Chris Cachia describes himself as a Canadian music-maker and word-shaper in the tradition of those golden-age Hip Hop emcees who focus on lyricism to address social issues, tell stories, and enact the power and pleasure of language.
His latest project (released on October 25th, 2024), is a 13-track LP entitled My Re:Collection. Along with the lead single and culminating track, “Thirteen Thoughts,” My Re:Collection compiles a trilogy of previous EPs – My Resolve, My Diagnosis, and My Addiction – to create a fully-realized yet ongoing narrative rooted in possibility, nourished through daring, and developed through survival. Cachia is open about how this collection was first conceived after managing a particularly challenging period of obsessive-compulsive disorder. His overall message is that art and creativity can be used as means to address mental health concerns and issues of social injustice.
More than anything, Cachia can spit. From the audacious rallying cry that is the opening track, “Stop (Me),” to the diary-like entry that is “Look,” and from the combative sound of “Listen” all the way to “Thirteen (Thoughts),” the listener is taken on a journey through the mind of a poet that mixes honesty, pop culture references, and creative wordplay.
One example, from the gem that is “Street Writer”: “what the last supper serve / flesh and word and voices heard / my rhyme is wine preferred / so when performed my speech is slurred / vision blurred then I’m cured / believe reason seasons turned / why this track is burned / risen listen lesson learned / blessed urn I’m concerned / respect earned expect blame / ready aim same acclaim / change the game and change the fame / Dana Dane back to Kane / it’s a Brooklyn style they claim / heavyweight reign again / spittin’ out that yoga flame.”
The metaphor continues on “Champion Rendition”: “off the wall like Chun Li / who long range pierce / my life like hadouken fight / down-right-fierce / here’s mastery like Ken / now can my pen prove / shoryuken many men / Ryu all bruised…”
Cachia characterizes My Re:Collection as a project steeped in considerations of madness and justice and calls the album’s title a reference to memories for a future built through the power of awareness and action.
An engaging live performer who has charted on Canadian college radio and uses his love for Hip Hop in his work as an educator, Cachia’s latest project posits the past as present and history as a living force that can be harnessed to imagine, build, destroy, and reimagine/rebuild both the individual and the collective.
My Re:Collection is now available on Apple Music/iTunes, Bandcamp, Spotify, and through all other major digital distributors.
Here’s the music video for “Thirteen (Thoughts)”:
Check the following for website and social media information:
Website: www.chriscachiaaka.com
Bandcamp: chriscachia.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @ChrisCachiaAKA
SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/ChrisCachia
Twitter: @ChrisCachiaAKA
YouTube: UrbanOrganic
