Ryan – 10@10 Hip Hop in Calgary

A DJ friend of mine (Mista Wilson) set up an introduction to Ryan through his friend Marie. I met Marie and Ryan in front of the Ubu Lounge a little before people starting showing up for a hip hop night that Ryan and his friends put on. Ryan told me a little bit about the night and showed me around the venue quickly. After a quick look around Ryan and I went back to the street to conduct our interview. Here is what he had say!
* A few more photos from the night follow the interview.

Camera: Canon 5Diii & 50L – Settings: 1/320th // f1.2 // ISO 400

1. Where are you from?
I’m from Calgary

2. Have you lived here all your life?
I was born in Calgary

3. Nice.  Do you like living in Calgary?
Yeah, I enjoy living in Calgary.

4. What is it about Calgary that you like?
Well, like, even with a lot of other Canadians too who are like born and raised somewhere else, like, there’s a lot of nostalgic feeling for the place where you were born, and the place where you are familiar with , like most of my friends.  For me that’s Calgary.

5. What do you like to do for fun?
I like to listen to music, watch sports, chill with the hommies.

6. So you are putting on this night.  Why don’t you tell me a bit about the night that we are at? How did it start?
It started as an idea from my boy Rock Media about creating a night where we invite 10 local hip hop acts down to do quick sets and kinda like a sign up and open mic format.  And it started with that and the way it grew from that point which is just kinda natural within itself.

7. How long have you guys been doing this night?
I believe this is our 24^th month or 22^nd month? I’m off on that one so I don’t know

Rob: Around there!

Around there, if that (Laughter)

8. So has it always been done here?
Yeah,  it’s always been done here at the Ubu Lounge here in Theatre Grand.

9. How long do you plan to do this night?  Is it gonna be a long standing thing?
Um, you know at this point…It’s not even the foresight, you know.  We never even thought it’d be this long. At the same time, it’s hard to envision local hip hop without it.

10. So what else is happening in the City as far as the hip hop community goes?
I don’t know, but from 10 @ 10 being a hub, it’s kinda nice to see like, as you invite more artists down to perform, it’s different artists meeting other artists, and different visual artists meeting other visual artists or photographers meeting artists as well, ya know. And then seeing the collaborations even from the events.  Seeing, you know, an act from one month, with an act from a different month doing a song together and your seeing kinda like those kinda fruitations of the culture. It’s showing more growth and you know than whats within the realm of my reach.  Cause there could still be great stuff being created anywhere, but if I’m not hearing it is it my hip hop or no?

11. So how do you get the acts?
People who attend kinda see what we’re doing and how it’s being done.  And they send us an e-mail at 10at10showcase@gmail.com or they hit us up on twitter @10at10calgary.  And then we ask them to send us a set list some links to their media and they we just kinda go through the email list.  And we do try to give everyone an opportunity to perform, so at all levels we encourage people to send music in.

12. Alright cool. So if you had to describe Calgary to someone what would you say?
It’s hard to describe, because I’m not even a travelled guy too much.  I travelled a little bit and it really opened up my eyes about what the world is like.  But Calgary’s just like, Midwest, big city with small town hospitality and that’s pretty much it.

13. Is there anything else you can think of that you’d like to add, that people might want to know about your night?
Since the conception of this, we’ve actually ran this free of charge for almost over a year and a half now.  So it’s just here to develop the hip hop community of Calgary.  We’re just creating a place where people can practice their craft, promote their craft, and diversify their collaborations coming out of their own art.  So come on down.  Tell your friends who are talented, we don’t have to all be bedroom rappers and producers and not you know, create something as a city.

14. Cool, last question. Have you ever ridden a horse?
Yes I have ridden a horse.

Alright, that’s it!

* Thanks for taking the time to talk to me Ryan! I’ll see you next month 😉 Also, thanks to DJ Mista Wilson & Marie for the introduction to Ryan. I would also like to add that I stuck around for a couple hours to check out the night and it was super good and had a lot of cool people attending. 10@10 is definitely worth checking out!

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