2010
– Best of Montreal - #3 Best Local Hip Hop Act – Montreal Mirror
(Readership 287,000) - May 13 - Vol. 25 No. 47
"Covering their bases from
über-danceable old school, uptempo, darker and grittier rap, slower
jams and even forays into rock and dancehall, this breakout Montreal
duo promise genuine skill." - Montreal Mirror
“For Bricc and Drex,
there’s a natural affinity for smooth and an obvious love for
hip-hop. Bricc’s voice plays like a mix between Silkworm from
Digable Planets, Q-Tip and Talib Kweli.” - 8/10
- Skunk Magazine
“If you have never
heard about the Underground Realroad coming out of Montreal (the Real
City) you need to put your ears to the street and inform yourself
about this dynamic duo…
Their album “Slave
to the Game” is off the chain, one of
the best albums I have heard in the past two years.” - 4.5/5 –
Morburn-Music
“Underground
Realroad's track "Maybe" is one of the best songs I heard come out of
Montreal in 2009. Their production is creative and energetic. The
lyrics are direct with no compromise." – DJ Solespin – Suite
Delight – 1690AM - Montreal
"This is True Hip
Hop" - DJ Prolifik - Hip Hop Hypnotique - CISM 89.3FM - Montreal
"What Underground
Realroad, the fresh out of the box Hip Hop crew, has done with
"Slave to the Game" is to create a space in the
genre that captures messages across all classes." - Soul
Magazine
A chance encounter at Montreal’s Red
Rhino Studios in 2008 between owner, producer Drex and rapper Big Bricc, who
came in to master a mix tape, soon lead to the formation of progressive,
formula-breaking collective Underground Realroad.
“Bricc came in and I could tell his stuff
was not contrived. There was realness to it,” says Drex. Putting the tape
aside and starting to lay down their own tracks, it took a text message
conversation to officially start up the project.
Releasing their debut, “Slave to the
Game,” Underground Realroad delivers their own genuine, personal experiences
with a sound free of influence. Bored of traditional hip-hop, they bring their
vision of what hip-hop should be. “People limit themselves creatively because
of the industry side of things,” says Drex, and so they strive not to
emulate what is popular, opting to make their own scene.
The name, a play on Canada’s historic
involvement of smuggling American slaves through the Underground Railroad,
represents the “road they’re taking: trying to be free of influence of what’s
going on and emancipate themselves of it.
What it comes down to, as Bricc quotes,
is: “Life is not made to find you, but to create yourself.”