Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - iLLvibe: Toronto Mike'd #40

Episode Date: June 5, 2013

Mike tells Rosie and iLLvibe about his Manventure with Elvis and iLLvibe calls Mike the whitest guy he's ever met.

Welcome to the 40th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me as always is Rosie from mytorontoscoop.com. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. and hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. What's up, Rosie? Mike, last week I said after the song, we have to have Ill Vibe back on the show. I miss him. He's so cool.

Being around him just makes me feel cooler. And you made him appear. He's right here, everybody. Abracadabra. Yay! Welcome back, Illy. Illy. I call ill vibe Illy.

How's it going, Illy? Good. I never realized how white you sounded until right now, Toronto Mike, when you said Illy. Illy. You may have killed that nickname with one use. That's so funny. Stop laughing. You're whiter than I am, Rose. No, Literally, Toronto Mike does the voice that Dave Chappelle does

and he does a white guy's voice. It's Toronto Mike's voice. That's funny when Dave Chappelle does the white guy voice. Yeah, that's how I sound. You stole his swagger. Illy. Yeah, anything with ill in it. I didn't mean to do that to you.

I deserve it, but anything with ill in it is hard for me to pull off. That's true. It's so nice to have you back. Rosie, you look lovely today. Thank you. Thank you. How do I look, Ellie? Come on.

Lovely man. Actually, no, I want to tell our viewers that Mike... They're listeners. He needs to... Our viewers. This is for all of our blind listeners. Sorry, although I think we do have a blind listener. No, more than one.

Half my audience is blind. Blind Dave. Hi, Blind Dave. He's a blind and he listens to us. He's awesome. Do all blind people put blind before their first name? Like Blind Dave, Blind Matt? Blind Lemon Jefferson?

Blind Dave also on Twitter because he joined Twitter recently, which has been fun. He actually added blind and deaf because Blind Dave was already taken. So on Twitter, he's Blind Duff Dave, which I find hilarious. It's awesome. Which makes it tough to listen to this podcast. But to our listeners, you can't see us, but Mike, Mike needs a haircut. I'm just saying it, Mike, you need a haircut. It needs to happen.

It needs to happen soon. Let's ask the cool person in the crowd, Rose. Illy. Do I need a haircut? You know what? I like the style overall, but definitely if we shaved a few centimeters off of the top of it and brought it down to a more reasonable level. It needs grooming.

If I gave you a pair of scissors, would you take care of that? I'm not the dude. I'm not that rapper who works at the barbershop. No, that's not your area of expertise. Your area of expertise is music. Okay, can I tell you a funny story? I was invited to this retreat of sorts by Chevrolet, General Motors, Chevy, whatever.

They wanted to introduce their new 2014 Impala, which they make in Oshawa. So there's a lot of stuff, which I'll go into in a bit. But the first thing we were all scheduled to do is meet at this men's grooming place. And I was certain I was getting a haircut. Oh, my God. This was Monday morning. That's incredible. That would have been amazing.

Yeah. Was this in Oshawa? Was your retreat in Oshawa? No. Yeah. But it was not much of a retreat. No, it wasn't. It was Fenelon Falls. It was called a man venture. I like that too. I took the co-host of my other podcast. Your blog sucks. I took Elvis and we met at Mount Pleasant in Eglinton. There's a grooming place. And I thought I was getting a haircut for sure. Elvis thought he was going to get a shave, so he let his beard grow.

My hair needed a haircut. I'm getting married in two Saturdays. Oh, you're getting married in two? Yeah. Wow. I think that's part of why this hair is looking like this. Yeah, that's partly it. You're saving it.

In a way, this is kind of like your hair occupying Wall Street. It doesn't want to go down, so it's going down fighting. I think I'm trying to ugly myself up to keep myself faithful. Yeah, okay, I see it. Repel the females. Uh-huh. Well, it's going to repel everybody. Okay, so they dunked my hand in wax.

I don't remember what this is called, but there's like a... Oh, you had paraffin hand treatment. I had that. And then they shampooed me and massaged my scalp. And they cleaned up like some neck hair and some stuff going on, but no haircut. Oh. So they didn't give you a shave. It was like sort of just a little relax.

They kind of gave you like a haircut like appetizer. Like they did like a little bit, but they didn't really. Right. Yeah. But yeah, but then we went to Oshawa, a great lunch And we got an Impala And we drove to It's called Fenelon Falls on Lake Sturgeon And we golfed

My first golfing since Lifetime Jim Rose At Michael Power High School Are you much of a golfer, Toronto Mike? You seem like a golf type I'm not white, am I? Yeah, yeah, yeah You do This is the first time I've golfed Basically since high school I'm not white, am I? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do. No.

This is the first time I've golfed in my, basically, since high school. Oh, okay. Now, you've got to get right on that mic, though. I know you're... Okay, I'm not up high enough. Okay, perfect. That's beautiful. So, you sucked. You sucked.

I sucked. You sucked. But I beat Elvis, which is all I cared about. And I did 56 in nine holes. So, you both sucked together, like your blog. He sucked. He sucked. And then we had a whiskey tasting with this Scottish guy who loves

single malt whiskey. Oh, Scott would have loved that for Father's Day. I'm going to get him the one. I can't say it. J-U-R-A. That's good stuff. He loves that stuff. He raved about it. It's made in some special Scottish. He gave me a story. I didn't appreciate this whiskey.

Illy, are you a whiskey guy? I am a whiskey guy, actually. Yeah. Whiskey, scotch, that's kind of the stuff I drink. I'm a dark liquor guy. When I was young, I drank a lot of vodkas and white rums, but now my old age, I'm 30 now. Since you guys see me last, I turned 30, so I'm an old man now. You do look old.

You've joined us on the 30s side. In rapper years, that's like 75 that's right i'm surprised you're still here that's great have you ever had laga lagavulin lagavulin i don't know what that is no really really anyone listening that likes that the the single malt business that's it's really expensive posh fancy i to me it smells like bacon. So you like whiskey, or just the husband? The husband, yeah. The husband likes it, and you do not. You like your wine.

I like my wine. I have to say, I don't hate it. When we were in Attenborough, we did a tour of the whiskey tasting tour thing, and I remember, it was, I think, actually, honestly, the first time I had ever tried it was a long time ago and I liked that feeling

when you have a sip and it sort of goes down and it like burns and I liked You liked that? I didn't like it. Oh I liked it.

Ellie I was in there's 12 men in this room doing this whiskey tasting and by the second he has this measuring device to give you this amount for the second tasting I actually wanted to cough

but I was like afraid to be the guy who coughs. So it's like I'm suppressing this cough, but my throat's burning. Then my eyes start to water. I could barely get through the third glass. But you're not a big drinker of anything. No, I have like, outside of Europe, I have like 10

bottles of Heineken a year. Oh, really? So you're not a drinker at all? Yeah. During a hockey game with pizza, I'll have a Heineken or two at the max. And I never have one or two. It's like I'm not a drinker at all. During a hockey game with pizza, I'll have a Heineken or two at the max. And I never have one or two. It's like I'm not a drinker at all. These single malts were wasted on you, Toronto Mike. I know.

You're so straight-laced, Toronto Mike. Well, look, I'm going to go to my crack tent after this recording, okay? But what about all the crack that's all over the table? This is Toronto, man. This is a side business. This is business, not pleasure. Illy, before we catch up on what you've been up to, oh, maybe I should wrap up the Chevy thing just to say it was amazing.

The car drove nice. Was the new car sweet? Yeah. I thought it looked like a cop car, but it looked cooler. Elvis drove it there. I drove it back. It just, I mean, compared to my shitty 99 Protege, this thing was so quiet and it handled so well.

It was just a solid automobile. But this thing starts at like 30,000. How do I get on this list of people getting invited to these kinds of things? You have to be a mover or a shaker. I don't move or shake. That's the problem. They're called web influencers.

That is what TorontoMic.com is. It was sweet. And then we had a great lunch. Well, we spent, first of all, I had a, I stayed at this cabin up at Fenelon Falls, so I slept there. And then woke up, had a little breakfast, hit the road,

had a great tour of the Oshawa plant. It's like a million square feet. And it was amazing, the logistics, to watch this thing. It takes 25 hours or something to put an impala together and start to finish. To watch the parts, it's insane. It boggled my mind. I'll write about that later.

You just did something there that I always feel like I'm different than other guys. I've never summed a place up with the total square footage. That's never happened. I went to this place, total square feet, 2,000. That's something my dad would definitely do. Hey, I was just at this mall. Guess how many

square feet it is. If you hit a million square feet, I was just at this mall. Guess how many square feet it is. You know what? If you hit a million square feet, then I'll bring that in. But until you hit a million. Until then, that's the threshold. Okay. That's very cool. So there you go.

And then we had a nice lunch. I can't remember, but it was Mount Pleasant in Eglinton where my car was parked. We had a nice lunch, and that was it. It was two great days with Chevy and the Impala. And I hope it does well because there's so many people working at that plant. I know. And it sounds like this Impala is a big deal to the plant. I'm a fan of Chevy.

It's all I've ever had, starting with the Chevette. Okay, sweet. And then the Cavalier. Yes. And now the Equinox. I also drove a Cavalier. Oh, they're the best. Definitely.

Some of my early adventurous years were in a Cavalier for sure up in Barrie, Ontario I got quite a few parking tickets speeding tickets what are you doing intoxicated in your car tickets I was a young, I was a kid a kid in a small town he's 30 now, he's looking way back summer of 69

it was way back I dented, I had a lot of dents in that old Cavalier. I had a Ford Escort that I loved for years. I was a Ford guy, a Ford Taurus, and now I have a Mazda, which is 20% owned by Ford, somebody told me. Oh, really? So you really not left the family.

So I didn't leave the family. But I am cheating on Ford with my Chevy stuff. Whatever. They're giving you stuff for stuff. I can't F with Ford. They got the fourth row seats at their Canada Centre, and I'm hoping to get back in that next year, so I don't want to F with them. Okay, let's move on. Illy,

before we dive into what you've been up to and all the wicked stuff you've been doing, what are your thoughts? I want to hear Illy's thoughts on Mayor Rob Ford. First of all, have you heard any of the rap songs written about Mayor Rob Ford? Yeah, Ch mayor Rob Ford? Sharon is hilarious. I said, Sharon,

it is. I literally died laughing about like some of this stuff. He said is great. And then decisive dropped something called Rob Ford. That wasn't quite as cutting. Cause he, he's a bit more abstract, but still interesting how much of a hot button issue it's become for like

the hip hop community. All sort of taken, having to take on it. And believe, those are the ones named after him. Over the next two years, every Toronto MC is going to get their little kick in. When's Drake going to get in there? Is Drake going to cook something up? Drake.

I wonder if he will, actually, because I think it's big enough that if you referenced it, people would know what he was talking about. All his 16-year-old fans in China or whatever. But anyways. But did you see that cartoon? The Rob Ford crack smoking cartoon that made its way around? Remind me, maybe. I'm inundated with stuff.

It looked to be a Chinese cartoon rendering of the story so they could tell the story as part of the Chinese news. They did this cartoon rendering of Rob Ford. They did that with Tiger Woods after he got hit with a car. They do that in Asia. It's hilarious as they show all these Canadians running by with Canadian flags Oh, they did that with Tiger Woods after he got hit with a car. Yeah, they do that in Asia. Really funny.

It's hilarious as they show all these Canadians running by with Canadian flags so that this is Canada. That is funny. Okay, that sounds hilarious. I've missed all these things. Mike, can you please, on your site, can you do a little wrap-up with links to the best of? Just the best of, the videos, the cartoons.

Rose, didn't we delegate that response to you? Do you have a login yet for TorontoMike.com? You did, but I can't find it. I will give it to you again. I can't find it. That would be great. Just a little wrap-up because that sounds hilarious and I have not seen it. Because again, same thing.

Inundated. So in your circle though, you guys are in that 30%. Rob Ford can do whatever he wants and we love the guy. Are you in that 70% of reasonable, sensible people? Yeah. I feel like whether even if the crack thing is true or untrue, even if it's untrue, it's come about

because popular opinion is of that this guy is a loser and he's not the person we should have in office. He doesn't represent the city well. Even if half of the stuff

said about him is untrue, he doesn't represent the city well. And public opinion internationally is that we have a clown in office. So that's the last thing

that we want to have. Clown is a good, that's a really good word. He should step down. At a certain point when the international community is laughing at Toronto, you stepown is a good, that's a really good word. He should step down. At a certain point when the international community is laughing at Toronto, you step down and go, okay, I'm now crapping.

No, he should. He will never step down. That guy will never step down. He doesn't care enough about us to step down. Fall down and roll down the stairs. Okay, great. So we got, officially for the record, we have Illy's views on Rob Ford. I wanted to start with that because that's important. And I believe I speak on behalf of all of hip-hop the entire toronto hip-hop community

is anti-rob ford i'd say so yes you're in that 70 good illy proof of life your 10th studio album yes ma'am it's happening this fall i believe yes so i mean it's wow it's what i'm working on right it's what i'm working on right now is Proof of Life. I haven't set a release date because I'm trying to approach this differently than the other nine albums I've done. How do I elevate everything and take it to a new level? Approach the whole process a bit different. So I'm crafting song by song, working with really specific people

that I think are geniuses to build the songs that will eventually make up Proof of Life. So that's what I'm doing right now. That is amazing. How does it feel? You've made 10 albums. It feels like I didn't make 10 albums. Because sometimes, and right in the beginning when I first was going to announce my 10th album, I recounted like three times going, I'm not at 10.

That doesn't make any sense. That's a lot. But then when I count through them, there's 10 there. And that includes certainly like I did a project last year called Robots Wearing Sunglasses where it was myself and another individual. Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. That's a lot. But then when I count through them, there's 10 there. And that includes, certainly, like, I did a project last year called Robots Wearing Sunglasses, where it was myself and another individual. Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. That's right. So I include that in that, because, you know, I sat in the studio and produced that

album from scratch as well, even though my name isn't what's on the front of it. So that includes some, you know, some side groups and some things I did. But, yeah, this is it, man. Number 10. And I'm 30 years old now as well, so it's like, you kind of want to do things differently in an equality way as i always sort of talk about being 30 as an mc you know if you're 30 years old and you're an mc you're either a celebrity or you're a loser and that's

that's nobody really wants to talk to a 35 year old rapper who can't pay his bills that you get to a certain point where it's a problem right so the pressure's on's on a little bit, and as the name builds a little bit, you really want to keep moving. So this is it. This is the time. Proof of Life is the one. Okay, last time we talked, you've done a couple of episodes, including the most downloaded episode in the history of Toronto Mice.

Is that true? The one that I was on? It's true. I share the stats of Rosie, so she'll verify. It is the most popular. And I think it's even more – you did one where you interviewed Howard Glassman. Howard Stern. Wait, wait.

So Rosie just said, Ill Live is more famous than Howard Stern. You are, yes. That can't be true, but you are more famous than Howard Glassman. Humble Howard. Humble Howard, right? Our friend Humble Howard Glassman.

Humble and Fred or whatever? Exactly. Did you know Humble and Fred? Because you're only 30. I've seen the billboard, so I don't know. I've never listened, but I've seen the Humble and Fred billboard. See that billboard? That's a big thing.

Yeah, but he still never listened. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is... What does it take, Ellie? What does it take? Toronto Mike interviewed Humble Howard, and a lot of Mike's readers of his blog and a lot of our listeners are huge, huge, huge, huge fans of Hubble and Fred. Makes sense.

Mike had Howard on, interviewed him, and that was very well received. But still, your podcast was more downloaded than that one. How did you promote it? Did you share it with your fandom? Here's the thing. I have my finger on the pulse of Toronto. So that's the secret. And you still don't get to

the chevy events i don't know still see but chevy doesn't know the problem is that i'm i'm an influencer of a different community that chevy is aware of but soon we're getting coming it's coming but but really i think what it is is like i spend a lot of time on social media because for me it's a really cool way to interact with my fans so there's a lot of people there who when they're bored i think they just creep over to my page or my Twitter feed and see what I'm saying. And if I'm on a podcast or something,

then, you know, I love podcasts. I think it's a great way to kill some time or whatever. So, you know, we get some of those hip-hop fans into the podcast world. So you're going to push them

to this one, this number 40. I refuse to mention that I was on this podcast. This interview is over. I already posted. I already posted. I'm getting people

excited about it. You guys should all follow Illy on Twitter because I love your Twitter feed. I love the stuff you post. Yeah, careful. You have a lot of really fun inspirational you'll post a lot of inspirational things that sometimes make my day.

I post lunacy. There is some lunacy but we all have our moments. And that's Ill Vibe Music. Yeah, at Illvibemusic. Give him a follow. Give him a test drive. You make me smile quite often. Since we last talked to you, I understand you now focus more on music.

Please elaborate on this life-changing decision. Mike Illvibe quit his day job. Whoa, that's huge. You're no longer a sanitary engineer. That's right. My janitorial days are over. No more urinary pucks for Ill Vibe. That's huge, though, because the last, yeah, when we talked to you last time, you were.

I spent 10 years in the advertising business. Certainly, I never, I mean, I did as a kid, but I wasn't working in a labor position or anything like that. But I was working in the advertising game, working 50, 60 hours a week at that job on top of music and video and all these other things that I love to do. But I hit a point where, A, my boss was a douchebag, and I was like, I do not want to do this anymore. Why are all bosses douchebags?

Yeah. They're all douchebags. He was a particular douchebag. Power check. So there was that happening, and at the same time, we're coming into summer season where this is really when I'm busiest anyways, so I thought, let's take a leap of faith. No old man ever said I should have taken less risks, tried less things.

So I quit my job two months ago, June 1st, and now I'm still going. So far, so good. We're going to try to keep this plane off the ground. Amazing. Good for you. So tell me, though, do you make enough right now for music to support your lavish lifestyle? Between music and my other various businesses, all of which are legal.

That's not like drugs. Wow. But, for example, I consider myself a professional videographer and video director. So I shot like 60 music videos last year on top of my day job. You shot 60 music videos last year? Yeah, that was last year and probably 20 or 30 so far this year. And so now, but the good thing is because I've got a reputation, I'm able year and probably 20 or 30 so far this year. Wow. And so now,

but the good thing is because I've got a reputation, I'm able to make a little bit more money for those projects and can supplement my income. So things are going really well and also doing some events and trying to get some

other things off the ground, but really it's the music videos and stuff that covers that. It covers all the diamonds and the strippers and stuff. And the crack. I mean, all this crack on the table.

It's not cheap. That doesn't pay for itself. But he is a supplier, so he pays wholesale rates. I do pay wholesale rates. I have a question about your artists. So you were saying that you work with a lot of different artists. And I think you're going to play some stuff that sounded really, really good. That features one of your artists.

You want to play something to introduce this? How do you? Yeah. How do you find them? Get me started? So, yeah. So let me give an intro to who this guy How do you find them? Get me started. So let me give an intro to who this guy is, and then we'll play the track. So this young man, his name is Mac Vibes. The fact that we have the same last name is merely a coincidence.

He's from Montreal. He's an 18-year-old kid from Montreal. I met him when he was 17. And I think we might have talked about this before, but I do these sort of contests online to win free music videos. And it's an opportunity for young MCs to kind of get something they couldn't afford otherwise. And it's good marketing for me. So I do these contests.

So Mac Vibes won my first contest. He rallied a militaristic force of fans. Love it. Hundreds of fans to help him win this contest. And immediately it was on my radar. Like, who is this kid with this massive support? And he just creates amazing songs every time. i heard him he sends me i'm like wow i couldn't do that until i was damn near 30 and here he is at 17 and now 18 years old so i signed him to my new label which

is heavy ox records um and really it's just putting other people through the system that i apply to my music whether it's music videos and photography and these things and so mac vibes we've now we're dropping his album june 15th it's coming out really soon that these things. And so Mac Vibes, we're dropping his album June 15th. It's coming out really soon. That's the day of my wedding. That's Mike's wedding day. That's why we picked that day. We're going to have a record release party after.

Yeah, let's do it. It's called Lost Love and Sleep Was Dreaming. He's a really cool young guy. He's incredibly talented. And so this is the first big single from it. It features me. It's called Get Me Started. Mack Vibes, Heavy Ox Records.

Let's go. Let's go. I wanna know if you would ride with me, kick back and just vibe with me. Spend a couple nights with me. She can't lie, feels right with me. Girl, I haven't any time of the day. I swear, baby, I stay awake. I really can't resist temptation. Baby, what I'm trying to say is you really don't get off my mind.

I think about you all the time. You don't want to get me there. Play hard, need a ref in here. So let's be clear. Leave the mixing up to my engineer. Because if it ain't love, who sent you here? You can just go. Open the door, leave.

Sorry if I don't sleep, I'm just chasing my dream. You don't want to get me started. You don't want to get me there. You know that we play the hardest. We don't need a ref in here. Who the fuck is you playing? That sounds great. That sounds like anything you'd hear on the radio, maybe a little bit too good for Toronto radio.

No, certainly he makes a bit more of a mainstream vibe than what I usually do musically. But I think when you're 18, he came up around what's on the radio now. Drakey, sounds Drakey, like you were saying. Drake is one of his favorite artists. The. Drake is one of his favorite artists. The Weeknd is one of his favorite artists. There's me in the background, sounding sexy. Wait, hold on. Let's hear some Italy here.

Let me turn it up. Another five to three. And baby, we just started rolling. Ain't already, we about to go in. I see you better when there's no light. I'm going to start doing that. And all I got to do is talk loud. Yo, the raspy voice. It was so good. I get called out on that raspy voice a lot. When I was a kid, I was a big Busta Rhymes and Method Man fan.

And they had that sort of distinguished voice. So from the early days of rapping, I always kind of put it through like that, il va, like, I'll just toss it into a little bit of rasp and it just happens naturally. Batman does that. Batman does the same thing. That's the Batman trick. No one knows it's him.

Because he talks like this. Right, Rose? Right. You got me, man. It's Toronto Mike, episode 40. Toronto Mike. He sounds great. So June 15th.

So is he super excited? He's crazy excited. And he's a really excitable young guy anyways. So he's bouncing off the wall. We just so we filmed the music video for that song just under two weeks ago. And did you direct that one? Yeah I directed it. He came down to Toronto because he's from Montreal. He came down

and we produced it. It was his first time ever going into like a film studio. So he was so excited just to be in there. He was getting so nervous around the models. So it's really funny. So then we actually just released the video yesterday. So it's out right now. If you go to YouTube and look for Mac Vibes,

Get Me Started, you can't miss it. And when I last checked, it was damn near 1,000 views already. So it's doing really well, and we're really excited about that. All right, so that's Mac Vibes. Now, do you produce that? Do you put down the beats?

No, so the beat for that whole album and actually for Much A Proof Of Life is a gentleman named Casey Companion who I'm working with really closely. He's a really talented producer who makes what you hear is very industry-friendly music. So his whole Mac Vibes album,

a lot of what I'm working on is produced by Casey. The opening sounded like April Fool by Chalk Circle. I never heard it. I bet you, knowing you, that's accurate. But I never heard the track. Trust me on that one.

You think you're 30? I'm almost 40. So I know my Chalk Circle. I bet you do. Yeah. I mean, you say he's 18, but he certainly sounds far more confident when he performs than an 18-year-old. It's amazing. Absolutely.

And I think between what I know from spending 15 years in the music business and his raw talent, I'm really excited about what the future holds for both of us. Is it fair to say that Mac Vibes is the Rihanna to your Jay-Z? I would say that is exactly who Mac Vibes is. He's the Drake to my Lil Wayne, perhaps. Oh, yeah. Sizzurp. Oh, yeah.

No, no. You literally just outdid that initial in with, oh, yeah, Sizzurp. Billy, that's my next question. It's my next question. I just learned about Sizzurp when Lil Wayne got sick, and then I heard this Macklemore, Ryan Lewis track about it called Other Side. Yeah, it's not good, man. But do you ever rap for tape?

I don't, but I'll tell you what. Rose, I'm being serious here. I have an interesting anecdote to add to this. Because I do a lot of touring, I meet a lot of young rappers and far more kids than I probably would as a regular 30-year-old man. Because of that, I've actually

been exposed to the fact that it really is a thing. Like a lot of teenage kids love this like codeine. Codeine and... They love it. And cough syrup or whatever. Oh my God. It's so disgusting.

And I can't remember what they call it, getting wavy, and they've got a few terms for it, but it's... I heard scissor... I was like an uncle. I'm like, kids, do not do that. What do they call it,

a drink or something? It's a bad idea. I got to get my drink on or something. Oh, man. Straight up. Anything that causes seizures is not a good way to party, in my opinion. And don't get me wrong. It's so extreme.

It's such an extreme thing. I'm not super straight-laced, but yeah. Codeine and cough syrup? Not my thing. What's your vice, then, other than whiskey? I'm a weed smoker, man. I'm an open and honest weed smoker. Nobody would say that it affects my laziness or work ethic because I go at it hard.

Okay, tell me this because I'm related to lots of weed smokers. Not too many, but I'm very closely related to some weed smokers. Is this like an evening thing? Have you smoked yet today? Yeah, oh, for sure, brother. Are you smoking right now? I'm smoking literally right in front of you. You can't even tell.

It sounds so funny, but it's all the time. It's not smoking all the time, but it's a pattern of if I have a break when I'm editing video, I'll smoke a joint. You don't worry about your lungs. Do you worry about your lungs, your 30-year-old young lungs? The thing is any data I've heard that is really where it's bad for me is it's bad for my cardiovascular system. I'm not going to be able to run as fast as I would and some of these types of things, but I don't really run that much.

You're not running any races. I don't run that much anyways. I jog. You just drive. I jog and exercise. I walk with my dog. It doesn't affect that stuff, and I've never heard anybody say

that they're going to get cancer of the lungs from smoking weed, so I think I'm okay. Okay, so you don't smoke and drive. You look very healthy. Thank you. If you have a smoke a blunt, will you jump in the car and drive somewhere,

or do you give it some time? I should not say publicly that I've ever done that. Nobody's listening, Nelly. Come on. Except the mayor's office. In theory, I do believe that you can smoke a little bit of weed and drive within reason. But it's also the kind of thing that I wouldn't say everybody should be doing. You've certainly got to be careful when you're doing that kind of thing.

Yeah. I would not encourage young people to do that at all for sure the toronto mike podcast does not judge pot smoking one bit uh we're we're fine we want to decriminalize it actually i think it should be outright legal oh it's what's better than coding in cough syrup my god that should be outlawed we're gonna look drank for sure i mean it absolutely should be i mean we're seriously that all the anti-drug policies that are telling kids to not smoke weed, it's irrelevant. That's not the thing that kids are doing.

They're doing Molly and Kobe. I think they've slowed that down. I've noticed since I was a kid, the whole don't do drugs. They're focusing on other drugs now. I think in the States, they're still real heavy on that anti-cannabis movement in a lot of places, man. Except Colorado, maybe. Colorado.

God bless them. Washington? Yeah, I think a few states have gone. God bless them. I have a question for Illy. Yes, ma'am. Are you married? I am engaged. So I have a lovely fiancee, Katie. She's a girl I met in the UK on tour back in 2010. She's British?

Yeah, she's a Brit. She's from Bristol, England, my favorite place in the UK. I spent a year over there living with her as well, actually. I lived in the UK in the end of 2010, beginning of 2011, and then she's come back here with me now. That's amazing. So you met her touring, and now she's come back to live here. Yes, that's right.

How romantic. So when are you getting married? The plan is for probably a year and a half to two years out. We're currently going through immigration, the residency process, all that kind of stuff, so that we can be legit and eventually start a year and a half to two years out, we're currently going through immigration, the residency process, all that kind of stuff so that we can be legit and eventually start a family and all those things. But, yeah, man, she's lovely. She gave up her family and all of her friends

and moved 4,000 miles to support my dream, which is to make it in hip-hop and music, which is, you know, obviously my roots are here. Thanks, Simon. And when you guys have your wedding, will her... It will be over there. That's cool. She's the bride, and she's way closer to her family than I am with mine,

so we're definitely going to get married. Will you fly Rosie and I to England for this wedding? I'd love to. You guys can have official red carpet access, and it'll be like the red carpet as hosted by Rosie and Toronto Mike. I'd rather go to that than Will's and Kate's wedding. I mean, that's pretty cool. Ours will be more fun, I'll tell you that. That was a, that was a pretty, that was a pretty

big deal. Um, I, Oh gosh, how, how, no hardship to go to, to go to England. It's fantastic there. You must love, uh, love going there. UK is lovely and they've got great hip hop scene as well. So they've really embraced me musically over there as well. So it's good. Like whenever I go, it's like I go over there, get to meet up with all my friends that I've now been there three consecutive years. And I've got fans and local promoters who are happy to put me on their showcase or whatever. So I go over, see family, friends, play a few sets, and come home. It's like what a great way to live a life, right? Have fans and friends in two countries.

It's great. That is so cool. Tell me about this new single, Road Trippin'. Do I have to call it hashtag road trippin'? You don't have to call it when you're talking hashtag, but especially because,

you know, I spend so much time in social media. There are so many people who I meet in real life who I've had hundreds of engagements with through social media.

They send me countless messages about how much they love this song or that song before I meet them in real life on the show. So, you know, hashtagging things actually works more than

it even would have probably a year or two ago. So this album actually, it's kind of cool. So I met these guys, C and Notion. They're two MCs from Australia. They both moved to Canada, I don't know exactly when, early 2000s. They've been here for quite some time now. But two really sick guys who I hadn't sort of

known and seen through social media. They make quality music. I really dug the track. C did a track over City and Colors, Coming Home, where he actually raps in all the parts. Oh, nice. Dallas isn't singing. So he did a really cool thing like that. So I had respected these guys, and I reached out to him.

Like, let's get together and build something. And it eventually evolved into this project. And what this project is, is we get together for 24 hours. We write a song. We record a song. We film a music video for that song all in one period. So it's really raw. Like, we just roll with just roll with it. Whatever we end up writing about, we better be ready to film that in the morning. So we're going to do it all in one go. So we did the first of those this past month for this song called Road Trippin'. We call this project Hashtag Life.

It's the idea that we're just capturing all these little moments in our lives. And so this first one's all about just enjoying your summertime, going for a drive, cranking up the music, just that feeling of like, let's go out, man. The weather's lovely. We tried to sum that up in a song. And if you want to get it, you can get the song 100% free at hashtaglife.ca.

The music video is on YouTube if you want to check us out having some fun. We shot it in the Scarborough Bluffs area, drove all the way out there. We sort of just drove down the highway, hit some dirt roads, and filmed on the sides of roads. It was really, really a blast. For the right amount of money, would you change the name of the song to

Road Trippin' in My Chevy Impala? Straight up. What amount is that? I'm just curious. Not that much. A Chevy Impala would certainly cover it. So $30,000 and Illy is for sale. $30 just curious. Not that much. A Chevy Impala would certainly cover it. So $30,000 and Illy is for sale. $30,000. Not that much.

Not that much at all. Let me play a bit of this road tripping. Or sorry, let me play a bit with this hashtag road tripping. Yo. Uh-huh. Yo, okay. In the national. Time is now. At least it was for a moment there.

I should have used it, let her know I care. I'm rolling up a dojo, put a smoke in there Sunglasses from the old class But otherwise I'm unprepared in my high tops Backpack empty, but the CDs are hot, y'all When I walk through the city with an iPod Beats on repeat, running each time with my dog On the beach, sun shining Valet back, way back, unwinding Way longer, ain't no lame one-liners We'll be right back. Ili, that's groovy, man. Do kids still say groovy? You pass some ground, okay Put some clothes down And dance down, yeah Everything is blissful

Sitting thinking wishful I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you I'm so happy with you

She didn't even have any weed when the song started, but it was so good that by midway through, a spliff appeared in her hand, and she fell in line to let it in. Don't bogey that joint Rose. Pass that over. I love the windows down sun shining. Yeah that's it man. I can feel it. It's awesome. Honestly the older I get what I was thinking about this on the way here because I'm trying to think about what I want to write about for these last few records for this next album and what I think about now that I didn't used to

think about is what story needs to be told. I meet a lot of people who I feel aren't really looking at things maybe the right way, or they're short-sighted, or they're stressed out with their current situation, so they're not able to think about the big picture. I'm lucky enough to be free of a lot of those things.

I don't have a boss screaming at me and bills piling up. I think sometimes sit back and be a little bit more philosophical than the average dude chasing his kid around and trying to get his car fixed. And so what can I write about that maybe these people are missing? And in this case, it's a little bit about embrace the day, man. Look how nice it is outside right now.

Why the hell are we not outside? He's right. We should be recording outside. This is a good. This is a good... That's a good chill song, right? Yeah. It's a good summer song.

Yeah. That's the best Toronto summer song since Steal My Sunshine. Such a good summer song. I'm going to put that on the poster. Toronto Mike, best summer song since Steal My Sunshine. I just love it. You really captured it.

You captured how good it feels, the simple feeling of just the windows down and the sun shining on you. I love it. Do you see what I mean? You just feel cooler when he's around. I've never felt this cool. Fair.

Well done. Well done. Thank you. Bringing Ill Vibe back. Really? No, I'm so glad to have Ill Vibe back. It was, dude, he was the highest listened to episode, so I felt I should bring him back every week.

So you're using him, really? I'm just using him, Rose. I'm using him for a social media outreach. Yeah, that's it. Don't you see how it works? I'll get you some other rappers. Maybe this would be a good look for you, that once in a while you have a rapper come on and you can expand your whole listenership. No, dude, I would totally do that.

As long as they're good people, they're welcome on the Toronto Mic'd podcast. Well, it's pretty good. It sounds really good. It's exciting. Yeah, anything you want to leave us with just before we sign off here? I think we're a little over, but it's worth going over when we hear a couple of new vibe tracks. You know what? I would love to just say, you know, if you are feeling it or if, you know, one of these people who's listening is a big hip hop fan, I'm trying to build some platforms in the city right now that don't exist currently. You know,

it's stages and opportunities for the best artists so that if you are a hip-hop fan, you can go somewhere and see what the best that Toronto has to offer. Right now, it does exist in a few places, but not in the way that I feel that it should. Coming up in the coming months, we're creating a few of those, or I'm creating a few of those, trying to do that. In August, we're having the first ever

Survival of the Illest, and that's where I bring 10 of the hungriest young artists, put them on one stage, and they're all competing for money, free music videos, free album covers. I've got lots of great sponsorship. And also, Hollapalooza, which is Canada's first hip-hop festival. We did Toronto

just recently, and we're coming up to do Montreal on July 26th. And next year, I want to be across the country multiple stages on the same day, having really what Canada doesn't have enough of, which is festivals to support our artists. So please support. If you're in any of those cities, come out and represent.

Most definitely. And do you do requests? The Toronto Mic Podcast wants you to build a rap around this song, if you can. Like, use this as the background song. Like a sample? I could have one of my guys sample it. No, dude, if you could sample that, I would play it.

Okay, I'm calling it right now. Abstract. I don't know where you are, but I'm going to tweet you this link, and you're going to sample this. What's it called? Okay, Blue Jays, and then parentheses, let's play ball. Oh, of course, I know this. I just know this usually with a bird dancing on top of a box in front of me.

They fired BJ, hired Ace and Diamond, and then one of them, I think Diamond went missing, and we haven't heard from her in a long time. Did they get rid of BJ because his name was inappropriate? Was that what happened? No, it's because this guy Shanahan, Kevin Shanahan, I think it was, some Shanahan guy, owned the rights to it, and the Blue Jays wanted to own the intellectual property. I did not know that.

Oh, that's interesting. Abstract. I'm going to hit you up to sample that, though. I'm going to have that song in my head now. The rest of the day. No, listen. It's worse songs. Illy, it was a pleasure. We'll have you on again

for sure. Peace. And that brings us to the end of our show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike and Rosie

at Rosie in Toronto and Ill vibe at ill vibe music. See y'all next week. Bye for now. Thank you.