Shades of Culture was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

hip hop trio from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Its members are known as DShade, Revolution, and DJ Storm. The group performs mainly in English. Shades of Culture was one of the first Quebec hip hop groups to become known outside of their province.

History

The trio was started in 1991 in Montreal. They won the Big Break competition in 1992, and then recorded record several

demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

s . Shades of Culture participated in a number of Canadian tours with U.S. and Canadian bands, including

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, (The Almighty) Trigger Happy,

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, and

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. After performing regularly for three years, the trio recorded an EP entitled ''Paying Rent''. This three song demo also included a video which aired regularly across Canada. After completing their fourth tour across Canada, the trio released their first full-length CD entitled ''Mindstate'' in 1998, and later several 12" singles with Mr. Len and DJ

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. They also released a self-titled "Mindstate" single featuring Desi DiLauro. Their video aired regularly on

Muchmusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

MusiquePlus Elle Fictions (stylized ELLE Fictions) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Remstar Media Group. The channel broadcasts general entertainment programming targeting young adult women. It was first established in 1986 as the mus ...

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. The trio band subsequently took several short tours around Quebec with pop group

Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The gr ...

. They also opened for

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, Gangstarr,

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, The Beatnuts,

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and

Jurassic 5 Jurassic 5 is an American alternative hip hop group formed in 1994 by rappers Charles Stewart (Chali 2na), Dante Givens (Akil), Courtenay Henderson (Soup aka Zaakir), Marc Stuart (Marc 7); and disc jockeys Mark Potsic (DJ Nu-Mark) and Lucas Macf ...

. In 2000 one of their songs was included on the compilation album ''State of the Union''. Shades of Culture were DMC Competition Judges in 1998 and 1999. They appeared in the movie ''Hang the DJ'' and worked on the sound effects and music score for Wesley Snipes' movie ''Art of War''. They were included in The Source magazine's article about the hip hop scene in Montreal, as well as in a segment about scratching on FOX Network's ''Popular Mechanics for Kids''. In 2003 the group opened for

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

at their Montreal concert. The trio conducted a seminar on scratching and sampling at "Les Rencontres", and were on the first cover of ''

Vice Magazine ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...

'' (then called ''Voice of Montreal'').

Discography

*1996 ''Payin' Rent'' (EP) *1998 '' Mindstate'' *2000 '' A Little Bit About Us''"What were you doing in '93? We know...: Where were we in ’93?"
''Hour Community'', Isa Tousignant – May 15, 2008 *2002 ''Unbreakable/D.I.Y (double single)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shades Of Culture Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 Musical groups from Montreal Canadian hip hop groups English-language musical groups from Quebec