Fake For Real

Being both singers and rappers, and able to play several kinds of instruments, the Ramos brothers can record anything that suits them. All over their careers, Ceschi and David experimented all genres of music, one could possibly think about: post-Project Blowed indie rap, of course, but also folk, Beatles-like pop, crossover hip-hop with Toca, some indie rock with Anonymous Inc., and even a bit of crunk, with the parodic and much entertaining Knuck Feast project, they released by 2007.

Let's be honest. Even if it is the very basis of the Twin Cities rap scene, and a founding record for independent hip-hop - arguably on par with Funcrusher Plus - the first album from Atmosphere was far from perfect. Its CD version had fillers. Some of its tracks were a bit torpid and laborious. Apart from a few bolder ones, Ant's beats were most of the time absolutely trite. As for Spawn's raps and raspy voice, their main interest was to offer a fitting contrast to those of the other MC.

Angel Del Villar II, a.k.a. Homeboy Sandman, is originally from New-York, and more precisely the Queens. He studied law, but he preferred to start a career in rap music, where he was noticed for his verbal dexterity, while performing at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café. His self-released Actual Factual Pterodactyl (2008) and The Good Sun (2010) have been praised by the critics, which earned him a contract with Stones Throw, the West Coast indie rap institution. There, he released two EPs, and then a much more publicized record, First of a Living Breed.

Thanks to psychedelic rapper Noah23, Plague Language had become, by the early 2000's, one of the most representative labels of the artsy side of Canada's hip-hop scene. Thanks to the indie rap community, it had become a bit more visible to people from abroad. Also, as a matter fo fact, the label's managers had not limited themselves to their home country. One of their members at least, Penny Dahl, was not coming from the cold surroundings of Toronto, but from San Francisco.