The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is.If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

If you are from Vancouver and listen to hip hop then you probably know this week’s guests well. The Freshest are a 4 piece DJ crew that includes DJs Kutcorners, Rico Uno, Seko, and Marvel. As far back as I can remember going out in Vancouver these guys have been playing the go-to spots for hip hop. Nights such as Lucy Mae Browns and Re-Up are still talked about and referenced as formative events in regards to shaping the current scene. This past year has seen these artists move into a bigger spotlight with many new opportunities available. One of these opportunities was to play a set with all four members at the Redbull Threestyle Championships that took place in December. They are also creating a bigger audience for themselves by producing Live-Set music videos. The first of which has now been released starring Marvel and Kutcorners. I got to ask them a few questions about what they do.

Photo: Courtesy of Artsts

DJing has most popularly been known as a solo act. Explain the idea behind The Freshest Crew.

We were all regulars at hip-hop shows and parties in Vancouver and quickly became friends through a common love of music.  From there it was only natural for us to want to work on music and throw parties together.  It was clear that with the four of us we would have a bigger reach when we threw our first weekly party, Higher Ground.  Each of us had complimentary specialties around and beyond our hip-hop backgrounds making it an easy fit for us to come together musically.

How did you all meet each other?

Aside from seeing each other at shows around the city, we all would gather at Beat Street Records (shout out to Avi Shack!) during the past days of mandatory record-buying.  At the time (around 2005) Seko and Marvel were deejaying together at Get Up Get Down Fridays at Tokyo Lounge while Kutcorners was deejaying the front room with Paul Devro at Get Some Fridays at Shine.  Rico was the new guy who worked at the record store, did a radio show called Rhymes and Reasons on CITR 101.9FM and sometimes deejayed with a weird program called Serato.  We would all play basketball at False Creek together a couple times a week, and it all just grew from there.

What was it like for you playing the Redbull Threestyle World Finals event with the whole crew?