Bigmcenroe: 92 Brandon The Planet
Robust autobiographical rhymes are set to smart production.
By Kerry Doole
Bigmcenroe - 92 Brandon The Planet (Peanuts & Corn Records): Tomorrow (Aug. 6), hip-hop producer Rod Bailey, formerly known as mcenroe, releases his new autobiographical album, Brandon.
He has just put out a new single, 92 Brandon The Planet. A label press release explains that "When bigmcenroe was Roddy Rod and just getting started in Farm Fresh, he and his friends would take rap hooks and change the name from 'Brooklyn' to 'Brandon.'"
“That is the effect here, with an homage to Gang Starr's classic The Planet from their Hard to Earn LP,” says Bailey. “This is bigmcenroe's story about finally leaving Brandon and heading to Winnipeg, to make a name for himself and leave the small town behind.”
He delivers robust rhymes with real flair, and they are convincingly autobiographical - "whether skating in a pack, or laying down a track, left the Wheat City, never looking back." The crisp production utilizes piano well.
Brandon is described as a musical scrapbook, compiling memories of being a teenager in the late '80s and early '90s in Manitoba’s second-largest city. In addition to the new full-length, bigmcenroe has delivered a podcast of the same name. Here he will walk the listener through the album, track by track, over 7 episodes with guests who were there in Brandon and can describe its unique vibe as a small town with a vibrant counter culture community. Every second episode of the podcast will premiere a new single. The podcast can be found under the ugsmag.com label and on all podcast platforms.
Bigmcenroe can now be considered a veteran, as he began making beats with his high school pals at the start of the '90s. In 1992, they formed the group Farm Fresh, opening up for three punk rock bands from Winnipeg, then playing a wide range of shows and building a regional following. Bailey started producing other hip-hop acts, and created Peanuts & Corn Records in 1994.
He then went solo, releasing his original material and continuing to produce other artists. As mcenroe, he put out The Convenience EP in 2002 to critical acclaim, and a debut full-length, Disenfranchised, came the following year, earning a Western Canada Music Award nomination. Subsequent releases boosted his reputation in the underground hip-hop community, and the new album seems poised to make a splash.
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