That's the Sound of the Montreal Hip-Hop Scene

"Leve tes fucking mains si tu feel it!" Chanted a bilingual Quebecois rap group, opening for hip-hop legend KRS-One, who played at Le National in Montreal this past weekend. I'm somewhat embarassed to say I wasn't familiar with KRS-One, and the only hip-hop shows I'd been to were Kanye West, K-Os, Buck 65, and a few Guelph emcees. So when my friend and I decided to go to see KRS-One, I really had no idea what to expect. But when we arrived at the venue, I felt the new atmosphere right away. Full of a mix of gangstas, indie kids, and everyone in between, the crowd never stopped listening intently, throbbing to the bass, and rapping along to tracks they new. The show also never stopped. There must've been 5-10 opening acts, and when there were no emcees on stage, the djs just kept hitting us with tracks, old and new, and scratches. What really blew my mind about the show though, was of course when KRS-One hit the stage. I realize it's a bit misleading to have the title of this post claim to be about the Montreal and then focus on a Brooklyn rapper, I have two excuses. First of all, fuck that, it was a KRS-One show. But second of all, he made it so that everyone was part the show. He called all break-dancers to the stage, and paid $100 to the most skilled one. He got all the local emcees there to come and freestyle with him. He even walked through the fucking audience. Not crowd surfed. Walked. It got to the point where it was more than a show, he was teaching us. I've never seen a show like it before. The music was your typical old-school rap, nothing to original, but the mood set made the show incredibly memorable. "There is no government or war. There is only self creation." Shouted KRS-One. Along with excellent sets by emcees such as the Narcissist, and Insurgent, this show was incredibly worthy to be my first hip-hop show. Now, if I could only get out to Montreal more often...