The evening’s activities begun with River Tiber, real name Tommy Paxton-Beesley, who took the stage for a DJ set. Having seen Paxton-Beesley perform his original broody tracks with a band more than once this upbeat DJ set came as a bit of a surprise. Tiber toured across a couple decades, remixing and sampling 90s top hits and newer hip hop tracks. In between the various melodic lesser known tracks the crowd pleasers came out: Drake’s “The Language,”  A$AP Ferg’s “Shabba” followed by a throwback with Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey “Baby If You Give It To Me” and “That Shit Cray.” For nearly an hour River Tiber teased the crowd, packing them in closer to the stage and continually surprising them.

After a very brief break and uncommonly on time J.I.D’s DJ begun to warm up the crowd with the likes of Kendrick Lamar “King Kunta” and other urban favourites, the floor was vibrating and every track had the crowd singing along. Now that we’re all warmed up let’s meet J.I.D, a rapper from East Atlanta signed to J-Cole’s Dreamville Records. Since releasing his debut album, The Never Story in March J.I.D has been gaining attention. His lyrics are clean and sharp, often politically and racially charged, that power of the language was particularly felt during quiet rhyme, or as the guy standing behind me called it “poetry,” though admittedly not everyone in the audience was down with the significantly more serous vibes, at this point quite a few members of the crowd were well liquored up.

At 11 sharp the screens around the room lit up as Goldlink came out on stage and for the rest of the night screened A Big Dog Productions film in the background. For the next hour Goldlink went back and forth between his recent album At What Cost and And After That, We Didn’t Talk though the crowd didn’t seem to favour one over the other, everyone was dancing and singing along with so much ferociousness that very few phones were up in the air, this show was an experience IRL. From “Dark Skin Women” to “Some Girl,” “Crew” and “Meditation”, which originally featured Jazmine Sullivan and KAYTRANADA, followed by a brief break sampling Pharrell and Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U” and back to “Herside Story” from At What Cost and “Dance on Me” from AATWDT.

“Can you all count to four?” he asked “Can you all count to four!” oh I know where this is going, and so did the rest of the room – “Late Night” or 3, or 4. Goldlink didn’t really talk much between tracks and his rhymes were breathlessly smooth and sharp, as always. For many people this show wrapped up the year and with those good vibes many people dabbed is as the best show of the year while storming out into the cold night.

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For the evening the band added two additional keyboardists, a grand piano, a string section, and horns, among other additional live instruments, to the set. What is typically a quartet came to life as a full, interpretive orchestra on the Massey Hall stage. Occasionally joined by River Tiber and Charlotte Day Wilson, while Alexander Sowinski was sharing stories about their collective experiences and love for this city. The interaction really made this show a personal one, despite the fact that people could not dance or participate much otherwise (having to be sitting down all night and all).

The band played songs from their most recent release, IV, and Sour Soul, some more popular covers. Charlotte Day Wilson played “Work,” “In Your Eyes,” and shared a brand new track about falling in love, while River Tiber touched on his more emotional songs such as “Acid Test.” Both performers generally perform with a much smaller band so having the enhanced BadBadNoGood gave a whole new dimension to their songs. A big surprise came unexpectedly when BadBadNoGood brought out Jay Electronica on stage for “Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)” with no introduction. A few tracks after the show wrapped up with an engaging instrumental set and an interpretive dance by Sowinski.

The friendship, passion, and sheer musical dedication were an ongoing theme this evening. The set was, needless to say, a memorable one, for every single sold-out ticket that walked through the door.

Images courtesy of Red Bull.

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NXNE Portlands is a large & spacious, concrete location. A space like that is hard to fill. So when Vancouver’s HUMANS took the stage at 6pm on a sunny Sunday their audience was a sparse crowd of 30-ish people. This is a band we’ve seen more than once in rooms packed with dedicated fans, so I was worried. But Peter Ricq and Robbie Slade did not seem to be phased by this lack of audience. As they proceeded to play tracks from their recent EP Water Water and from their critically acclaimed album NOONTIDE, people begun to gather. It was not their typical audience but they definitely gained a few new fans.

Across the park half an hour later River Tiber, real name Tommy Paxton-Beesley, was joined on stage by a band. You may have noticed his name on Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Among other collaborations are works completed with BADBADNOTGOOD, Kaytranada, Freddie Gibbs, Mac Miller, and Pusha T, some of which can be accredited to the support of the Red Bull Sound Select. Set on a blue sky background and an occasional tree nodding in the wind River Tiber went right into his chilly, melancholic pop. His lyrics are soft, sad, and at times come of as nearly whispered. The track that put his solo work on the map is “Not Talk” – a song that you can either cry to or have sex to, and it’s an example of this chilly melancholie: “Doesn’t matter if we’ve been down / Nothing’s later than it is now / And you feel it like the motion / To the bottom of the ocean / Getting lifted in the basement / Where we all become the same thing / Always talk like you could get this / In the city acting reckless.” So no, not much dancing was happening during this set, just a lot of waving, bopping, and hugging.

More photos on Facebook.

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Since its launch in 2013, Red Bull Sound Select has hosted over 400 events to support hundreds of emerging artists in 15+ cities around the world. Sound Select’s artist lineup is incredibly tight pushing forward such promising acts as Jazz Cartier, River Tiber, Tre Mission, Frigs, The Darcy’s, a l l i e, and ShaqIsDope, among many others.

According to Nelsen, the team supports the artists by “providing performance opportunities at monthly showcases, chances to collaborate with mentors, and support at festivals like SXSW, Lollapalooza, NXNE, Austin City Limits, Manifesto, Fun Fun Fun, and Wavelength.” The artists, however well known, get to collaborate together which often opens up doors the artists couldn’t have gotten to otherwise: “I did a show in LA with Kaytranada, and while I was out there I did a three-day session with Childish Major from Atlanta” Toronto’s Tre Mission gives as an example when talking about his last few years of collaboration with Sound Select, “The [opportunity], the weather, the hotel, the show, the studio, it was all perfect.”

Miller’s friends from Red Bull came to him with the opportunity for Arts & Crafts “to bring resources to different artists [they] believe in” and since artist development is what A&C does it was an easy Yes. In parallel, Manifesto received a similar offer alongside NXNE and Wavelength as additional support. As an organization with deep insight into Toronto’s hip-hop and R&B/soul scene, Ohtake jumped on the opportunity to curate that chapter of RBSS.

“I personally had been a promotion and ambassador lead during Red Bull Music Academy’s launch in Canada back in 2006, and Red Bull had been a supporter of Manifesto since our launch in 2006, so there was a natural progression when Manifesto was asked to be involved in their next music related program.”

When asked how the artist selection is made it was clear that for curators it is all about passion and gut feeling: “I wait until something is undeniable to me, where I can’t help but try to be involved and stick my nose in. It only happens once in a while, so those are the moments where I know I have to go for it. I am not a scientific mind, my gut is all I have” he laughs.

Ohtake keeps his ear to the ground in search of promising talent, looking for “artists that have strong growth potential and can accelerate their development through the support of a program like Red Bull Sound Select is the type of act that we look to work with. Manifesto and my personal concert production already puts a focus on the selection of strong young new talent” he goes on, “So really we’re doing what we’ve always been doing through our artist selection process. Red Bull Sound Select is simply a natural next-level resource that we can provide to these key artists to perform in front of bigger audiences and improve their live show presentation.”

Although it has only been a few years, Red Bull Sound Select has plenty of success stories to share. In Ohtake’s opinion, the best success stories are “Jazz Cartier, Keita Juma, and a l l i e. To be honest, we caught Jazz Cartier as he was about to become a household name by Canadian hip hop audiences” he adds, “[Cartier’s] performance at RBSS was only a small part of a huge wave of opportunity for [him], but the Red Bull relationship has definitely created additional perks.”

“Keita Juma and a l l i e are definitely two very talented, hard-working artists who have been developed via Manifesto Festival, and provided added exposure via Red Bull Sound Select (including performance with other Toronto Sound Select curators).”

Miller is similarly proud of his finds: “It’s been amazing watching River Tiber move through the Sound Select ranks. When we started working together a couple of years back we did a show at Adelaide Hall in Toronto with BADBADNOTGOOD. A couple of weeks ago we released a track with Sound Select where he collaborated with Pusha T. What Tommy (River Tiber) is doing right now is next level for sure.”

More recently RBSS became a major support for The Darcy’s reappearance who released a new album with Grammy-award winner Shawn Everett: “It is shameless and fun and catchy and relentless. Few bands are as willing to put themselves out there as far as they do. You have to respect the hard work they put in and the sheer variety and quality of what they consistently produce.”

I clearly remember one of my favorite RBSS showcases at Adelaide Hall last year when Charlotte Day Wilson made her first live appearance. No one in the room would’ve guessed it was her first time playing most of those tracks live. “Charlotte’s is a name you will be hearing a lot of in the months and years to come,” says Miller, “She has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard.”

One of this year’s hottest RBSS tickets was Ty Dolla $ign with KEITA JUMA, Jo and Nasty Nigel. It was a full house of all sorts of cool people many of whom left with a mental note to follow up on ShaqIsDope. Having recently released his mixtape Black Frames Shaq proved to that dark sweaty room that he was only getting started. Naturally, talent like that caught RBSS’ attention and this was just one of many platforms he got an opportunity to step up on.

In addition to the annual summer festival Manifesto will be celebrating a 10-year anniversary this September for which they are looking to bring in some of the Sound Select talent. Looking over this year Miller’s focus is on the new records from The Darcys, Charlotte Day Wilson, and River Tiber who will also be performing at the Montreal’s Red Bull Music Academy festival this fall.

Reality may not be as fantastic as becoming famous is on TV but good things come to those who try hard and with as many eyes on talent as there are at RBSS you might have more than just a standing chance.

Images: 1: Jazz Cartier poses for a portrait at Red Bull Sound Select Presents 30 Days in LA, at Teragram Ballroom, in Los Angeles, CA, USA on 30 November, 2015. 2: Tre Mission-Portrait Tre Mission poses for a portrait at The Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA, USA, part of Red Bull Sound Select Presents 30 Days in LA, on 22 November, 2015. 3: Allie poses for a portrait for Red Bull Sound Select at Tattoo in Toronto, Canada on April 23rd, 2015. 4: ShaqIsDope poses for a portrait at Red Bull Sound Select at The Opera House in Toronto, Canada on April 29, 2016. All images courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.

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