Port Coquitlam might be a small town, but there’s no denying the big talent that comes from it. Rap has been a popular music genre for a long time and is now the most popular genre as it rules the charts time after time. Some of the biggest names in music today are rappers such as, Travis Scott, Post Malone and Drake. They all needed to start from somewhere and that’s exactly what Port Coquitlam’s young rappers are doing; starting their careers with doing shows at small venues, putting their songs on SoundCloud (a popular music streaming app where anyone can upload music and podcasts) and gaining a big social media following with other teens supporting their music.
Teen Port Coquitlam artist, 15-year-old Josh Pregale, also known 612stratus, is an ambitious rapper/producer with chill relaxed beats but hype raps. He got into music three years ago, buying music equipment and turning
his room into a recording studio with all the money he had saved up. He only made beats for two years, then eventually made a song with his friends and discovered his love for recording. “In the music industry, competition is everywhere. There’s always going to be someone with more plays than you, more money than you and more fans than you. I hope to use working with bigger artists to my advantage,” said 612stratus. For him it’s hard putting in money and trying to just make a fraction of it back and getting recognized, but he loves spending time on his craft and uses music to relieve stress because it’s fun. 612Stratus also says that when people listen to his music, he wants them to feel all the range of emotions he was trying to convey in that one song. One of 612stratus favourite songs he has made is called “Play Like That” by Tauon and Alagoas. He made the beat and he feels that it fits well with the artist and that he had a good final product. The song drops January 20. 612Stratus feels that representing Port Coquitlam is great because he’s lived here his whole life and though he might not like it sometimes, it will always be home. “Port Coquitlam rap differs from artist to artist. We see rappers like QC&YT going for the more ‘cool’ kind of music while we see guys like Kuna go for more fun/comedic style. Each artist is different,” said 612stratus.
Another young Port Coquitlam artist who has been getting a lot of attention is 15-year-old Martin Malcom who goes by the stage name Marto, and also posts his music on SoundCloud. Marto is a rapper who doesn’t draw inspiration from other artist for his music, he just follows his own vibe. Marto grew up listing to Eryka Badu and Sade. His biggest supporters are his friends and his fans, who he obviously
doesn’t know; this shocked him because he didn’t expect people to listen to his music. Stage fright is one thing Marto had to overcome when preforming his shows; he did not think it would be hard to preform. “I thought about all these people hearing this little kid rapping, that’s kind of weird to think about. Now I don’t second guess myself, because rapping comes easy to me,” said Marto. He’s not trying to compete with other rappers, he’s just trying to make music. “The biggest misconception that people have about me is that I make music because it’s a trend and cool, but I’ve been making music and interested in it before the SoundCloud trend,” said the Marto. Marto’s Music can either be very upbeat and lit if he’s in a happy mood, but if he’s in a sad mood he’ll make very moody music, and he wants the people that listen to his music to feel the mood he is trying to portray in that particular song. Because he looks at music as a feeling and if you don’t get the feeling across in your music it just becomes a bunch of sounds and that has no meaning. Marto’s goals are to release music that he thinks is decent to himself, but he’s not going to force it because he knows that everything will fall into place with motivation. Someday, he also wants to make a music video.
612stratus is managing an artist that goes by the name TaeWon, has an album dropping soon, 612stratus produced a song and is featured on a song as well, Juice wrld is also featured on the album. Follow @612stratus on Instagram for updates. Marto is having a show in Pitt Meadows that he and his friends have organized, and their will be T-shirts and multiple live performances. Follow @yungmarto for updates.
A lot of big time artists today would be nowhere if their hometowns didn’t support them, so let’s support these young artists and wish them nothing but success.
