The legendary Harry Crumb once asked, “Who’s Chokeules?” Sure, we know he’s a dope Toronto emcee and a third of hip hop’s monster squad, Swamp Thing. We know he’s one twentieth of the polymathic Backburner Crew. But who really is this infamous rap Adonis? This vegan heartthrob? This human masterclass of style? To answer these questions we need to go all the way to London, Ontario, Canada.
It’s 1996. A wack graffiti artist named Choke is standing in a Toys’ R’ Us parking lot waiting for a friend. Unbeknownst to him, the friend has just seen The Nutty Professor. Suddenly from afar Choke hears a voice yelling, “Chokeules! Chokeules! Chokeules!” At that exact moment Choke is struck by solid gold lightning and his chest explodes. When he wakes up, similar to Neo learning kung-fu, he simply says “I’m Chokeules.”
His latest album, Nepotism, is proof that music exists. Chokeules has made dope records with Toolshed, Swamp Thing, Backburner, and more, but of all these projects Nepotism is by far the most recent. His first album, Hypergraphia, was named Top 10 Albums Of The Year by the London Free Press, and the song “Feel Free” was on the soundtrack for the third Trailer Park Boys movie. His second album, Stay Up, provided the hit song “40-Year-Old Vegan”, which became a viral video, and was also featured on an episode of the popular CBC show Mr. D. Surely this third album will yield bogglingly bewildering results.
Nepotism is produced by the almighty LRYBRDBTZ aka Larry Bird aka Choke’s real life cousin. Together the duo has created a new sound surfing on the cusp of greatness, the point break of wavy slow-fi boom bap, punctuated by the top gun turntablism of DJiRATE. Much like another well known pair of cousins, RZA and GZA, Choke and Larry would also love to have coffee with Bill Murray.
Press quotes & accolades:
“[Choke]’s a veteran performer with a clear and confident flow…still amongst the best rappers rapping about rap in clever ways.” Exclaim Magazine
