Fleshxfur (pronounced “flesh and fur”) is setting the bar for the underground rap scene in Victoria. And it’s not just locals who think so: he’s the only Canadian to win five consecutive battles on Eminem’s Shade 45 XM station’s demo competition, where listeners vote on their favourite songs.
Originally from Brampton, Ontario, Fleshxfur (also known as John Welch) came to Victoria to pursue a bachelor of arts in Geography. His love of dogs turned him toward dog training, and eventually he began his own business as an adventure dog walker, running dogs on hiking trails and through forests.
Working as a dog walker was not Fleshxfur’s first experience working with animals—when he was younger, he worked with wolves and coyotes at a wildlife sanctuary. Deriving his stage name from his love of dogs, “Fleshxfur” is a play on man and dog and also a way to be distinct within rap culture.
“I wanted a name that you can search and you’re not going to come up with a million others of that artist,” says Fleshxfur. “You know, like Lil’ this, Lil’ that, so, I just came up with something unique.”
Before he started listening to rap music, as a kid, Fleshxfur’s musical taste was partly influenced by his parents and partly by popular music.
“I listened to my parents’ stuff, Led Zeppelin or The Beatles, or I listened to Smashing Pumpkins and Alanis Morissette,” he says. “And then when I started getting to rap, it was like Lil Wayne and Eminem, Jay-Z, DMX, Busta Rhymes, that kind of stuff.”
Fleshxfur’s not shy about collaborating on songs: his latest release, Premeditation, is a collab with local rapper Mr. ESQ.
“Mr. ESQ started making music right around the same time, actually. We started going to the same studio and we’ve kind of watched each other grow and we just became friends,” he says. “We’ve always kind of hit each other up for verses or to collab on different songs and it just felt natural that we should just do a whole album together. Something we can perform together. Something that can put Victoria on the map. So just for the two of us to get on an album just made sense.”
Another way that Fleshxfur is trying to bring attention to Victoria’s rap scene is through his song “welcome to Victoria.” The inspiration for the track came from the song “The Maritimes” by Nova Scotia rapper Classified.
“[Classified] was talking about how [“The Maritimes”] hooked a lot of people onto his music, even with people that weren’t from the Maritimes,” he says. “It just kind of put the Maritimes on the map and I just felt like I needed to do a song like that for Victoria. And I felt like they didn’t have a song like that, so it just came together.”
The song is an uplifting tribute to the city; it starts out with the line, “I just feel my city doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.” The lyrics to the song hit all the Victoria hot spots.
“I talked about, like, Government Street and Mile Zero and Langford and the Sticky Wicket,” says Fleshxfur. “I tried to, you know, put landmarks in people’s minds.”