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NobodyReally a hip-hop somebody

Former Whistler MC returns with West Coast hip hop
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"My name basically means ‘Who is anybody anyways?" Rob Currie, (left) aka NobodyReally. Photo submitted

What: Live Hip Hop Show

When: Friday, June 2

Where: Moe Joe’s

Not your stereotypical hip hopper, NobodyReally, as his name suggests, foreshadows the laid-back West Coast hip-hop vibe the former Whistler resident is famous for.

The ex-Maxx Fish resident MC and mastermind behind Whistler’s legendary 420 Party sets ego aside and foregoes the yo-yo-yo of gangster rap about drug dealing, fast cars and even faster women.

"There is a lot of ego and attitude in rap music," says NobodyReally, who is also known as Rob Currie.

"I didn’t think it was necessary. My name basically means ‘Who is anybody anyways?’ Everyone is the same person just coming from a different block… My music is pretty laid back. It comes with a conscious message. I’d rather talk about meaningful things than things that don’t pertain to me, like drug hustling and girls. I’d rather talk about real issues."

Issues hip-hop revelers can sink into Moe Joe’s Friday, June 2 with MC Godfrey, DJs Phroh and Rob Banks joining NobodyReally.

While Currie opened for K-OS in Ontario when he was 15, the now 20-something West Coaster didn’t really get his mic rolling until coming to Whistler in 2001. Gigs around town along with Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival mainstage performances led to sharing greenrooms with leading Canadian hip hop artists such as Swollen Members, Rascalz and Choclair.

"I started performing for crowds and doing tracks I had written and freestyles in clubs," Currie recounts. "After I moved to the city in 2004, I thought I am getting paid a couple of bucks at this MC thing, I guess the next step is to produce an album. Performing with Canadian hip hop big names, it really inspired me to get rolling and make this happen for myself."

The rapper slash Burnaby furniture salesman is now recording tracks with the people who first inspired him to do so, including Rascalz, Prevail and Swollen Members. With 11 tracks down and four more to go, Currie estimates a late-summer release for his first album.

After recently signing on with NewSchoolMedia, a Vancouver-based public relations company, Currie is now working around the clock, spending plenty of time both in studio and on stage.

Always atypical, Currie forgoes the boom bop of hip hop, resting his rhythms and beats in his jazz influences – so much so, he opens for Josh Martinez June 29 at the Media Club as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

"I have this monotone jazz style too," Currie says. "I am a lot more laid back."

Music always followed Currie around, whether listening to Miles Davis or Top 40 remixes.

"My dad played bass in Scotland for the Frankie Miller Band, who wrote songs for Ray Charles," Currie says. "A typical Saturday afternoon would have my older brother’s band playing Chili Peppers in the basement, dad listening to Elvis in the kitchen, my little brother on the turntables upstairs and me and my mom sitting in the living room in the middle of it all."

Currie knows who he is, where he came from and is proud to call Canada his home. So much so, he penned a rhyme to the country he loves. A sort of Where’s Waldo, only Currie is chasing his lost mic across Canada, rhyming down on every provincial capital (and territory) from sea to sea.

"I want to live nowhere else," he says.

Join Currie and friends for non-stop live entertainment this Friday.>