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Title: The Hour Artist: Valerie June Album: Pushin' Against a Stone (2013) Label: Sunday Best Recordings

Once again here I am discovering music from the end of a movie. You can make a good case that it's turning into my main source for finding new music. Despite all appearances this is probably my favorite type of sh*t, being from a long line of city dwelling musicians who for no good reason think they're f**king cowboys. I think it's the only way of holding onto one's edge while you know, searching the depths of your soul and other soft ass sh*t. It should be mentioned that dan auerbach produced this right here. If that doesn't mean anything to you, you're slipping.

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from Pop vs Jock @ PopMontreal 2012

I have this friend that plays in a pickup basketball league with Win Butler from Arcade Fire. This isn't some country club sh*t either, this is some everyone give your five bucks to Marc-Andre who rented the gym type of deal. My friend isn't a music fan, so while was he telling me about all this, he couldn't remember Win's name. He just kept referring to him as "this musician that goes hard in the post"

This clip is from Win Butler's semi-annual Pop vs. Jock basketball game at the 2012 Pop Montreal Festival. The POP team usually consists of Win alongside his musician friends (Nikolai Fraiture from The Strokes, Justin Vernon from Bon Iver) and ex-ballers like Luke Bonner, Brian Scalabrine, and Matt Bonner, while the opposition are usually players from Montreal's University basketball teams. Here we see the POP team down 3 with 17.6 seconds left in the 4th. Fresh off a timeout, team POP runs an effective inbounding play anchored by Win. I won't spoil the finish but check the fundamentals on this guy as he cuts across the paint, leading with his long-ass arms. On a side note, I think that the political statement homie made during his 2016 celebrity game MVP acceptance speech was great. Too bad they didn't let him finish, I have a feeling he was going to say "Everybody's entitled to free healthcare. That way when I break your nose backing you down in the paint, you won't have to mortgage your mom's house hoe. F**k Kobe, and tell Amber Rose to come holler at me."

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Black Thought speaks on getting beats from J Dilla and Scott Storch back in the day. Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=aforhtv Official Site: http://ambrosiaforheads.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ambrosiaforheads Twitter: https://twitter.com/ambrosia4heads

In all honesty my dilla knowledge kind of ends around the time he stopped being jaydee. Fortunately no dilla knowledge is necessary for the enjoyment of this clip. Just an appreciation for rap history and an appreciation for motherf**kers telling stories. I would like to thank whoever edited this video for blacking out what sounds like a pretty bleak situation in the background.

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This is enjoyable, just a little something something on kanye. For the video they spell it "kanYe" with a capital "y". Is that a thing? I've never seen it done that way and frankly I don't really dig it. Unless that's how you actually spell it of course, in which case, I can't take back that you know I don't like it but forget it, it's none of my business. Before you watch this video make sure you keep in mind that though it's fun listening to what music journalists have to say about kanye, don't take anything nerds say about rap seriously. They don't know how to feel music. They just listen and think about it through a nerd prism and get all the ideas wrong. Look at how happy they are when they're talking about kanye though.

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Truth is that montreal has had various moments in the sun. There was the era when we were the go to city if you wanted some pretentious indie rock music. There was also the montreal beatmaker boom from a couple years back, though that may still be happening, I couldn't tell you. Unfortunately though, ever since I stepped off the plane from north carolina like 15 years ago the rap scene has been stagnant and truthfully, generally untalented. It's definitely worth pointing out that I'm strictly talking about the english rap scene. I have no real gauge as to the quality of french rap because, well, I never listened to it. This is for several reasons but the two most important ones are,  A: I don't speak french and B: Their flows were terrible. Here we are in 2016 though and it looks like we're finally coming into our own. In fact we got a bunch of people who are actually doing some real good sh*t. I was inspired to do this mix/blend after I began seeing some montreal compilations popping up around the internet. The problem was that I wasn't seeing any of my sh*t on them. I don't want to go full kanye or anything but the idea of a montreal rap conversation without me involved is laughable. It should be noted however that I'm not laughing. Anyway, here it is, hope you dig that sh*t.