AfroToronto.com's Eloi Minka talks to Toronto Emcee Tara Chase
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We’re sitting at “Not Just Desserts” on Yonge Street, north of Sheppard. A slow beat in the restaurant makes me nod my head slowly. In front of me, she is the picture of cool, strength, and perseverance: the yellow T-shirt with the words “Get Shucked” written in bold green letters, the scale tattoo on the left bicep and her name on the other, the big watch with the black leather band, and her loose and natural hair, as if making its own statement about her freedom. Freedom is paramount to Tara Chase. |
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“I want my own in life, be that rich solo b*tch, not that rich man’s wife,” she said in her single Autonomy.
Her debut CD, “The College Graduate Mixtape,” released on her own label, Chase’On’Music, expounds on this desire to hold on to the strings of her life and chart her own course.
Tara Chase has been in the trenches of the Toronto Hip-Hop scene for ten years since she was “discovered” at the first Honey Jam showcase back in 1995.
“If you ask Ebonnie [Rowe], she’ll tell you I had my own sense of style back then. I had a yellow Columbia jacket with my DKNY hat and my DKNY shorts. And I came on strong. After that, I joined The Circle. Back then, Saukrates and Kardi [Kardinal Offishal] had a group, Jully [Black] was on her own, and Choclair had a group called Paranormal, and I met them that night. And I started getting invited to stuff. ”
However, she recognizes that her innocence and lack of understanding of the industry's inner workings prevented her from properly planning her career progression.
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“It was just a lot of trial and error. If Kardi or somebody did a video, I’d be like, oh, I want to do a video too. Where do you go to do a video? Where do I go to get my single recorded?”
That improvisation and perhaps the creativity that flows from the unfettered enjoyment of one’s art produced some of her early hits: The Northside, Autonomy and Like It Like. These songs are included in her debut CD [read our review], along with many other creations celebrating her struggles and accomplishments. |
Tara Chase is from Cotes-Des-Neiges in Montreal .
“It is a ghetto!” she says emphatically, refusing to sugarcoat the description. One would assume that it is the perfect backdrop for stories of strife and tribulations!
“No, actually, I was writing Christmas rhymes and stuff back then,” she says, sipping her tea. “I remember my Mom taking me to see Beat Street in 1984, and I came back home and started trying to write my own rhymes. Then I got into poetry, then the high-school battles and stuff. I had a friend who really encouraged me to work on my writing. He always used to say, if you’re gonna be an Emcee, you better know how to write!”
When did the big break come?
“When I was about 17, I was approached by a guy from a record company at a show in Montreal, and he made an announcement on the mic in front of everybody. He said I was going to open up for Onyx and stuff. It was a big thing, but it never amounted to anything ultimately. But that got me thinking; maybe I really can do this rap thing. Maybe it really is supposed to happen!”
Lessons
After many years in the game, what is the state of the Canadian Hip-Hop scene, in her view?
“Unfortunately, as a Canadian Emcee, you still have to have a job. You cannot live off your art,” she admits. “You still have to have a job!”
She laments the reluctance of major media outlets to showcase Canadian Hip-Hop talent. Even when it''s done, on mainstream radio specifically, she points out, it is not done properly.
“There is no energy in the presentations. You gotta make people believe in the artist!”
She acknowledges that there is more understanding and acceptance of the art form thanks to Hip-Hop's commercial growth worldwide.
“But overall, I think it’s like being back in ''95!”
Whatever happened to Strangé?
Tara Chase is hard at work on a new album. “Whatever Happened to Strangé?” is the working title, a reference to the Grace Jones character in the 1992 movie Boomerang, which also starred Eddie Murphy and Halle Berry.
“It’s gonna be a feel-good album,” she says.
She is trying to package those days, before Dr. Dré’s “The Chronic”, back when Slick Rick was telling “Children Stories” and D.J. Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince were reminding us that “Parents just don’t understand!” or that they could “beat Mike Tyson”.
She’s trying to recapture the era in most Canadian cities in the late eighties and early nineties when, beyond the difficulties of urban life, “there was still a sense of unity amongst the people.”
“Do you remember that?”
She stares in the distance beyond the cars whizzing on Yonge Street.
“You know, when the Black movie came out, everybody went to see it. You’d walk past another Black person on the street and they’ll say Wassup!”
“Today, we only get the brotha nod!” I offer.
“Sometimes, not even!” she adds.
In addition to the album, Tara Chase is back in school at U of T, “trying to finish what I started,” she says.
Biology is her chosen field because “ultimately, I really wanna get into forensic science.”
She still finds time to perform, and you can catch her at Molson Park (in Barrie, ON ) on July 30th as part of the Warped Tour 2005.
