2016 was a good year for Dope Piece.

With honed skills and an efficacious work ethic, the burgeoning St. John’s emcee has fuelled a creative fire beneath his feet as he proceeds to chase the trails of last year’s sophomore release entitled DOPEACE. Intensifying as a further realized production partnership with DJ Mike’L, the duo carefully designed a liquid narrative and overall atmosphere for the DOPEACE track list that accelerates a conceptual focus, all while compartmentalizing into short and sweet singles at a rapid fire rate.

While DOPEACE is an absolute accolade that springboards the body of Dope Piece’s work from mixtape to album territory, it is clear that there is zero room for laziness in Griingo Starr’s itinerary. While simultaneously promoting the album, Dope Piece continued on the grind through the remainder of 2016 with a tasteful selection of performances, including sharing the stage with Royce da 5’9 in St. John’s. Dope Piece also took the year to delve into some diverse collaborations, such as the heavily circulated “Swangin'” with Virginian trap rapper Yung Xela of Fatal Faction (the track was shared by RiFF RAFF not once, but twice.)

It has become quite clear that Dope Piece has no plans of slowing down in 2017. The visual accompaniment for the album track “Dirty Dope” dropped last week, and it will be the first in a series of video reworks plucked from the sequence of DOPEACE.

As per usual, Dope Piece lives up to the trippy hooligan moniker with a video that blends grape eating dreams with a boozy wake up in the woods, all through the scope of an LSD infused CD-ROM game experience.

We’ve got to give heaps of credit to Kitty San who shot and cut this video in all of its psychedelic glory. Loose, fun and experimental has helped reinvent the medium of the music video, and it shoots us over the moon when something of that spirit is executed and embodied this effectively. Hopefully we’ll see as much great artistic output from the likes of Kitty San as we will from Dope Piece and DJ Mike’L.

Keep yours eyes n’ ears open, because great new work is coming down harder on Atlantic Canada then any forecasted winter storm warning.

– KGH
Secret Selector