Through a flurry of ice cubes and napkins, the Big Dogs Only show ended to thunderous applause.
It was the perfect conclusion to this night that felt like a catalyst. The energy before the show was vibrant. Concert goers were jovial as these reunions took place all over. A lot of these people hadn’t linked up at shows for a long time and it set the tone for something special.
Each of the Big Dog Only crew took the time and effort to greet everyone.
I don’t think I’ve spoken to Borden in my life but he made me feel like we were old buddies the way he approached me. I got a similar familiarity with Morris Regal. The Big Dogs set the tone with hospitality.
As an artist, hospitality has not been my forte and this was one of a few takeaways I had from the show last night.
The Big Dogs Collective has fans and are clearly doing something right
As RVLR Magz started the show I looked around the room and saw people rapping along word for word.
They may as well have been at a 50 Cent show rapping along. There was bliss on their faces. This is something they have been waiting for.
At some point this year Merker Miyagi shared a Borden song that dropped and made it clear Borden was something special.
Merker was elated watching the performance last night.
As I did the local interviews, names like Magnum, 80 Rock, Pro V & Justice McFly were regularly mentioned.
They weren’t peers, they were the ones leading the pack.
To be fair, I bring up Justice a lot. He taught me about SEO and it is a huge part of why you are reading this today.
Jred is fly too and he comes up a bunch when I talk to people who actually listen to the local stuff coming out.
High key, Jred has one of those voices where he could rap a menu at a restaurant at me and I’d be like, homie is spitting.
This show was successful and these boys having fans is a huge part of why.
They created quality music over time placed perfectly
My excitement was different from everyone else.
For me, it was about getting a taste of what they were all excited for.
As I briefly talked to SkinDeep this morning, he said something that made me realize a lot of this music was the soundtrack for a point in time.
While I was listening to Machine Gun Kelly in 2011, others were listening to Magnum & Borden.
When you look back over the past of Montreal history, all the Big Dog members have music dating back well over 10 years, full videos and everything.
The production sounds professional. The videos look on par with anything else at that time. As I listen to a lot of the music now, so much if it sounds great in 2024.
While the pens are on point, I think it’s energy and charisma that bled through the mic and created longevity.
These guys were out there living their lives and telling you their stories in an authentic way.
As far as the placed perfectly part in this section title, let’s think about the technology at the time.
These boys were able to have a run before the internet made it easy
I don’t think people realize how much harder it was for RVLR Magz to make full music videos in 2006.
I only entered the scene in 2012. I did however speak to over 100 Montreal artists about their come up so I did get a bit of information into how things went.
Let me plug this lil gem right here with a name that also has to be mentioned in this article, Lemme Kno.
One big takeaway from that run was that me being able to produce 12 songs on like 2000$ was not possible back in 2006.
You could not just film a video on your webcam and upload it to YouTube and call it a day.
That makes the quality produced by this team even more impressive. These guys made dope sounding stuff when it wasn’t being produced much locally. They helped set into motion events that would inspire many people.
I know there are many more names, like Blicky, who played their part but we’re focusing on the Big Dogs roster from last night for this one.
They performed as a synergized unit that liked each others music
As RVLR Magz would interrupt someone to run it back and play the song again, you could feel the love he had for the music.
If we didn’t react like we were supposed to, we were going to hear it again so we could hear what we needed to. Every single person worked as a hype man, backing up each member of the unit.
Their set was coordinated. They gave away hoodies. There were costume switchups.
They treated this like they were stars and gave us the treatment a star would give us.
They had a clean intro and outro, with Justice McFly hosting the set. Taking the time to welcome us at the start. Then introducing each person on stage at the end, naming everyone but himself. He was the “Big Me” of that moment.
They delivered on giving us a show worth far more than 20$ I paid.
There were no openers. There was no time waste. It started later than expected but I mean, it started earlier than it could have.
The show was a solid hour (or more) of these men bringing their best.
It was a good example of how a show can be packaged, there’s still more to learn from these guys.
Replicating what they did is going to take a long time
If I had 5 other artists with me right now and threw a show at Belmont, I’d lose money.
It’s not an if situation, it happened exactly like that when we tried.
These guys each bring a legacy. They came with people who knew their music and were ready to support. Their music is regarded as elite and it showed in the turnout.
My understanding of back in the day is there were shows going on where locals would perform regularly sharpening swords in environments that didn’t permit wack.
There were also a lot of physical records being sold and played in cars. Chances are Basics has some 2009 Montreal mixtape in his CD player right now.
The Big Dogs folk are all over YouTube with this push in the late 2000’s and beyond.
I believe Labnoise and others leveraged YouTube perfectly to create a focus for the community at large to come check for what’s new.
I also heard there was some level of vetting in place, like Don Smooth’s radio and local showcases, to quality control who got the better opportunities.
Either way the culture back then created this environment where the Big Dogs were able to shine. They proved who they were and they brought that energy last night. It’s truly something to aspire for.
It won’t come easily but watching them perform lit a fire in me I haven’t felt in a while.
It made me want to go make sure my legacy ends up where it needs to be.
Thanks to the Big Dogs.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone