LISSA ALEXANDER
reporter@pqbnews.com
Two up-and-coming hip hop artists who both used to live in the Central Island area are setting off on a province-wide tour this week, bringing with them meaningful messages and stories of hope.
Adam Waugh (known as Mister Waugh) lived in the Oceanside area on and off for about seven years and Chris Hamilton (Ill Tone) is from the Comox Valley. Waugh said in high school he was an angry adolescent and turned to writing poetry to get things off his chest. The next logical step was hip hop, he said.
“I found that it was one of the more liberating art forms out there,” he said.
Today Waugh’s music has elements of jazz and he describes it as conscious hip hop, a style that carries a greater meaning. His music is about life in general, including politics, racism, the environment, and religion.
“It’s not mainstream,” he said. “It’s not guns or anyone dying, I don’t have the street credibility to pull that off,” he chuckled. “It’s a mix of everything. I think it’s music that stands for something more.”
Waugh has released four albums to date and nine mixed tapes. His new EP is his second charity project, aiming to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. Proceeds from his CD sales on his tour will benefit the society.
Waugh will be accompanying Hamilton on the tour, who performed in Parksville last month with hip hop legend Masta Ace. He is holding his official Bringin’ the Hope Back CD Release Party in Vancouver May 9. Partial proceeds from his tour will benefit the B.C. Children’s Hospital. For more information visit their websites: www.misterwaugh.webs.com and www.illtonemusic.com.