Eternia & MoSS "At Last" (10th Anniversary)

"From Marco Polo to MoSS, Kardinal Offishall to k-os to Eternia to everyone in between — Toronto continues to cultivate artists, producers and aficionados who put a premium on the sound of quintessential, golden era Hip-Hop. Emcee/Producer duo Eternia & MoSS’s Fat Beats Records release, At Last, fits right in with the city’s rich tradition. Eternia flexes her extensive mic skills straight out the gate, opening with four rugged cypher cuts in a row. Her vocals spill confidence, ripping through “Any Man” and “32 Bars” as if she’s on a mission to extinguish any stereotype ever placed upon white and/or female rappers.... Lead single “BBQ” feels refreshingly nostalgic, as golden era lyrical titans Rah Digga and The Lady of Rage join Eternia in decimating the high-powered, eighty-miles-an-hour backdrop.... In spite of her aggressive, in-your-grill delivery on potent cypher cuts, Eternia’s tortured past and ability to connect through honest, visceral rhymes is At Last’s truest legacy. She harnesses her femininity without ever pimping her sexuality. Her lyrical bravado (“I came up out a woman stronger than your whole crew / Do the math / My left half can outdo you”) is balanced by her gut-wrenching vulnerability (“Memories my mind conveniently erases / Strange homes, alone / Got touched in strange places”).... Eternia & MoSS assembled an emotionally rich boom-bap tapestry, trading gaudy depictions of glamour and glitz for honesty and truth to wax expressions of reality." - Justin Hunte, HipHopDX. At Last was nominated for a Juno Award (Canada's Grammys), long-listed for a Polaris Music Prize and #17 on DJ Premier's Top 25 albums of 2010...

Today marks the album's 10th anniversary, which puts me in an emotional space. Eternia and I began working together in 2009 with the infamous Road To Release video-blog campaign, which led to a label deal with Fat Beats Records for At Last, world tours, and meeting so many amazing people along the journey. This album literally changed my life and I'm humbled to call Eternia my sister and easily one of my favorite people in the whole world. I've posted a considerable amount of content over the years, so I recommend digging in the archives and you can pull up videos, album reviews, promo items, and lots more. On this day in 2010, we also held an album in-store at Fat Beats, sold a bunch of copies and rocked out with friends, fans and family. Thankful for everyone I've met along the way, and if you don't own a copy, there's still a few left HERE! Tonight on Eternia's IG we will be holding a live listening session and sharing some stories about the album and more. Tune in! 6pm EST.

The original setlist for E's live performance at the Fat Beats in-store...

DJ Premier & Eternia "Live From HeadQCourterz" (9/10/10)

On September 10, 2010, Eternia was the special in-studio guest at DJ Premier's Sirius radio show, Live From HeadQCourterz. She was joined by producer MoSS via telephone, who together with Eternia formed the group Eternia & MoSS for their Fat Beats Records release, At Last, in 2010. The LP was voted by DJ Premier at #17 on his Top 25 albums of 2010. While at the show, DJ Premier and Eternia discussed her come-up in Toronto, broke down her influences, the content of the album and Premo cut up several of the tracks on air. In the audio below, I've included the bulk of their interview, as well as the various tracks he played throughout the night, which also included Joell Ortiz, Termanology, Dynasty, and more. There were a few call-ins aside from MoSS, who gave shout-outs and answered trivia questions. MoSS discussed the scene in Toronto, record digging, how he's a bit of a recluse and technology and social media aren't his best friends! Oh yeah, and I was there ... a bug on the wall, just sitting back, enjoying the accomplishment of making it up to DJ Premier's show and seeing firsthand how much of a supporter of the music and the culture he is, and how he does it with so much class! Much respect to DJ Premier and Panchi of the NYG'z, who was his co-host and one of the wittiest and most clever cats alive. Some additional takeaways from the interview are how Premo discusses the soul and feeling of music, and essentially how music has to make you feel and pull at your heart. He continues to keep hip-hop alive and adds his unique brand of funk, knowledge and experience to the music! Salute, Premo, and thank you to Eternia for trusting me as her manager. This was certainly a proud day, and one to check off my bucket list...

Eternia & MoSS "To The Future" (Video)

It took me a year to listen to “To The Future.” It was the one song I was going to listen to just as the fans would experience it on the day of the “At Last” LP release. Those plans changed when the test presses arrived and I was tasked with clearing them for final pressing. I sat - alone - in a back office at Fat Beats warehouse with tears in my eyes; sad ... angry ... but mostly humbled by E’s strength to put her life on the page so openly/vulnerably for the world to see. I have no words to express how that impacted/impacts me. When we decided almost a year after the release of At Last to make To The Future the 3rd and final video, we knew we needed to attach it to an organization that would help us raise awareness and offer an outlet for those with similar experiences to get help. Kids Help Phone in Canada stepped up and agreed to partner with us. MTV News gave it a nice push, then we took to the red carpet at the Juno Awards and continued to raise awareness with many established outlets who felt the messages of sexual assault, domestic violence, gun violence, and more in the song/video. Eternia 1st performed the track at Southpaw in Brooklyn with her live band to an applause that felt... more gratifying than almost any other show.

A shout out to MoSS, who crafted the perfect gut wrenching beat and knowing that perhaps only Eternia could touch it, then stood proudly by her knowing the content would be hard for some to hear. It’s his favorite song and it was MoSS who said we needed a video. Salute that man, he wasn’t always easy to work with but he had a vision and he saw it through. Erica Shallow who directed the video and brought visuals to life. Amazing! Julia who did E’s make up; she brought E’s natural beauty out and the clothes were by Married to the Mob. I have to accept that maybe in my role I failed a bit because I’m sure many of you never heard this song - as much as we did and as much as we tried to get it out there, there was a glass ceiling & I never quite got thru it. It’s not too late tho! The message is as strong today as it was when E wrote, recorded, and made the video. Every 90 seconds...! The official video was released on this day in 2011 via Fat Beats Records, watch it below...

Eternia in Now Magazine (March, 2011 - Juno Awards)

Ahead of the 2011 Juno Awards, which are Canada's version of the Grammy's, Eternia was featured in Now Magazine.... "When Eternia hit the studio with Toronto hip-hop producer MoSS after meeting him at a concert in Winnipeg, the 26-year-old MC found a musical partner who could push the energy and vivid, honest storytelling she's best known for even further. So deep was their creative connection that, nine months after their Juno-nominated collaboration album, At Last (Fat Beats), dropped, she's now grappling with separation issues. "In the last couple of months, I got hundreds of beats from all different types of producers, MoSS gave me, like, 10, and literally the minute he gave me them I wanted to write a whole album," says Eternia (aka Silk Kaya) from her home base in Queens, New York. 'There's just something about them that plucks at my heartstrings'." Cont'd...

"One of his trippy boom-bap beats struck particularly deep, unearthing unpleasant memories she'd long tried to erase. When she sat down to write what would become the recent single To The Future, blunt rhymes about sexual abuse and violence ("That same year, I was assaulted with a gun / These dudes locked me in a room / molested me for fun") gushed out. "The violin kinda rips at you," she says. "It's haunting and it's ripping you bare; that was the unspoken vibe of the track. Then I literally said, 'What are all the skeletons in my closet that I don't want my future husband to know?' I'll just tell them to the world." Enough time has passed that she's gotten distance from the song, and she's using its video to raise awareness for Kids Help Phone and to draw attention to the crisis of self that young women often experience. 'At the end I say (to my future husband), 'Why would you wanna? I got problems, so go on,' and that's how I felt when I wrote it. I don't feel that way now. The song's hopefully collectively releasing us of the burden, the guilt, the shame, the demons, the lack of self-love'." - Now Magazine, March 2011. Article below, and Juno Award materials above.

Eternia "Off The Radar" (The Source, June/July 2010)

"Whoever declared Hip-Hop a man's treasure trove struck fool's good. Canadian MC Eternia is determined to break this misconception by proving that your favorite rapper can wear a skirt. Having conquered the independent circuit, the femcee has earned the admiration of both genders through her music. Her 2009 Get Caught Up mixtape garnered accolades across the board, fueled by the blogger and fan favorite "Foul Child." While composing her upcoming LP, At Last with MoSS, Eternia, a DJ Premier signee, chose to eliminate all label politics and shop the project with her PNC. "We kept it completely under wraps. No manager input, no label input, nothing. It was just us!" With the raw guitar riffs on "Day In The Life" and the lyrical carnage on "It's Funny," featuring Joel Ortiz, At Last strays away from the sound of industry paramour Nicki Minaj and her Barbie movement. But don't get it twisted; Eternia embraces her female counterpart. "I don't hate on [Nicki Minaj] at all. She's still paving the way. There's too few of us to be mad at each other." And with Eternia ready at the helm, ladies' night is in full effect." - The Source, June/July 2010. One small correction to this article: it was MoSS who was a signee to DJ Premier via DJ Premier's Works of Mart production company (at the time). Eternia & MoSS - as a group - were signed to Fat Beats Records.

Eternia & MoSS "At Last" (Exclusive EP, 6/8/10)

This is an exclusive EP by Eternia & Moss, released in advance of their At Last LP on Fat Beats Records. At Last is entirely produced by MoSS and features appearances by some of Hip-hop’s elite, including Joell Ortiz, Termanology, Tona, Reef The Lost Cauze, Lady of Rage, Rah Digga, Maestro Fresh Wes and more. The EP features two remixes that are only available through this release: "It's Funny" featuring Ras Kass and "The BBQ," featuring Jean Grae and Tiye Phoenix. Lastly, there's a version of "The BBQ," which includes Eternia, Rah Digga, Lady of Rage, Tiye Phoenix & Jean Grae on one extended "mega" mix. Due to not having platforms like Bandcamp, Audiomack or Soundcloud at the time, the outdated Zshare links led to these exclusive tracks not having the same lasting power that they would today. So, it wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard these remixes. On a sentimental note, Eternia and I recorded and released Episode 1 of a video series called "Road To Release," with hopes of landing a record deal and a proper home for the Eternia & MoSS "At Last" album on June 8, 2009. We released this "At Last" EP on June 8, 2010 - 1 year to the day - after a successful promo campaign and signing a record deal with Fat Beats Records. I'm still very thankful to Fat Beats Records for holding true to their roots in vinyl and not only pressing the album on CD and 2LP, but also this exclusive vinyl EP. 5 years later, check it out below...

Eternia & MoSS "At Last" (Exclaim! June, 2010)

"The extensive journey from a supportive, yet vexingly restrictive, hometown scene to cutthroat hip-hop Mecca NYC has clearly paid artistic dividends for Toronto, ON natives Eternia and MoSS. Marking the first time either has worked so extensively with a single artist on record, the relationship felt on At Last is almost one of coach and fighter, with MoSS's raw, menacing beats playing the driving workout regimen that pushes Eternia's biting lyricism to unforeseen limits. The unrepentant wordsmith gets off to a characteristically ferocious start, but it's the record's midsection that holds her most memorable moments. Cuts like "Past That" and "The Half" find her dealing with issues of religion, distant half-siblings and a seemingly destructive father with unchecked realism, while eerie centerpiece "To The Future" matches a cycled series of sonic convulsions and desperation with verbal revelations that will have many mouths hitting the floor. Though the producer's ominous overtones remain fairly constant throughout, there's enough rhythmic and instrumental variety here - from  unsettled guitars to wailing keys and cinematic strings - to match the musical impact with the words they accompany." Listen to At Last below...

Continue reading below where Eternia talks with Exclaim about what she hopes listeners will take away from the At Last project, and why "To The Future" is MoSS's most favorite track. The artwork above was done exclusively for Exclaim! Magazine by the talented Canadian artist, Andrew Mitchell.