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I Ain't Lazy

What do you get when you take some of the best base chips made in Canada and bring them to the prairies and smash them together with honey dill..co-op Gold Pure Honey Dill Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (Born Local, Ace Burpee). Last summer Ace hooked with Red River co-op in Winnipeg and put out a super limited edition chip flavour..honey dill (that was only sold at Red River co-op stores [if you're unfamiliar with the Canadian co-op chain, there are many sub sets that are all under the "co-op" banner, so in this case {last summer} the honey dill were only available under the Red River set]). Well, it must have went over well because a couple weeks ago my wife was at the Heritage co-op here in Brandon and low and behold they had Pure Honey Dill chips. It looks like co-op expanded it's honey dill chip flavour supply to cover stores outside of Winnipeg (I'm not sure if it's Manitoba wide, or prairie wide..if anyone has seen them out of Manitoba let me know). I was lucky enough to try a bag last summer (thanks Sam) but didn't take notes, so here I sit with a new bag of honey dill. When I cracked the bag I was met with a creamy dill scent. The chips looks like standard co-op gold Pure, darker chips with lots of skins and non-uniform sizing (or, some of the best base chips I've had). Put it in your mouth and you're met with (in no particular order) garlic, lemon juice, dill, honey and just the slightest bit of mayo (in the past when I've made honey dill sauce [for chicken fingers, fries..whatever you want to dip in it] I've just put fresh dill into a mix of honey and mayo..after tasting these chips I think I'm going to have to tinker with my dip recipe and add some depth). The levels of each individual flavour are pretty on point, there's nothing that really overpowers the others, just a nice mix. The chip seasoning has the slightest bit of grainyness to it (I think this is the honey powder...and it's a nice very slight texture change from standard flavours). When my wife came home to let me know she found these chips [editor's note: I asked how many bags she picked up, she replied 'four' to which I unhappily responded with 'why only four?'] she asked me how many bags I would have picked up, [editor's note: How many were on the shelves?...] I told her 10...and I would recommend the same to you. Bangin'.

In 2005 John Smith and Pip Skid (Hip-Hop Wieners) found themselves (I believe) living out in the Maritimes (based on interviews and pods and such I want to say that Pip for sure lived out there, I'm not sure if Bazooka Joe (fka John Smith) was living out there or just visiting. That doesn't really matter, what does matter is that while they were out east they hooked up with Scribble Jam multi-winner Skratch Bastid, and that relationship produced a Canadian classic rap album, Taking Care of Business. Both Smith and Skid deliver hard rhymes, that are clever as hell and are drenched in a dark sense of humor that could only be the product of Manitoba living. Hip-Hop Weiners don't front, they just write about what they know, sometimes they're justifiably bitter or angry but never in a woe-is-me kind of way. Bastid comes through with scratches and production (10 of the 16 tracks) that bring the party and compliment Smith and Skid's rhymes perfectly without taking over. The instrumental of this album would be fantastic on it's own, but the work of art that it became is like I already said, classic. I should mention the guest producers; Gordski and JoRun and guest emcees; Kunga 219, Tachichi, Sleep, and Yosuke, that definitely hold their own on this heavyweight of an album. I can't say enough for Taking Care of Business. I believe I picked this up when P&C played a show (and before I really knew anything about the Break Bread Crew) at the North Hill Inn in 2005, I went to the merch table and asked what albums John Smith had out, I don't have a clue who put this album in my hands but damn was I lucky.

Stay hydrated,
marc

ps..yes I know that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are different provinces, but they both fall under the Maritimes banner so I'm sticking with my take that the colab's above basically mirror eachother.

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