Slynk, your older brother's favourite DJ. The unedited interview.

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This past summer I ventured to my first Shambhala Music Festival and ran into the force that is known as Ghetto Funk and one of their biggest ambassadors, Slynk. Built on a real organic-sounding foundation funk, soul and hip-hop, Slynk became one of my entry points into the world of electronic music. It's a rabbit-hole I sometimes regret going through, not for the music but just because of the sheer immensity of the hole. I don't think it will ever end now, fuck it. In any case, Slynk came through my hometown Victoria last month (December) for an epic night with Featurecast and Neon Steve and I took the opportunity to get ahold of him for a little talk. Read it up. We chat about his musical beginnings, his love of his adopted Vancouver and the fellow DJs that get the thumbs up from the man himself. Big ups to Slynk for bringing funk to the people and, less importantly, taking some time to talk some words at me. Respect.

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Shad teams up with Skratch Bastid and Saukrates(!) to continue dominating Canadian Hip-Hop.

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The joy I get knowing that Shad, the most consistently awesome rapper working in Canada today, has teamed up with hella cool dude Skratch Bastid cannot be overstated. Though I'm a fan of awesome beats, no doubt, I don't know shit about the art of DJing but the moment I heard the Bastid split the difference between Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and Dead Prez' "Hip-Hop" I knew he was a pretty fucking stellar DJ. I don't remember much about the rest of that night (Except that K'naan destroyed and played the still-good version of "Wavin' Flag") but that moment always stood with me. So when he and Shad teamed up for The Spring Up EP I thought it was a one-time thing. Boy am I glad I was wrong.

"Stylin'," the first single from Shad's upcoming joint, Flying Colours, is another damned fine slice of intelligent, graceful Hip-Hop. The duo even got Canada's reigning musical Swiss Army Knife, Saukrates, for some chill vocals on the hook. If this is any indication of what's to come Flying Colours  is set to be another winner. As if there was any doubt. Check the fresh new video out and see for yourself. Don't worry, if the smile on your face gets so big it starts to hurt or your head bobs so hard you think it's going to fall off, just hit the 'pause' button and take a couple deep breaths...