Hip Hop artist and Spoken Word Poet Rafay Ansari a.k.a YBS Frack the French Pack is one of our judges and feature acts for Hip Hop Candyfest, and we had the privilege of sitting down and having a chat with Frack to get to know a little more about him and his story. In the following interview we take a trip down the rabbit hole as iCandy takes a look inside the life of Frack to see what kind of insights his unique perspective can offer us.
While sitting in the dreamatorium, just fun-gineering away and preparing for the interview, I hear what sounds like keys jingling in the distance approaching. Now, some people wear suits to work, others wear their regular clothes, but in walks Frack in what some people might call a costume, but what I saw with my eyes was a uniform.
From the braided and beaded beard, to the walking stick with skeleton keys hanging from it, his essence screamed artist and he looked ready to make magic.
He took a seat beside me and I turned on the tape recorder, and like old-friends just had a conversation.
When did you get into the rap game? Did you begin by writing poetry or freestyle?
"I started with freestyle rap when I was 16, just chilling with my buddies, passing the time - rather than causing chaos we just kicked rhymes, The next year when I was 17 I moved to Windsor and I came across some cats who ran a label out of Detroit Michigan. I did an audition for their label, I got signed - pretty much instantly, did a few shows… ended up leaving that label, found another one 2 years later, left that one and I've been an independent artist ever since I was 19."
What would you say are some themes/topics/issues that inspire you to write?
"A big topic for me is oppression.Growing up as a visual minority in Canada, I've grown up with a lot of racial stereotypes, even stereotypes that don't apply to my race of people that have been pinned upon me my whole life. So I talk a lot about bullying, and the problems going on in Palestine and the Middle-East , what's happening in our own country… I talk about raising awareness to things around us, like the things we're eating - mind you, I'm still a hypocrite, i'm still consuming things I know aren't good for me, yet at the same time I'm trying to let people know that we, collectively, need to change. I'm not trying to point fingers at you, him or her, but we as a group need to come together and say you know we need to stop drinking so much coffee, we need stop this and that and open our minds to what's going to benefit us tomorrow. I'm very much for living in the moment, but I don't want to live so much in the moment that I leave nothing for my child tomorrow."
So you have a child?
"Yes, a 5 year-old daughter named Shayla, and she's beautiful."
Has she influenced your music in any way, or maybe even being a father?
She is the reason why my music is the way that it is. I had her when I was 18 and when I was 17 and getting signed and her mother got pregnant, I was still just living that reckless teenage lifestyle. It wasn't until a year after she was born, I was working as an MC at a nightclub, and they wanted me to host like a booty shaking, wet t-shirt contest or something, and by the end of the night I was just like I can't do this anymore, this is filthy… and I went to my boss, and literally that night I called it quits, and he didn't really understand but that's ok. From that moment on I haven't been able to write any misogynistic crap, or write about partying, I mean I can write about enjoying life, but within respectful content - I don't want to be out there polluting sound waves. I want to make music that when my daughter listens to it she can be influenced, as well as other children. I tell people all the time when I hand them a copy of my CD, this is something you can enjoy and educate yourself with and so can your child.
Where do you see your music going in the future, how do you intend to spread it?
Me and the Skeleton Krew are actually going on tour with a brother of mine called Baracuda Fish from The Fish Gang, we're going on tour across Europe the last two weeks of September. It's exciting for me because it's the first time our team is going physically international...
As for spreading my music, it's not a huge concern to me anymore. I used to be so into making sure the whole world heard that song, whereas now I'm just like: the whole world probably won't hear it, only a few people are going to hear it, so make it good for those few people and then maybe a few more will come along. It wasn't until I stopped worrying about my image, my fan-base, and the financials of it all, and just stopped worrying about all the stuff that's so unnecessary to you being an artist and that's when my artistry started benefiting me financially, publicly, personally, and created a lot of great relationships in the industry. But the whole time I was stressing it nothing was working out… And that's where I realized I'm not getting paid, I'm not getting results, I got to go back to the love of it - I need to go back to my heart and start again. It was really then when I decided I do this for me. The ironic thing was that after I had this little musical awakening and stopped feeling so entitled that one night when me and my boy Static were on stage in Guelph, this random guy came up to us and slapped a 50 in my hand and slapped a 50 in Static's hand. We're both on stage and this was maybe our 5th show in a row (5 days of shows in a row) and right before this guy came up we were both like oh man, my back, we're getting too old for this… and this guy just came up and handed us this money! We were just stoked about it!
We were just giving it our all, loving the music, and that was the first pay out.
Check out YBS Frack this Saturday at Hip Hop Candyfest where he will perform a set of his music to the open public!
- iCandy
While sitting in the dreamatorium, just fun-gineering away and preparing for the interview, I hear what sounds like keys jingling in the distance approaching. Now, some people wear suits to work, others wear their regular clothes, but in walks Frack in what some people might call a costume, but what I saw with my eyes was a uniform.
From the braided and beaded beard, to the walking stick with skeleton keys hanging from it, his essence screamed artist and he looked ready to make magic.
He took a seat beside me and I turned on the tape recorder, and like old-friends just had a conversation.
When did you get into the rap game? Did you begin by writing poetry or freestyle?
"I started with freestyle rap when I was 16, just chilling with my buddies, passing the time - rather than causing chaos we just kicked rhymes, The next year when I was 17 I moved to Windsor and I came across some cats who ran a label out of Detroit Michigan. I did an audition for their label, I got signed - pretty much instantly, did a few shows… ended up leaving that label, found another one 2 years later, left that one and I've been an independent artist ever since I was 19."
What would you say are some themes/topics/issues that inspire you to write?
"A big topic for me is oppression.Growing up as a visual minority in Canada, I've grown up with a lot of racial stereotypes, even stereotypes that don't apply to my race of people that have been pinned upon me my whole life. So I talk a lot about bullying, and the problems going on in Palestine and the Middle-East , what's happening in our own country… I talk about raising awareness to things around us, like the things we're eating - mind you, I'm still a hypocrite, i'm still consuming things I know aren't good for me, yet at the same time I'm trying to let people know that we, collectively, need to change. I'm not trying to point fingers at you, him or her, but we as a group need to come together and say you know we need to stop drinking so much coffee, we need stop this and that and open our minds to what's going to benefit us tomorrow. I'm very much for living in the moment, but I don't want to live so much in the moment that I leave nothing for my child tomorrow."
So you have a child?
"Yes, a 5 year-old daughter named Shayla, and she's beautiful."
Has she influenced your music in any way, or maybe even being a father?
She is the reason why my music is the way that it is. I had her when I was 18 and when I was 17 and getting signed and her mother got pregnant, I was still just living that reckless teenage lifestyle. It wasn't until a year after she was born, I was working as an MC at a nightclub, and they wanted me to host like a booty shaking, wet t-shirt contest or something, and by the end of the night I was just like I can't do this anymore, this is filthy… and I went to my boss, and literally that night I called it quits, and he didn't really understand but that's ok. From that moment on I haven't been able to write any misogynistic crap, or write about partying, I mean I can write about enjoying life, but within respectful content - I don't want to be out there polluting sound waves. I want to make music that when my daughter listens to it she can be influenced, as well as other children. I tell people all the time when I hand them a copy of my CD, this is something you can enjoy and educate yourself with and so can your child.
Where do you see your music going in the future, how do you intend to spread it?
Me and the Skeleton Krew are actually going on tour with a brother of mine called Baracuda Fish from The Fish Gang, we're going on tour across Europe the last two weeks of September. It's exciting for me because it's the first time our team is going physically international...
As for spreading my music, it's not a huge concern to me anymore. I used to be so into making sure the whole world heard that song, whereas now I'm just like: the whole world probably won't hear it, only a few people are going to hear it, so make it good for those few people and then maybe a few more will come along. It wasn't until I stopped worrying about my image, my fan-base, and the financials of it all, and just stopped worrying about all the stuff that's so unnecessary to you being an artist and that's when my artistry started benefiting me financially, publicly, personally, and created a lot of great relationships in the industry. But the whole time I was stressing it nothing was working out… And that's where I realized I'm not getting paid, I'm not getting results, I got to go back to the love of it - I need to go back to my heart and start again. It was really then when I decided I do this for me. The ironic thing was that after I had this little musical awakening and stopped feeling so entitled that one night when me and my boy Static were on stage in Guelph, this random guy came up to us and slapped a 50 in my hand and slapped a 50 in Static's hand. We're both on stage and this was maybe our 5th show in a row (5 days of shows in a row) and right before this guy came up we were both like oh man, my back, we're getting too old for this… and this guy just came up and handed us this money! We were just stoked about it!
We were just giving it our all, loving the music, and that was the first pay out.
Check out YBS Frack this Saturday at Hip Hop Candyfest where he will perform a set of his music to the open public!
- iCandy
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