Cee
Jan 2016
Who are you?
Blessings, y’all. My name’s Cee: Just another infinite, universal soul on my spiritual journey in this physical realm.
Where do you live?
I live between Montreal and Toronto, Canada, but I’m originally from Melbourne, Australia.
What do you do?
Primarily, I’m an emcee. Secondarily, I’m an entrepreneur: I run two businesses with my girlfriend (High Season Co. is our artist management/digital marketing company, and The Movement Fam is our boutique record label). And, thirdly, I’m an avid craft beer enthusiast—check out the blog and podcast: Beer & Other Shit.
When did you start?
I started rapping at 15, just messing around at home and with my mates. I recorded my first song in a proper studio at 19, realized that I could actually have a chance at doing this, and I’ve been chasing the dream ever since.
As far as the business stuff goes, I’ve dabbled since I was 18 with a mobile DJ business I had with a friend at the time. My brother Notion and I have been running The Movement Fam since 2008, although it was only a collective until early 2015 when we formally registered it as a label.
The craft beer obsession started in 2011 when I took on this 365 Days of Beer challenge that my friends back home were doing. I knocked that out in 7 months and just kept it going. At the time of writing this, I’m sitting at just over 1,900 unique beers made, and I now have a blog, podcast, merch and a YouTube series based all around it.
How was your first show/performance?
It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrendous either. It was at a friend’s house party in, like, 2002. Notion, my mate and I did covers of R. Kelly’s “Fiesta (Remix),” Red and Meth’s “How High (Remix),” and some original stuff. People seemed to dig it.
What would you like to gain from your work?
Man, I’m tryna build an empire. I want to have multiple businesses in varied industries. I want to employ my friends and family. I want to collaborate on ventures with other like-minded individuals. I want to be known as an intelligent, flexible, conscious emcee who didn’t give in to the trends, who gave up everything for his music, and who made his own lane.
What would you like your audience to gain from your work?
I want people to be inspired. I want them to see what we’ve done, what we’ve given up, and what they could achieve if they truly set their minds on a specific goal and just went for it. I want to convert people to craft beer and bring down the big beer companies. I want people to enjoy my music and realize that they don’t have to just listen to what the radio spews out at them: There’s more to hip-hop than strip clubs, money, drugs and cars.
Who or what are your biggest influences?
Musically, it varies a lot. When I hear the music from certain artists, it moves me so deeply that I just want to be able to create something that makes other people feel the same way. I think Erykah Badu’s the greatest soul to ever inhabit a meat suit; D’Angelo changed my life, straight up; the entire Soulquarians and original Okayplayer crews, legit, were the complete list of my favourite artists for years…
But these days, I’m just inspired by life. The grind, the hustle, the burn to achieve something more, my lady, my family, my friends, the government, bureaucracy. All of that.
What keeps you up at night?
I used to have a major problem sleeping—like my mind would just not fucking stop. I quit smoking weed in 2009 because, unfortunately for me, inhaling burnt plant matter just gave me the flu, but in 2010 I got into weed cookies and that helped me sleep again. I’m a worrier at heart, so it’s usually small things that keep me up: money, clients, music, family…
What’s next?
Man, 2015 was a really strong learning year for us, so 2016’s where the results finna be at. I have a group album with this incredible emcee, Livin’ Poetry, and a dope producer/emcee, A-Fos, that’s like 90% finished… We have a couple big name features, and it’s sounding incredible. Should have that out in Q2 if all goes well. I’m also working on my sophomore album, Relentless, entirely produced by Myer Clarity. We’ve knocked out half a dozen songs so far with an entirely different sound for me—very organic, no samples, all 100% live instrumentation—so I’m stupid excited for that. From the label, we also have my brother Notion’s debut album, Heart On My Sleeve Music, dropping in Q1 (hopefully), plus a bunch of shorter EPs, singles and other good stuff.
Aside from the music, the beer podcast will be continuing, and we want to start getting bigger-named guests on there. And we’re full-time with High Season Co., so we’re really pushing our artist management/digital marketing stuff right now, which has been progressing way faster than we anticipated. Salute!
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