Q Like The Letter

Canadian Music Week has taken over Toronto! This week you can see some of the greatest names in music today. One name you need to know is Q Like The Letter. I remember going through the CMW line up trying to find artists to go see perform. Q’s name caught my eye so I read his bio and started to listen to his hot fire single “Dvrk KnightS”. I was instantly hooked and my curiosity got the best of me, I needed to know more about him. So I invited him out for coffee. My usual coffee spot was busy so we walked down the street to a Starbucks. We instantly hit it off talking about school, music, friends and shoes. Before the interview even started it felt like we had known each other for years. Honestly Q is one of the nicest people I have ever interviewed (he offered to buy my iced coffee).

As I learnt more about Q, I found out he started playing music at a young age.

Q: I grew up in a church band. I yelled and screamed and fought my mom to buy me a guitar. We went to my grandma’s house for Christmas Eve and she brings down this guitar case. And I’m all amped, yes it’s a guitar! I unzip the thing and it’s a bass. I’m like what the hell is this? What am I going to do with this thing? They’re like “church needs a bass player not a guitar player.”

Once he was in high school he bought himself a guitar and transferred his skills from the bass to the guitar. With this being Canadian Music Week I wanted to know what people can expect from seeing him perform live.

Q: Just because not a lot of people know me doesn’t mean I can’t put on a great show. Just because I can only get like 40 people to see me personally, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t give them the same quality show I would give a stage of 100’000 people.

We talked about his upcoming EP Dvrk KnightS, which he is supposed to release May 9th. dark knights ep

Let’s talk about the EP. How long was that in the making?

Q: Way to long!

He was telling me “Dvrk KnightS” was about a year or so in the making. Q started to tell me the story behind the EP and how it is all supposed to play out.

Q: It’s going to be set out like this. The whole concept for Dvrk KnightS is. Well the single I just put out “Dvrk KnightS”.

It’s really good by the way

Q: Thank you, thank you.

The last 3 songs Q put out “We Got This”,“Throw ‘Em Back” and “Late Night Cruise” Were all kind of like his 2nd push into music. He actually made all those songs after his single “Dvrk KnightS” which was made over a year ago.

Q: Since “Dvrk KnightS” was such a gem for us we didn’t want to just put it out. We’ve been sitting on “Dvrk KnightS” for about a year. Just have it sitting there for almost a year and waiting for the right time.

Hearing that started to make me realise Q Like The Letter is the real deal. He knows what he is doing even though he is still really new on the scene. All his moves are calculated and well thought out. Just like all great artists he wants to make sure his art is perfect before releasing it.

Q: I did the my boys test, that’s what I call it. So I brought all my boys over and played it for them. They all liked it. They were all like “this is your best one yet.” Since it was the best one yet we wanted to do it properly. And we started forming it (the EP) around it.

Q tells me that with Dvrk KnightS he really wanted to capture the story of our generation. q like the letter yee

Q: So like it’s the same idea with generation Y, we have a different way of doing stuff. I based it around that ideology how night time is our time, when the sun falls that’s when we get to do our own thing. And our parents’ generation don’t get to tell us what to do.

Dvrk KnightS the EP follows Q for a night starting with the intro (sunset) to the outro (sunrise). He also says there is a really cool spoken word interlude on the EP. With Dvrk KnightS being a product of Q’s hard work there were still times he needed an extra push. His brother helped hone his motivation when he gave Q a vision board.

Q: Honestly it’s kind of weird to say this but it sat there for like 2 years blank, nothing on it. One day I said hey why don’t I just sit here and really think of what I want? It started out with a jeep. My first car is going to be a jeep for sure.

A jeep is not the only thing Q wants; he has his eyes set on taking over the world. And he has all the skills it takes to make it. He’s motivated, innovative, creative and easy to talk too. This is why Q Like The Letter is a star in the making and his time to shine is now.

Q: I told my buddy the other day and I was a little intoxicated but I’m like we are going to take over the world. We were just walking to the club; I looked up at the CN tower and said we are going to do this.

Q Like The Letter will be playing May 8th at Johnny Jackson get your tickets now! Also follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook now! - The Indie Blender

I get there super early so I just post up at a nearby Tim Horton’s I get a muffin and frozen lemonade. This was one of my busier days, right after my interviews I ran straight to Johnny Jackson which was only a few blocks away. Q Like The Letter was playing his show at around 8:15 and my interview ended at 8:00. I made it just in time to catch his set. He put on an electric show rocking the tiny venue. His EP Dvrk KnightS came out the day after his CMW performance. So he played the EP front to back at the show with friends and family cheering after every song - The Indie Blender

The Toronto native is ready to take over the city with his powerful rhymes and catchy flow. He recently put out his newest single “Dvrk Knight$” which is preparing you for his newest EP with the same name. Go see him play this May 8th at Johnny Jackson! - The Indie Blender

Q Like The Letter was a new Toronto artist I came familiar with at Sneaky Dee’s. A small venue where there was a show that included the artists Q Like The Letter, G Milla, Luu Breeze and Pluto. You guys need to get familiar with him as an artist, because he’s definitely a skilled artist. So here is just a teaser of what you can expect from him. - City On Clouds

In a dark unfinished basement with things scattered everywhere, somehow everything seems right in place. The room is barely lit, but two computer screens sit on top of a table transmitting what light is available. I can count 6 different guitars from out of the corner of my eye. In addition, there are 2 pianos, one a midi controller and the other a synth. Along with various other kinds of equipment, some vintage steals, and others the latest in audio engineering and music production – It’s a homemade recording studio. Constructed in the basement of 20-year-old Toronto-based Ben “Boy Genius” Papageorge’s family home, this studio stands as his doorway into the music industry.

During his time as a student of the Audio Engineering Program at Toronto’s Trebas Institute, Boy Genius was repeatedly told that if he ever wanted to “make it” in music, he needed to be getting his feet wet in the industry. While this was a sentiment his professors drilled into his head, it was his family’s history of entrepreneurship that really pushed him into turning music production, which is often viewed as a hobby, into something much bigger.

“I don’t want just straight up music” he explains, “I want a business. I want entrepreneurship and music put together.”

So, when just over a year ago, Boy Genius found himself sitting alone at home after being recently dumped, he reacted with: “Fuck this. I’m going to make beats for a living.” Consequently, the product of that initial thought will be dropping on Monday, June 24th, in the form of a debut mix tape called E.G.O., from up-and-coming Toronto rapper, Quintin “Q” Smith.

Just over a year ago, the two sat down together in a room with just enough space to sit side by side, and discussed ideas for a song called “Sun Goes Down.” At the time, Q felt his work had almost reached its purpose, and felt strongly about his original lyrics, vocals, and chords progressions. All he really wanted was for Boy Genius to put the three together, which he did, but, what Q didn’t expect were all the additional details that ended up making the song what it is.

“The song was alright,” recalls Q, ”but I had this need to make it sound better than it did.”Growing up, Q played in various church bands, and it was there that he first felt a real connection to music. From gospel, rock and pop all the way to R&B, his knowledge and musical influences were well rounded, and his talent for original writing and lyrical delivery, were evident early on.

What Q needed was someone with a little recognition and business on his mind, someone like Boy Genius, who was capable of guiding him and evolving both his talent and ideas into something fully formed.

After that day, the production of their music just naturally began to flow. Now, when Q comes up with an idea, he creates the lyrics, and then he and Boy Genius get together to discuss each other’s ideas, back and forth, over a beat.

“One thing I always loved about working with Benny and why I keep coming back, is if you can put everything together that’s enough, but he always comes back with it and says ‘would be sick if we did this or that,'” explains Q. “It’s such an organic feeling, and it goes from a skeleton to a full body song.”

In a city like Toronto, where everyone and their brother is putting out a mix tape these days, the desire to turn their love for music production into a business and not just into fame, is essentially what makes these two stand apart. For Boy Genius, it’s always been that business-oriented success within the music industry that he yearns for and for Q, it was about finding the right opportunity to move forward and evolve into the musician he wanted to be.

Today, they are awaiting the release of their 11-track mix tape. A necessary move on their part in order to turn their talent into the business they hope for. By producing an actual mix tape to distribute, Q and Boy Genius are following in the footsteps of Hip-Hops pioneer DJs and MCs, people like Hollywood, Kool Herc, Africa Bambataa, and Grandmaster Flash, who originally paved the way for Hip-Hop as a culture to become a lucrative business.

Back in the mid 1970’s, DJs and MCs used mix tapes as a means to not only nourish their street cred, but to also generate income. Today, Q and Boy Genius’ music will not only rely on physical distribution to become a business, but also on the “street cred” they generate using social media. For rappers and audio engineers of our time, the old school party go-oer that used to buy recorded audio tapes of DJ sets is now the fan who will Like, Share, and maybe even Re-Tweet one of their songs. - Anchorshop

"This pair secured themselves a spot on the list after the production of debut mix-tape E.G.O. – A perfect example of what hard work and at-home studio production can amount to." - Anchorshop