CeasRock believes that hip hop is a worldwide sub-culture that allows a diversity of opinions, knowledge and emotions to be shared and passed on from one generation to the next.
Ceas began his journey through hip hop lifestyle as a graffiti artist and would then move onto lyricism by penning his first lyrics at the age of 15 while attending the High School of Cote-St-Luc.
Being true to the essence of hip hop the young m.c would begin to try his hand at battles and underground events and eventually the moniker CeasRock would officially be born. Ceas moved onto release his first mixtape entitled "Back to the Future" in the summer of 2003 and since then has been heavily involved and featured on various mixtapes including "The Winter Warz" trilogy.
Ceas has performed extensively amongst the Montreal hip hop scene opening and headlining many events & festivals including Planet Funk, Under Pressure & Hip Hop You Don't Stop where he won the new talent championship in 2006 to begin gaining positive notoriety amongst his peers & local hip hop fans.
Q & A with CeasRock Who were some of your early inspirations in hip hop, what made you want to be an emcee?
In my younger days I would bump the West Coast heavy..I was on that Pac, Snoop, Cypress Hill, West Side Connect, Warren G...When I got a bit older I gravitated towards Jay-z, Nas, Em, Big L, Bone-Thugs, and the Wu.. But, at the same time, I was very aware of the music that was coming out of the mainstream AND the underground which eventually helped me balance out a whole bunch of different styles.
My older brother started rapping early in high school, and just being around him during his creative process, and seeing what went into writing a verse inspired me to get my own thing started. Also, one of the older heads at the youth center I was going to challenged me to come up with a dope 16...and that's where it officially poped off. Plus I've always been a very competitive person, so battle raps were attractive to me, and as I got more into it, it became my main creative outlet.
How did you come up with the idea for the "Rocument series"?
What happened was..I was hearing a lot of conversations about who was the nicest in the city, and in my area at least, I felt like I should of easily been part of that list. The fact that I wasn't pushed me to get some of my old verses on record, just so when I made bold statements, I could back them up with proof.
The response to the first joint was so positive, I figured I could make this a weekly thing, and I knew I had more than enough bars to keep it going. Also, I know a lot of other local emcees so I could slowly reach out to them and have some variety in the mix. Now I feel like it's becoming a platform for all kinds of artists to exhibit their talents, and to show people where they stand in the large scope of things. Plus, the fact that it's not edited shows people that you have to have a certain level of skill to hold your own.
How do we get our city to come together and support a strong local hip hop scene?
PLAY YOUR POSITION!! Too many people wanna be superstars and not enough of them have the talent that it requires to even be a C-class performer. The truth is in order for us to have a scene that other cities will respect, we have to be responsible for filtering out the bullshit. That means, telling your boy he's not that nice instead of gassing him up. Or , supporting REAL TALENT, instead of saying "fuck that I don't know that motherfucker, I ain't paying for his shit". Honestly, if you want to see YOUR city flourish, you have to be willing to cut off some dead weight. I'm not saying to be disrespectful or anything, but if you can't tell your peoples they need to step up or step off, then their not really your peoples.
For the amount of money and support that is being pumped into WACK movements, we could already have had a core group of artists that could have crossed over into the mainstream, or at least established themselves as upcoming underground acts. Instead, we have a bunch of scattered, disconnected artists who have to struggle to reach out to other groups and hoods in the city because so and so doesn't like him, or she fucks with these guys, so she can't fuck with them. To all investors and fans: Let the artists take care of the art, stop giving your 2 cents unless you have some sort of knowledge about the industry or the craft..not just the fact that you download a lot of mp3's...THAT DON"T MEAN SHIT. 2010 is the year of brutal and well grounded honesty..stop hiding behind no name blogs and comments and give good reasons for your opinion. UNEDUCATED PUSSIES!#!
For More on Ceas Rock visit Facebook.com and remain updated with his new video blog "The Rock Files" updated weekly with new performances and information.
