Voodoo Doll

Let me paint you a picture. Saskatchewan is one of three Provinces that make up the Canadian Prairies and it sits snugly between Alberta - to its left - and Manitoba - to its right.

Stereotypically speaking, Saskatchewan is known for its farmland - which makes up one-third of the Province's 651,900 square kilometres - and for its wheat production. Climate wise the Province experiences long cold winters and hot dry summers and its population of 1,090,953, sits just a fraction higher than our beloved Birmingham's (1,073,000).

If these facts are something of a revelation, then it's safe to say you won't have heard of Saskatchewan-based hip-hop artist Voodoo, nor his sublime debut LP Delusional Kids. Contrary to popular belief, Canadian hip-hop is a country-wide phenomenon and not isolated to just one epicentre (think Toronto), or attributed to one talisman (think Drake, k-os or even Shad).

Voodoo, aka Joey Werapitiya, is a hip-hop artist and songwriter from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and was inspired after a stint of travelling, to create his first full-length venture, alongside other upcoming artists in Regina.

"I really just wanted to make something that showed life from the point of view of my friends and me at the time," said Voodoo. "I wrote the songs and realized that I was pretty much just telling how a normal Saturday night to Sunday morning is for us. So there is definitely some angst and frustration and just a variety of emotions I was hoping would connect. Party Saturday; find peace Sunday. The Good and Bad."

The 13 track LP is a myriad of electronica, trap and more traditional instrumentation that supports Voodoo's rapping sound and style, which he has credited to the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown and Kanye West. But there is also an air of je ne sais quoi about Voodoo's delivery that gives his word play a genuine and organic feel - perhaps it's a Canadian virtue or simply the man he is.

'Saturday' greets you agreeably with ambient chatter and wafts of synths so summery you can taste the icy Coronas smacking the back of your parched throat, but the tempo changes quickly into crescendos of electronica that support the infectious hook, "We're all just delusional kids; it's just Saturday night, I pray on Sunday morning, but it's Saturday night."

In many ways 'Saturday' is an epithet for the whole album, in the sense that Voodoo relays how the delusions of life can be escaped, albeit temporarily, by the ecstasies of a Saturday night: "This is for the fucking dance floor nights that kept us sane when they sayin' we wasn't living right; dedicated to kid who thought that good life, was riding no hands on my pedal bike."

Juxtaposed to the album's opener, 'Don Draper' is a Mad-Men inspired call out to his critics: "They used to call me skinny Joe, now I push rhymes like weight, do you even lift bro?" Out to prove a point, Voodoo's confidence grows through the song and his tongue-in-cheek lyricism challenges the walls of spacey sonic pulse around him: "And I get by like a song that I wish I wrote, not to imply that this shit ain't dope, but I would rather spit some shit that brings hope, helps cope, than opposed to some more fly shit, acting like we ain't broke; fuck outta here."

There is a lot of light and shade to the album and the musical composition is geared in a way to reflect the atmosphere of each track, complementing Voodoo's rapping style, which is energetic, thoughtful and passionate.

Featuring on the darker scale on the spectrum is 'Haze' which warms up with an eerie jack-in-the-box marimba-cycle, that becomes engulfed by an anthemic bass and 'Out My Mind' laced with chants of "Voodoo is coming," over spooky Halloween organs, becomes roughed up by trap-percussion and trippy synths.

'100 Gold Chains' (Part 1), is by far the stand out track on the LP and broods like M.O.P's 'Ante-Up' but in a much more playful way, "It's a party up in here, la de da de up in here, we hurt no body up in here, got us turnt and we don't care."

Initially, quiet stabs of electronica and a pitched-down vocal sync the hook "100 gold chains like I'm Slick Rick", but suddenly it all climaxes into a huge rolling bassline, invasive percussion and lyrical attitude. Featured Regina-based singer, Caliee De La Cruz, adds a soft-vocal into the mix, which acts as an antidote to the poisonous venom Voodoo spits.

The final third of the album sees a number of guest appearances from other members of the Saskatchewan music fraternity, including Marvin 'Merv Gotti' Chan (DGS) on 'Nice Guys', Regina rap veteran Noel 'Dr.Tsunami' Castillo & Amoz "Clay" Newkirk (The Stoop Kids) on 'Beautiful State of Mind' and finally Cailee De La Cruz lends her vocal again on 'Sunday'.

These three tracks in particular are more serene than their predecessors, offering the listener a period to cool down and be absorbed by the wavy melodies and lyrical content.

'Beautiful State of Mind' warms-up with loops of carefree piano and interplay between Voodoo, Dr. Tsunami and Clay, that is reminiscent of a by-gone era of hip-hop, "Fear not I am the chosen one, rocking gold like '88, man this flow is so DeLorean." And the poignant penultimate song 'Sunday' conjures up images of cold night-time walks after a few beers, in order to exorcise one's demons.

Cailee De La Cruz's vocal on 'Sunday' is haunting, "It's too early for the lights to go down, too early for the sun to come out, that's why they call it night-life, been vibing on that good tonight, holding my breath till I feel alright," and the tempo and passion in Voodoo's voice, "Listen momma, I'm sorry, I ain't a lawyer, I ain't no doctor, I decided to be the author of a whole life, watch us prosper," feels like a defence against the perpetrators trying to dissolve his delusions.

Overall, the honest narrative and varied musical structure found on Delusional Kids makes it anything but deluded, and can be considered in kind to the good kid, m.A.A.d cities of the world. Voodoo and co. have easily produced one of the most sonically interesting, underrated and unheard of hip-hop albums to come out of Canada (if not North America) in the last five to ten years.

Rating: 8/10 - Jake Wright - The 405

The surprise of the week for more than one music nerd was Regina’s Queen City Stoop Kids upstairs at Cleopatra. A hip-hop group with relentless, bombs-away energy and natural crew chemistry, they’re endlessly entertaining. There are some definite standout members of the group – one whipped himself around like the Tasmanian Devil so hard that I wondered if he’d pass out from the inertia – but overall their crew-based energy was tight and smooth. Pumping out songs “about white privilege!” and referencing Robin Williams, they ended everything with a nod to Jimi Hendrix, shouting “’scuse me while I kiss the sky!” along with a won-over crowd. - Now Toronto