City Real

3-time Western Canadian Music Award nominee Cityreal has laid a solid foundation for his career, selling thousands of albums and touring relentlessly across Canada, the United States, and France. Raised in Vancouver, Cityreal started taking his musical craft seriously when he moved to Winnipeg to study political science. He performed as part of several groups and released mixtapes, but it wasn't until moving back to Vancouver that he truly focused his determination on music. Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

3-time Western Canadian Music Award nominee Cityreal has laid a solid foundation for his career, selling thousands of albums and touring relentlessly across Canada, the United States, and France. Raised in Vancouver, Cityreal started taking his musical craft seriously when he moved to Winnipeg to study political science. He performed as part of several groups and released mixtapes, but it wasn't until moving back to Vancouver that he truly focused his determination on music. Cityreal draws heavily from his political inspirations and his wide range of musical influences that span from artists like 2pac, Bob Marley and Van Morrison all the way to home-grown rappers such as the Swollen Members, K-OS, and the Rascalz. Upon returning to Vancouver Cityreal poured everything he had into his music, honed his ability to rock a live show on his own and carefully crafted his debut solo album. The Beginning is entirely self-produced and features guest appearances from 3-time Juno Award winner Moka Only, Kyprios (of Sweatshop Union) celebrated veteran bluesman Wes Mackey, and more. Just a few short months after the release of The Beginning¸ Cityreal was honoured to have it nominated for the Western Canadian Music Award for Rap Recording of the Year. He launched an extensive touring campaign to build his fan base, and in the process has captivated audiences in clubs, concert halls, and festivals, sharing stages with household names like Ice Cube, Ghostface Killah, Three 6 Mafia, Warren G, Swollen Members, Dilated Peoples, Souls of Mischief, Kurupt (of Tha Dogg Pound), Saigon, Blackalicious, and many more. Following a successful Western Canadian tour with Swollen Members Cityreal was also invited to join them on their entire American fall tour, taking his fan base development to an international level. Momentum continued to develop; Madchild (from Swollen Members) inducted Cityreal into the Battle Axe Warriors crew and had him produce several songs for his own forthcoming solo projects. Word of his production abilities spread, and he was also tapped to produce tracks for 3-time Juno Award nominee D-Sisive and online sensation Snak the Ripper. Support for Cityreal also continued to grow in the rest of the music industry; he was invited to showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto, the Breakout West Festival in Kelowna, the Deraylor Festival in Whistler, Shambhala Festival in Nelson, and at the Transmission conference in Victoria. Cityreal also received several grants to create awareness for his music from FACTOR (the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent On Recordings), which have helped provide the financial means to further his career development. That funding provided him with the opportunity to shoot his first music video, which was added to regular rotation on MuchMusic and also garnered him his second WCMA nomination. Cityreal also received FACTOR funding to record a hip-hop/blues fusion side project entitled Good Morning Blues with Wes Mackey, which also features guest appearances from Madchild and D-Sisive. The project was recently released as a ‘pay what you want’ download through Cityreal’s website and resulted in his 3rd Western Canadian Music Award nomination. As Cityreal continues to establish himself he remains dedicated to delivering a soulful, conscientious sound. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

…shrink me down again