Documenting Hip Hop in Atlantic Canada: An Interview with Michael McGuire

We caught up recently with guest curator Michael McGuire to learn more about the exhibition East of East: the Atlantic Canada Hip Hip Archive, on view at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery until October 7.

The exhibition East of East offers viewers and listeners a peek into Atlantic Canada’s hip hop history. How has the East of East archive grown and changed over time?

The archive began as my cherished collection of tapes, CDs, and vinyl records from Halifax-based artists. As my collection grew and I got into the academic world, I started formalizing the collection as an archive and incorporating more and more from other Atlantic Canadian provinces, largely because there was so much collaboration between artists from all over the region. It’s grown from a simple collection of recordings and a few posters to a focused collection that spans all of Atlantic Canada and includes recordings, both physical and digital, posters, merch, and more. What I’m proudest of is that it is has become a massive repository of Atlantic Canadian hip hop music and culture that keeps a record of artists and their work and serves as a source of information for anyone interested in learning about hip hop from this part of the world.

How did you personally become involved in the hip hop scene?

As a fan, I first became aware of a local hip hop scene in the early 1990s, when I saw a performance by MC J & Cool G and started seeing locally made recordings at Sam the Record Man. As an artist, I’ve always been interested in music making and, in the early 2000s, after I’d started making my own beats and writing my own rhymes, I cold-called a local DJ I knew of – Jorun Bombay – and asked his advice on how to break into the local scene. He gave me some great advice that led me to start performing and working with others. The academic stuff came later, largely thanks to working alongside EMC (of Second Front/IMF/Three Sheet), who got me into doing workshops and seminars that introduced people to hip hop music and culture.  From there, my love for the culture and local hip hop more specifically kept me looking for ways to stay engaged.

What can viewers to the exhibition expect when they visit the gallery?

The exhibition is a small slice of what the archive holds. There are recordings to listen to, physical media to look at, and a recognition of a lot of artists who have made Atlantic Canadian hip hop what it is – a dynamic manifestation of the culture that represents the people and places in Atlantic Canada where hip hop has taken root. Frankly, hip hop is not really a cultural priority on Canada’s East Coast. It doesn’t get the attention that other genres or scenes tend to receive. So, what I really hope people find when they visit is a celebration of the artists and the music that has been happening in our own communities along with an opportunity to consider some of the ways that Atlantic Canadian hip hop artists reflect diverse Atlantic Canadian identities and experiences.

Tell us a little bit about one item in the exhibition that has special significance for you. 

I could describe the special significance of virtually every item in the archive, but a recent one that is exciting is a cassette by LCP aka the Leather Cap Posse (later changed to Last Chance to Party). For years, I’d heard rumours about an LCP recording, but couldn’t confirm as there was no information anywhere and the members of the group have long since moved on from their rap careers. One day, while scanning rap tapes for sale on Ebay, there it was, albeit listed under a different name. I acquired it as fast as I could and learned that it had been found at a rummage sale in New Jersey. Not only was it extraordinarily rare, but its existence filled in a gap in the history of Halifax hip hop—a time when it was thought that nothing at all had come out. It was an incredible find, rooted in pure chance, that helped to illuminate a seemingly forgotten part of the story East of East strives to tell.

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Michael McGuire is an artist and academic based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Inspired by the hip hop tapes he discovered as a child, he started rapping and performing spoken word as Hermitofthewoods. In the years that followed, he began facilitating workshops and giving talks on the culture and production of hip hop, with a particular focus on the local scene in Halifax. Leaning into the academic world, a Master’s thesis on the history of hip hop in Halifax soon followed, along with an opportunity to teach in the Cultural Studies program at Mount Saint Vincent University which, in turn, lead to pursuing a doctorate in critical hip hop pedagogy. In 2017, he established the East of East Atlantic Canadian Hip Hop to preserve the cultural legacy of the region’s hip hop artists and as a platform for future academic research and study.  He lives in Timberlea, Nova Scotia with an adorable beagle named Goose.

Photographs courtesy of Michael McGuire