‘Do it yourself, man!’ King Abid made his own reggae scene скачать в хорошем качестве

‘Do it yourself, man!’ King Abid made his own reggae scene

King Abid is taking on Quebec City with his Tunisian reggae sound. "I use the texture or melodies of my country and mix them with the electro part of reggae, dancehall — it's me!" »Subscribe to CBC Arts to watch more videos: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsSubscribe Heythem Tlili, a.k.a. King Abid, moved to Canada from Tunisia in 2002. His mother gave him parting advice surely familiar to any musician: make sure you study! "My mom, when she gave me my last two kisses before I took the plane to Canada, she said, 'Please study a little a bit,' because she knew that I would be just music." Did King Abid heed his mother's words? "I got my diploma so bisou, maman!" When he arrived in Quebec, King Abid didn't exactly find his musical dreams waiting. He remembers: "My cousin from Montreal said, 'Yeah, the music is really rich in Quebec City — there's lots of the reggae scene and dancehall scene, so you would be happy to live there.' When I came...there was nothing, nada, zero, nothing." When he found a city that he felt didn't have the sounds he loved in it, King Abid's can-do spirit took charge. "I cried for two days, and after I thought, 'Do it by yourself, man!'" For eight years King Abid hosted a reggae/dancehall show at Laval University's radio station, and over time he began to create and release his own music. "In the beginning I was just DJing, and sometimes in a house party I'd take the microphone and I'd sing and freestyle and people would say, 'Man, you're good, man.' After that I had more confidence in myself and began to make my own songs." Now, 16 years after moving there, King Abid feels he's left his mark on Quebec City, cementing the sounds he wished he could have found in the city's culture when he arrived. "People listen to me and the reggae vibe is installed now in Quebec City," he says. With humour and confidence King Abid deftly rejects assumptions of cultural assimilation and embraces sharing cultures with each other. "When I came to Quebec, people asked me a lot of the time, 'Do you integrate the vibe?' and I said, 'No, man — the people integrate me!' I have a lot of connections, a lot of friends." King Abid's music embraces this kind of cultural sharing and with it he tries to upend assumptions people have about Tunisians and North Africans. "I'm from Tunisia, but I don't make the classic 'oriental' music. I break the barriers." "I want to spread my message and my vibe and my music to make people feel good, make people dance, make people smile. It's the fire that makes me feel alive." Find us at http://bit.ly/CBCArtsWeb CBC Arts on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsFacebook CBC Arts on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsTwitter CBC Arts on Instagram: http://bit.ly/CBCArtsInstagram About: CBC Arts is your destination for extraordinary Canadian arts. Whether you're a culture vulture, a working artist, an avid crafter, a compulsive doodler or just a dabbler in the arts, there's something for you here. ‘Do it yourself, man!’ King Abid made his own reggae scene    / cbcarts