Beyond the Lyrics 604
Beyond the Lyrics 604 is a hip-hop focused live podcast based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The show covers hip-hop and urban culture, particularly Canadian scenes, with the mantra 'Inspire. Inform. Empower.' It aims to provide a positive, solution-based environment for artists, business owners, and music/performance artists of all skill levels in Vancouver. The podcast offers tools and discussions to help them thrive independently.
Episodes
Ascension: Mike Wiald vs Danny Myers, plus LOCA on Getting Sober
The fullest room the show has had — seven voices, and it moves through three distinct halves.First the card. Trewth on how the Neighborhood Kids video blew up and turned into a tour, then Red Shirt Mike arrives to break down Set the Bar's Ascension event: why the battlers aren't trash talking this time, the undercard, the rookie class, and what the league needs to get from 80 people in a r
Kavawon & Tobin: Battle Rap, Cameras, and Using AI Without Wrecking It
The guests cancelled, so Kavawon starts solo and turns it into the most personal opening the show has done — how he preps, the ten-year gap in the Chasing Destiny trilogy, starting young, the vices, and the album versions that got shelved. The FOMO that cost him a record.Tobin joins at 15:05: Set the Bar battler, cameraman, and the person who shoots and edits the whole event. Longboard videos to f
Mike Wiald & Red Shirt Mike: Writing, Burnout, and the Draft
Three conversations in one, and the first is the one people will send to each other.Kavawon opens on creative burnout — the funk after a big push, peaks and valleys, giving yourself grace, and the argument that anxiety is trapped energy that needs somewhere to go. Procrastination, self-worth, notification overload, and 'Eat the Frog'. K-Ski turns up with a broken hand from a slip outside t
Hogan's Alley: The Black Vancouver History Nobody Taught You
A Black History Month episode that turns into the best history lesson this show has recorded. K-Ski and Kavawon host Aisha and Miselta of the Hogan's Alley Society — the organisation working to rebuild Vancouver's displaced Black neighbourhood.Aisha went from UBC marketing student to Hogan's Alley staffer and explains what it is like to ask "where are the Black people?" in th
Ten Years of Spotify, ODB Backwards, and Finding 1,000 Real Fans
K-Ski and Kavawon close out 2025 by taking stock — of the year, the scene, and what being an independent artist is going to mean next.It opens loose: fantasy football misery, load management and fans paying to watch stars sit, Ronnie Lott's finger, the Herschel Walker trade, Philly fan brutality. Then it turns. K-Ski's 2025 — his wife's injury, a trip back to Trenton and Philly, and ho
Music Medicine: Jessaii, Karma Sounds & the Money Nobody Tells You About
Recorded at B-Side Radio, Vancouver BC.0:00 Welcome: intros and who's missing1:50 A summer of rest and festival prep2:36 Stevie Wonder and a cassette coincidence5:26 First songs in Regina: 'Freedom'6:31 Discovering reggae in Calgary8:30 Vancouver's reggae scene and 'Rise'9:54 Gilt & Co. and pacing while healing10:55 A neuroaffirmative kids arts camp11:44 Vocal coaching
Nige on The Imperfectionist: Therapy, Divorce, and Rapping at 39
The most personal episode the show has done. Nige is releasing The Imperfectionist — named for a superhero who ruins everything he touches — and he came to talk about what is actually on it.He retired the "Young" from Young Nige at 39. He came up a punk kid on Epitaph Records before hip hop, started rapping late at 19 after a house party freestyle, and spent years freestyling in cars at
Crabs in a Bucket: ST Elements & DJ K-Rec on the Vancouver Scene
K-Ski starts solo with Paul — 22 years of guitar and teaching kids at the Roundhouse — before ST Elements arrives and the episode finds its subject: what it costs to build something in a city that doesn't help you build it.ST Elements came from Jersey to Carolina to the Navy to Seattle before landing here. He works in addictions counseling and teaches curriculum through rap, and he is blunt ab
LaSparka on Love Force — and the Biggest Battle in Vancouver History
Kavawon hosts solo and gives LaSparka most of two hours. It is the widest-ranging conversation in the catalogue.The first stretch is a life: discovering hip hop through NWA tapes and border runs in the 80s, Spleen and the Hard Luck Band, the For Love store, and what Love Force actually stands for. Then it goes somewhere most music podcasts don't — religion and politics, going from atheist to b
Naa Sheka on Building One Love — plus Spy vs Spy in Three Months
Naa Sheka of One Love Retail & Fashion takes the first half. Ghanaian fabrics and Adinkra symbols, launching the brand at 25, two Vancouver Canucks jersey collaborations, and She Got Shea. She explains what her name means, what the racist comments under the Canucks post were actually about, and gives the most direct advice on this show so far for young entrepreneurs: ignore the critics, and st
The Kids Are Listening: Trap, Drake vs Kendrick, and Battle Rap
K-Ski and Kavawon are back after a month, and this one covers a lot of ground before the guests even arrive — Team USA snubs, the Biden-Kamala switch, Netanyahu at Congress, and a pointed run at double standards and who gets to stay quiet.Then Nakio, on his upcoming project and the case for engineering yourself. He builds beats from guitar chords before drums, writes with intention, and makes the
Queen Level, Artist Development, and Who's Best in Vancouver
Two halves, two very different conversations.First, the business of being an artist. Jessaii of Queen Level Productions and industry veteran Deshawn — 25 years in, from church drums to the business side — get into why artist development disappeared and why you now have to do it yourself. Treating yourself as a business, three-month plans, leaving breadcrumbs before a release, why college radio and
Red Shirt Mike on Building BC's Battle Rap Scene
K-Ski sits down with Red Shirt Mike — organiser of BC's Set the Bar battle league — for a two-hour education in competitive rap. It starts with the thing casual fans get wrong: battle rap isn't freestyle. From there it runs back through the roots — the dozens, 80s Jersey, Kool Moe Dee vs Busy Bee, the Roxanne Wars, KRS-One vs MC Shan — and into the question that gives this one its title, w
Inspire, Inform, Empower — the 2024 Season Opener
K-Ski and Kavawon open the 2024 season of Beyond the Lyrics 604 — the Vancouver podcast about the business behind the bars.This one is a state of the union for independent artists. K-Ski tells the story of the record Clear Channel quietly buried. The pair launch "Breaking Bread," a new segment on the money side of music, and get into follow-through as the artist's Achilles heel, why
