BIOGRAPHY Saskatoon, SK emcee Epic first connected with Hand’Solo Records in 2003 for the posse cut “Citizens Are Gifted” off the Bassments of Badmen: Volume 2 compilation, but the relationship is finally official with Aging Is What Friends Do Together, an apt title for this collection of songs about “sleeping shirts,” “rhyming into a four track” and “walking around town” that the nearly 40-year old rapper recorded with the assistance of a number of collaborators he has connected with during his hip hop journeys. However, Aging Is What Friends Do Together isn’t Epic’s first album. Far from it. Since 2001, Epic has honed his honest and humourous heartfelt rhymes about home, hip hop and hockey (just check new fan favourite “Ah Hemsky”) over two solo albums (8:30 in Newfoundland and Local Only), a vinyl EP (Heater in My Truck), and a collaboration album with Homesick Nomad of Cavemen Speak (Epic & Nomad), all on Clotheshorse Records. In that time, Epic has appeared on a variety of radio shows, from Sook Yin Lee’s CBC Radio show Definitely Not the Opera to Mike Nardone’s legendary L.A. radio show We Came From Beyond, as well as charting on college radio stations across Canada. Over the past five years, Epic has also performed across Canada from Vancouver, BC to Montague, PEI, and in 15 U.S. states as well as doing two successful tours of Europe, including stopovers in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Russia, where he was only the third North American rapper to ever perform in Moscow. It’s this commitment to touring that made it possible for Epic to connect with the international cast of characters appearing on Aging Is What Friends Do Together. Sharing mic time with Epic are esteemed underground artists such as Nomad from Belgium, Roma from France, Americans Bleubird and MC Homeless, and Canadian emcees Touch, Ira Lee and Kay the Aquanaut, with production from Switzerland’s Mattr, the U.S.’s Variax, and Canucks soso, Maki, Kutdown, Fresh Kils and Factor. Listen to Aging Is What Friends Do Together and fall in love with a unique voice and flow that has become as recognizable in hip hop as Epic’s head of gray hair. DISCOGRAPHY: Epic – Aging Is What Friends Do Together CD (2008) Epic & Nomad – Epic & Nomad CD (2005) Epic – Local Only vinyl (2005) Epic – Local Only CD (2004) Epic – Heater in My Trunk EP vinyl (2003) Epic – 8:30 in Newfoundland CD (2001) EXCLAIM REVIEW: Epic Aging Is What Friends Do Together Love him or hate him, nobody keeps it more real than Epic. The blue-collared, grey-haired, Saskatoon-to-Edmonton MC is nearing 40 and proud to still be a hip-hop head. On “I Only Like Rap,” he doesn’t so much tell of his struggle with middle age because all he can think about is rap. Or hockey, passionately told in what has become a cult hit, “Ah Hemsky.” But no matter how campy you think he is, there is an underlying humanity to it all, and nothing exemplifies this better than “Sleeping Shirts,” in which Epic raps, “Even the toughest MCs wear sleeping shirts.” On Aging is What Friends Do Together, his first album with Hand’Solo, but far from his first album, Epic understands his limitations. He doesn’t have projection, flow or a mean mug (the liner notes feature a picture of him smiling under a bicycle helmet) but he has sincerity. Knowing this, he keeps most songs to about two minutes, says what he wants and moves on. (Omar Mouallem)