BRANTFORD – SKM Productions in collaboration with Thru the Red Door presented a full agenda of local and out-of-town artists at Club NV on Saturday, December 17.
From local artists like NOS Insidious, Mojo, Bookah and Chaos with Tha Harv, to featured artist Drezus. Club NV brought out supporters in spite of the icy roads.
Promoter Shayne Maracle said “there’s tons of local talent,” as he mentioned the upcoming event in January for Mad Child.
“It’s predominantly a native bill tonight, and that’s what we were trying to push for,” said Maracle.
“The whole purpose of tonight was to do a toy drive and bring down Drezus, who is one of the artists I got a lot of requests for,” he said. “He was way out West and I didn’t see him too often in Ontario, so I just reached out to him this time and thought ‘well let’s try it,’” he said.
“Trying it” worked in Maracle’s favour as Drezus became the featured artist for the night, and brought with him a repertoire of rap styled pieces fuelled by indigenous stereotypes and breaking them.
Before the show, Drezus, said it was a “blessing” to be able to travel from Saskatoon to perform.
“It’s always a blessing,” said Drezus. “Just to have people invite me out and you know, take care of me, stuff like that is a blessing to me. I think it’s kind of a sign of all of the hard work I’ve been putting into [my music], is growing.”
As more visitors trickled into the building, Drezus commended the people of Six Nations and Brantford for bearing the cold and ice.
“With everybody sliding all over the place, I can’t believe there’s anybody here,” he joked. “But I’m excited to share all of my new stuff. It’s been influenced by a lot of the stuff I’m doing.”
Just last year, Drezus took home four out of four awards at the 2015 Indigenous Music Awards including; Indigenous Entertainer of the Year, Best Hip Hop CD, Best Music Video and Best Producer of 2015. He attributes his inspiration from several sources outside of his own cultural knowledge.
“Like going to Standing Rock has been really inspiring to me,” he said. “I even got a song from Kahnawake, and it’s my first time out here. It’s slippery but I love it and I’ve been shown nothing but love since I’ve been here.”
“It’s dope to be able to share stuff this new, and it’s kind of like a testing ground too, so it’s gonna be fun.”
The night raged on with lots of great music with relatable cultural and spiritual influences from great artists.
