Andy Bernstein grew up in Greektown, East End Toronto on a steady diet of skateboarding, souvlaki, art, punk rock and hip hop. Rocking the name MC Abdominal, he formed his first rap crew with the now legendary DJ Serious as a teenager, and started recording, honing his freestyle chops, building an astounding lung capacity, and developing into one of the most lyrically gifted and charismatic performers ever to grace the shores of Lake Ontario.A chance meeting in 1998 at a downtown party lead him to first cross paths with DJ Fase. The two hit it off immediately, and once the rest of the club had emptied out, Fase pulled out a tape and showed Abdominal some of his own material. “It turned out he had a beat that he had made that day,” he reminisces, “which ended up being the beat to “Vinyl Frontier”, our first single. So when everyone cleared out of the bar, he played me the beat off this little cassette player he had. I was like, oh shit, I need to write to this!”Like puzzle pieces clicking into place, they paired up as Abs & Fase, began recording together, and a limited run of Vinyl Frontier records (with “Fly Antics” holding up the B-side) made its way into the hot hands of DJs, radio hosts, and record collectors around the globe. One of them was picked up by UK producer DJ Format, who was floored by this unknown Canadian emcee, and invited him to England to collaborate. Abdominal’s raps became a standout feature on Format’s first two full-length releases—Music for the Mature B-Boy and If You can’t Join ‘Em…Beat ‘Em—selling upwards of 65,000 copies in total worldwide, and spinning off into several highly acclaimed international singles and video releases (“The Hit Song”, “Vicious Battle Raps”, and “3-Feet Deep” featuring fellow Canuck D-Sisive). The duo hit the road for three years, and from 2003 to 2005 they toured as part of Jurassic 5’s European tour, toured with Ugly Duckling, spent a month touring Australia with the Good Vibrations Festival (alongside Lyrics Born and Handsome Boy Modeling School), opened for Roy Ayers, De La Soul and Blackalicious, and rocked the revered stages of the world famous Glastonbury Festival, Leeds Festival, and Reading Festival twice.The Jurassic 5 tour, and his subsequent experiences on the road with Format, were major turning points in Abdominal’s growing, globe-trotting career. “Sleeping on a tour bus, a show every night, thousands of people. It was my first proper taste of what it was like to be an international musician. It rejuvenated my love for the form.”Abdominal’s various collaborations and versatile playbook of approaches to the art of emceeing has allowed him to avoid too much type-casting—though, as with any artist, some labels can be hard to shake. On tracks like “Ill Culinary Behaviour” or “Fast Food”, his ode to all things fried on the Abs & Fase full length, people might try to slip him into an easy role—“Oh, he’s the food rapper.” Paired with DJ Fase’s more sci-fi beats, listeners might hit him with a different label—“Oh, he’s the backpacker!” When he flows overtop DJ Format’s up-tempo instrumentals, he gets thrown into yet another category—“Oh, he’s that old skool kinda guy.” What these listeners don’t know is that Abdominal cannot be held to such confines. And so we come to this, the grandest of plans for 2007—Abdominal’s Escape From The Pigeon Hole.“This is my first solo record,” Abdominal explains proudly. Featuring production by DJ Format, DJ Fase, DJ Serious, Cut Chemist (from Jurassic 5), Young Einstein (from Ugly Duckling), local duo Circle Research, cuts by World DMC champion DJ Dopey, and a special appearance by local jazz phenom Elizabeth Shepherd, the record promises to be Abdominal’s richest, most vibrant, most artistically diverse project to date. “My goal is to show a more complete picture of who I am.”
The tracklisting is filled with concept songs, ranging from stories about being a bike courier, open relationships, not giving a f**k, and his cat. Strong lyricism, detailed imagery, plenty of humour, and the illest of flows carry through the album beautifully, from start to finish. Abdominal is not only escaping the pigeon hole—he is leaving it far behind in his pedal-pushing dust. Abdominal