Pardon the interruption for an ego-related post: I taped a segment for the CBC morning radio show The Current today, which should be airing tomorrow morning (that is, Friday the 12th of October). For anyone who wants to check it out, the show starts at at 8:30. There’s more information about the show here, and a tool for finding out what frequency CBC Radio One is on in your region here.
The guest host for the show was K-OS, the rap and hip-hop artist otherwise known as Kevin (or Kheaven) Brereton. The multiple award-winning writer/singer/producer of songs such as Crabbuckit and Sunday Morning, K-OS was born in Toronto and raised in Trinidad and Whitby. Having never met him before, I didn’t know what to expect, but he was a down-to-earth guy and a generous host.
We talked about the future of the music industry in light of Radiohead’s recent “pay what you want” album news, and subsequent reports that other prominent artists such as Oasis, Trent Reznor and Jamiroquai may consider doing something similar.
The central question for the segment was whether the record industry was a group of dinosaurs, with the Radiohead news as the asteroid that would eventually make them extinct. I agreed that many of them were dinosaurs, but said Radiohead and others were more like evolution at work — like those fish with the stubby little feet who first walked on land. What they will evolve into remains to be seen.
Anyway, it was a really enjoyable interview. K-OS asked some great questions, and also threw in some of his own thoughts about the issue from his point of view as an artist. Definitely worth a listen.
