The Funkee Wadd is e’rywhere on the West Coast now. Between his own funks and the funky live hip-hop he’s helping lay down with his homeys in Illvis Freshly, the Funkee Wadd has all the momentum a human could have out here on Vancouver Island and the surrounding areas. After watching his ass-rattling set and catching a brief chat with him at Tall Tree earlier this summer, I knew I was going to have to get him down with the 5 Questions. Luckily for me, and all of you wonderful people, he was more than happy to get on the phone and talk all kinds of shit with me.

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1. Do you remember the first album you went out and purchased on your own?

It was a CD, the first album I ever purchased, and it was Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty. It’s kind of funny how it’s come around full circle, being in a rock group.

Favourite song on the record?

“3 MCs and 1 DJ”

What a good song. That video was way good.

Yeah man. Mix Master Mike just cuttin’ it up. Great.

I didn’t know until late Thursday night of Shambhala 2014 that I enjoyed any form of house music. Unknowingly I enjoyed the fuck out of a house set earlier in the day and when I said later in the night to my DJ pal “This sounds like that SkiiTour I was telling you about from earlier.” “Oh, that’s house music.” And with that, because of the SkiiTour (Known in real life as Tim Livingstone and Dave Rollie), I discovered I like funky house music. And let me say, as of this writing, I don’t think I’ve found house DJs I enjoy more. As they dropped the most surprisingly wicked set I saw last year I’m stoked they into taking some time from creating more funky goodness in the ol’ studio to talk some shit about movies and kidnapping Graham Hancock to preserve the knowledge of humankind. They’ll be back on Shambhala this year (Back at the AMPhitheatre) and I’m pumped for them starting my road this year with the first of what’s hopefully a string of Shambs-related 5 Questions!

Fun fact: I accosted Dave Rollie at Shambhala after yelling simply “SkiiTour” and gave him a hug, then ran off into the night. I may have been influenced by intoxicants of some kind.

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Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?

Rollie: My first record was Naughty By Nature (1991). My mom had to come by it for me. Record stores pushing Black music onto young white kids. I play music from it still quite a lot.

Tim: I can’t remember what mine was.

What was the last great album you bought then?

Rollie: Bought?!

All of us: <We were laughing!>

Okay, the last great album you got ahold of?

Tim: What was the last album I listened to cover to cover…Man, it’s so hard these days. Who has the attention span for a whole album? That’s a good question, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. We can come back to that. <We never did.>

5 Questions with Rags #22 - The Funkee Wadd

5 Questions with Rags #17 - SkiiTour