Odario Williams performs at a Live Mixtape event
Odario Williams performs at a Live Mixtape event in 2018. Photo: Calvin Joseph

Spotify Playlist: The Live Mixtape + Remai Modern

The Live Mixtape is a program of live music and public engagement that brings together a group of established and emerging prairie hip hop artists. Through collaboration, conversation and performances, the artists will reflect on the development of a vibrant music culture that explores the specificities and complexities of place, inherited histories, and Black experience on the prairies.

The Live Mixtape will happen at Remai Modern on April 15 at 7 PM. Tickets are $25 members/$40 non-members

This playlist is compiled by The Live Mixtape Collective. You can see many of these playlist featured artists perform live on April 15 at Remai Modern. Learn more about the program here.

About the Artists

Cadence Weapon is the Edmonton-born, Toronto-based rapper, producer, writer, poet, and activist Rollie Pemberton. Throughout his work, the multidisciplinary artist aims to preserve and resurrect Black cultural memory by forging connections between personal, local, and collective histories. Cadence received the 2021 Polaris Music Prize for his fifth and latest album, Parallel World, an incisive project that uncovers the splintering realities both created and hidden by modern systems of inequality, atop blistering production that draws from UK grime, trap, and acid house.

Cadence Weapon photo Mat Dunlap
Photo: Mat Dunlap
Live Mixtape Rehearal WAG W2W Sep 09 30 WEB
Photo: BNB Studios

Elliott Walsh (Nestor Wynrush) is a Winnipeg based emcee-singer, writer, and workshop facilitator. This first-generation Canadian taps his Caribbean roots to cook up an authentic pot-au-feu that can aptly be described as Prairie Rap with a dash of Red River & West Indian Soul.

Odario is a storyteller, a hip-hop junkie and a lover of all things analog. Born in Guyana, and raised in Winnipeg, he acknowledges his prairie upbringing as a major influence in his unique career… and cites Peg City as a hotbed for creative self-expression. Today, Odario hosts CBC Music’s Afterdark program and is currently writing a new album titled, We Are Animals.

Odario is a storyteller, a hip-hop junkie and a lover of all things analog. Born in Guyana, and raised in Winnipeg, he acknowledges his prairie upbringing as a major influence in his unique career… and cites Peg City as a hotbed for creative self-expression. Today, Odario hosts CBC Music’s Afterdark program and is currently writing a new album titled, We Are Animals. Odario will perform with DJ Ofield at The Live Mixtape.

2oolman

2oolman is a hip hop artist and producer from Six Nations Reservation, ON. He’s part of The Halluci Nation (formerly known as A Tribe Called Red).

Andrew Sannie is a Canadian creative, business owner and member of acclaimed Canadian hip hop group, The Lytics and co-founder of award winning, experiential marketing and consultation company, Grape Experiential.

Andrew Sannie is a Canadian creative, business owner and member of acclaimed Canadian hip hop group, The Lytics and co-founder of award winning, experiential marketing and consultation company, Grape Experiential.

Andrew Sannie
ChimwemweUndi
Photo: Ebunolowa Akinbo

Chimwemwe Undi is a poet, editor and lawyer based on Treaty 1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her work has appeared in Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Literature, CBC Manitoba and BBC World. Her debut collection, Scientific Marvel, is forthcoming with House of Anansi Press. She is Winnipeg Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024.

Eekwol (born Lindsay Knight) is a rapper/educator/activist and community motivator from the Muskoday First Nation in Saskatchewan. Her passion for hip-hop, born from the genre’s attention to political, socioeconomic, and racial inequality began at the age of 16 and soon flowered into her first independent album in 1998. Her music continues to be a powerful statement that relies on creative innovation to represent community realities of the past and present.

Eekwol Stage2023
Factor Chandelier
Photo: King Rose Visuals

Factor Chandelier is a producer who combines smooth melodic moods with live instruments over seemingly effortless arrangements and immaculate drums to create a distinct sound. His work and signature sound have earned him a reputation as one of underground music’s favourite producers.

Katie Tupper, a 23-year old neo-soul musician, embodies that spirit and is determined to show there’s an entire world of boundary-pushing, genre-defying artists at work within the often overlooked region.

Katie Tupper 2023 Thomas van der Zaag
Photo: Thomas van der Zaag
Kimmortal

Kimmortal is a queer non-binary filipinx multi-hyphenate artist born in Vancouver, BC. Combining their passion for hip hop, visual art, theatre, spoken word, ancestral wisdom, and liberation, Kimmortal strives to build worlds that make queer and diasporic weird kids feel like they belong.

Marisolle Negash is a performer and songwriter from Winnipeg, Canada. She began sharing her work by curating shows with friends, using DIY venues and programming performances in the historical Exchange District: collaborating with producers, singers, poets, MCs and instructors. Marisolle’s swooning melodies are paired with lush keyboard-to capture times of hope, heal moments of regret and to revel in imagination.

marisolle copy
Rove by Noyz
Illustration: Noyz

Born and raised in the three Canadian prairies provinces, Rove is Métis with rust on his bones and maple syrup in his veins. He comes from a lineage of artists and found his way to visual art from his love of graffiti. Rove released his first album in 2022 in collaboration with his favourite underground rappers.

The Northwest Kid, formerly known as Craig Edes is of Gitxsan descent, from the Frog Clan, House of Haawx. Edes has actively served as a poet and emcee within the Canadian music scene for nearly a decade under The Northwest Kid, sharing the stage with Jeremy Dutcher, The Halluci Nation, Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Lido Pimienta.

A portrait of emcee The Northwest Kid.
ZHE full wall

ZHE the FREE is a multi-disciplinary artist, community builder and explosive performer. Growing up on Treaty 7 Land, she extends her fire from mountains to prairies. ZHE connects with audiences on a deep level through the realness she brings to the stage and powerful messages she shares.