The story behind "Mount Pleasant"
posted by
DFE on Dec 22, 2006
Who would have known?
It's the track that most of you guys know us by, a catchy feel-good rap song that takes place on a bus route in Calgary. It's the main reason DFE is around today- the positive feedback that "Mount Pleasant" generated outside of the traditional Canadian hip hop market (which is extremely small in terms of grassroots support) fueled us to keep going.
But how did it start? Well, if we rewind to 2000, I was just getting my feet wet in the hip hop scene. My friend Tim was writing a track with me over a beat I had produced. He saw the #2 bus schedule on my desk and incorporated it into his lyrics. The song ultimately never saw the light of day, but later that year I was on the bus coming home from college and I started to pen the song while riding and observing the people onboard. I was inspired by Tim's line and created the chorus.
The writing wasn't done over a beat, and back then I didn't have a strong sense of rhythm, I would write and then try to add a rhythm to it after, creating a very unorthodox and colourful flow pattern.
The song was unreleased until 2002... I had rapped it live a few times at various events over different beats but never recorded it (beyond a sloppy four-track version). In the Spring of 2002, I was starting to record with Cosm and needed songs to put over the beats he would give to me, since our goal was to finish the album in about a month. When the beat for the version that you all know was created, I started reciting the lyrics over it and it sounded like a good match. The track was recorded during our first visit to DJ Nato's Up in Arms studio in Edmonton (he is an amazing hip hop engineer/producer who has also recorded Cadence Weapon, Touch and others).
Later that year, the song started getting a lot of airplay locally on CJSW. I uploaded the track to NMC in Spring 2003, and it was first played on their FM show in the summer of 2003, funny enough while I was doing an internship with CBC Canada Now in Edmonton. It took off from there and was one of NMC's top tracks of 2003. Since, the CBC love has grown tremendously. The track was re-recorded in late 2003 for the professionally manufactured version of our Conquest album, released in 2004. My flow on this version was a lot more in the pocket, but since the original already had so many plays on NMC, I left it as it was for the site.
In the song, I am basically speaking encouragement to people everywhere. There is a strong message to step back and appreciate life while you have it. It's extremely honest and true to my unique character at that time. I have riden this bus since my family first moved to the Highland Park neighbourhood in Calgary back in 1990. There wasn't too many young families there and it wasn't exactly the most diverse ethnic makeup. My mother is a strong Jamaican lady, divorced with four kids. She managed to save up enough money to buy us a house in this community, and the #2 is the bus I would ride to go downtown. I still take the bus to work downtown, but not so much the #2. Sorry to say, folks, but I am now also a driver, look out world.
We also did a remix of the track for our second album, Invasion, which mildly poked fun at the original, uniting with some kats from Edmonton and changing the #2 bus into the #2 highway.
Reaction has been great. I can't even count the amount of people that have come up to me and told me how much they love the song. Calgarians often say it's great for them to hear the local references... but aside from the chorus which mentions the bus route's name, the only things I refer to are Chinatown and Rosedale Cleaners, becasue the leg I would take on the bus isn't the most eventful. Rosedale Cleaners' signature large building on the corner of 4th St. NW and 16th Ave. has actually been torn down and relocated to a smaller building since I wrote the track. In the original-original, never released, I also mention James Fowler High School, which is where I get off the bus.
Anyway, the song extended our reach to casual fans who don't usually listen to hip hop, and we have been given a lot of opportunities such as being featured in "Much does Calgary" in 2005, being flown out to Ottawa in 2005 to perform at the Alberta Scene Festival, performing at the 2004 Western Canadian Music Awards, performing at the 2005 "Brilliant City" Alberta Centennial celebration and a lot more.
However, the lion's share of the opportunities have come from our CBC friends, to list all that I can remember:
-New Music Canada 2003 top tracks list
-New Music Canada feature 2004
-"Mount Pleasant" included on CBC's New Music Canada Vol. One CD, 2004
-New Music Canada "Connect the Dots Tour" performance in Calgary 2004
-CBC "The National" TV appearance 2004
-CBC ZeDTV performances 2005
-First track ever played on CBC Radio3 podcast, 2005
-CBC Radio One "GO" performance 2006
-CBC Radio3 "In Session" 2006
So cheers to all of you CBC Radio 3 supporters! We greatly appreciate your support... and now you know what's going down on the number two, y'all!
posted by
DFE on Dec 22, 2006