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Pop Montreal, Part 5

Down on St. Laurent on Thursday, hometown hero A-Trak was holding court to showcase his newly minted label Fool’s Gold at mega-huge Club Soda.

Sort of the Duddy Kravitz of the underground hip-hop world (his real name is Alain Macklovitch), you have to be impressed with the 25-year-old’s moxie. Youngest DMC champion ever (at 15!), current man on the decks for Kanye West, and now label mogul fronting a hot roster of DJs, including backpack hip-hop sensation Kid Sister. As his brother Dave-1 of Chromeo would say, “He’s got his game locked tight.”

After Nick Catchdubs (label co-founder) warmed up the clubby crowd, Chicago MC and current A-Track love interest Kid Sister came out and immediately lit up the two-story joint. Her flow is speedy and keeps time with A-Track’s pitched-up Baltimore beats and tweaked 80s synth sounds. She had the boozy crowd bouncing with every skyward point, as if to remind us where he career appears to be headed.

Next on the decks was Parisian producer Kavinsky, who I don’t mind saying is a hack DJ. But he’s getting better. Still, his track selection feels pretty unimaginative with the continuous rotations of Justice, Daft Punk (is that why they keep name checking him as their favourite DJ?), Busy P and every other Ed Banger artists, including DJ Mehdi who was standing right behind him waiting for his turn to tag team with A-Track to close out the night. Either way the thousand-strong mass was throbbing at that point, fists pumping to the bass, so he must be doing something right.

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