Wordz From Tha Underground in Review

It went down on Saturday June 16th at the Lamplighter and what a show it was. And I'm not just saying that because it was my show. No, seriously. Anyways, here's a recap of the night for those who couldn't make it:

XYL
I was the host of the evening as well as the first performer. This was my first time performing with the XYL dancers, Juile and Leanne. They dressed really hot in some dope black outfits and completely killed it. Their choreography is excellent and it feels amazing to have dancers who have actually taken the time to carefully choreograph dances for my songs! I feel that overall, this was my best performance yet. My crowd came out in full force, once again being 99% Asian students. They crowded the front of the stage and went nuts it was awesome!

Barrons S
This girl put on a hell of a show! With support from a guitar player and a local rapper from the Sketch Bros., Charz, she had the crowd totally into her set. Her voice is very skilled and she has some great songs. Definitely a talent to watch out for.

Euneverse
Stepping in for Violative Cause, who were unable to make it, was the always cheerful North Vancouver rapper Euneverse. He hit the stage next with his unique style that combines classical music with hip-hop. He says his music sounds like "Beetoven and Bach having beers with Biggie and Atmosphere". Cool. The always entertaining MC laid down a set of tunes from his CD 'Infinite Music' and at one point, had a random hot chick from the audience grinding with him on stage! Can't say anything bad about that!

A-Slam
Damn! A-Slam crushed! One of the members, E.V., is my co-producer and studio engineer for all of my recordings so I'd already heard his material and enjoyed it. However, these guys live is a whole different thing. They had a singer, E.V. rapping and also a really awesome drummer playing a unique East Indian instrument which I believe is called a 'Dhol'. Their energy level was sky-high and they impressed everyone with their unique fusion of sounds.

Keep 6ix
What can I say? Keep 6ix rules live each and every time. This is the third time I've booked them for a Wordz From Tha Underground show and their skill and energy live is unsurpassed. From the more emotional tracks like 'Nowhere 2 Hide'(my favorite) to more fun songs about getting hammered and high, these guys(and gal) rocked the set and then some. At this point the beers were flying about and we were getting completely inebriated. Dope.

The next Wordz From Tha Underground is a big one! It's the Erthtonez video shoot! More details to follow...

Freestyling

I think freestyling is an integral part of hip hop and all MCs should make an effort to build their improvisational skills. Not only is it extremely fun to have a freestyle sessions with buddies but it also helps develop overall lyrical ability. The more you practice freestyling, the more ideas you get for writing song lyrics so I really believe that you can become a better lyricist through freestyling.

Battling is another element where freestyle ryhmes come to the forefront. Two MCs stand toe-to-toe and do their best to insult their opponent and win the crowd. There is much more than just good punchlines to winning a battle however. An MCs ability to flow and to make relevant rhymes is integral. And of course, the crowd plays a big role usually acting as the judge.

I personally don't battle but I love freestyling. And I love watching battles, it's hella entertaining. The next Wordz From Tha Underground I put on will have a rap battle in between sets to shake things up a bit. When the contestants are announced, I'll post it here. Keep up them freestyling skills, they're an essential part of hip hop.

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

XYL Live on April 21

This Saturday, April 21st is the next XYL performance. I will have a professional photographer on hand as well as a camera to film the madness. Since I am also promoting the event, I have booked some really top-notch acts from the Vancouver rap scene: Drunken Arseholes, Triforce Omega, and Quoted Motives.

I am expecting a large turnout as this is the third installment of Wordz From Tha Underground and our first weekend date which is awesome. The last event nearly sold out the Media Club on a Thursday and in between shows, I've been able to build a lot more fans who will be coming out to this one.

I am on the lookout for Street Team members to help spread the word about my upcoming CD release. I've already gotten a number of responses and I always need more members. Benefits include free merchandise, CDs and free admission to all my shows. Also, every once in a while I'll reward the members by taking them out and getting them hammered. Sound good? Email me if you're interested.

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

Wordz From Tha Underground a huge success!!!

The second edition of 'Wordz From Tha Underground' was amazing and represents my greatest show, both as a performer and a promoter, thus far in these early stages of my career. Above you can see me and my DJ, Tre Funk, performing to the almost sold-out Media Club and a very hype crowd they were!

Around 150 people showed up to support the local hip hop scene and all the acts killed it. Incredible performances from SVS Dance, DJ Mint, Keep 6 and Erthtonez. As far as my set goes, I feel it was my strongest showing yet and crowd response was unbelievable so thanks to all my supporters who came out, you definitely made your voices heard and inspired my performance!




I've hired a Japanese representative to help me in Japan and there's a number of things I'm working on in Asia and Canada. Also, the new EP, 'Make Way', will drop around the end of April. Stay tuned for all the details. Peace!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

The Next Wordz From Tha Underground

Coming up this Thursday March 1 is the second installment in the Vancouver monthly hip hop night, 'Wordz From Tha Underground'! I am extremely stoked about this line-up, we got DJ Mint who does a madcap scratch routine, SVS Style Dance Crew a group of girls who do amazing choreographed dance, Keep 6 who always slay it live, Erthtonez who are pretty much the most entertaining and energetic live rap duo in the city and of course yours truly XYL with my DJ Tre Funk.

To see a map to the venue click here. Hope to see y'all there!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

XYL Live for Chinese New Year!

The above photo is me rockin' the Vansky Chinese New Year Party Feb.16. It was a great turnout, around 500 people. The crowd reaction was great and two girls danced on stage behind me which was obviously rad. Check out the video of my performance.

I was very impressed by all the performers that night. The general style tended to be more Chinese ballads, many of them traditional and a number of amazing voices were on display. There was some great traditional dance and also more hip-hop oriented dancing. I got to mention this girl Ying Ying, she first did a traditional dance which was amazing and later threw down a really exciting hip-hop routine. She's the really hot girl with the small pink tutu in my video. Yeah, now you're watching it.

I have to thank Scottie Cash, John Li and everyone who helped organize and work the event, the performers and also to everyone who attended. I look forward to doing more performances for the Chinese community!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

Wordz From Tha Underground

The first night of my monthly hip-hop event, 'Wordz From Tha Underground' on January 18th, went great! A turnout of somewhere around 80 people and a very large group of friends, all of them Asian, turned out to see me perform. My fans represented close to 50% of attendace so thank you so much to everyone who came to see me perform.

Also, it was my friend Shizuki's birthday so I borrowed a beat from my co-producer E.V. and wrote lyrics about Shizuki. I memorized them in one day and the song went well, she was extremely thrilled. Here is a pic of me and Shizuki:



My DJ, Tre Funk, was unfortunately unable to make it out but kudos to Steve, SPM's DJ, for repping the turntables in his absence.

It seems that I am more and more tapping into the Asian community here in Vancouver and I will continue to cater to that fanbase as well as make every attempt to gain new fans. This is a great way to help establish myself in Asia as most of these people are students and will be returning to their native countries to help spread the word. I have also been booked to perform at a Chinese New Year's celebration which is awesome and another step towards my goals as the audience will obviously be primarily Asian. Until next time, I'll leave you with a couple of photos with fans from that night:





XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

Organizing the Tour

I am currently working with Sean McKay and SPM Music (SPM Website) to book a Canadian tour sometime this year. The tour booking process is very time consuming and consists of work which can only be described as pretty damn boring. Researching venue information for the different provinces and cities in Canada and figuring out who is in chanrge of booking each club, what their contact info is, ect. is all part of the process and can definitely get monotonous. To break up the boredom, I generally get completely drunk until I can no longer type properly and the screen becomes a blur. Then I know I've done enough work for the day.

In addition to figuring out all these details, I really have to work to raise awareness of myself and my music across the country, otherwise there is really no point to the whole thing. If no one knows who I am, who's going to come see my show? So, when I release my new promo CD in February I will be working hard to get it played on a multitude of radio stations across Canada as well as trying to get media coverage whenever possible. My marketing plan is not finalized yet but rest assured it will be a carefully thought out and will include the use of street teams who can spread my music around and let people know what's up with XYL.

At the same time, I will be launching a marketing campaign in Asia too. I got some very awesome people down in Japan and Korea who can help me out and I will be recruiting more and more people to join the XYL Street Team. I'm starting a movement y'all so get ready... I will be everywhere.

For the next couple of days I will be doing venue research and working on getting this blog listed on as many sites as possible which, once again, is monotonous office work that will be complemented by the liberal use of recreational drugs and that oh-so-legal liquid narcotic we know as alcohol. One of my new songs, 'Prolly Drunk', chronicles my alcoholism in a humorous way, you will hear it soon.

Thanks to all taking the time to read this, I will be updating it on the regular. Stay tuned, the more this is updated, the more things are happening and the closer I get to my goal of worldwide domination. Peace out!

XYL Official Website
XYL Myspace

This is how I live...

My name is Jesse and I am a Vancouver-based rapper called XYL(pronounced 'Exile'). In this blog I hope to let you in on my day-to-day grind to elevate my career and become internationally recognized. My goal is to blow up in Canada, the US, the Orient and everywhere else. I am particularly interested in Asia and hope to perform in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. I am currently studying Korean and have gotten into some Japanese as well and most of my current fans are from Asia.

I generally perform in Vancouver around two to three times per month though I am trying to cut this down to once to allow me more time to focus on marketing and publicity planning and studying. I am also a show promoter and often put together the shows I am playing at. My next performance will be an event I've organized called 'Wordz From Tha Underground' on January 18th at the Lamplighter in Gastown (210 Abbott Street). Doors are at 9, Show starts at 9:30 and cover charge is 8$. Below is a Q&A with me concerning the event:

Q: What made you decide to start ‘Wordz From Tha Underground’?
A: Vancouver city is known for its hip hop. Despite that fact, there is not a lot of support for the underground rap scene here. When a big-name rap artist comes through town, the show is sold out but I have found that the same people won’t necessarily come out and support the local artists. With ‘Wordz From Tha Underground’ I am trying to raise awareness of the immense talent that exists within Vancouver. I am making every possible effort to promote this event and ensure that the artists who perform have an audience to perform to. I hope to get underground artists noticed by the public so they can gain more recognition and build their identities.

Q: How do you feel about the current state of the Vancouver live hip hop scene?
A: I know I’ve said it before but we have some serious talent here that so many people don’t even realize. MCs that would blow your mind as well as incredible DJs and producers. The majority of the live hip hop I have seen is excellent, great performances and a very unified vibe, the exact opposite of the negativity and ‘beef’ that is so often associated with hip hop music.
The only issue I have come across is low show turnout. I don’t necessarily think this is a genre-specific problem, as getting people out to live shows in Vancouver is difficult regardless of the style of music. People want name-recognition, they want to see an artist whose songs they know, they generally aren’t open to taking a chance on acts they’re never heard or seen before. With ‘Wordz From Tha Underground’ however, I am booking only quality acts so I can guarantee that as long as you dig hip hop, you will enjoy the show.

Q: What is the line-up like for the first night of the event?
A: Headlining the event we have Manik, a veteran of the local rap scene and an amazingly talented MC. He recently won the ‘Song Clash’ competition at club Sonar where 18 hip hop acts square off to show who has the best original material and stage presence. Manik also just release a video for his song ‘Commercial Drive’, based on that same famous Vancouver street.
Then there is KEEP 6, a group of MCs with serious skills. Kai, formerly of Methods of Mayhem with Tommy Lee, is producing their beats and their lyrical ability is show-stopping.
Also, I will be on the bill with my DJ Tre Funk. I have been playing live shows on the regular here and have one EP under my belt, ‘Twisted Genius’. I just finished recording a new single which I will be performing in addition to the material from my EP. I will be touring Canada in 2007 and am working to build my identity in Asia, specifically Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. I am expecting to tour those countries in 2008.
Character Traits, a 5-piece group from Nanaimo on Vancouver island will be representing and I expect them to fully kill it. They have just released their second album, ‘Pencil Pushers’, have just finished recording a video and have opened for big names such as Sweatshop Union and Kyprios.
Last on the agenda is 526 Music out of Burnaby. A little bit of hip hop, a little bit of R&B and a lot of talent. They are new on the scene but are sure to make big moves as their career develops. Hopefully ‘Wordz From Tha Underground’ can help them get noticed.

If you got the time, check out my website here: xylmc.com
And here is my myspace page: myspace.com/xylmc

I have one EP under my belt, 'Twisted Genius', which is kinda a different approach to the standard hip hop formula. I used almost all live instruments and had a live drummer lay down the beats. I dig some of the songs on there but I have decided to not press up any more copies and instead focus on my new material. The new songs I am currently working on have much higher production value and are more commercially viable. It's a struggle I've gone over in my head but the bottom line is, if I want international recognition I have to make songs that are somewhat mainstream. I have three new songs forthcoming which I will release on a promo CD and then I will be launching a marketing campaign to raise awareness as well as keep recording until I have a full-length record. Stay tuned for the new stuff, it truly does kick ass. In the meantime, you can log onto my website or myspace to hear my current material.