(L to R: Prominent and Foster)
Coming to America was one of the funniest movies made in the 80’s. There appears to be a real-life Prince Hakeem and Semmi in Atlanta, Ga. Brothers Prominent and Freddie Foster are the West-African raised, Georgia-bred duo slowly rising to the top, but quickly scheming how to stay there. Their departure from Ghana to Athens in the 90’s sent them on the hunt for a queen in the form of good instrumentation, skilled lyricism, and amazing performance. She was Atlanta hip hop.
When they found her, they rocked with the local competition. “We’re always grinding, grinding, grinding. Doing shows, putting shows together, doing mixtapes, working with other artists,” Foster says. What they started over a decade ago hasn’t stopped and the hard-working attitude helped their network and net worth. Local heavy hitters like Fadia Kader and Stadium Music saw what they were doing in town and built relationships immediately.
The brothers aren’t about ego shit but will not act as if they are not always looking good. Every next step can be considered a pose. They’re always on, always working, always grinding. Their sound is so smooth on one cut and aggressive in the other that The Canz flow can cross barriers as it has already in their most recent mixtape.
Their fall 2009 release, The Slow Rise, national recognition through online sites, and creating an experience earlier this year with SMKA and The 808 Experiment, Volume 2 really made up for all those things upcoming artists go through. The mixtape is a trip through the lives of the average artist that is trying to break into the industry. The skits on the mixtape are loosely based off of The Canz life as an up and comer but showcases predicaments new artists come across when trying to make it big, or even small.
“We used to send our stuff to the popular music blogs and it would never get picked up. After this mixtape, it started getting picked and we started getting exposure,” Prominent described a mixtape skit that was mainly true. The Canz have been a bit of everywhere lately, getting together other artists to collaborate and work with them on their upcoming videos and sequel to their last mixtape. Properly named The Slow Rise 2, P and Freddie agree that it will take them over the top. Since they’re around people that know good music, like Mike and Blake from SMKA and Mick Boogie, they won’t go unnoticed anymore.
“Mike recognizes music. Mike sees your talent, your grind, your hustle and he’ll fuck with you. And Mick is a good dude. He is selective with the artists he works with but he’s not caught up in his status, he’s caught up in good music,” Prominent explains. All this talk about good people and good music, Saturday night should be no surprise. Six duos will be hitting the stage in east Atlanta village and they should expect a show. The Canz are all about performance. They look at local indie and major artists like Yelawolf, Janelle Monae, and Ludacris to express examples.
“Performance is very important. If you just go on stage and you not giving the fans anything extra, than their not getting their monies worth,” Freddie begins. “But that night, those dudes should expect to be embarrassed. We gonna embarrass ya’ll!”
The Canz
www.myspace.com/thecanzmusic
Download Slow Rise mixtape
The Canz - She's Your Queen
(L to R: Prominent and Foster)
Coming to America was one of the funniest movies made in the 80’s. There appears to be a real-life Prince Hakeem and Semmi in Atlanta, Ga. Brothers Prominent and Freddie Foster are the West-African raised, Georgia-bred duo slowly rising to the top, but quickly scheming how to stay there. Their departure from Ghana to Athens in the 90’s sent them on the hunt for a queen in the form of good instrumentation, skilled lyricism, and amazing performance. She was Atlanta hip hop.
When they found her, they rocked with the local competition. “We’re always grinding, grinding, grinding. Doing shows, putting shows together, doing mixtapes, working with other artists,” Foster says. What they started over a decade ago hasn’t stopped and the hard-working attitude helped their network and net worth. Local heavy hitters like Fadia Kader and Stadium Music saw what they were doing in town and built relationships immediately.
The brothers aren’t about ego shit but will not act as if they are not always looking good. Every next step can be considered a pose. They’re always on, always working, always grinding. Their sound is so smooth on one cut and aggressive in the other that The Canz flow can cross barriers as it has already in their most recent mixtape.
Their fall 2009 release, The Slow Rise, national recognition through online sites, and creating an experience earlier this year with SMKA and The 808 Experiment, Volume 2 really made up for all those things upcoming artists go through. The mixtape is a trip through the lives of the average artist that is trying to break into the industry. The skits on the mixtape are loosely based off of The Canz life as an up and comer but showcases predicaments new artists come across when trying to make it big, or even small.
“We used to send our stuff to the popular music blogs and it would never get picked up. After this mixtape, it started getting picked and we started getting exposure,” Prominent described a mixtape skit that was mainly true. The Canz have been a bit of everywhere lately, getting together other artists to collaborate and work with them on their upcoming videos and sequel to their last mixtape. Properly named The Slow Rise 2, P and Freddie agree that it will take them over the top. Since they’re around people that know good music, like Mike and Blake from SMKA and Mick Boogie, they won’t go unnoticed anymore.
“Mike recognizes music. Mike sees your talent, your grind, your hustle and he’ll fuck with you. And Mick is a good dude. He is selective with the artists he works with but he’s not caught up in his status, he’s caught up in good music,” Prominent explains. All this talk about good people and good music, Saturday night should be no surprise. Six duos will be hitting the stage in east Atlanta village and they should expect a show. The Canz are all about performance. They look at local indie and major artists like Yelawolf, Janelle Monae, and Ludacris to express examples.
“Performance is very important. If you just go on stage and you not giving the fans anything extra, than their not getting their monies worth,” Freddie begins. “But that night, those dudes should expect to be embarrassed. We gonna embarrass ya’ll!”
The Canz
www.myspace.com/thecanzmusic
Download Slow Rise mixtape
