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Posted: June 4, 2023

Cranbrooklyn represent!

Kootenay hip-hop artist Catalyst Loa assembles six-set rap fest at Cranbrook Hotel Pub

By Ferdy Belland

“I’ve been into hip-hop since I was in Grade Seven,” says Cranbrook’s rising rap artist Ebby Gregory (known to the growing hip-hop community of the Kootenays by his stage name of Catalyst Loa), who performs live in concert at the Cranbrook Hotel Pub (719 Baker Street) on the evening of Friday, June 23 as part of the KHHL (Kootenay Hip Hop League).

“It started off as an identity thing,” says Loa. “I grew up in Creston; one day after school, right before the summer hit between the end of elementary school and the beginning of junior high, I was really feeling down on myself. Long story short – this group of local black people just took me into their circle for a weekend, and the first real taste of hip-hop I had was full-on gangster rap… Jadakiss’ ‘Jada’s Got A Gun.’ I’ll never forget it. I look back upon that time now, and naivete is a weird thing. I remember seeing Public Enemy on TV. I remember Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur on TV, but they never really resonated with me…until I got into that car, and buddy played me ‘Jada’s Got A Gun,’ and I was HOOKED! I was all: what IS this? And they told me it was gangster rap. Before that, it was just Will Smith for me (laughs), or Backstreet Boys or some such fun stuff, but Jadakiss was BOOM. That was it.”

“I didn’t start writing actual rhymes until about 2010,” says Loa. “I moved away from Creston to Cranbrook. I made friends with a more hip-hop-loving crowd, and they let me just be myself. My friend Olivia Berry, aka Lady Livvy, asked me why I didn’t try rapping? Why didn’t I write a rap? So I shrugged my shoulders and dove into it. I remember the first rap I wrote was gangster rap, and it was hard, and I thought it was good…but it wasn’t me. I stepped back and took an objective look at what I’d written and thought: this is going to get my ass kicked! The way rap is: if you’re going to speak it, you have to live it. So I immediately changed my writing style. From there, the rapping went on, and went on in a better and smarter direction.”

As is traditional with hip-hop circles worldwide, Catalyst Loa sees the overall scene as stronger when fellow artists avoid needless rivalries.

“I’m trying to collect an unofficial co-op of local rap and hip-hop artists who team up for live events,” says Loa. “Group shows here in Cranbrook and Kimberley, back to Creston and Nelson, and develop venues where we, and other hip-hop artists across the Kootenays, can all perform at. From there, hopefully we can start bringing in other rappers from outside the region. It’s all about developing local community and connecting with other communities.”

Catalyst Loa then expounds on his personal creative process.

“I have a standard writing approach that fell into place right away, once I got serious about it,” says Loa. “The story has to truly mean something to me. I need know what the general story outline’s going to be before I start writing rhymes. This chorus is going to mean this, these verses are going to mean this. And then I reflect on my personal experience – how can I reach others with who I am and what I’ve seen and what I’ve done? We all go through heartache. We all go through a party mode. We all go through love. We all experience the same things in different ways. How do I put my individualism into something compatible with others, into words that others will connect with? And from there, I try to make it all catchy. I’ve been very lucky in that I have other local hip-hop folks, like Strange2ruth, who come equipped with fully loaded home studios, and they don’t seem to mind me coming over to their place to lay down my tracks!”

The music of Catalyst Loa is alive and well on the Internet for all to enjoy.

“It’s cool for me now that I have a number of finished tracks that are up on all the online streaming platforms,” says Loa. “I’m literally available worldwide! My own personal website, Facebook, Instagram, all of it. I’m not pulling any Bad Bunny sort of numbers as far as actual listenership goes, but I’m grateful for the modest audience I have at the moment. I’m not blowing up or anything, but the metrics keep growing on a monthly basis. Opportunities are growing for me as well. My album Red City Alumni: Fita Capa Dona is up online, and I’m very proud of it. I hope others are too!”

Catalyst Loa is proud to be a Key City Hip-Hop performer – which is a notable statement, given that previous cultural generations were less than charitable to non-white bread forms of popular music.

“I didn’t expect the people in the Kootenays to enjoy and respect what I do the way they do, to be honest,” says Loa. “Where I grew up, you were shoved into your niche at an early age. The place that was carved out for you, and the person others saw you as…that’s who you were going to be. People didn’t see me as hip-hop. People didn’t see me in that perspective. So to come back years later as a full-grown adult and be hip-hop and present myself in that manner and have everybody be super-receptive to my true persona – it was unbelievable. It was so awesome. That uncritical acceptance motivates me. It’s funny…I’m still me, Ebby Gregory, obviously, but I still have people who I’ve known for a while come up to me at the end of my shows and they treated me like I was the Notorious B.I.G.! (laughs)”

In a musical world noted for far too much over-inflated egotism, Catalyst Loa is refreshingly down-to-earth about who he is and what he does.

“It’s a really good feeling, and I want that to continue,” says Loa. “There’s a sizeable audience for hip-hop around these parts. There’s a real ear for the music that’s alive and well across the Kootenays. And it’s not just me – there are other local hip-hop artists coming out of the woodwork all the time. And all of them have their own unique contributions to the scene and the style. They’re all about wordsmanship, and not about bravado or machismo. Nobody’s rapping about the nonexistent ghetto strife between 7th Ave. and 8th Ave – that would be silly and repetitive and derivative and counter-productive. The stuff that’s created by all these peers of mine is truly sensational, and not just to me. I’m humbled by it, but I’m also up to the challenge to see where the scene will take me. The whole plan is to generate as much as I can from the comfort of the Kootenays.

“I have a little daughter whom I love very much, and I want to be as close to her as possible while still being able to be ‘Catalyst Loa.’ I need to balance the responsibilities of fatherhood with my inner needs for artistry. I don’t want to overreach when it comes to far-flung performances, at least in the short term. Honestly: I’d like to bring the world to me if I could (laughs). It’s legit for me to identify as a Cranbrook rapper, and a Kootenay hip-hop artist. The music means just as much coming from the shadow of the Rocky Mountains as it does coming from inner-city Los Angeles. I want Cranbrook to be not just my personal hub, but my professional hub as well. Having said that, I’m happy to say that I landed a spot on the Inter.Sect Music Festival out in High Prairie, so who knows what else lays in store?”

Catalyst Loa closes the interview with one of his wide beaming smiles.

“I love performing. I absolutely love it up there on stage behind the mic. That’s my comfort zone, that’s my happy place. And if what I do as Catalyst Loa becomes something bigger and better, something more than I expect it to be, I now have the emotional strength and the inner confidence to navigate a professional career with the best mindset possible.

“I worked on myself hard, as hard as I worked on my rapping craft. It’s as if I unlocked a bunch of hidden superpowers.”

Catalyst Loa (along with MCs Cole, JayAmaze, Strange2ruth, Puar, Jaicen, and Newman) takes the stage and the mic at the Cranbrook Hotel Pub (719 Baker Street) the evening of Friday, June 23 as part of the KHHL (Kootenay Hip Hop League).