BAZOOKA JOE 204’S NEW LP, PRAIRIE NILSSON, OUT OCTOBER 15, 2021 VIA PEANUTS & CORN RECORDS
LISTEN AND SHARE “THAT I KNEW WHAT FOR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “THAT I KNEW WHAT FOR” TOMORROW HERE
Photo Credit : Joe Compayre // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Indie rap luminary Bazooka Joe 204 (formerly John Smith) is back, detailing a life well-wasted in Winnipeg’s drinking holes and dark alleys, one bare-knuckled bar at a time. Prairie Nilsson, Bazooka Joe’s 8th solo offering, features the veteran storytelling MC leveraging tales of lost payday weekends, agoraphobic apathy, and middle-aged rap regrets into raucous, but unsparing explorations of class, addiction, and privilege. Legendary producer bigmcenroe’s timeless, layered, music box boom bap provides a banging backdrop for Joe’s authoritative delivery, clever hooks, and deft technical touch.
Today, he shares a new track from the album, “That I Knew What For”. The track is about "standing for something, just wish that I knew what it was", says Joe. With 3 decades in hip-hop under the belt, it can be tricky to keep focused on why you started in the first place. bigmcenroe’s production provides a sunny, swinging backdrop for Bazooka Joe’s trademark brand of hard-charging, expressive honesty, as he details a life in the arts, and rediscovers his passion for hip hop on the prairies.
LISTEN AND SHARE “THAT I KNEW WHAT FOR” HERE
BUY / STREAM “THAT I KNEW WHAT FOR” TOMORROW HERE
“That I Knew What For” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
MORE ABOUT BAZOOKA JOE 204
Bazooka Joe’s rap career began in earnest in 1999, when, known as John Smith, he started releasing music with stalwart Canadian indie rap label Peanuts & Corn Records. Initially a scrappy battle rapper, Joe quickly displayed a knack for detail driven community stories rooted in his unique upbringing, with one foot firmly planted in Winnipeg’s notorious North End and the other on the shores of the Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba. A pioneer and player in Canadian rap, Bazooka Joe has remained relevant and active in the studio and in concert over decades, having shared the stage with a diverse group of artists including Propagandhi, Sean Paul, and Killer Mike. “Kinship Of The Down & Out”, from Joe’s critically acclaimed 2004 album Pinky’s Laundromat, recently made the Winnipeg Free Press’s list of Manitoba’s 150 Most Important Songs.
BUY / STREAM “ART SCHOOL KIDZ” HERE
PRAIRIE NILSSON TRACKLIST
01 Lookit
02 Iowanna
03 That I Knew What For
04 King Cake Baby
05 Art School Kidz
06 Carp Diem
07 The Prestige
08 Into The Sea
09 The Stone