Ian Kamau's musical tribute to Toronto's Esplanade
CBC Radio | Posted: November 24, 2016 1:45 PM | Last Updated: November 24, 2016
In a new segment we call the q Block Party, we invite guests to pay a musical tribute to the neighbourhoods they hold dear to their hearts.
Today, hip hop and spoken word artist Ian Kamau takes listeners on a guided musical tour through Toronto's Esplanade neighbourhood, a southeast pocket tucked away next to the popular St. Lawrence Market and the now-closed Kool Haus music venue.
Below are Kamau's song picks and his reasons behind them.
Concrete Mob, "Boiling Point"
"Concrete Mob are a bunch of guys who lived in that neighbourhood, probably for as long as I've lived in that neighbourhood. Hip hop music in Toronto in the mid-'90s had a particular sound, it was very melodic, very jazzy with hard drums underneath them. It was the first song that I remember hearing out in the world by guys that were from my neighbourhood."
"Concrete Mob are a bunch of guys who lived in that neighbourhood, probably for as long as I've lived in that neighbourhood. Hip hop music in Toronto in the mid-'90s had a particular sound, it was very melodic, very jazzy with hard drums underneath them. It was the first song that I remember hearing out in the world by guys that were from my neighbourhood."
Feist, "Gatekeeper"
"People used to go to concerts and they would sleep at my house after because I lived so close to the Kool Haus and so many concerts would happen there. I remember [my friend Moya Teklu] woke up in the morning and she played me this Feist album. That first Feist record is so ethereal."
"People used to go to concerts and they would sleep at my house after because I lived so close to the Kool Haus and so many concerts would happen there. I remember [my friend Moya Teklu] woke up in the morning and she played me this Feist album. That first Feist record is so ethereal."
Ian Kamau, "Dear Summer" (a reinterpretation of a Jay Z song)
"The sound of the beat, it felt to me, a lot like something that would come out of Do the Right Thing. I just always think about the neighbourhood in the summer when I think about that movie — and so I decided to do an interpretation based on the neighbourhood that I'm from."
"The sound of the beat, it felt to me, a lot like something that would come out of Do the Right Thing. I just always think about the neighbourhood in the summer when I think about that movie — and so I decided to do an interpretation based on the neighbourhood that I'm from."