Brockway Biggs raises profile of Ottawa hip-hop
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Rapper Brockway Biggs has been helping to raise the profile of hip-hop music in Ottawa, since moving to the city two years ago from New Brunswick. He plays a show Friday night at Glue Pot pub.
When you conjure up the prototypical hip hop artist in your mind, chances are the image will not in any way resemble Brockway Biggs.
The clever wordsmith and rap emcee — whose real name is Troy Neilson — isn’t into wearing baggy clothes, big hats and abundant, oversized jewelry. In conversation, he’s soft-spoken and modest, and he has a Master’s degree in Computer Science, which he proudly earned in his hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
“A lot of my qualities don’t match up with the stereotypes of the industry, but I kind of like being unique,” he says.
Embracing his individuality and original style is precisely what earned Biggs so much respect when he was first starting out in rap in the late 1990s.
Back then he was a shy high school student who discovered that writing lyrics and performing on stage gave him an outlet to let loose and be creative.
Working under the moniker Pimp Tea, the rapper earned a solid fan following, got video play on MusiquePlus with his single Tha PIMP-T Theme and won an East Coast Music Award. To establish such a reputation in Canada, where even the best hip-hop artists are often invisible to the greater public, is certainly something to be proud of. But there were many people out there — including those powerful administrators of grant money for musicians — who couldn’t get past the “Pimp” in the rapper’s name.
“I needed to sort of rid myself of the burden of the name Pimp. People thought of me as a joke, or were claiming I was racist or trying to promote misogyny.”
He adopted Brockway Biggs because it combined both a family name and a locale that was dear to him in his childhood, and hoped the re-branding would bring new things. After years of hard work in school, he also felt ready for a change of place, and thought a move to Ottawa in 2005 might get his creative juices flowing again.
He spent the first while observing, writing songs and getting comfortable with the city’s hip hop scene, which he describes as “really interesting.”
“There’s a lot of talent here, but the city is so spread out and it makes it hard to unify. I think the other big struggle is that Toronto is the hub for music in the area, so I think a lot of people leave and it’s a shame.”
Biggs says he can definitely see himself sticking around Ottawa for a long time, especially now that he’s made some friends – many of whom contributed to his latest CD, In Awe of Simplicity.
With a blend of thoughtful, lyrically deep songs, and lighter, danceable fare like Canada Dry and Shake Ya Caboose, the CD kind of sums up the two sides of Biggs – a serious artist who knows how to have fun.
Brockway Biggs plays tonight at Glue Pot Pub, Queen Street at Lyon. Boz Faramone, The Reds, DJ Ducats and Mischief are also on the bill. Cover is $7 at the door.
