BleuBird

While Canadians flock to the States to seek success, it’s nice to see the process reversed, with Florida rapper Bleubird relocating to Montreal for his sophomore album. He’s still rapping with fast, staccato flows about politricks, social injustice and the occasional emo discourse, and his beats continue his preference for hard, aggressive hip-hop that dabbles in noise and punk. Familiar faces also return, with production again supplied by label head Scott Da Ros, who contributed the best of the best on Sloppy Doctor, Skyrider and Sole, who work together on a couple, and one by Skyrider solo; Sole also returns for some guest vocals, as does Filkoe176. Scott’s production on "Playing Dress-Up” goes through many change-ups, so it never gets boring, but it doesn’t stand out as much this time. Instead, that honour goes to Glue’s Maker for "Switchblade,” a fun, funky, grinding beat that serves as his "pop song with the word fuck in it,” which could have been his breakthrough song if it wasn’t for that overabundance of profanity (although that’s sort of the point). Bird’s interludes are also entertaining, which is certainly a rarity in rap, and have a tendency to get way out there, as on "United Nonsense.” With that in mind, let’s all welcome Bleubird into the weird world that is Canadian rap.