Creating rap that talks about life and experience is the ideal for aspiring rapper Kyle Bremner, a.k.a. Kyle BC of Williams Lake.
The 24-year-old says he’s not into gangster rap that talks about shooting and stuff. Instead he likes rap and rock and roll and finds it easy to express himself through rap.
Sitting at a table at the Tribune one afternoon, Bremner says he likes to freestyle.
When prompted he begins without hesitating.
“It feels like I’m skating on thin ice. I never learned how to skate. I’m always trying to be the best, but I can never learn to be like the rest. I’m always standing out, but I might be white. I might be the next rapper. It might be tight. Nobody else knows me, but I’m trying to show me. I’m trying to show this true self that’s inside, but I could explode see.”
Bremner hasn’t taken his art to a public venue as of yet, but says he’s itching to. So far he’s only competed amongst friends — it’s called battling each other, he explains.
They sit around and come up with raps, trying to outdo each other.
At first the thought of performing in front of people terrified him, but he’s been trying it out with friends and family and enjoys it.
“I talk about friends come and go, but real friends come back. How life can get hard, but you can pull yourself out of a rut. You climb mountains and might feel like your stuck.”
As he relaxes into the interview, Bremner shares the details of his life.
It’s one that hasn’t been easy. His hasn’t been a free ride.
Right now he’s unemployed and has been for seven months.
He can’t get on unemployment insurance or welfare.
After couch surfing for a few months, he’s landed a bed at a friend’s, but is trying to get on his feet.
“It would be nice if I was working and rapping on the side,” he says.
When he was young he had to choose between going to school or getting a job, or part-time school and part-time work.
“My mom was only working minimum wage. I had to help put food on the table so I dropped out at 15 or 16 and started working full-time,” Bremner recalls.
He says he then started making some poor choices, but has since turned his life around.
“That’s one of the things I like to rap about. How people can turn their lives around like me. But then nobody wants to be like me because people have different opinions about different people and I stand out from everyone else.”
Bremner says life could be better, but it could be worse.
Rapping is therapeutic, he adds, like writing a diary almost.
“You’re putting all that pain and emphasis into writing. Writing about the struggle and how hard it is to be in poverty. The chaos really.”
There are a variety of ways to rap and it’s the variety of rap that artists such as Eminem, D.O.C. (Tracy Lynn Curry) T.I., and J. Cole have to offer that garners Bremner’s appreciation.
“It’s not about how gangster they are. It’s about life. It’s about the struggle to support your family and support yourself.”