Hip hop act takes centre stage

By Quinn Damery

dame0013@algonquincollege.com

“I am Ottawa hip hop.”

The boast was said half-jokingly, but it demonstrates the Algonquin grad Devin Atherton’s well-developed knack for self-promotion.

Indie artists face many obstacles to keep their careers alive, but Atherton, 25, cites the low profiles of Canadian rappers versus those of rock musicians as an indicator of the difficulties of pursuing a career in hip hop.

“Hip hop is hard to break into a) in general and b) in the indie circuit,” said Atherton in an interview before his Oct. 1 show at The Ob. “It’s hard to find someone who believes in you as much as you.”

Atherton enrolled in introduction to music industry at Algonquin in 2004 where he set about building the skills needed to pursue a career in hip hop. His time at the college also gave him the opportunity to network with other students.

 One friend taking the animation program created the graffiti artwork for the cover and insert on Atherton’s 2006 collaboration with Sire, A Different Way of Doing the Same Old Thing.  Another friend, Isabelle Pouliot, was taking graphic design and provided layout duties.

“Devin hired me to design the album cover for the first Atherton and Sire album, as well as some promotional posters and flyers for shows,” said Pouliot. “Working on the album cover was an experience that I'm greatly appreciative to have had...it afforded a great deal of experience in both client relations, and printer preparation. Those are both invaluable skills to maintain as a designer.”

The connections that began at Algonquin have since grown into the self-described “music-and-arts collective” Vinyl Tap, a record label and promotional outlet for the artists involved.

Atherton’s debut earned him a four star review in the Ottawa Citizen and he was named top Ottawa hip hop act in 2005 and 2006 by Ottawa Xpress.

After 20 years in Ottawa and four spent actively working to build his profile within the city, Atherton felt he needed to leave the area if his career was going to continue to grow. He packed up and moved to Toronto, where he enrolled in Seneca’s independent music program. With more shows, and better promotion for them, Atherton likens the T.O. scene as closer to New York City, the birthplace of hip hop.

It was a potentially risky move that meant starting over from scratch and re-establishing himself as an artist in new territory.  While still his favourite place to perform, he felt that the Ottawa hip hop community was too exclusive, something he became aware of after often seeing the same people attending his shows. Toronto, with its’ larger population and more active hip hop underground, would provide more opportunities to broaden his fan base.

“It’s like you’re always running an election. You’re always campaigning,” he said of his career.

The move paid off, earning him heightened press coverage, including the cover of NOW magazine after a performance at North by Northwest in 2007.

Ultimately, Atherton felt Toronto wasn’t best suited to what he was doing. This past September, he packed his bags once again and moved to Montreal.

The current home to Canada’s, and maybe the world’s, indie music scene, Atherton sees Montreal as a more arts-based, do-it-yourself community, the type of work ethic that has defined his career. He writes, performs and produces his own CDs, prints his own shirts, does his own bookings, sells his own merchandise and provides his own travel.

Despite the added work, he embraces the benefits as an artist free of music labels. He has complete control over his career, but more importantly there is no middle man profiting from his hard work. He owns the publishing rights and song writing credits of his songs, a potentially lucrative asset that many signed bands are denied.

“If I sell 500 records, I can make as much as other people make off 5000 records, depending on their deal,” he said.

Calling Montreal home doesn’t mean turning his back on Ottawa, though. Atherton still makes regular trips back to the nation’s capital to perform and regularly draws capacity crowds at Babylon.

“Ottawa never really has a chance to miss me,” he said.

Atherton has been working on the follow up to his first album for the last two years, and plans to have No Threat out in January 2009.

He will be back in Ottawa Nov. 5 at NIXNE opening for Prince Po.

Find Atherton online at myspace.com/nothreat and vinyltap.ca