The roots of Montreal's happening new hip-hop sound can be traced back to seminal albums released by the group Omnikrom (Trop banane) and DJ Ghislain Poirier (No Ground Under). Omnikrom and Poirier put themselves on the map as harbingers of an exciting new trend, one based on a lighter, more deconstructed style of hip-hop open to other musical genres such as electro. Lyrically speaking, this new branch of rap put the emphasis firmly on fun, moving away from the idea of rap as a revolutionary social and political force.

Ghislain Poirier was the first musician to come up with a label for this new movement, dubbing the sound "leftfield hip-hop" back in 2006. The label stuck and it has frequently been used by everyone from music critics and industry professionals to artists themselves to describe anything from electro-rap to abstract hip-hop and "new school" rap. In fact, Poirier's loosely-defined term simply refers to what might be called "alternative hip-hop", a marginal movement that simultaneously draws on traditional hip-hop codes and smashes them to pieces. (In France, "leftfield hip-hop" would describe the work of an indie rap crew like TTC, for instance, as opposed to the sound of a more mainstream rap collective like Marseilles superstars IAM).

Leftfield hip-hop talent was out in force at this year's "Pop Montréal" festival (held in the city between 1st and  5th October 2008) and RFI Musique was on hand to meet the marginal hip-hop representatives: Socalled, Radio Radio and Gatineau, a group who won "Hip-hop Album of the Year" at the recent GAMIQ indie awards. 

Josh Dolgin - aka Socalled - one of the prime movers and shakers on Quebec's alternative hip-hop scene, uses hip-hop as the basis of his sound, but it is only a starting-point, a primary foundation on top of which he constructs his multi-cultural, hybrid compositions. The multi-talented musician, DJ, film-maker and magician claims he has been a regular consumer of hip-hop since the 1990s, long before he came up with his own original idea of mixing samples of Yiddish theatre music, Hassidic melodies and klezmer with hip-hop beats. "I'm Jewish," explains Dolgin, who raps in English, "and I decided I wanted to start drawing on musical sources that reflect who I am. I found that Jewish music actually works really well with hip-hop because it has a lot of breaks."

Interestingly enough, while continuing to explore leftfield sounds, Socalled has worked with a number of leading rappers on the conventional hop-hop scene. In his eyes, the problem with a lot of contemporary hip-hop is that it has moved too far away from its original goal - freedom - and become much too restrictive. It is not for nothing that his latest album is called Ghetto blaster - a title to be interpreted in the sense of "exploding the ghettoes" (and other musical frontiers) not just in the sense of portable stereo systems or boom boxes!

Freedom is also a word that crops up a lot speaking to Radio Radio, a pioneering group from New Brunswick who have forged an excellent reputation for themselves fusing hip-hop and electro. The crew, who claim they are not at all bothered what label people put on their sound, have caused a stir rapping their humorous, tongue-in-cheek lyrics in "chiac" (a dialect of Acadian French commonly used by the teen population of eastern Canada). Before Radio Radio came into existence, Jacobus was a member of Jacobus & Maléco, the first band to promote Acadian hip-hop on the marginal scene. But whereas Jacobus & Maléco specialised in hardhitting protest lyrics and used their rap to assert t

heir cultural identity, Jacobus insists that Radio Radio take a far lighter approach to life. "If there's one thing Radio Radio take seriously, it's partying!" quips rapper Timo who, together with Jacobus, co-wrote the songs on the group's thoroughly upbeat album Cliché hot (currently in the running for "Hip-hop Album of the Year" at the upcoming Félix Awards).

After triumphing at GAMIQ, Gatineau's eponymous album is also a firm favourite in the same category at the Félix Awards. (But inter-band rivalry is apparently not an issue - Gatineau are set to tour with Radio Radio this autumn!) Séba, Gatineau's lead singer and songwriter, is also a firm believer in exploding musical ghettoes and breaking down stylistic barriers. He says he is proud of the musical diversity on Gatineau, an album which switches between rap, punk, rock, beatbox, gospel and jazz without ever missing a beat. Séba - who describes himself as a son of the hip-hop generation and a modern poet - collaborated with a number of other "leftfield artists" from Montreal, including Ghislain Poirier, before forming Gatineau with musicians outside of the leftfield circuit. 

Séba situates his lyrics halfway between Loco Locass-style protest rap and the lighter hedonistic hip-hop of the movement spawned by Omnikrom. What's more, he insists on keeping a foot in both worlds, maintaining his involvement with the "real hip-hop" scene in parallel to his work with Gatineau. Séba organises monthly hip-hop nights in Montreal ("Rap maudit") which not only give him a chance to test his lyrics in public, but also do their bit towards fuelling the vitality of the local hip-hop scene in general.