Artist bio
MC FÜBB (pronounced “emcee foob”) is a Toronto born hip hop MC. Having written his first poem at the age of 9 (and hundreds more since then), MC FÜBB demonstrated a natural talent for writing at a very young age. As he grew up and began listening to hip hop music, FÜBB’s poetry writing evolved into writing rhymes and he began rapping at the age of 15. Being introduced to hip hop by his oldest brother (whose tastes in hip hop music ranged from KRS-ONE to OutKast to Wu-Tang, just to name a few), MC FÜBB was inspired and spent much of his time educating himself about hip hop and the art of emceeing, subsequently falling in love with hip hop as an idea, a culture, an art-form, and a mode of self-expression.
Since embarking on his journey into the world of hip hop, MC FÜBB has gone through tremendous transformations as an artist and an individual, which are reflected in the lyrical content of his music. He raps for the love of hip-hop, for creative self-expression, and most of all to carry a conscious-minded, (overall) positive message to those who take the time to listen. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science, majoring in both psychology and philosophy. While at U of T, he became president of a student run organization called “Hip Hop Headz” which was dedicated to the expression and proliferation of hip hop culture on the university campus. MC FÜBB has chosen to put his degree on the shelf, taking what he’s learned from his years in academia, and pursue his passions via his career as a professional hip hop artist. He hopes to create a positive difference in the world through his music – one listener at a time.
Past performances include sharing the stage J-Live, Frank Nitt (of Frank ‘N Dank) and Illa J (brother of the late great J Dilla), self-promoted shows and release parties for his albums, dozens of open mics around the city of Toronto, professional hiring for private functions such as weddings and parties, and various other shows, many of which he organizes and promotes himself. In an effort to bridge the gap between the origins of hip hop music and its current manifestations while also pushing the boundaries of hip hop as an art-form, FÜBB has begun to perform with the Metro Big Band (http://www.metrobigband.com). While he is committed to his own career as a hip hop artist, MC FÜBB is also devoted to hip hop culture and music itself, seeking to contribute to the hip hop community whenever and wherever possible. A recent development on this front has been his founding and formation of the Hip Hop Headz (H3) community (borrowing the name from the university organization that he was once a part of and has since been dissolved), whose mandate is to engage in the “manifestation of hip hop in all of its various forms” (www.theh3.com). With the aid of H3, MC FÜBB has also recently begun organizing and hosting an event called “The Cypher” in the core of downtown Toronto at which hip hop MCs/rappers from all over the city are invited to come out, pass around a microphone, and showcase their talents and skills (www.thecypher.ca). FÜBB is also a co-founder at Coachtastic, which is a website designed to bridge the gap between people who need help and people who have the expertise to provide it (www.coachtastic.com).
MC FÜBB’s debut release, the EP album Foundations, in which FÜBB pushes the boundaries of conventional hip hop through the use of a live band and various styles of rapping, is now available for purchase globally. He released his second project, the Blue Collar Worker mixtape, which is comprised of dubs over instrumentals by famous producers such as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and J Dilla, in May 2010 and is available for free download at mcfubb.com. He recently released his second official album, a collaborative project with producer Noyz, entitled: In the Face of No Agremeent (ITFONA). For more information and links to music, please visit www.mcfubb.com.
Foundations
Post-apocalyptic warzone. The earth is covered with craters, the trees are shattered into shards of burnt wood, garbage is strewn across the ground as far as the eye can see. The radio stations, buildings of record labels and commercial distributors, promotion headquarters and luxury mansions have all been reduced to rubble. And beneath all the rubble of all these buildings lay cracked and broken foundations.
Under the ground, under the layers of trash, dirt and filth, there lay piles of scratched CDs, warped records, busted tapes ranging from 8-track to cassette to DAT, snapped turntable needles, broken canvases and soiled sketch pads, empty aerosol-paint cans, melted linoleum and pulverized cardboard, soaked oversized T-shirts and ripped baggy jeans, pages upon lined pages of torn, forgotten rhyme books, and a plethora of destroyed microphones.
But all is not lost. At the corner of one of the dilapidated structures, a graffiti artist begins to paint, making use of the dozens of nearly empty aerosol cans he has managed to scrounge together. A DJ is spinning a scratched record on an old monograph with the needle from an addict's syringe. A b-boy and a b-girl start breaking over layers of cardboard gathered from the surrounding area. An old man sitting on a lawn chair begins to beat-box. And in the center of it all stands an MC with a shovel in his hands.
His name is MC FÜBB. The words of dead and forgotten MCs and poets ring loudly in his mind and he drives the shovel into the ground and begins to dig. His goal: to journey through the rubble, reach the underground, and once there to lay new foundations in order to materialize an idea called, Hip Hop...
Blue Collar Worker
The Blue Collar Worker isn’t about socioeconomic class struggles. It’s a mind-state of the type of grind that nobody sees and yet everybody knows about. It’s not just about rockin’ the mic on stage or spittin’ in the booth; it’s also about trekking around the city with a full backpack and a mission to accomplish. It’s about dragging your ass out of bed when you’d rather sleep-in and taking steps even though your feet hurt. It’s about working that job that you’d rather not work so you can pay for studio time and get your tracks mixed. It’s embodying the type of courage that nobody rewards you for and doing the damn thang instead of complaining about what needs to be done.
The Blue Collar isn’t a status symbol. It’s a representation of everything it takes to achieve one’s goals and materialize one’s dreams. It symbolizes a level of earnestness and integrity that the vast majority of people lack in their lives. It’s a commitment to honouring one’s word and not settling for excuses. It’s the acknowledgment that obstacles are merely limitations that have not yet been overcome.
This is what I mean I say, “I’m on a different kind of grind when I pop the Blue Collar…”
In The Face of No Agreement
It takes something for us to take a stand for what we believe in in this world. The easiest thing to do is to follow the path of least resistance – to do what society expects us to do and blend in with the masses. But to stand for something, to acknowledge a cause greater than ourselves and work diligently towards forwarding that cause, is among the hardest things we as human beings can do.
What makes consistently standing for a certain cause so difficult is that if we are sincere in our efforts and actually begins to make progress towards our goals, then we will invariably face obstacles and even opposition. On the quest to materialize our dreams in this world, it is essential that we have others in our community agree with our vision and share our commitments. Unfortunately, a by-product of expanding our effectiveness in realizing our goals is that we are bound to come across much indifference, apathy, cynicism, and possibly even direct opposition to that which we are committed to. For every dream in this world, there exist forces that have No Agreement to it being fulfilled.
Another form of No Agreement, less obvious and more insidious that external opposition, is our own resistance to our own greatness. No Agreement towards ourselves can take the form of self-doubt, self-sabotage, self-destruction, disempowering beliefs, fear, anxiety, confusion, and even self-created rationalization against fulfilling on our own commitments. In order to be able to effectively face obstacles in the external world, we need to learn to master our own internal worlds so that we can stay clear and focused on what we say we stand for. Because at the end of the day, all we can truly own are our own words and actions in our given circumstances – everything else is in some degree beyond our control.
The source of human greatness is our ability stand firm to our commitments in the face of No Agreement. Regardless of our circumstances, our past experiences, our limitations or disadvantages, we always have the ability to choose who we are going to be in this world. And if we are courageous enough to be unwavering in what we stand for, if we maintain our integrity with our commitments, promises to others and most of all with ourselves, then we are already living into the future that we want to see materialized right now.
Choose to be powerful. Choose to be courageous. Choose to manifest your own greatness.
Stand for what you say you stand for – In the Face of No Agreement.
