I'm an actor, you know, I teach songwriting. There's things I do for my checks. Music is one of them, but I don't allow the check to be the reason that I do it. It's a reason. It's not the reason. And if it was the reason, there wouldn't be a reason to do it because it's so, they're so hard to come by. And if you are talking about royalties, yeah, yeah you're not you are getting pennies a glass and it's ridiculous that 1500 streams is one unit sale that's that's so moronic it's not it just i my head can't wrap my

wrap itself around that well you heard uh kish's appearance on toronto mic'd a couple of weeks ago and he revealed the and he admits he signed a bad deal. So he's up front about that. But those albums we loved, Order From Chaos, for example, he revealed, you know, the number, which I think the number he dropped was like $191.

Okay. Wow. Wow. I know. No wonder he's in California right now voicing video games and animated shows, etc. Yeah, and being very successful at it, too. I came in the business at an interesting time where Dear Hip Hop was licensed to Rap Essentials Volume 1. So unlike Kish, I didn't sign a recording deal. sign a recording deal. I failed to mention earlier in my Electric Circus story that when I won the wrap-off contest, I was actually signed by Simply Majestic, the same group who had put out the Frank

Morrell record. Thankfully, I never put out a record with them because where they wanted to go musically was not anywhere where I wanted to go musically. And even as a 15-year-old, I learned the hard way what this record business is all about. When you get signed and you lose your creative license and you now have to adhere to whoever signed you to do what they tell you to do. Thankfully, my contract ran out and I had never released a record. And for me, Dear Hip Hop being my debut single was because I was back to being independent. I wasn't signed and I had the control to make the kind of music that I wanted. So yeah, I never signed a bad recording deal.

And again, the flip side to that is I never signed a recording deal. So I didn't become a mainstream star. But then again, that fits me perfectly because I'm not a mainstream artist. So it is crazy, man. The complete flip side of it now is these tiny streaming numbers. But you're right. Back in the day, artists were pressing records on these major record labels and not seeing the dime that they should have been receiving from all of their sales.

After the Electric Circus victory, when they wanted to put you in a different direction, did they want you to become like Chris Cross? It wasn't exactly crisscross so simply majestic for those who remember in the early 90s was a was a dance slash even hip house type entity you understand and like i i wasn't anti that kind of music but i was anti making that kind of music and so yeah they uh I was, like I said, I was 13 at the time or going on 14. And the guy who signed me was like, I think he wanted to keep me, the words they used back then were commercially viable, radio friendly, you know. Oh, CNC Music Factory.

Absolutely. That kind of stuff. I mean, if you go back and you check out the Brothers from the Ghetto record, you know, that's dance type of stuff, right? I will give you this story though. I told the story to somebody recently, not on a podcast or anything. So this is probably the first time I've revealed it on air anywhere. And I was shocked cause I've been telling this story since I was like 15 years old. And I was shocked to find out the person that I had told the story to said, I know the people you're talking about. So here's what I'm here's the story. When I got signed, I was asked to write songs, songs that, again, were not in the bank.

Remember, for those who are going to YouTube this or know I'm talking about can't test me was like Big Daddy Kane esque. What they wanted me to do was very poppy and and radio. So they'd have me write dancey, get on the dance floor kind of these types of songs. Okay. So about a year into it, I had done that. I had written these songs. I had never really recorded anything. So I hadn't really gotten my studio game on yet. But I was asked to do a song for a compilation album. This compilation album, I couldn't tell you the title of, but I do know that it was volume three. And the dude was like, there is no volume one or two, but we're going to call it volume three because we want to give the audience the idea that this is a successful brand. And I was like, wow, like I was smelling bullshit at 15 going,

I see where this guy's coming from and I don't like it. Anyways, he gave me the hook and the title of the song. hook and the title of the song. And to the best of my recollection, it went like this. Come swing along with the swing along gang because the swing along gang will swing when the swing along gang in the swing along some swing along stuff. So finally, a year into this contract, I said, you know what? Nah, I'm not gonna I'm not writing that that's that's enough and i'm i'm done and sure enough i was still invited to the release party which which had about the exact same amount of people as this podcast right now uh an empty house anyways i went to the party

and i see these guys in the corner and they're freestyling with each other. So I loved joining Freestyle Cyphers back then. So I'd go in and sure enough, it was the Swing Along Gang rehearsing the Swing Along. So they had written and recorded the song for that compilation, which went all of nowhere. But apparently after a year of songwriting, that would have been the song that I would have recorded and had released. And if that was my first release instead of Dear Hip Hop, I don't think we'd be doing this podcast. That's fair to say.

By the way, that song you're singing, that song that you're describing is almost exactly like, do you remember the Get Along Gang? Of course. It was such a rip. The Get Along Gang gets along, gang. Each one is different in their own way so so i i you know i'm i'm not throwing names out there because the truth is i've actually forgotten the names

but um i i recently like i've never heard of this record since the day it came out back when i was 15 but i mentioned this to someone recently if if anyone out there listening to toronto mic right now knows who i'm talking about feel free oh to send uh messages our way and let us know because that hilarious experience is someone else's nightmare not mine fotms love a challenge like that so i know a bunch of especially a bunch of toronto hip-hop heads are now digging through crates or whatever but it's uh reminding me of uh not i guess we can't say his name anymore, but Bill Cosby had a movie called Leonard Part 6. Yeah, yeah. But there was no Leonard Part 1 through 5.

Like, it's the same kind of bullshit, inauthentic nonsense. Yeah. I remember The Roots did a song on their first album called Leonard Part 1 to 5. Oh, that's perfect. Because they're like, whatever happened to Part 1 to 5? Right. Oh, that's ridiculous.

Okay. Now, you mentioned already your your third album solo album which which kind of has a response to uh dear hip-hop but i gotta play a cut i gotta play a cut from the second album real quick here so here we go sure Prince rapping to KOS and when I'm live with my brethrens Monolith, Urban Bounce and Rat Rat on me It's all about girls by the plenty and you see right now it's all about the Kama Sutra So ladies I only wanna see some sexy positions when you're whining right? Hey! Whine your way snow! Ay ay ay! Long ago in the hearts of Scarborough sweet mama rushing me hard like Gilda Cuadro

She look good. it's thunder recognize the big dog respect that i'm under when you're coming back young sister just whisper okay chamasuchin now yes sir red rat uh how how are you uh how do you know red rat he's my cousin and it's it's crazy because back when we did that record so that was in 04 we recorded in probably 03 um know so being of half Jamaican half Spanish and one of my cousins who's like not a first cousin but you know part of the that side of my family I think it was like a Christmas dinner one year she's like you know who's part of the family I said who she goes Red Rat you know Red Rat of course I know a Red Rat she goes yeah he's part of the family? I said, who? She goes, Red Rat. You know Red Rat? Of course I know Red Rat. She goes, yeah, he's your. So apparently our grandparents, I believe it was my grandfather and his grandmother are cousins.

So we're not first cousins, but our grandparents are first cousins. So when I discovered that, I told my manager at the time, who he himself is Jamaican and a big reggae head. And he was like, yo, Red Rat's your cousin? And he went on this rampage to locate him. And he did found his manager said, yo, you got a cousin in Toronto, got him on the phone. And we started, you know, super today. I mean, Red Rat and I are still in contact. We've since recorded three more songs together, including one for my third album and a remix from that particular record. And he's doing well. But yeah, that's when we sort of discovered this family bond. And we're like, hey, man, we got to do a record together.

And we did. And of course, the Monolith guys got all excited about it. And it turned into Kama Sutra, which is this quasi-soka kind of, you know, ode to beautiful ladies of all different cultures. And we did that record, which is a lot of fun to do. Now, this was pretty popular on YouTube, right? Did you see any money from YouTube for this one? You know what's funny?

I got to ask Grimace because Grimace Love, Monolith co-founder, who is in the song, he uploaded it, right? Now, this goes back to I'm like technologically disabled. Like I'm really bad to this day, brother. Like I'm really bad. So I didn't start a YouTube channel until well after everyone else started a YouTube channel. And so he's like, listen, I'll upload your videos for you. Like the Dear Hip Hop videos on his channel, a lot of a lot of videos of my early earlier ones are on his channel. So I got to ask him because i remember him showing me the numbers and i'm like

i think the title of the song might have something to do with that because i'm pretty sure people are trying to look up compositions on youtube and finding us by accident so it doesn't hurt to have red rat in the the mix too doesn't hurt that that that doesn't hurt at all no but uh but yeah i mean but that was that was a fun one to do and um it was our little caravana theme uh for all toronto heads y'all know what i'm talking about amazing shout out to dr j by the way who's who's like the biggest soca dj in the city arguably the country everyone who knows soca knows dr j and he begins that song and uh yeah it's really cool to have him be part of that too okay we're gonna come right out of kamasutra here into another jam uh a perfect

stranger's uh joint here so let's cool man these days it seems we can't make money Like Drake money, right? Every week the government gon' take money Why? Gotta check 10% to RSP Have to rent, spend, nothing left for artistry Plus my wife's like hopefully he don't forget the groceries I hope that he knows we got kids in these ovary eggs But before one of them gets made

We need to see one of us get paid None of it seems strange, it's the way that it is It's just not the truth That we say to our kids They fibs Last week I had to ask my landlord If there was anything in my crib He'd give cash for

All he asked for was my passport I just need to make sure you pay me That's all So I ask God If first it's you Help me out I got some work to do I know

Yeah Dude, that's tight, man That's a banger right there Respect, man Shouts to my cousin Promise, who you just heard Interestingly, some of these choices I'm not the first rapper you hear in the song But it is a banger

What version, I know you're on YouTube Are you playing the music video or the track? Well, at some point In the last week I Found it, I think it features Drake the music video or the track with Drake? At some point in the last week, I found it. I think it features Drake. Yeah, that one features Drake, yeah.

Okay, so talk to me about that and talk to me about Perfect Strangers and we'll let the people know how you spell perfect. It's not Perfect Strangers, which was a fantastic sitcom with Balki. Absolutely. It's Perfect. P-E-R-F-E-C-K.

That's right. So replace the T with a K so that it's not spelled perfectly and you'll get perfect strangers, which is myself and Promise, who's an incredible solo artist in his own right. That was interesting. 10 years ago, actually 11 now,

I did a mixtape called Dilla Pickles, which was my tribute to J Dilla. God bless him. And Promise joined me on there for a song. And when he did the song with me, I was reminded that he had already sent me a song to record for his project and I never did it. Now, that's unlike me. Anyone who gets at me, I'm the type of guy who responds through email, text, phone, whatever. And I felt really bad. I'm like, like yo do you still want to do that song and he's like he's like yeah i was waiting for you and i'm like dude i'm really sorry man listen i'm not usually like that trust me we could do a whole album together and he's like yeah sure i've heard that before because you know if you're in this industry you know most people are full of talk and not being that kind of guy i

didn't want to have that reputation so one thing led to another and I went over to his pre-production studio. I was like, let's do a bunch of, forget one song. I kind of overcompensated. I'm like, forget one song. Let's do a bunch of songs. So he played me a bunch of records that he had done. One of them was work to do featuring Drake. And he said, you want to jump on this?

And Drake was just beginning to become the guy that we know him to be. He recorded this, obviously you can tell before tell before you know the real heyday came and um one thing led to another and we were about halfway through a full project when we decided listen let's do this as a group so instead of daniel and promise we became perfect strangers finished the album came out in 2012 it's called series premiere because we did kind of use the perfect strangers larry and balky theme as this whole how these two we call each other cousin to this day because of the larry and balky thing so anyone who peeps the album series premiere will know that we have a song that kind of likens us to being cousins a la larry and balky but also because we do come from two different worlds like Like as we've been discussing throughout this interview,

I come from that like golden era battle rap hip hop promise comes from a sort of gospel rhythm and blues background. And we have different backgrounds by way of our music. And so coordinating with each other, it kind of felt like perfect strangers coming together. So we do actually happen to be in the middle. I shouldn't say the middle in the beginning stages of working on a new project we do have a full length out and perfect sorry work to do just happened to be the first single we dropped and we included drake's

verse in it on the album similar to the problems you were talking about earlier with you know having permission to do certain things uh drake is because he was too big a superstar by that time for us to go ahead with it so he's out and i'm in in the album version but if you haven't seen it yet mike and i recommend this to anybody else out there my favorite music video of my career and i'm north of 30 maybe 40 music videos including monolith and perfect strangers is work to do if you're a fan of the movie office space you will like this video so whenever you you get a chance, check out the music video for Work To Do by Perfect Strangers, because it is my favorite music video that I've personally ever done, just because it's so funny. It's an Office Space video. And who's not a fan of Office

Space? That's a classic. It's a classic. Yeah, definitely a classic. And I mean, the song and out and the whole concept fits much of what we've discussed is that for us, there's still work to do. And in the song, I say at the time, Promise was signed to Duck Down. Drake was world renowned. And here I am, little old Daniel still fighting for his spot in this music industry, asking Kanye or Lil Wayne, somebody to listen to me and sign me. Like that's the concept of the lyrics because, you know, it's a, it's a declaration of being proud of yourself, but at the same time, knowing that this shit don't come easy and you have a lot of work to do if you want to make it in this business. And for me, bro, I can tell you that I've defined success for myself, man. A lot of people define success by how other people define success. Like how many YouTube or sorry,

Instagram followers or likes and comments or for that matter, streams and all the numbers, right? All these numbers, algorithms, as you say earlier, what the rest of the world tells you, metrics. And I look at it by the way I feel, man, the way that I feel about making this music is really no different than when I was that 13 year old, bro. I have such a passion for it, a love for it and the fact that i'm still able to do this short of obviously this awful pandemic being on stage on a regular basis shooting these videos hosting events you know doing features on other people's albums you know now with respect to the internet taking over as the new way to consume music i've done records with people in france and japan and spain and like It's just, it's a, it's a great thing.

So I'm in love with what I do and that's why I work so hard at it and continue to put in that work. So that work to do record in that whole perfect strangers album, sort of, you know, in that vein. And especially if you love hip hop mixed with some soul, you'll, uh, you'll dig that one. So no regrets. you'll dig that one. So no regrets. Well, you know,

I have a sort of yes or no answer to that because no, because here I am, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm happy to be where I am. Like for example, my last album, I know you haven't gotten to it yet and we're doing this in chronological order, but like,

you know, it's all about, and I mentioned her earlier, you know, my baby girl, my daughter. So I have now an album, um,

that is completely dedicated to fatherhood in my relationship with my little girl, my daughter. So I have now an album that is completely dedicated to fatherhood and my relationship with my little girl. I could tell you that the relationship with her mother didn't work out. So when people bring up the whole concept of regrets, sometimes we can be quick to go, man, I wouldn't have taken that route again because of all the stress that I endured.

But at the same time, you have to look at what came as a result. My daughter is my greatest accomplishment in life. As it relates to music, I can say the same thing. There's a lot of steps that I took that I wish I hadn't. I could even go so far as saying, hey, you know, I wouldn't have signed with Simply Majestic if I could do it all over again. But every single thing I've ever done has taught me a lesson. I learned how to write songs doing that and write songs in the vein, like even understanding bar counts, choruses and bridges and verses, you know, like just the technical side of it. You know, after that, I started learning how to perform. I was opening up for artists. I entered contests,

battles, talent shows. So everything I've done, while not every single thing has been an amazing experience, they've all been learning experiences. And without them, I wouldn't be where I'm at now. And I'm happy where I'm at because again, I'm still doing everything I've ever said I wanted to do as an actor, as a musician. Do I want to be bigger and better? Sure. But I know that I'm still working at it as I just finished talking about. And I will continue to work at it because I'm living the dream, man. I told you before, man, people talk about success the way other people define it.

And like I said, I teach songwriting. So sometimes I'll have youth. They'll ask, hey, do you ever feel like you wish you had made it and stuff? I go, who said I didn't make it? I'm doing it. You know what I'm saying? I wake up every day doing what I said I wanted to do. Too many people are confusing success with how many zeros are in your bank account.

Correct. Correct. And how many zeros are in your bank account. Correct. And how many people know you, you know what I mean? Like I guarantee there will be people listening to this podcast of Toronto Mike, who will be introduced to Daniel for the first time. And in one of my recent singles, it's called nitty gritty.

It's on my dude, sky, the cooking Jack's new album. Still, he's a producer from Japan. So that's a japanese release i say um it's crazy my next door neighbors don't have the faintest ideas about my flavors my playlist they skip like bayless uh only knowing who drake is but in japan they say this play this their hip-hop

shit it's the greatest so to me the fact that i literally have next door neighbors who have no clue who i am but there are people in japan right now spinning my latest record to me it the fact that I literally have next door neighbors who have no clue who I am, but there are people in Japan right now spinning my latest record. To me, it's kind of the fun, exciting, crazy part of this whole thing is you never know who you're going to touch. The only person who can stop you is you. There's just no quit in me. And to me, that's sort of, you got to enjoy the ride. You know what I'm saying, man? Like a lot of people look at success as the one day when I finally make it will come when I either land that starring role or make that, you know, million dollar check or whatever. And then they'll consider themselves to have made it as opposed to

enjoying this entire process. For me, as we've talked in this interview, you could argue that it started in 91. And by the way, it didn't because i was rapping for for years before 91 but on 91 i got on electric circus as a 13 year old here i am nearly three decades later talking to you about these last three decades and i'm in the midst of working on my next album as we speak so yeah man i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna say no regrets man i'm i'm here because my my heart has never stopped beating for what I do. Now, I would regret it if I forgot to play the Worldwide Vapors. I teased it off the top that I got a jam here with you and Kish and Maestro here.

So let me. Cool. I go first the next one. Worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide Three legendary lyricists who's all about the music We laid the foundation down but y'all are so abusive What happened to respectin' pioneers, flying fears Droppin' science before your reliance, knew what science is The truth, I fight the fears, reminiscing How I would listen to Kish and my so fresh west To make my mission, to stick to my vision

To eat em' seeds like vector, becomein' hip-hop Dexter Rats, animal lector, Vexter Masses are kind of insane, talkin' out they asses And we have gone and been slain Kish is runnin' Hollywood and West just dropped a book And I've been teaching kids to rap to leave the industry shook I like the Chris Bosh reference there. Okay, so that's from Immortal. You dropped that in 2013. But yeah, it features, I mean, we're going to hear him,

but it features Big Kish. I got to learn to call him Big Kish. I know, right? Well, and Maestro Fresh West kept changing his name too, but I still call him Maestro Fresh West. And Red Rats on this. Well, some of the E went back. So, wait, here, hold on.

Let me play it up again. This is the guy Tom would have gone to do. He's lied a few rhymes on these trifling crews. Because back when you catch me, Iran's on Apache with bombs and with Maximum. Play it up again. Yeah, Kish, man, great to hear his voice here. So this is, he's seven years old, but it's a newer track. And was it a lot of fun to put together Immortal? Yeah, Immortal was really cool because Immortal is an EP and Inevitable is the album. And they were sort of all recorded at the same time.

So Immortal and Inevitable function is sort of like a two part series. And so Immortal Immortal Drop First is a free EP still available online. You know, you can go to daniel.com, download it free and it contains that record. And then Inevitable came out a couple of months after. that record and then inevitable came out a couple months after um and it was amazing for me to do that record because actually worldwide vapors is a remix so you can also find vapors um i think we called it vapors 2012 at the time but it's just called vapors with big kish viceo fresh west and actually dj mel boogie who's wes's sister And I found out she did the cuts on the original song, which is basically a remake of Biz Markie's Vapors. So if you know that song, we remake it.

And I found out that it was the first time that Mel Boogie and Wes had ever appeared on the same record. So I was super honored to be like the guy who, you know, did a record and brought brother and sister together. But the credit deserves to go Kish's way because Kish came up with the concept to remake Vapors, and he produced it. So because it's essentially just a remake of Vismarkey's version, of Vismarkey's Vapors, Snoop did a version once, too.

We decided to remix it for Immortal because Charisma, a.k.a. aka skizz one of the monolith members uh that was a combo project between me and him so immortal and inevitable is a completely charisma produced uh two-part project amazing man amazing yeah i mean like i told you before too man i mean i still looked up to kish and west i was that kid watching rap city and watching them you know so it's amazing to be able to say you know i've done records with them and can call them and just be their boy these days it's just sort of surreal but yeah man those oh here we go. Yes, sir. me a real chance to show whenever you name the dopest rapper you answer has got to take me into account like a new transfer so that's the nitty gritty i love it man now what's this music together presentation you're doing uh a concert from your bedroom yes thanks very much for for bringing that

up um this sunday sunday sunday at 8 p.m easter um what's that april 19th uh yeah i will be performing live from my bedroom it will be uh streamed live on instagram and facebook uh for those who ain't following yet daniel d-a-n-e-o 10 10 is my handle daniel 10 10 on instagram and um by my given name i'm daniel Faraldo. You'll find me on Facebook. And Music Together is actually an Ontario Creates organization that is, and they want me to say this. So I'm going to go ahead and say it now because this makes perfect sense for me to do. If you are a musician in Ontario, you can apply through musictogether.ca to be paid a grand to perform live online for at least a 20 to 30 minute set. And it's amazing because obviously we're all stuck at home not doing gigs.

So I did perform on March 25th from my bedroom. That 45 minute concert is still available on Facebook. You can watch it anytime. So this will be my second uh you know coronavirus pandemic from my bedroom concert but it is being brought to you by music together.ca who is um supporting me financially for it and i have to give them a big shout out for that well i gotta give you a shout out man because you gave me so much time you were so honest and we didn't even touch on the fact you act like yeah um real quick i just want to do this for you i'm gonna do this super quick because i know the listeners can't see it but if you take a look i want to show you something um that is the nitty gritty five inch single this is a five inch and uh for everybody out there if you're still a vinyl collector i just want to shout sky the cooking jacks because out in japan

they do things different. The Nitty Gritty single came out on a five inch. He also put out a single by me called Sunshine, which is on a seven inch flexi disc. You remember flexi discs? Yeah, I think. A flexi disc is not a hard piece of vinyl. It's actually literally a floppy piece of vinyl. Anyway, I'm going to show it to you

because i know the listeners can't can't actually see it but if you look up sky the cooking jacks that project is on spotify so of course uh you know you can stream it but yes um as far as the acting goes i've been doing that for a long time um here it is by the way i just want you to see it mike this is the sunshine single it's like translucent it's translucent and it's a square it's crazy um but yeah man i've been acting for quite a bit uh mostly commercials but i have done three feature-length films so for anybody out there wants to check them out my first film's called anything goes came out in 2011 i also shot for tapped out which is an mma based film i play that's like my biggest on-screen role ever so

if you're going to choose any of them check out tapped out because i play the promoter of an mma league or whatever and my most recent one i have a small role in a horror movie called life changer which has worldwide acclaim through festivals all over which was really cool to be a part of other than that you'll see me in commercials, short films, music videos, things of that nature. But I want to shout out Wes one more time because he actually got me to take acting classes. I'd say like a decade or so ago we were performing together, and he's like, hey, man, I know you're acting now. And he knew that because I was in an audition with him,

and he always likes to poke fun at the fact, even self-deprecating fun at the fact that i beat him out and got the role because it was for a rapper right right and all my roles back then was for rappers man like if you go to my youtube channel daniel ferraldo uh youtube channel because i use my real name for acting um you'll see that there's a there's a demo reel full of commercials and a lot of them the early ones were just rap stuff. So Wes was like, yo, take some acting classes. And I did. And it really helped me. And then that's how I started getting, you know, I shot a role in Breakout Kings when that TV show existed and

a bunch of others, because instead of being a rapper, I was able to expand and do other things. Then of course, I cut my dreadlocks in 2012. So that also changed things. And I started getting roles as like the dad and stuff like that. So yeah, I auditioned regularly. And I work in that in that in that world. Maestro is a hell of a good actor himself. Exactly. That's why it's like, honestly, I have to shout him because as I said earlier in the interview, he was a big inspiration for me to become this rapper who was really going to put effort into having a career. And as an actor, man, I mean, I was doing it. And then I think I took it to a next level after he encouraged me to to take acting lessons.

This was actually at the first manifesto. Another interesting thing about that conversation is that at the time, Wes was wearing a Yankees cap and i gave him shit for it as a staunch toronto blue jays fan and every time he sees me to this day he said i haven't worn a yankee cap since so yeah i'm shocked because wes is so good at repping the toronto teams man like oh big time and like he's got a he's got a ton of toronto fitteds he's got jays fitted you know but i'm like my guy nah let me not see to this day not just him but like i give people shit for wearing i'm too i'm too much of a fan it's a baseball thing it's not a fashion statement i'm with you man you can't cheer for any other team in the al east that's no the al east is the enemy absolutely absolutely man daniel man, what a pleasure, man.

I really, really enjoyed this, and I'm grateful you took the time and chatted with me. Me too, bro. I really appreciate you, man. You know, Kish, he hit me up. He said, hey, man, I did Toronto Mic'd, and I shouted you out. I was like, oh, okay, cool.

And I checked his episode out, and I heard what he had said, and I figured, you know what? Let me just hit you with some of the collabos that kish and i did and so i want to thank you because you were cool enough for hitting me back and saying hey man let's get you on the show so that's awesome man and this was a fun time for me as well i appreciate it and that brings us to the end of our 621st show you You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Dan is at... I can call you Dan, right?

Dan is at... Yeah, absolutely. Danio10. So that is D-A-N-E-O-1-0. That's you on Twitter. That's Twitter, yeah. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta by the way, Danny-O next time when this pandemic's over and you can actually make your way to the studio I'm going to get you a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta and a six pack of Great Lakes Beer Yo, let's do it I look forward to that, just make mine veggie

and we're good I can get you a veggie and I can get you a Toronto Mike sticker, courtesy of Sticker U. They're at Sticker U. And, of course, the Keitner Group are at the Keitner Group. See you all next week. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or do For me and you

But I'm a much better man for having known you This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.