'Music moves me': Solitair on career longevity and making classic songs

Rapper Solitair burst onto the Canadian music scene in the '90s as part of the hip-hop collective, the Circle. He then made a name for himself as a solo artist with Juno-nominated songs such as "Easy to Slip," also expanding his skillset to become prolific producer. Glenn Lewis, Maestro Fresh Wes and Kardinal Offishall are just a few of the artists he's worked with over the years, cementing himself in the Canadian hip-hop scene.

His new EP, Dangerous Art, Vol. 1 features collaborations with Rich Kidd and DJ Grouch, and harkens back to the '90s sounds and introspective raps the veteran MC is known for.

In a new interview with The Block, Solitair joins host Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe for an interview about the project, his early years in the music industry and making timeless songs.

It's interesting because you've been around for a really long time, but I've never had a chance to really dig into your come-up story, so take us back to "Easy to Slip," what was your mind state?

You know, that was kind of on the path of where I started, which was with the Circle, which at the time was called FOS. And that was my crew. [There] was Marvel, for those of you who don't know, Marvel is actually one of my oldest friends and he's the one who introduced me to Kardinal, [who] was Kool Aid at the time. We were just hip-hop fans, young kids, learning about the process of creating music. I mean, at this time I would actually add that Kardi was already a veteran, he had performed for Nelson Mandela when he was like 12 years old.

That's crazy to me.

He was always ... the de facto leader of the crew and [the] most experienced, and I was just really learning. He could make beats ... so this was at a time when your record being played on the radio was like, "Wow, you made it," you know? So that was kind of where the journey started.

And then as we got further along and the Choclair album came out, Choclair got signed to Virgin Canada, we released Ice Cold between myself and Kardinal. We produced half of that album, went gold in 30 days [and] it was a groundbreaking record for me. It was my first, I would say, professional credit.  And then on the heels of that, obviously life is happening and around that time, my cousin had been murdered. It was during Caribana time, from what I remember, and my friend's cousin had [also] been murdered. And that was the moment in my life where that reality of losing loved ones in the streets ... obviously I had a lot of family and friends who were involved. But [I wasn't] taking in what that involvement was until it [came] back and hit so close to home.

So ["Easy to Slip"] was born out of paying tribute to my cousin, paying tribute to everybody who lost somebody. So that story ... that's one of the reasons why it resonates to this day — [it's] because that narrative has not changed. And it's over 20 years later and there's still that circumstance of people who are getting drawn into the street life, being drawn into the circumstances by no choice of their own, really ... because of environment, because of economic systems. So I think that was where I was at that time. And, you know, when they say a classic is born, you can't designate it as a classic, it has to stand the test of time. And I think that is it has at this point, people come into it for the first time really resonating with it like when it came out 20 years ago. 

It's true. It is a classic. You know, as you run back to some of these tracks that dropped back then, sometimes I feel like it speaks to just the amount of investment because I feel a lot of times in present day, in the way that music is made, it's not necessarily made with a lot of investment. You hear a lot of the things like, "I was just messing around and then it went viral and I have a record deal." It's like, yeah, this trajectory is mind-boggling. And it makes you wonder sometimes about the intentionality.

I'll tell you one thing just as an analogy, and I always said this for years: there's always artists and you hear them say, "I just want to be heard. I just want to be a star." And it's like, that's not why I became interested in music. Music moves me. People love music; it's a spiritual experience. And I always say, "If you're not somebody who would create [music], whether or not it makes money for you, then ... [you've] got to check what your inspiration and what your motivations are."

Because when it comes to being a successful hip-hop artist and when it comes to trying to be famous as an artist, that's not really what I got into it for. And I think that we have to kind of analyze hip-hop and analyze the culture [and] treat it as a culture. This whole idea of becoming a superstar in music is not really my thing, you know?

It starts with the music, but then you see the glitter and the gold and the recognition that comes with, you know, blowing up as a rock star, a rap star, pop star. It can be seductive.

Oh, of course. Yeah.

It can be seductive. And I'm not quite sure whether or not it's a good motivator or if it gets some people to the goal and it knocks other people off the trajectory. Some people use the motivation, but some people get caught up in that side completely, in the partying and the girls and the drugs and liquor. And it's like all of a sudden, music becomes this secondary thing and it can, I think, completely throw careers off track.

As soon as it becomes a brand, that turns me off, you know? And that was the other thing, I was going to touch on the whole idea of hip-hop being a young man's sport. And you hear a lot of rappers saying if you're trying to be a rapper after 30 or if you're still trying to rap and you're over 30 years old, you need to hang it up. And it's like, that's not my motivation. That's never been my motivation.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. To hear the full interview, listen to The Block on CBC Music.