March 26, 2010
A chance encounter at Montreal’s Red Rhino Studios in 2008 between owner, producer Drex and rapper Big Bricc, who came in to master a mix tape, soon lead to the formation of progressive, formula-breaking collective Underground Realroad. “Bricc came in and I could tell his stuff was not contrived. There was realness to it,” says Drex. Putting the tape aside and starting to lay down their own tracks, it took a text message conversation to officially start up the project. Releasing their debut, “Slave to the Game,” Underground Realroad delivers their own genuine, personal experiences with a sound free of influence. Bored of traditional hip-hop, they bring their vision of what hip-hop should be. “People limit themselves creatively because of the industry side of things,” says Drex, and so they strive not to emulate what is popular, opting to make their own scene. The name, a play on Canada’s historic involvement of smuggling American slaves through the Underground Railroad, represents the “road they’re taking: trying to be free of influence of what’s going on and emancipate themselves of it. What it comes down to, as Bricc quotes, is: “Life is not made to find you, but to create yourself.”
