2011 was a year that saw DFE continue to chart new territory. The first significant event was the Time and Space tour in Feb 2011, which saw us go west of Calgary to Canmore, Jasper, Salmon Arm, Pemberton, Kamloops , Vancouver, Cumberland, Nanaimo, Penticton and Fernie. The tour was named after DJ Cosm's Time and Space album, which didn't come out officially until April. To hype up the tour we released a Dragon Fli Empire digital compilation called the Time and Space Tour Mixtape which got us some love in the blogosphere and over 700 downloads. Alongside our homie DJ Swann, we had a successful tour with good crowds at each show and some amazing opening acts. Evil Ebenezer, Indelible and Merk Mikz joined us for the first four gigs and it was great to build with them. Some standout shows were Salmon Arm, Pemberton, Vancouver, Cumberland and Fernie. Next up was the official release of the actual Time and Space album, which was able to reach #1 on the Canadian campus radio charts and #5 on the US-based CMJ campus radio charts alongside some very established names like the Beastie Boys, Atmosphere and Del the Funky Homosapien. The album featured Cosm's beats and cuts along with some amazing emcees including Prince Po, Ghettosocks, Raashan Ahmad, Moka Only, Craig G, Qwaazar, Odario and Miles Jones as well as Alberta-based artists like KLH Ali, Metawon, DJ Nato, Rasul Syed, Cam the Wizzard, Teekay, Touch and KazMega. An amazing video was shot by Colin Hart for the KazMega collaboration "Cosm Mega" and the album was voted by the Calgary Herald as one of the Top 5 Calgary albums (of any genre) for 2011. To celebrate the release in Alberta, there were two release parties in Calgary and Edmonton featuring many of the local acts who appeared on the album. Another video (for "Beyond the Horizon") was filmed and will release in 2012. In the Spring, we did a small 4-date tour with one of Western Canada's most respected emcees, Birdapres. That tour took us through Canmore, Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon. Immediately following that we had the opportunity to go to Europe for the first time, and ended up playing 10 shows in France, Switzerland and Germany. The cities we hit up included Paris, Strasbourg, Chambery and Lyon in France; Frankfurt, Kassel and Erfurt in Germany; and Basel and Biel/Bienne in Switzerland. We received an amazing reaction and met a ton of amazing people. We had such a great time that we'll be going back for a second tour in February 2012. Another longtime goal we had was to play at Shambhala, a huge electronic music festival that takes place on a ranch near Salmo, BC every year. We were able to rock for over 2000 people at the Village stage and build with some other amazing artists in the Canadian hip hop scene. We played a few other festivals this past year as well, including EdFest in Kananaskis, ScreamFest in Calgary and Edmonton and New Music West in Edmonton. Other highlights in 2011 included several gigs with live funk band Freak Motif and opening for Onyx, Bedouin Soundclash and Blue King Brown. DFE also took part in KRS One's debut performance in Calgary, with Teekay appearing in the opening MC cypher and DJ Cosm backing up KRS. After taking time off to work on solo projects, Dragon Fli Empire will be back with some new music in 2012. The first is a digital EP called DFE vs DEF which will see DFE teaming up with Saskatoon-based producer Def Chap. Afterwards will be their fourth full-length album, which will be released in conjunction with the crew's 10-year anniversary. Shambhala was an amazing experience for us. Check out this clip from our set at the Village Hip Hop Showcase.
It was a blast, and now you can see some of the sights and sounds of Dragon Fli Empire's first European tour!
Dragon Fli Empire shall proceed and continue to rock the mic, starting with four dates on deck with Birdapres in Alberta and Saskatchewan. After that, we will head over to Europe for the first time with dates in France, Switzerland and Germany. See the Shows section for more details! APR30 SASKATOON | MAY04 CANMORE | MAY05 CALGARY | MAY06 EDMONTON MAY18 PARIS | MAY19 STRASBOURG, FR | MAY20 CHAMBERY, FR | MAY23 BASEL, CH | MAY24 LYON, FR | MAY25 KASSEL, DE | MAY26 BIEL, CH | MAY27 FRANKFURT, DE | MAY28 ERFURT, DE On Friday, April 1st in Edmonton at the Crown Pub and Saturday, April 2nd in Calgary at the Marquee Room, a who's who of Alberta hip hop (including Dragon Fli Empire, Touch & Nato, and KazMega) will take the stage to celebrate the release of DJ Cosm of Dragon Fli Empire's new album Time and Space, which features Prince Po, Craig G, Qwazaar, Raashan Ahmad, Insight, Teekay, Touch, Kazmega, Cam the Wizzard, Ghettosocks, Miles Jones and more. Please RSVP at the Facebook events: EDMONTON - FRIDAY, APRIL 1ST CALGARY - SATURDAY, APRIL 2ND Much props go out to Vish Khanna at CBC Radio 3 for featuring our song "2-Man Team" as the Track of the Day last Tuesday Feb. 22nd. Check out the feature below, which has some great commentary regarding the late Guru from Gang Starr who is mentioned and sampled in the song. You can download the Time & Space Tour mixtape on the link to the right as well- the tour just wrapped up last night in Fernie and we are pleased to say that overall it was a success! The TIME & SPACE TOUR featuring Dragon Fli Empire (with support from DJ Swann) will take flight in February 2011 with dates in B.C. and Alberta. The tour is promoting DJ Cosm's new producer album of the same name. Come out and rock with us! FEBRUARY 2011 TUE 8: CANMORE, AB - DRAKE INN w/ D.L. Incognito SUN 13: CANMORE, AB - DRAKE INN w/ Co-op & Hunnicut THU 17: JASPER, AB - HORSESHOE w/ DJ Weezl, Evil, Indelible FRI 18: SALMON ARM, BC - ELKS HALL w/ Evil, Indelible SAT 19: PEMBERTON, BC - PEMB. HOTEL w/ Richy Hartl, Evil, Indelible SUN 20: KAMLOOPS, BC - DIRTY JERSEY w/ Andysocial, Evil, Indelible MON 21: VANCOUVER, BC - BILTMORE w/ Emotionz, Groundbreakers TUE 22: CUMBERLAND, BC - WAVERLY w/ Mantrakid, Butter Finger Bomb Sq. WED 23: NANAIMO, BC - CAMBIE w/ Royal-T & Lev, Mass & JB1, Hye Phive THU 24: WHISTLER, BC - MOE JOE'S w/ Tha Dogg Pound, Lady of Rage FRI 25: PENTICTON, BC - VOODOO'S w/ Kasp SAT 26: FERNIE, BC - GRANDCENTRAL Make sure to check out Dragon Fli Empire's last show of 2010 featuring DFE, Blist and Rap-X! Thursday, December 30th at Broken City. It's that time of year again and what better way to celebrate the holidays then with some MCs spittin hot fire while shotgunnin' tallboys with FUBAR's TRON! Blist hosts this special occasion with DRAGON FLI EMPIRE headlining a full band set. INFUNKSTIGATION will be backing DFE this night so you know LADY C is going to be performing too!! PRIME WATSON opens! ALSO, EXZAM (beatbox) BEATSMITH (DJ) MARVIN KEE (Fly) and MORE SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMANCES! MARQUEE ROOM - $5 - 18+ |
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