Cityreal

As always, CityReal, who is on tour with us, killed it. - Prevail from Swollen Members in Exclaim

a worthwhile listen deserving of the nomination it received for Best Rap Recording at the Western Canadian Music Awards. - Exclaim

Good Morning Blues is a tight, cohesive release that's hopefully only the dawning of the day for these two as a collaborative unit.
- Exclaim

“Great music from Vancouver” - www.dailyrap.de

“a perfect mix of Hip Hop and Blues with undeniable grooves and enlightnened lyrics” (translated from French) - www.lemurduson.ch

The album is comprised of 11 tracks of great soulful hip-hop mixed with blues elements and vocals. Production of 10 songs comes via Cityreal himself, which allowed for an in-depth fusion of the two influences (blues and hip hop) to create this dope album. - TheComeUpShow.com

CityReal, who’s something of a Vancouver staple but spends much of his time on tour, was a good pick for opener; his style matched Dilated in its conscious tone and the melodic beats got the crowd hyped. Off the album The Beginning, CItyReal played “Passing Me By” and “Out Of Time,” both head bobbers. He followed with a heavy a cappella to give us something to think about, and closed with “Destiny” as the crowd waved their hands back and forth to the beat. - HipHopCanada.com

For his latest project, Western Canadian Music Award nominated-MC and producer Cityreal has teamed up with blues heavyweight Wes Mackey to bring you Good Morning Blues, which dropped March 31st. The album is, simply put, a beautifully and masterfully crafted hip-hop/blues duet. Cityreal’s confident lyrical style and flow is complimented so well by the bluesman’s deep soulful voice it’s ridiculous. Throw in some smooth guitar lines and rock solid beats and you got an album you can easily set on repeat to just cool out and enjoy.... - HipHopCanada.com

A must read review of the Denver show during the recent Swollen Members, Saigon and Cityreal tour.
"A lot of the songs that were on Black Magic, an album released over four years ago, made the set list and Rob the Viking and Cityreal stood in for Madchild, additions that were well received and actually delivered with clean precision. Surprisingly, Cityreal covering Madchild made for a good show. Swollen has done this set for years, but with City covering half, it sounded fresh, revived and remixed."

Read the full review at http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2010/11/last_night_marquis_theatre_flexes_23_swollen_members.php
- Denver Westworld

Vancouver, B.C. – Vancouver’s a city full of underground talent that’s not immediately visible. Many artists are largely unknown to too many, and it’s often surprising to discover some of the best emcees and producers at the very fringes of the scene. Cityreal is one such slept-on artist: HipHopCanada met with the MC and producer to talk about his new album The Beginning and the trials and tribulations of the rap biz.

HipHopCanada: As far as Canada’s concerned, white conscious suburban rappers seem to be the norm: how do you hope to carve out an identity for yourself?

Cityreal: Well, I think only one of those characteristics applies to me. I’m white but I’m not a suburban conscious rapper. I’ve spent the majority of my life living in urban centres or neighbourhoods such as East Van, which I consider an urban neighbourhood and not a suburb. Secondly, my music, I think, is a reflection on life and I don’t consider myself a conscious rapper. Obviously ‘conscious rapper’ is such a widely used term and really depends on your perspective. If you ask a gangster guy maybe he’d call me a conscious rapper but if you ask a political or backpacker rapper, they would definitely not consider me a conscious rapper.

But as far as how I’ll differentiate myself from the average rapper… I think the fact I produce my own music puts me in a more select division. I think the quality, style and content of that production puts me in another league. As far as my lyrical identity… I think I’ve led a pretty unique life, being exposed to extreme poverty and extreme wealth, being a part of… we’ll say the street and its culture of drugs and crime all while attending university and having an affinity for politics and social issues. I try to be as soulful as possible. I like to touch on political and social commentary as well some street elements that I’ve lived through. But mostly, I like painting pictures of life and the issues and emotions it brings and I think that’s the most relatable part of rap that a lot of people don’t focus on. Whereas Eminem rapping about killing his girlfriend isn’t relatable, Immortal Technique having crazy political statements isn’t relatable, 50 cent rapping about being shot isn’t relatable, Drake rapping about throwing $100 bills isn’t relatable to the average rap audience. And I think going one of those extreme routes is the common model people follow. Great art will always stand out amongst mediocre work and I’d say were in a country or even an industry where mediocre seems to be the norm.

HipHopCanada: Being that you’re a career-oriented artist, is it difficult trying to balance the creative side of things with the business side?

Cityreal: I wouldn’t call myself a career-oriented artist. I’m a music-oriented artist and I think all artists or musicians would like to make a career out of their craft. At this point, business affairs do take up more of my time than the creative aspect. But that’s cause I just released my first solo album so I’m currently trying to get it out there as much as possible. I’m gradually getting back in the studio though. Producing for other people and working on new stuff for myself.

HipHopCanada: You handled the beats for your new album The Beginning, was it completely produced by you or did you have friends or guests contribute?

Cityreal: I produced every track with the exception of a song called “Keep On Movin” which I co-produced with my friend S.One. That’s probably the oldest beat on the album actually and was re-worked many times. I had other friends come in as studio musicians but they didn’t do any production.

HipHopCanada: Does getting the right people to hear you, along with trying to make a living off of this, keep you on that grind of playing live?

Cityreal: It gets you exposed directly because you’re playing to an audience where you can grow your fanbase, which indirectly exposes you to the publicity you can generate from that performance. There are some cities that no matter how much of a hustler you are you’re just not going to sell shit. Ya know, whether people aren’t feeling it, it’s not the right show or it’s not the right night or whatever. And it depends a lot on the mood of the room. Like sometimes you come into a room and there’s already tension like a fights about to break out. But if you come into a room that’s already rocking and it’s a party then people wanna wear your shirt and buy your CDs. People that are showmen and performers can turn those really bad rooms right around to where everybody just loves you. You’ve got to have an on-point performance to do that sort of thing. And that pays off, both in merch and reaching new fans if you can really rock a room.

HipHopCanada: What do you think about the expression, “You have to make it in your own backyard before you make it elsewhere”?

Cityreal: I think we’re fortunate to be in such an urban center. And I guess if you’re coming from a smaller city it’s easier to conquer that smaller backyard however they have such a disadvantage because once they conquer their own backyard they come into a larger city as nobodies, ya know what I mean? So coming up in Van we start at a spot that puts us ahead of others coming up in smaller areas… Like being from Van I totally appreciate it, we already have access and once you bridge this key scene then you start moving on to the rest of the world.

For more information on Cityreal check out http://www.myspace.com/cityrealmusic.

Written by Jesse Furnell for HipHopCanada

- Hip Hop Canada

Vancouver based rapper/producer Cityreal recently dropped his appropriately named debut album, The Beginning. His music welcomes listeners into his world without any trepidation and has earned the respect of artists like The Sweatshop Union and Moka Only.
Take our readers into the world of Cityreal. What motivates you to do this rap stuff?

I kinda got into it through a love of music and went from there. I got into it organically making beats for the fun of it, rapping and free-styling with my buddies, then I gradually started to take it more seriously.

Why the name Cityreal?

As a kid people used to call me “Real” all the time, which I wasn’t crazy about. Then I was helping a buddy make a documentary style movie for one of his classes and we were looking through reels of footage and one of them said “City reel”. It was a reel of stock city footage and I kinda liked the sound of that and I took it from there. It was meant to signify just that. Images of the city. Then I changed the name from “Reel” to “Real” to signify those images and reality to the city as well.

How long have you been in the game?

I started doing it officially since about 2004/2005 while I was in University in Winnipeg. I’ve been rapping since I was a kid just messing around in high school. I didn’t start taking it seriously until I was in Winnipeg and was making beats for a bunch of Winnipeg artists. I got into the scene that way, then I got on the mic and got really good feedback and took it from there.

Does the fact you studied Political Science influence your music?

Yeah it did when I first started rapping. I was a lot more political but I started thinking that sometimes that political stuff can come off a little preachy, so I kinda eased off that and try to put it in slightly as a nuance in my music but not the main effect. I try to reflect on life itself. But yeah, it has a large influence on me as a person but I shy away from being too political in my music.

Would you say that playing the drums growing up got you into producing?

Yeah Yeah. I was in whatever my high-school band was. I had a good understanding of that. I played a little piano and keyboard on the side. Having that base knowledge definitely made it a lot easier for me to pick it up.

With the advent of new technology I find that a lot of producers aren’t legitimately based in music now. I think it’s good that you have that foundation.

Yeah for sure man. There are lots of dudes out there that just mess with the MPC, find a good sample and put some ok drums behind it and maybe a bass and that’s it.

For sure. Your beats have a layered quality and a certain level of depth to them.

Thanks man. I like to throw lots of instrumentation in there, but not synthesized stuff. I try to stay away from what’s poppin these days. You know the Electronica, House influenced beats. I try to take it back to a more organic, classic hip hop sound but add more instruments like piano and guitar along with the samples.

Did you play any of the instruments on the beats?

Yeah most of them actually. I played basically everything except for some for the guitars and bass you hear in there. I’m not crazy good at guitars. I had a couple of buddys help out. I had my buddy Daniel Pangman who plays in a bunch of bands around here to do guitar on 2 or 3 tracks. Then I had my buddy Justin Brown who’s a fucking sick bass player in Vancouver who charges people lots of money to do bass on their shit but did it for me for free cause I knew him from way back in high school. He must have done bass for like half the tracks on the album. Then there’re the collaborations I have with Wes Mackey. He’s an old school blues guy and a really good blues guitar soloist. On the 2 tracks he did he plays the guitar solos that go with the tracks. But other then that. I did everything else that’s piano or keyboard oriented.


Is “Liar” based on a real experience?

Yeah. Liar is my retaliation. It’s me being fed up with a lot of elements in main-stream hip hop. Both on my experiences coming up in the game, talking to dudes talking lots of bullshit about being hard or about the shiny aspects of the game. Then coming up and realizing that it’s really a lot grittier and harder to make it then that. Just being fed up with the whole chain, diamonds, grills aspect that used to be prominent but I guess is kinda fading away now. It was my rant about that I guess.

You and A-Hustle have great chemistry. You put out a mix-tape recently that was supposed to be an album but due to a mishap you lost a lot of the material and had to scale the project back. Do you guys have any joint projects planned for the near future?

Yeah but A-Hustle’s kinda AWOL man. He ran into some legal issues and I don’t wanna get to deep into that, but he’s kinda laying low right now. We keep in touch but I haven’t talked to him in a while. What happened with that mixtape is that… We were recording at this studio in Winnipeg and the owner packed up overnight and took off with a lot of our shit. In the process of trying to get our shit back Hustle got into some legal troubles. So I took whatever we had from those sessions and turned it into a mixtape.

How did you hook up with Sweatshop Union?

I originally hooked up with Kyprios through some people I knew and took it from there. We did a track on my album then I asked them if I could open for them. There are lots of people from Van City trying to open for them but they gave me a shot. I met all of them and they’re all good guys. Then built a relationship from there through the different connections I had.

What else should the people out there know about you?

That’s a good question. I’d like the music to speak for itself. I’m quite politically motivated if you talk to me but I don’t put a lot of it in my music. I like to stay with that soulful sound. Keep it more organic and for lack of better word, more “real”. Not as much bullshit in the music. I reflect on my life and my life experiences without making up a bunch of shit or act real hard.

Any shout outs?

Moka Only, The whole Sweatshop Union family, A-Hustle, Shannon O’Neil; basically anyone that helped me with the album.

- UGS Magazine

Vancouver, B.C. – Cityreal has released his first full-length album The Beginning, and from the beginning this joint’s a banger. He brings the West Coast and Vancity sound (if there could said to be one Vancouver sound) to another level. The album features hype melodic beats coupled with conscious but catchy rhymes and crisp production.

From A to Z, The Beginning starts off on the right foot and stays on track. This is a real album, it’s conceptually thought-out with a true beginning, middle and end which reflect Cityreal’s skill as a songwriter as much as his abilities as an emcee and producer. He handled all the production on the album – making and arranging all the music and vocals himself – which lends to each track being a uniquely individual song.

From the title track opener to the album’s last song “Out Of Time” there’s a continuous and cohesive flow to the whole recording. An uptempo flow at that, both in his his percussion as well as his verses. Song after song is a neck snapper, and with guitar riffs and piano melodies leading most tracks, every song is undeniably catchy. Waving the Vancity flag sky-high, Cityreal has many of the city’s most talented artists collaborating with him: heavyhitters Kyprios, Moka Only and Narai all shine with their contributions, and their appearances keep the album from ever becoming redundant. Each song has a clearly thought-out theme or concept: from “Liar” to “Soul On The Track” or “Change,” each track is original in its own right, which keeps the album interesting and the listener engaged.

This CD stayed in my deck longer than most local albums and ended up providing the perfect soundtrack to a country drive on a beautiful sunny day, though it would probably be as fitting on a drive back from the club on a late night. Even my Betty Page-esque pierced metalhead girl was feeling every song. Cityreal’s The Beginning represents Vancouver as well as it does hip-hop culture in general, and it’s unlikely any hip-hop head wouldn’t be vibing to it upon first listen.

- Hip Hop Canada