“Can I take you to Brooklyn tonight?” These were the first words of American rapper, singer and producer, Erick The Architect, as he entered Club Soda. On Friday night at FIJM, one third of the iconic New York group Flatbush Zombies took the crowd deep into his family history and the reality of his childhood neighborhood, navigating with finesse between hip-hop, rap, R&B, soul and dancehall.
Visiting Montreal to present I’ve Never Been Here Before, his first solo album released earlier this year, “the Architect” set the mood for nostalgia right from the start. From start to finish, various archival projections of all kinds scrolled behind him, from an old soccer game to excerpts from The Simpsons, to recordings of video games he played when he was no taller than three apples.
A certain narrative thread runs through the show: the MC talks for several minutes about a member of his family, puts on a few related songs, then repeats the whole thing. In this way, the audience gets to know his brothers, his mother, his father and even his cat.
Why is the 35-year-old artist telling us all this? Simple: his entourage has shaped the music he makes today, from his kindergarten love of James Brown to his brothers’ keen interest in the Wu-Tang Clan collective. Fans of his work will certainly have been seduced by the rapper’s many anecdotes, while the curious will say that the pace of the evening was affected.
Whatever the case, fans in attendance got their money’s worth from the quality of Erick the Architect’s performances, which lasted almost 120 minutes. Accompanied by a DJ and a musician alternating between keyboard and bass, the rapper delivered every rhyme from his latest opus with passion and impeccable technique. It’s hard to give a more accurate performance – everything was there.
The most memorable aspect of his performance was undoubtedly his versatility. It seems so easy for the architect to travel through his different musical influences, from a trap track like Parkour to the excellent Breaking Point, a haunting pop ballad.
Almost two hours after taking to the stage, the psychedelic rap icon closed with his disco hit Candle Flame, a collaborative piece with British soul-funk band Jungle. “This song will make you dance and burn the calories in your poutine,” he said with a smile.
I’ve Never Been Before, failing to repeat myself, is one of the most complete and interesting hip-hop offerings to have been unveiled since the start of 2024. There’s no doubt that Erick the Architect is building a superb foundation for his solo career.
Photo credit: Novak Productions
