{"id":25431,"date":"2024-05-08T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25431"},"modified":"2024-05-02T14:52:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:52:34","slug":"listen-and-learn-fleshxfur-aims-to-put-victoria-rap-on-global-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/05\/08\/listen-and-learn-fleshxfur-aims-to-put-victoria-rap-on-global-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen and Learn<\/em>: Fleshxfur aims to put Victoria rap on global map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fleshxfur (pronounced \u201cflesh and fur\u201d) is setting the bar for the underground rap scene in Victoria. And it\u2019s not just locals who think so: he\u2019s the only Canadian to win five consecutive battles on Eminem\u2019s Shade 45 XM station\u2019s demo competition, where listeners vote on their favourite songs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Working as a dog walker was not Fleshxfur\u2019s first experience working with animals\u2014when he was younger, he worked with wolves and coyotes at a wildlife sanctuary. Deriving his stage name from his love of dogs, \u201cFleshxfur\u201d is a play on man and dog and also a way to be distinct within rap culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a name that you can search and you\u2019re not going to come up with a million others of that artist,\u201d says Fleshxfur. \u201cYou know, like Lil\u2019 this, Lil\u2019 that, so, I just came up with something unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Local rapper Fleshxfur got his stage name from his love of dogs (photo by Michelle Boshard).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before he started listening to rap music, as a kid, Fleshxfur\u2019s musical taste was partly influenced by his parents and partly by popular music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to my parents\u2019 stuff, Led Zeppelin or The Beatles, or I listened to Smashing Pumpkins and Alanis Morissette,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then when I started getting to rap, it was like Lil Wayne and Eminem, Jay-Z, DMX, Busta Rhymes, that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleshxfur\u2019s not shy about collaborating on songs: his latest release, Premeditation<\/i>, is a collab with local rapper Mr. ESQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. ESQ started making music right around the same time, actually. We started going to the same studio and we\u2019ve kind of watched each other grow and we just became friends,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another way that Fleshxfur is trying to bring attention to Victoria\u2019s rap scene is through his song \u201cwelcome to Victoria.\u201d The inspiration for the track came from the song \u201cThe Maritimes\u201d by Nova Scotia rapper Classified.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Classified] was talking about how [\u201cThe Maritimes\u201d] hooked a lot of people onto his music, even with people that weren\u2019t from the Maritimes,\u201d he says. \u201cIt 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\u2019t have a song like that, so it just came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song is an uplifting tribute to the city; it starts out with the line, \u201cI just feel my city doesn\u2019t get the recognition it deserves.\u201d The lyrics to the song hit all the Victoria hot spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked about, like, Government Street and Mile Zero and Langford and the Sticky Wicket,\u201d says Fleshxfur. \u201cI tried to, you know, put landmarks in people\u2019s minds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fleshxfur (pronounced \u201cflesh and fur\u201d) is setting the bar for the underground rap scene in Victoria. And it\u2019s not just locals who think so: he\u2019s the only Canadian to win five consecutive battles on Eminem\u2019s Shade 45 XM station\u2019s demo competition, where listeners vote on their favourite songs. Originally from Brampton, Ontario, Fleshxfur (also known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-may-8-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25433,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431\/revisions\/25433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}