Friends With The Help

Confidence, the sophomore release from Canadian hip-hoppers, Friends with the Help, takes a late 90's aesthetic and refits it to their own brutal narrative. Life veterans that have slipped and risen, FWTH is always balance shining scary lyrics with elegant production. Their latest is no exception. They pack a vocal timbre comparable to none and a flow that defines the word “professional”, so grab the release and bop that head. - Dingus

Vancouver, B.C. – Vancity’s hip-hop trio Friends With The Help do their part to wake the city from a long winter slumber with the drop of their debut album Confidence. The ever-so-smooth Northwest-coast production of DJ K-Rec sets the stage for an authentic sharing of the thoughts, feelings and stories of MCs Low Lux and Young Nige.

Confidence begins with an upbeat East Van playfulness and ends on a more solemn reflection. What happens in between is a hip-hop journey exploring love, artistic and personal growth and dreams for the future. K-Rec is, as the track verifies, “A DJ You Will Like” and he not only creates the bars but adds his own voice to the rhymes of the “street psychotherapist Lux and his disgraced half brother Nige,” with a range of vocal samples, cuts and scratches throughout the album. The pooling of each individual member’s unique style and skills creates a depth and sincerity to each track which always makes for a good listen.

A pre-Drizzy Degrassi Zit Remedy breakdown in “I Got A New Friend” – amongst a plethora of VanCity lyrical references - leaves no doubt that FWTH are proud to be actively adding to Canadian hip-hop, despite dreams of escaping the Canadian winters for the California sun as voiced in “Hollywood Lux”. From the cold bangin sound in “Come Through” to the heartfelt confessions in “Confidence” or super smooth letters home in “Mama,” FWTH are able to create a feel good vibe throughout the album, making it well worth the listen. Check it out. - Hip Hop Canada

Vancouver, B.C. – We here at HipHopCanada are obviously really high-class, but we love the filthy sounds of Friends With The Help‘s “East Van Shit.” So we’re featuring a video by Stephen Gillis that would make any Van East scrub feel right at home, from the sandwiches to the street hockey to the ridiculous rhyme schemes. Young Nige and Low Lux teamed up with the city’s slickest producer K-Rec to put together this track and a free mixtape download…you can catch both as easily as an STD after the jump. - Hip Hop Canada

There is a certain corniness in hearing Friends With The Help‘s two nasally-voiced emcees Low Lux and Young Nige spit about the benefits of living in their East Vancouver homebase that’s difficult to ignore and it’s a guarantee that a large chunk of listeners groomed with hip hop of a harder breed may not last twenty seconds after clicking play to the Canadian trio’s “East Van Shit” before moving on; but it’s also clear that anyone with an appreciation for the humorous and feelgood, home-pride aesthetic of rap’s golden age and a fondness for nod-worthy, vinyl-dug soul/ jazz samples will certainly dig this tune and plenty of others from their recently dropped self-titled mixtape.

“East Van” finds Nige and Lux repping for a land where they spend their days indulging in non-events like “play(ing) pool for weed and smokes” and getting their stomachs filled on a diet of meat sandwiches and veggie paninis while enjoying the nearly snow-free forecasts. With their rhymes snuggled in producer K-Rec’s summer-baked horn loop, the song lands as the perfect chill-time soundtracker.

Peep the song’s video, then check out the rest these cats have to offer in the FWTH mixtape widget. - Mixtape Maestro

Canadian pride has been taken to a whole new level with the Vancouver-based rap group Friends with the Help. Mix in two friends from East Vancouver, one solid DJ producer (K-REC) (of the 5-man clique Stoop Family: FWTH, DJ K-Rec, Corvid and Joose Justis from Killawatt) and a whole life time of smoking weed and you have the perfect recipe for the birth of their newest self-titled mixtape Friends with The Help.

Fortunately as a listener it is not required to be completely stoned off your rocker to enjoy the carefree rhymes of these two emcees (which is free to download off the internet). Musically this partnership is fronted by emcees Young Nige and Low Lux, two individuals who visually scream East Vancouver but for better or worse lack the rough & tumble vibe of some
Vancouver rappers.

Their styles are extremely different with Young Nige having a smoother flow with cadences that run back and forth in waves while Low Lux is adorably grating with a high
nasally acoustic that is distinctive and otherwise enjoyable. The blend of their voices over the almost too long whooping seventeen track album is a cross between early Outkast and Dose 1.
It is a refreshing situation when you can throw on a mixtape from an unknown artist and find a summer groove almost immediately.

The second track of the tape is titled “East Van Shit“and its laid back melodies mixed with tongue-in-cheek references recognizable by any Vancouver resident is perfect for the kick back nature of summer times This tends to be the theme throughout the entire mixtape: good times, just cutting the superficial surface of hard-time realities with the perfect beat backbone to bop your head to.

It almost makes me one to light up for a job well done for Friends with The Help. - ABORT Magazinee

Friends With the Help is a hip-hop group from Vancouver. With everyone and their mother rapping on Bandcamp it was easy to pass this one over at first, but on the second or third run through the tallent is completely undeniable. Flow is just the first qualification for a good rap album. These guys go much deeper with surprisingly intelligent lyrics and sampling. Whoever is responsible for the final production deserves a warm pat on the back. - Dingus