Three Fredericton hip hop artists team up for the powerful new single, ‘STR8 Nasty’.
Matt Carter
Fredericton has never been known as a hotbed for hip hop. That’s not to say there isn’t good hip hop music being made in the city. There is. But for numerous reasons, depending on who you ask, hip hop is a genre that has never received local support on the same level as indie rock, blues and folk music, to name just a few. That could have a lot to do with demographics. It could also have a lot to do with racial bias, stereotypical opinions surrounding the music and its audience, or any other number of poor excuses. The fact remains, there are some incredibly skilled producers and rappers who call Fredericton home and three of them – DJ/producer FRNK (Jordon Francis McLaughlin), Monark (Jarrod Thomas) and L.A. $ole (Liam Allen) – just teamed up to release a killer new single.
“Me and Monark have been bouncing beats and verses back and forth for a while, but this is the first track he’s recorded on,” FRNK explains. “This track has been about four years in the making. First, I got the record I sampled from at a record fair a couple years back. I made the beat originally on my MPC about three years ago but remade it sometime last year and it wasn’t until this year that we finally recorded vocals on it.
“It’s one of those beats that you just give to someone and they rap their heart out and these guys definitely did that,” he said.
FRNK has been making beats on his own for years now, but outside of a few tight circles, his work has remained largely unknown. He has never released an album of his own work, yet his under-the-radar approach has helped create a lot of local buzz within the city’s music community. And it may have taken years, but ‘STR8 Nasty’ is one hell of an introduction.
“FRNK is definitely on his way to making a name for himself in the Maritime Hip-Hop community,” said Monark. “He’s just getting started.”
The supporting video, which features La $ole and Monark, was shot by Connor Lindsay of Dead Dog Films in various locations around city including the Fredericton Raceway.
STR8 Nasty was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by FRNK.
