On Monday October 28th, rapper Childish Gambino surprised Toronto fans with a pop-up album listening session. Although it may have meant ditching class for us, we couldn't miss this opportunity to listen to his new work and see him in person.
Yet another reason to love living in Toronto. Here is a quick video to share the raw experience we had with the hundreds of others who gathered at Trinity Bellwoods.
The most intense
workout songs are ones with high beats per minute.
A good workout playlist keeps your cardio on track.
It is springtime, well, at least the calendar says it is.
Even though the weather in Southern Ontario is temporarily flip-flopping from
day to day, that does not mean outdoor workouts should be affected.
The popular New Years resolution to stay fit may have failed
but with the new season sprouts a new opportunity.
Jessica Martinez, a Goodlife
Fitness trainer, says apart from January, spring brings in the second wave
of new gym memberships.
“People are inspired by the beautiful weather after being
kept inside all winter,” says Martinez. “It’s also a wake-up call that reminds
people summer and bathing suit weather is near. They want to look good so they
exercise to get a body they’re happy with at the beach.”
One of the most successful ways to burn fat and to maintain
good health is to conduct regular cardiovascular (cardio) exercises. But just
like with homework, cleaning, and all things good for you, exercising may need
an extra boost of motivation in the form of music.
Cardio workouts exercise the heart and other muscles of the
body. At the beginning of a run or any cardio routine, the body is filled with
energy to burn, but near the end it is common to feel tired.
The solution to pushing through until the end of the workout
is a great music playlist.
A great cardio workout requires fast paced songs because the
body will move according to the beats of the music.
That is where the magic of beats per minute helps. BPM is
used by DJs to find out how many beats there are in a minute of a song. This helps
them with mixing songs without clashing.
In exercising, songs with high BPM will help maintain fast paced
routines, which lead to a good heart workout.
For the average 20-year-old the targeted heart rate zone is
100-170 BPM. Targeted heart rate depends on the health of the individual so
this average is just a guideline and may not be suitable for everyone in his or
her early 20s.
To calculate BPM, count the number of beats within 15
seconds of a song then multiply by four to get the count for 60 seconds.
Here are a variety of mathematically perfect cardio songs:
·Hey Ya – Outkast (132 BPM)
·Panama – Van Halen (152 BPM)
·Nice Guys Finish Last – Green Day (187 BPM)
·C’mon (Catch ‘Em By Surprise) – Tiëst vs. Diplo
(136 BPM)
·The New Workout Plan – Kanye West (118 BPM)
·Getting’ Over You – David Guetta, Chris Willis,
and Fergie (136 BPM)
·Levels – Avicii (128 BPM)
·A City in Florida – Deadmau5 (128 BPM)
·212 – Azealia Banks (126 BPM)
·Express Yourself – Diplo ft. Nicky Da B (108
BPM)
For faster remixes of multiple songs try any of DJ Bl3nd’s
mixes. The young Los Angeles DJ makes music that guarantees sweat to drip off
your body, along with any extra clothing.
Finally, for that extra push to finish the last three and a
half minutes of a cardio workout, the best-paced song is Sandstorm by Darude
(136 BPM). At around 1:26 minutes into the intense beats, the song has an
appropriate one minute break down which can be used to catch your breath and
prepare yourself for the next minute of intense physical cardio. Good luck my urbs! -Ashley
Some people are scared of aging; I am one of those people.
Age is something everyone cannot escape; everyone except for the guys in the
Red Hot Chili Peppers. These men are pushing 50 years old but are still rocking
out as if they were the young fresh faced boys from the late 80’s.
On Friday night I
attended their first of two sold out shows at the Air Canada Centre. These men
have been touring the world and making kick ass music for over thirty years so
the crowd at the show was a mix of everyone of all ages and different
backgrounds.
Their opening act was the dance-punk dou Sleigh Bells. We’ve
all heard that song of theirs on MTV Live called Infinity Guitars. Their sound
isn’t for everyone which is probably the reason why less than one quarter of
the entire audience showed up for the opening. I would have enjoyed their set
if I could actually hear the lead singer’s voice because other than that, the
overwhelming eardrum popping crash of the bass for 30 minutes left me with a
headache that turned me off from beer for the night.
Finally at around 9:15pm the Chilis took to the stage with
the sold out crowd eagerly waiting. The energy from the crowd was a vibe that
infected everyone. If the aisles weren’t as packed as a Japanese subway then I
would have showcased my incredible air drum and air guitar skills with no
shame. Anthony, Flea, Chad and newest member Josh performed an incredible show
that made my six year wait for a concert worth every second. The men who could technically
be my fathers, easily jumped around moshing and performing at studio calibre for
an hour and a half. Whatever is in their water, I need some!
They performed new and old songs, crowd pleasers and
nostalgic tunes. The set list is as follows:
·Monarchy of Roses
·Can’t Stop
·Dani California
·Otherside
·Look Around
·Throw Away Your Television
·Hard to Concentrate
·The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
·Right On Time
·You Have To Ask
·Factory of Faith
·Under the Bridge
·Higher Ground
·Californication
·By the Way
·Around the World
·Meet Me At the Corner
·Give it Away
Some quick concert observation shout outs: the couple
grinding on each other all concert; the drunk couple pretty much re-enacting a
scene from the Notebook while blocking the stairway (YOLO); the drunk 15 year
old girls chatting up older men in exchange for alcohol; the guy who came to
the concert alone sat beside me quietly all show and then moshed the fuck out
during Give It Away; all the people who provided the joints being passed
around; and the guy wearing pants inspired by Flea in Higher Ground.
Big city movements brings you another video for Dante Leon's Dream House.
If you haven't already checked out his Northern Lights mixtape, check it out HERE
Here at Say-Urban we are lucky enough to be surrounded by friends with culture, class, and talent. If you are into music that makes you want to dance your ass off in your room, music that makes you forget you're not at a club, this mix right here is for you. Our friends Force DJ's have dropped their ridiculous 50 minute mix titled Progression. It is A's personal favourite Froce mix. These boys are from Brampton but they've got that Toronto feel (no hate on the burb Btown). Check out their other stuff too, they've got different mixes catering to different sounds. Keep supporting local talent! Take care.
At 6pm today Drake premiered his video for Headlines, his first single off of Take Care.
Whole video is shot within the GTA.
Boy really does care about this city! Jays fitted in the skydome (AKA Roger's Centre) bringing it back to So Far Gone...oh yeah and lets not forget the Cosby sweater.
Let me just say that even though we did not do a concert review of this (in anticipation of our final summer recap), this video shows how epic this annual event was. Midori and I have joked about how we now are booked for Caribana weekend for life, but it's true. We went last year, went this year and plan to go every year since Drake puts on one fucking good show.
Without further adieu, here is the official video recap of OVO FEST 2011.
If I wanted to go to an area surrounded by white teens I would have gone to my high school reunion. Unlike my high school, MacMillerput on for an hour of nonstop ultra teenage swag which white rich kids from North Toronto never exuded. Similarities between North Toronto C.I. white boys and Miller?—they love their Canadian weed.
The night started off with a longer than expected wait in the blistering heat wave Toronto faced on that mid-July night. We knew the show was sold out but from when doors were supposed to open (8:00pm), it took us one hour to get in and that’s considering the fact that we joined the line at seven. Although the wait was unexpected it still went by smoothly thanks to the atmosphere drunk/high Miller fans made. A minivan drove by that noticed this crowd waiting to get into the Kool Haus and when the passenger asked a scalper what this line was waiting for, the scalper spoke with simple truth: “It’s for Mac Miller, a white rapper, he does white people rap”.
I don’t know if there is a prejudice against white people rapping or if that racial difference created segregation within a genre of music but by looking at the fans it was true; there was not a black kid in sight. With that said, inevitably this crowd had some drunk douche-bag bros.
Inside the Kool Haus the crowd was getting rowdy waiting for the show to start while a female DJ played popular tunes. Midori, Michelle and I found a sweet spot near the stage off-side and within minutes others did too. As soon as TFHouse kicked off his set of songs, the douche bags came out to play. These big boys decided it was “kewl” to push, shove and almost trample smaller teens (in my area this was mainly teen girls).I swear I almost punched one of the kids; I couldn’t take his bullshit any longer.
Alas, by the time Mac Miller came onstage, all was well! Security had set these asses straight.
When you see Mac Miller perform, or even listen to his songs, you forget how young the kid is. He’s my age and he’s got full control of the audience. “Im Justin Bieber meets Jadakiss,” raps Miller in Get ‘Em Up. He’s a performer and better yet, he’s a leader. He started the whole “thumbs up” movement focusing on celebrating the positives of our young lives. His youth makes him that much more relatable to his audience. He could be a friend of mine, he could be a classmate, or he could have been an ex-boyfriend. But he’s not, he’s Mac Miller and he’s jumping around to his songs onstage showing this audience a good fucking time.
Miller takes a moment from the show to say he’s not always a party boy, he raps about other things too. This is where the vibe of the show tones down a bit as Miller dedicates the song “Poppy” to his late grandfather. A very touching speech about a time in his life when he decided he was going to pursue his dream; a time when he wanted to become the rapper from Pittsburgh we know as Mac Miller. Miller admits his family wasn’t 100% supportive; everyone except his grandfather of course. His grandfather supported him all the way but as would happen in a TV movie, Miller’s old man passed away before he could see his grandson’s success. So he dedicated this song and this moment to him and to anyone someone in the audience lost.
By the end of the show I had gone through mild-beatings, laughs, sweat, tears and I had lost my voice; as the result of a good concert should be.
The kid from Pittsburgh, now an international star, has more great things to come (BLUE SLIDE PARK coming out later this year) with the many-many years in this industry his future holds. On July 16th, 2011 he made Pittsburgh proud, his fans from all over proud and my heart knows that his grandfather is looking down with two proud thumbs up.
On Friday July 8th, SBTRK had a show at Wrongbar in Toronto and he PUT OUT that night. Hometown boy Drizzy-Drake showed up as a surprise guest to perform the Wildfire remix. Although videos of this performance surfaced, none are of great sound quality. So here's the youtube stream of the Wildfire remix. Enjoy.
If you don't know who J Cole is, we strongly advise you to check out his mix tape Friday Night Lights. Here is his tour/summer vlog (Cole Summer). The first episode is about his time spent in our home town, Toronto. #Coleworld
