Crabs in a Bucket: ST Elements & DJ K-Rec on the Vancouver Scene

K-Ski starts solo with Paul — 22 years of guitar and teaching kids at the Roundhouse — before ST Elements arrives and the episode finds its subject: what it costs to build something in a city that doesn't help you build it. ST Elements came from Jersey to Carolina to the Navy to Seattle before landing here. He works in addictions counseling and teaches curriculum through rap, and he is blunt about the crabs-in-a-bucket habit of the Vancouver scene and what a scarcity mindset does to people. The stretch on losing a rap contest to Wise Intelligent in Trenton, meeting Kid N Play and Salt-N-Pepa, and the Fat Boys coming to Vancouver in 1988 is the best oral history the show has recorded. Then DJ K-Rec, who made a record a year with him — including one made while K-Rec had cancer. K-Rec talks pause tapes, quitting rhyming for engineering, his beat-making routine, and the cold DMs to Sadat X, Kurious and Percee P that actually worked. The email that got them opening for De La Soul at the Commodore is worth the whole segment. It closes with three live performances and a run of fall show dates. Recorded at B-Side Radio, Vancouver BC. 0:00 Intro: solo hosting, guests on the way 1:30 Paul: 22 years of guitar, teaching kids 2:53 Mexico, recharging, and unplugging 3:44 ST Elements arrives: from STL 4:50 Recognized at a White Rock gas station 5:51 Jersey to the Navy to Seattle 7:58 When family isn't impressed 10:16 Brains built for lyrics 11:27 Teaching curriculum through rap 13:36 The crabs-in-a-bucket Vancouver scene 15:14 Scarcity vs abundance mindset 17:42 Getting a batch of K-Rec beats 19:37 Leslie's artwork and record covers 21:00 Meeting K-Rec at the art gallery 23:19 Era of the DJ: Mantronix, Just Ice 25:39 New releases: Slick Rick, De La, Big L 28:58 Blueprint's Vessels 29:51 Langley when there was no industry 31:24 The Surrey b-boy scene 36:39 Battle rap in Surrey: Set the Bar 39:59 Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, late-80s balance 41:07 Losing to Wise Intelligent in Trenton 43:20 The groups Vancouver is missing 45:10 Meeting Kid N Play and Salt-N-Pepa 46:33 Fat Boys '88, BDP '89, cyphers by '94 51:27 Skateboarding and not caring 54:47 The yearly record cycle with K-Rec 57:38 Making a record through K-Rec's cancer 1:00:25 One purpose behind all of it 1:05:00 The Stan Lee method 1:08:21 Islands Cafe release and 50th birthday 1:13:05 DJ K-Rec: pause tapes to engineering 1:15:29 K-Rec's routine and the SP-303 videos 1:20:03 Cold DMs that worked: Sadat X, Kurious 1:26:12 Emailing to open for De La Soul 1:28:15 Langley high school: boombox in a locker 1:33:04 Miami bass and instrumental hip hop 1:34:33 Beyond boom bap: electronic and stems 1:35:54 K-Rec signs off 1:38:11 Paul on Here and Now 1:42:58 Fall dates: Aperture, Fox Cabaret 1:46:32 Performance: 'Idols of the Temple' 1:48:58 Performance: 'It Was All a Dream' 1:52:19 Performance: 'Wake Up Call' 1:54:50 Show dates and the CITR block party 1:56:46 Beats, Blues and Bars: 2019 rehearsals 1:59:49 Shout-outs to partners and support 2:03:53 Closing: merch and where to catch shows