Nations held their breath in late October this year during Canada’s most important rap beef between Snak the Ripper and Madchild. Families gathered around their radios as a rain of diss tracks dropped like fallout from a nuclear blast. One of the figures to emerge from Canada’s hip-hop apocalypse was Vancouver’s Tre Nyce. His track “#Sadchild”—which cleverly remixed Madchild’s beats—stood out as one of the most lyrically nimble in the bunch. Mr. Nyce guy has now blessed us with the Hook God EP. True to its title, Hook God is catchier than Jerry Rice with a cold, with production from DJ Kemo, Trizzlam Muzik, hAZEL’s Vangaurds Music and Power 106’s DJ Eric Dlux.At just 27 minutes in length, the EP provides a soundtrack long enough to light one off and get some ass (divide your time accordingly). Prior to Hook God, older tracks floating around the internet show Nyce has come a long way from his trap-inspired past to his harmonically rich present. He has bars, but now he’s confident enough to do more with less, like in “Can’t Come Down,” “Lord Knows” and “Trains.” The video for “M’s,” shot by Joe Klymkiw, features Nyce’s son throwing money in the air and riding whips, all while while his dad’s transposed mouth raps his desire for cash, hoes and a legacy. Nyce will be one to watch in 2016.Conspiracy theorists may be quick to dawn their tinfoil hats and point out the convenience of the west-coast rap beef and Tre Nyce’s latest release. Noisey spoke to him over the phone from his Vancouver home. We wanted to settle the beef issue and discuss what’s next for the artist.
Tre Nyce: The change came from me growing as a man and an artist. When you start out rapping, it’s easy to talk about, you know, cash and bitches. That’s the easiest thing to make a punchline off of. The era I come from is Wayne and Ludacris—some of the best punchline rappers, you know? That’s how that style came. Now, I found a good medium between singing and rapping.I have to ask about the Madchild beef thing. Was that for publicity for the EP? Is there a conspiracy?
Nah, definitely not a conspiracy. Like I said in the beginning: Madchild isn’t even a top-50 rapper. For me, to think that I’m going to launch a career off of Madchild—this isn’t 50 Cent and Ja Rule. I’m not going to win off predicating beef, right? I have a really deep-rooted sense of faith, and I believe God has a sense of humour. Things just played themselves out the way they played themselves out. I had no intention of dissing him. I just said my piece, and once he said his, I had no choice.How long have you been working on the EP then?
Honestly, it’s not even my best work, but I wanted to put it out to give people a taste of what’s to come. In Hook God II, you’re going to see some major ideas.Devin Pacholik is a writer living in Saskatchewan. Follow him on Twitter.
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NOISEY: Your style changed a lot from trap music. What happened there?
Tre Nyce: The change came from me growing as a man and an artist. When you start out rapping, it’s easy to talk about, you know, cash and bitches. That’s the easiest thing to make a punchline off of. The era I come from is Wayne and Ludacris—some of the best punchline rappers, you know? That’s how that style came. Now, I found a good medium between singing and rapping.I have to ask about the Madchild beef thing. Was that for publicity for the EP? Is there a conspiracy?
Nah, definitely not a conspiracy. Like I said in the beginning: Madchild isn’t even a top-50 rapper. For me, to think that I’m going to launch a career off of Madchild—this isn’t 50 Cent and Ja Rule. I’m not going to win off predicating beef, right? I have a really deep-rooted sense of faith, and I believe God has a sense of humour. Things just played themselves out the way they played themselves out. I had no intention of dissing him. I just said my piece, and once he said his, I had no choice.How long have you been working on the EP then?
Honestly, it’s not even my best work, but I wanted to put it out to give people a taste of what’s to come. In Hook God II, you’re going to see some major ideas.Devin Pacholik is a writer living in Saskatchewan. Follow him on Twitter.