Single: Wasiu – “44:4 (44 Four’s)” (prod. by jamvvis)

Montreal’s Finest Emcee Pays Tribute to Hov with This Wavy Freestyle On the Eve of His Album’s Release, Premiered by 2DopeBoyz

6.28.2017

Critical Praise for Wasiu:

“Wasiu is the hip-hop voice of Montreal.” – i-D

“The young Montreal rapper has been working steadily to make a name for himself and it looks like he’s on the right track.” – Pigeons & Planes

“Wasiu is another one to look out for this year.” – Complex

“Many rappers twice his age would be wise to take notes…” – Okayplayer

“Wasiu is pretty much the embodiment of Montreal’s cultural shift.” – Noisey

“Wasiu is a rapper in a league of his own” – High Snobiety

The Song:

A rhyming technician and strong conceptual thinker, Montreal’s Wasiu is one of the most creative rappers on either side of the 49th parallel. Inspired by the imminent release of Jay-Z‘s 4:44 album, Wasiu pays tribute with “44:4 (44 Four’s),” an update to classic lyrical exercise “22 Twos“ from Jay’s debut album Reasonable Doubt. Swapping the original’s minimal boom-bap for oscillating electronics, Wasiu doubles up Jay-Z’s word game, spitting a tight, 90-second long verse using 44 instances of the syllable “four.” An exhilarating exhibition of Wasiu’s lyrical ability, his verse never feels like a mere experiment: “FORsaw what others can’t FORsee/UnFORtunate for her because now my dick ain’t FOR free/FORgive me, you can’t afFORD this D/but I did pay attention to those thirty-FOUR D’s.” Premiered by 2DopeBoyz, “44:4 (44 Four’s)” proves that there are few on Wasiu’s level as a showman and his track fits nicely as a companion piece to Jay’s classic.

Earlier this month, Wasiu shared Snow Mexican, his latest accomplished EP. Inspired by a fake (yet believable) Donald Trump tweet and tuffed with innovative electronic production from the likes of Tommy Kruise, Dear Lola, and others, Snow Mexican is Wasiu’s most politically charged project yet, approaching issues from the perspective of a perpetual outsider–an African in Canada, an English-speaker in a French-speaking city, and a Canadian trying to make it in the American rap industry. To accompany the release, Wasiu released the free-flowing, one-take visual for “No Jumper,” premiered by Earmilk. Perhaps known best in his homeland for his commercials for Kijiji, Canada’s answer to Craigslist, which showcase Wasiu’s prodigious skills behind the mic, Wasiu has earned praise from the likes of Noisey, Complex, Pigeons & Planes, and Okayplayer. In the past year, Wasiu performed at SXSW, The Montreal Jazz Fest, POP Montreal, and Canadian Music Week, and opened for Little Simz, Jazz Cartier, BADBADNOTGOOD, Grandmaster Flash, Dead Obies, Sean Leon, and others. Watch out for MTLiens 2, Wasiu’s next full album, coming later this year.

Listen to “44:4 (44 Four’s)”: https://soundcloud.com/afrowasiu/44fours

Check out the 2DopeBoyz premiere: http://2dopeboyz.com/2017/06/28/wasiu-jay-z-44-fours/

Listen to the Snow Mexican EP: https://soundcloud.com/afrowasiu/sets/snow-mexican-ep/ // open.spotify.com/album/0XU3hqVUv4KOewI5f1mb9a

Purchase the Snow Mexican EP: itunes.apple.com/ca/album/snow-me…d1245841847?l=fr

Wasiu Background:

For Wasiu, being a pariah has always been a constant. A child of divorce from a Nigerian Muslim father and Haitian Protestant-Christian mother, he was torn between worlds, seen by both communities as impure, and a “mixed breed”—not entirely Haitian, not quite Nigerian. Even though he’s Québecois (a Québec native), his immigrant parents tainted his claim to the province. Raised by his mother after his father moved to Toronto, he felt obliged to fit in with her side of the family. Resentments towards his father’s beliefs and culture led him to drop his father-given middle name—Wasiu—so that he wouldn’t be teased in his predominantly white school, where he battled black stereotypes by pushing his intellect past expectations.

Overcoming adversity and using those lessons as lyrical fuel is Wasiu’s strongest suit. He is preparing his debut album which funnels his life experiences into a culturally defining opus that balances both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives on human themes. “I’m showing what people view as both the good and the bad,” he says, “and how without the bad, you can’t have the good, and so you start to appreciate the bad… for the good.”