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Music

RMSY Is Coming Fresh Out of Kitchener

The Waterloo rapper has used social media as a launchpad, and now he's trying to put his region on.

Photo by Eric Slyfield

Social media for musicians is like taking a trip to Vegas with someone else's black card: the possibilties are endless, but so are the risks. Rookie hip-hop artist RMSY (formerly known as Ramsay Almighty) has mainly reaped the positive benefits of social media, connecting with producers in other parts of the world and creating music with them.

Growing up in Kitchener-Waterloo, Anthony Ramsay was exposed to lots of different types of rap music, including the local scene and all of the hip-hop music that his older brothers introduced him to, such as Nas and Wu-Tang. According to RMSY, his brothers are a major reason why he started making music. “If they didn’t make music I probably wouldn’t be doing music, because they were the first ones, they showed me how it’s done.”

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Social media has allowed RMSY to collaborate with beat-makers in the far corners of the world. He sent his debut album Metropolis to producers that are thousands of miles away, such as Nova, IAMNOBODI and Dutch super producer Boeboe, leading to collaborations for his newest offering. His track, “Last Dance,” was produced by Boeboe and became a favourite of SoundCloud dwellers. RMSY is poised to make a splash in the Canadian hip-hop industry with his new EP, Dear Winter.

Noisey: Where did the name Ramsay Almighty originate from?
RMSY: Well, Ramsay’s my last name, right? I started off with Ramsay and I wanted to be as original as possible, and I found that Ramsay wasn’t just sticking out by itself. Every time I searched Ramsay it came up with the chef. So I had to differentiate it in a way, so I brought in Almighty because I wanted to represent my family name in a strong way. I don’t actually use Almighty that much anymore because I feel like people look at that like, “Oh this guy, he thinks he’s the king, the god and shit.” I don’t want people to think I’m like some arrogant bastard. So right now it’s just Ramsay. I’m kinda like variating with a different spelling of it, like RMSY right now.

While you were growing up, which artists resonated with you the most?
It’s gonna be between Kanye West and Pharrell, because they were just creative, right? And they were different at the time, from what was really happening. My brothers’ they grew me up on real hip-hop, like Nas and Wu-Tang. I listened to them all the time in the house. And then when I saw Kanye and Pharrell with the colourful stuff, they popped out. I would say Kanye and Pharrell, they really stuck out to me. But Jay-Z as well, because he was born the same day as me, a lot of people don’t know that, right? I feel like I had a certain connection with Jay-Z because he was one of the coolest. He was the Drake of my time growing up. So those three rappers: Pharrell, Ye and Jay.

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Your older brothers have been working in the music industry for many years. Have their hip-hop styles had a major impact on the music that you currently make?
Definitely. I used to go to a lot of their shows when I was younger. I would see their performances and just study them, and I would try to learn from them and see how I could do it, and how I could take it to the next level when it became my turn. They definitely were a big influence.

Describe the hip-hop scene in Kitchener-Waterloo.
It’s growing and it’s new, and it’s really fresh right now. For the longest time Kitchener didn’t really have a lot of music coming out of it because it all kind of sounded like old hip-hop. A lot of people weren’t embracing the new sound. I feel like the new sound is finally becoming something that’s really embraced. There’s me, there’s a new artist I work with named Young Lungs. It’s really cool because we’re all young and we kind of hang out together, we collect together, we network together, and I feel like we’re building a new generation of artists through us. I don’t know where it’s gonna be in the next 10 years, but I know it’s gonna be dope, so much better.

Do you think it’s possible to make it big in the Canadian hip-hop industry if you live in Waterloo region, or is it necessary to move to a big city like Toronto?
I ask myself that all the time. I’m not even sure, to be honest, because I’m still figuring it out. There’s no guidebook or handbook to this, you don’t know what to do. I’ve been in Toronto a lot. I was working out there in the summer because luckily I got to work with David Click. He used to be an executive at Universal, and he had a mentoring program out in Toronto. So I went down there and he brought me into this area called The Remix Studio Project, and I got to record out there. He taught me a lot of pointers, and just gave me a lot of information. But at the same time, this is my home city. I really feel like you gotta rep from where you came from, you know what I mean? You gotta really make it stand out, and you gotta show all the other kids that they can do it from their own city too, and not have to run away to another city. We've got the internet, we can really showcase who you are now, chill from your basement.

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Last year you released Metropolis, which was your first studio album. How important was that album in terms of your music career and establishing relationships with producers like Nova?
It was really important. At first, the first thing I had in mind when I was making Metropolis was, “How can I show my city that we can make cool shit?” That was my main goal with Metropolis at first, and then halfway through developing it I realized that it was bigger than just the city; I was speaking to a generation of new artists. So after that it just became something special. People started reaching out to me that I did not expect, and I was making new friends by the day. Nova, we met through SoundCloud , just talking, then we started sending some beats and some vocals to each other, and we established a friendship. I consider him like a brother to me. That’s one thing that’s important too, the people that I work with, I don’t really consider them friends, I want them to be like family, like brothers to me, because it has to be a trust.

How gratifying was it when Dutch producer Boeboe worked with you on the making of “Last Dance?"
Crazy! Because honestly, I almost didn’t release that track. I made that track last year in December, after Metropolis. I had it sitting around, and I was gonna drop it for end of the year. Then I was doubtful that people would like it, so we bounced it around for a while. Then I reached out to Boeboe trying to get his permission just to use the song, and he approved it. I was just humbled and blown back, because he was already making cool music with labels like Huh What & Where Records and Soulection. So for him to give me the blessing that I could use it, I was honoured. We put it out, and that track kinda blew up. It was crazy to see the people's reception to it. I was humbled. We’re working on an EP now, and we made at least six tracks. We’re trying to drop that early 2015. And I’m so excited to get that out, because the sounds on that are pretty much crazy.

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Could you tell me about your latest EP?
Yeah, it’s called Dear Winter. I really feel like it speaks for the certain element of the season, it’s vey cold. I feel like a lot of people in Canada are gonna resonate with it and connect with it. Especially the kids around my age, cause I’m kind of speaking to them, and of course the people a bit older than me as well.

Who else is involved with the EP?
I had some tracks with Boeboe on it originally, and then we kind of just minimized it. So we cut it down. So I have some production from Nova on there, I have some production from IAMNOBODI, he’s a producer from Germany. I just reached out to him through Twitter and email. We also have some in-house production as well. I don’t wanna give away too much of it.

To which extent has social media impacted your progression as an artist?
It helped me out a lot, because it gave me a certain voice that I could connect with an audience. Especially Twitter, Twitter’s the shit. People can really just connect with you and see what kinda shit you like talking about, and who you are. Social media nowadays is a lot different, because it’s always evolving too. One day it might be YouTube, next day it’s Twitter, next day it’s SoundCloud. So you gotta be able to stay on top of your game with it, and understand it’s purpose and how you can use it for your benefit as an artist.

Have you done many shows outside of Kitchener/Waterloo?
Yeah, I’ve done at least three shows in Toronto, through the help of people like Tika Simone. She has this thing called Known Unknown. So I originally auditioned for that in 2013. They didn’t respond to me and then three months later they hit me up, they’re like, “Yo, do you wanna come down to do a show?” I was honoured, so I bussed down there. And it was tight. People in Toronto didn’t hate. I was scared at first, because I’ve always known Toronto as the screw face capital. They’re the hardest city. So they embraced my music, and that just gave me that extra push to keep on going, like, “I’m on the right track, I’m going keep running with this, right? And I’m going show them who I really am with that music.”

Ian McBride is on Twitter