Hip-hop artist wants to see more collaboration in Sudbury

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A hip-hop artist who lives in Val Caron is hoping that his recent collaboration with a local singer and songwriter will help foster more cooperation between musical artists in the community.

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Eric Petitclerc, who goes by the stage name Koncept, dropped a new song and music video titled “Freaky Friday” featuring vocalist Britt “Koraah” Cardinal on Aug. 6.

The track reflects some of the daily struggles experienced by both artists and their eagerness to work with other musicians in Ontario and around the world.

The music video for “Freaky Friday” was shot by Rex David, a YouTube creator who goes by the name of Dead Brothers, in Hamilton and produced by Marc Léger and Drew Lalonde.

“We’ve been struggling a bit these past few months, waking up and just not feeling OK,” said Koncept about their inspiration for their new track.

“You know, when everything goes wrong during the week, but on Friday, you can finally let loose and just be yourself. We figured a lot of people would be able to relate with that.”

Koncept moved from Gogama to Sudbury in his childhood after he lost his father at seven years old. To cope with the loss, he started to write poetry which eventually translated into a passion for hip-hop music.

“When I hit high school, I kind of put two and two together. My poems were like the music that everyone was listening to,” he said.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 13. I have a discography of over 140 songs. Mind you, a lot of it is bad because I was really young, but I’ve come a long way from being a 13-year-old with a Rock Band mic and a computer who didn’t want to live anymore.”

Koraah is a local singer and songwriter just launching her music career. She said she’s “all over the map” in terms of her influences, but she loves hip-hop, R&B, and pop music.

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“I was always that person in the backseat of my dad’s car with the subs blaring. I found my passion for music super young,” she said.

“I was always singing, doing covers and karaoke, but I never took it further than that. But when COVID-19 hit last year, I had a lot of time to myself and I decided to dive into music deeply.”

The duo met by chance when Koncept was scrolling through TikTok at 3 a.m. one night when he couldn’t sleep. He saw one of Koraah’s videos and realized she was a local musician, so he got in touch and the rest is history.

“We were hanging out about three weeks ago and we decided to write a song. We found a beat and we just wrote. The next day we recorded it, and then we went to Hamilton to shoot the music video. Now we’re here,” said Koraah.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Koncept toured Northern Ontario with Status631, a hip-hop artist from Long Island, N.Y. The pair had plans to tour Canada, but the pandemic restrictions made that impossible.

“I think the pandemic has been a blessing and a curse. We’re just a bunch of hungry artists who had a plan to do a bunch of shows, but all of that got cancelled so it was a slap in the face,” he said.

“But we’ve also had the chance to make some new music and find some new friends and collaborators despite going through a rough time.”

Koncept said that he started to take music seriously about 10 years ago, and he’s spent a lot of money on equipment and he’s invested a lot of time in his art.

“I’ve lived a lot of hardship, and I really want to push a narrative that it gets better on people. A lot of my stuff is probably about heartbreak and the contemplation of harming yourself in terms of alcohol abuse and stuff like that,” he said.

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“Because a lot of stuff has come my way and kicked me in the face. I am just trying to show people that the battle is real out here but you don’t have to silence yourself because you’re stronger talking about it. I really wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to music, I don’t hide it.”

Both Koncept and Koraah said that it’s sometimes difficult to collaborate with local artists because there’s a culture of competition in the community.

They hope that their collaboration will open doors for any aspiring musician looking to make a name for themselves.

“We’re trying to say that everyone should just unite. I’ve been working with artists in North Bay, New York and Philadelphia, and Koraah is collaborating with someone in India right now,” he said.

“I really see this as bigger than just Sudbury.”

Koncept has had kids as young as 13 reach out to him because they are interested in recording their own music.

“I’ve had people message me out of nowhere saying that they heard my music and they heard I have a studio at home and they want to come by,” he said.

“Young kids will show up with their parents to check out what I’ve got. I am just trying to push these kids to do something better. If I can get these kids out of trouble and into music that would be fantastic.”

Neither artist has any big dreams to get signed with a record label. Instead, both of them said they want their music to speak for itself.

“We want to stay independent so that we can keep writing our own music instead of producing the cookie-cutter stuff you hear on the radio,” said Koncept.

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“I’m just trying to build a little music family that I can trust and collaborate with.”

Koncept can be found on all major streaming platforms online or on his Instagram account at www.instagram.com/koncept705/?hl=en.

Koraah will be on all major platforms as more projects come about in the future. Her Instagram account is instagram.com/koraah.music?utm_medium=copy_link.

To watch the duo’s new music video “Freaky Friday,” visit m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ip3fS6a7D8.

The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.

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