Lexington and Whatevski are the stuff that magic is made of; they represent the coming-of-age story of modern male heterosexual life-partners: the epic drama of two boys from opposite ends of the world coming together in the redneck capital of Canada (Calgary, AB) to create something spectacular. They are the Jamaican bobsled team of rap (only instead of Jamaica, Simon Lexington came up in and around Winnipeg, MB and Evgeniy Whatevski is a landed Russian immigrant. And instead of bobsledding, these weird white kids stick to rapping their asses off over the dopest beats this side of Siberia).
Lexington and Whatevski’s first notable release was in 2004 with Calgary’s pioneer indie-rap super group, Jonny Sootentai (Lexington, Whatevski, Lingo, Phasma and producer/dj Aptitude). This release would introduce a small, local audience to the indie, anarchist rap flavor that would soon distinguish Lex and Evski from the rest of the hip hop world. With the Sootentai’s, they were able to develop an acumen for the live performance, showing signs of the energy and ridiculousness that they would later become notorious for. Among the countless shows played in the prairie region of Canada, the Sootentais did opening spots for Juno Award winning Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union, Mcenroe, toured with Juno Award winning Leroy Brown and other local celebrity status acts not worth mentioning.
Though highly influenced by the hip hop classics as well as the emerging alt-rap acts like Jedi Mind Tricks, Atmosphere, and Company Flow, Lexington and Whatevski’s sound took the best of all worlds and their songs went in a direction of darkness, comedy and obscenity. They create highly artistic conceptual masterpieces that consistently bubble with creative energy, originality and entertainment value. And such is the content of Lexington and Whatevski’s 2005 release, Over It: the first album to drop on their collectively owned record label called Olive Hour Records. Within a year of this release, the secret was beginning to spread. The self-directed, self-produced and independently financed public spectacle video in which Lexington and Whatevski perform in random places (and get thrown out of random places) in Calgary received thousands of views on Youtube and other video sites and continues to entertain. Word of mouth is the driving force behind the growing army of fans that continue to pledge allegiance to Lexington and Whatevski’s charming, tongue-in-cheek flavor that is now the staple of the Canadian prairies hip hop sound.
