I don’t really give my hometown some props as much as I should, but for a hick conservative boring new city, we’re pretty damn slick. The first thing I think of when I talk about the outsider’s point of view about Edmonton is Chris Pronger, and what damage that asshole did to Edmonton. If you don’t know or follow hockey, and say you follow the NBA it’s basically the same thing that Vince Carter did to Toronto, except if Carter won a championship the next year with the Nets. Then I remember that not many people watch hockey, and not many of those people will be NHL players that refuse to go to Edmonton because of their wives. In actuality more people listen to cool music and play video games than follow the NHL, so for those people Edmonton might seem like cultural awesometown, much like Austin in Texas. I say this because of two things, Cadence Weapon and Bioware.
Cadence Weapon makes hip hop exciting again, after it’s been in a ride to boring city ever since Lil Jon said “yeeaaaah.” In his first album he made a song called Oliver Square that makes Edmonton seem like the coolest city outside of New York. Rough, grimy, but modern with those modern beats. Then he makes a music video that has him dressed up as Mario, gets invited to Coachella, and SXSW , signs to Epitath, and still DJ’s at the Black Dog on Tuesday. Now he just released this new album called “Afterparty Babies” which is actually much better than the still awesome and raw “Breaking Kayfabe.” The lyrics which is the best part of CW are still amazing (he even brags that he knows that his songs are your screen name, which for me it is “is more dangerous that Millwoods” was one of my fave Facebook status), but it sounds like he started learning from Mike Skinner and maybe some electro dudes like Justice and made much cleaner beats. It’s much more danceble, much more hit worthy, but still very much the “motherfucking Weapon.” The best part is that he hypes up Edmonton every chance he gets. He’s our best cool ambassador, after me of course. Need some sonic proof? Go to the Hype Machine and look up “In Search Of the Youth Crew.”
Our second best cool ambassador comes from a bunch of nerds that took a building atop a book store chain. Yep, the guys from Bioware make Edmonton stand out much more than the boys in Wayne Gretzky Drive from the Star Wars saga Knights of the Old Republic to the sci-fi saga Mass Effect. They kick so much ass that people in the popular video game blog Destructoid.com were overjoyed by the fact that Bioware was having a job fair for some open positions, this wouldn’t be so jarring if this didn’t happen in February, in the week where Edmonton had -40 C wind chills. A time where you hoped the burning coffee was secretly leaking to your hands, so you could have some warmth. I pointed this out, and they were STILL happy about it. Especially since the company was voted in the top 100 companies to work for, in the world. They get awesome perks for all the shit they do, and sometimes they even overshadow the mighty empire that is EA, even though they bought them out. A great success story, and a great thing to be proud of in Borementon…uhh….I mean….AWESOMETOWN!
(P.S. I couldn’t find a sweet pic of the Bioware peeps, so I hope Kate Hudson’s scary awesome ass is a suitable replacement)
