Hip-hop group Winnipeg's Most reunites for 1st concert in a decade
CBC
Indigenous hip-hop group Winnipeg's Most is performing in the city this week for the first time in 12 years, as a tribute to founding member Jamie Prefontaine, a.k.a. Brooklyn.
The group, which consisted of Billy Pierson (Jon-C) from Sagkeeng First Nation; Tyler Rogers (Charlie Fettah) who is Métis; and Prefontaine, launched in 2010.
"We made a record in my dining room, didn't hear it for three months and then got it back and the rest kind of just was history," said Rogers.
"We just snowballed from there."
The group won three Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards (now the Indigenous Music Awards) in 2010 including for best new artist, and six more in 2011.
"We were speaking for not only ourselves but for a lot of young people," said Rogers.
"The Indigenous population, especially in Canada, just elevated us to an incredible height that I don't think any of us could even see."
Prefontaine died in 2015. They say only now do they feel they strong enough to pay him a tribute.
Pierson and Rogers sat down with CBC News to talk about the reunion show March 28 at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
CBC: What's going on? What's changed?
Rogers: I mean, most importantly, one of the founding members, Jamie Prefontaine, Brooklyn, is no longer with us. That's gotta be probably the biggest, obviously. And I think just life, man. Life moves. Life keeps coming no matter what, whether you're in a rap group or not. But yeah, that's pretty much the biggest change other than just growing and maturing as humans and artists and finding our different fields. I branched out into live music, Jon branched out into graphic design and recording and engineering and all that stuff.
CBC: What was it like being one of Winnipeg's first hip-hop super groups?
Pierson: We made a rap album so we expected it to go around the circle and we didn't expect the circle to get so big. And when it did and everything just started coming, one after the other, we were down for it all because we just, again, we wanted to rap.
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