Calgary hip hop duo Dragon Fli Empire play Lethbridge a lot. They were looking forward to  starting the ‘move the Mountains tour with Vanocouver’s Fallan Soldier, but unfortunately the Lethbridge date has been cancelled.

A Facebook message from DJ and promoter James Nisihima, Monday stated ‘Due to certain circumstances....this concert is cancelled. Refunds on tickets @ point of purchase. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you.”

They have played the Blarney Stone as well as Henotic several times. They opened for Sweatshop Union several years ago at Suede. The tour features Vancouver rapper Fallan Soldier, Edmonton’s The Joe as well as Lethbridge’s City Prophets and DJ Booda spinning the discs all night long, June 10.

“When you’re an independent hip hop artist trying to get your name out there, Lethbridge is the first stop. It’s definitely in the top tier of Alberta hip hop,” said  Teekay (aka Tarik Robinson), before the cancelation announcement, adding the positive message and old school leanings of the group resonate with youth and even their parents, who also hear them on CKUA.

“ You have the university and colleges and even though they are out for the summer, there will be some  taking summer classes. We get a lot of support from (University of Lethbridge based community radio station) CKXU there as well,” he said adding the tour came together easily for the duo , who have had a colourful career, which culminated in a Western Canadian Music Award over established independent rappers like Moka Only and Sweatshiop Union.

“We opened up an e-mail from Fallan Soldier’s manager who had heard us on CBC 3 and wanted to combine our resources and tour together. So they sent a link to his music and  we thought it would be fun,” he continued adding the tour will  hit Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton and Nanaimo, Vancouver and Victoria. Justin Brave joins them for the B.C. dates while there are local acts for each of the tour stops.

“Fallan Soldier’s music is honest. It’s a different style of music than ours. We’re more focused on what some people would call old school with big drum beats and jazz samples. You can tell he grew up on a lot of hip hop as well as alternative rock, so it’s intense. It’s going to be interesting to see how he fuses the two together. It’s just really heartfelt and honest, ’ he continued adding that is how he describes Dragon Fli Empire.

 

“I’m not trying to be harder than I am. Some guys  try to formulate drama that isn’t representative of the way they are. I didn’t grow up in the hood. I rap about everyday things. Things that reflect my everyday life. Things people can relate to,” he said.

“We have a pretty interesting demographic. We have 18-22 year-olds and some of their parents who have heard us on CKUA,” he said.
“We rap about personal struggles and some deeper topics. But it’s lighthearted, fun subject matter,” he said, adding some of their more popular songs like ‘Mount Pleasant,’ are about Calgary.

“That was one of our more popular ones, and people wanted another, so we wrote CGY as kind of a joke about things we saw around Calgary. It’s so over the top, and now it’s become our next most popular numbers,” he said.
“I guess we’ll have to write about the Bow River or something,” he laughed, adding it could be a while  before the next Dragon Fli Empire as  he and  DJ Cosm (Adam Hicks) have been working on solo projects.
They have had an eventful year including performing at the Calgary Folk Festival during  a workshop alongside Kid Koala and Arrested Development
“We had 6,000 people there. Tt was crazy. We had to make music on the fly,” said adding it was an honour to share the stage with people they grew up listening to.

They  are looking forward to playing several high profile gigs this summer including Canada Day in Calgary and Africa Day at Princess Island Park.