Brockway Biggs

Rapper modest about ECMA nominations
Pimp Tea in running for three East Coast Music Awards in Sydney, N.S., next month

IAN SCOTT
for The Daily Gleaner

As Troy Neilson is bespectacled and soft-spoken, one might expect to find him spending most of his time behind a computer rather than a microphone.

One wouldn't be too far off the mark, as Neilson is a bachelor of computer sciences graduate of the University of New Brunswick, and he's now working towards his master's degree.

But when Neilson, a.k.a. rap emcee Pimp Tea, next walks onstage to receive recognition for his work, it might be at the East Coast Music Awards, which take place in Sydney, N.S., next month.

Neilson's off-campus activities have earned him three nominations for awards at the annual celebration of Atlantic Canada's musical talent.

He recently received two nominations for Urban Single of the Year for his tracks Shake Ya Caboose and P. Titty. He also reeled in a nomination for Manager of the Year (Industry) for his firm Brockway Entertainment.

"I don't know where I get the energy," Neilson said. "I think it's a family trait."

Neilson's musical aspirations could be considered at least partly hereditary, as he's a relative of the legendary Canadian fiddler Don Messer.

Neilson said he is grateful for this year's nominations, but he also has some bittersweet feelings with regard to some of his fellow rappers.

"There are other artists who I feel should have been nominated in the urban category, but they chose not to apply or just didn't feel like applying to the ECMAs," Neilson said with a shrug. "I'm far from being the best rapper in town."

Award nominations are nothing new to Neilson. In 2000, he pulled in a Canada's Urban Music Award (CUMA) nomination for Hip Hop/Rap Recording for his song Tha Pimp-T Theme. In 2003, the East Coast Music Association nominated his debut album, Power Is Mindful Peace, for Best Urban Recording.

Even without music, his writing has drawn notice. As a senior writer for the website HipHopCanada.com, Neilson helped the online magazine capture CUMA awards for the Best Canadian Urban Website in each of the past three years.

The genesis of Pimp Tea actually started in the classroom. Neilson decided to make a "mocumentary" music video for a multimedia course, in which he portrayed a disco-era pimp.

"It was just meant to be fun," Neilson said. "I wanted to do a video. Eventually, I started meeting up with other producers and emcees, and decided I wanted to do an album."

Using the funds he had saved up for a post-university trip, Neilson took the summer off from both work and school, and put together his first disc. It was rough around the edges, but it was meant to be a parody of sorts.

An Urbal Remedy, Neilson's sophomore effort, continued in the same vein, poking fun at the likes of singer Puff Daddy, such as in the song P. Titty. But the material has some noticeable improvements.

"There's other songs on my (new) album that are serious," Neilson said. "It's hard to say I embrace hip hop, but I love hip hop and I support it any way I can.

"Some people think that I don't like hip hop, or that I don't understand it. As a whole, it's meant to open up your eyes to diversity."

While Neilson's hip-hop persona started off as a lark, it soon took on a life of its own. The recordings and his energetic live shows started to draw audiences, and he got more involved in helping to promote other artists and rappers.

Neilson said the Pimp Tea moniker first got him noticed, but it might be time to retire his alter ego and move forward. He said he'd like to distance himself from the pimp image, though it's been fun, as he's made his point.

"I'm kind of getting tired of trying to justify it to different people. Sometimes, people make up their mind and they can't change their mind. They want to make you realize that they're right in their view. Not that that's wrong or anything," he said.

"I guess it just feels like it's time to move away from that image and go with just being myself."

Pimp Tea will join other local musicians Friday at The Playhouse in a benefit concert for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in South Asia. Tickets for the show, dubbed "Fredericton Cares," are $20.

Among the artists scheduled to appear are Hot Toddy, the LaPointes, Vetch, Emmaus Road, Steven Peacock and Yvonne Kershaw. - Daily Gleaner

General Feedback for 'In Awe of Simplicity' CD:

"The album has a feel good canadian slick rick type of feel."
- Mat The Alien - Modest Bike / Circa (Whistler/Vancouver, BC)

"I dig So Many Purposes. It kind of reminds of stuff that came out around '93 or '94."
- Matt Chan - CJSF (Burnaby, BC)

"I love that Invisible joint!"
- Kinetik - CJUM (Winnipeg, MB)

"I'm in awe of the new album. It's sounding hot."
- Lee Pearce (Mt Pearl, NL)

"I mostly liked how serious you were in the songs. The vibe is cool."
- Mindbender (Toronto, ON)

"A solid release. I thought it was dope how you put track meanings in the jewel case."
- DJ Wundrkut (Surrey, BC)

"We love the cover of the CD!"
- Liz Rigney - ATV/CTV Halifax (Halifax, NS)

"Caboose Remix: The flow is tight - I'm feeling the train samples and production."
- Kevin Oliver - Westbeat DJ Pool (Calgary, AB)

"Pinch Hitter: You had one of the most talked about tracks of in recent years."
- Marc Ferman - Keep It Classic (North Miami Beach, FL)

"The production was good and your lyrical content was great. I liked the topics. Uhhh is a really DOPE track."
- L-Precise (Delta, BC)

"Buck 65 has to be the obvious reference here from the campus radio shoutout, conversational flow, everyman lyrics, etc."
- Chris White - CJAM (Windsor, ON)

"'Clap Your Hands' I think that DJs would like to mess with the hook. 'Your Vision' I think the beat and your flow/lyrics are some of your best!"
- DJ Sage - CFRO (Burnaby, BC) - Various

September 26, 2007

"The few flaws you’ll find on In Awe of Simplicity are easily overlooked by the endearing in-your-face honesty of Brockway Biggs and his dope beat selections."

http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=115&csid2=865&fid1=27633 - Exclaim, Thomas Quinlan

By ALLAN WIGNEY -- Sun Media

Troy Neilson arrived in Ottawa two years ago, already a known quantity on the hip-hop scene in his native New Brunswick. As the notorious Pimp Tea, Neilson had taken his ribald raps as far as endorsements, Ed the Sock and an East Coast Music Award.

Yet as he prepares to unveil a new CD (In Awe of Simplicity) and a relatively new identity (Brockway Biggs), Neilson claims his performance at Heaven Nightclub tomorrow will be perhaps only his third local gig since relocating to Capital City.

"I've been laying low," Neilson explains. "I didn't know very many people here and I wanted to meet people first. I didn't want to come across as stepping on toes. It was really like starting fresh."

That extended to Neilson's stage name and persona. Pimp Tea is all right for lounging in a hot tub with Ed the Sock and sexy ladies, the emcee, producer and promoter reasoned. But a more mature approach to music, as can be heard on In Awe of Simplicity, calls for a more mature moniker.

"I was becoming more and more self-aware and felt the whole 'Pimp' name was taking away from what I was doing," Neilson says. "I'd met with VideoFact to discuss funding and they said, 'Your niche is a Weird Al wannabe, right?' I said, 'Is that how people see me?' "

In Awe of Simplicity, with its original beats courtesy of local fave DJ Ducats and original rhymes courtesy of Brockway Biggs, should help to change that perception.

As for his integration into the local hip-hop scene, Neilson observes Ottawa would appear to have "a missing infrastructure," but he's working to change that too.

"It's a challenge," he notes. "But I like challenges."

He also likes what he's heard from local emcees like Boz Faramone, the self-described 'Jamadian' (as in Jamaican-Canadian) rapper who will be sharing the bill with Neilson at tomorrow's show, and again next Friday at the Glue Pot Pub.

Faramone, an alumnus of the great lost local collective Nextraterrestrials, will be introducing a CD of his own, Bad Man Skankin'.

"It works out really well," Neilson says of the joint CD-release parties, "because my friends and fans will be exposed to him and vice versa."

And what Brockway Biggs' fans will be exposed to is a promising performer who draws from rap as well as reggae roots, to great effect on numbers such as the CD's title track and the infectious International Erbaliss. And who takes local hip hop to a new, incendiary level with the unsettling Frenzy, a tale of being on the wrong side of police action in the Byward Market.

"It's based on true events," Faramone says of the track. "But I used my imagination. I used to write little stories as a kid, so I made it like that. I don't really write a lot of story tracks, but I'll be writing more."

And, as Faramone continues to find his true Jamadian voice, he will undoubtedly be making more friends in the local scene. And, together with friends like Brockway Biggs, working to build a solid local hip-hop infrastructure.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2007/08/29/4454449-sun.html - Ottawa Sun / Canoe

Friday October 10, 2008
by Melissa Girimonte

Indie Week 2008! Live from The Rivoli

Brockway Biggs launched his set by doing a shot of tequila and playing a recorded intro by Ed the Sock before launching into a rap. Most memorable line of his set – “If you’re lazy and you’re bitter, clap your hands.” Lots of fun, a bit of attitude, b-boy moves, and props like a bunny handpuppet. This dude is a performer, not just a musician.

http://toonage.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/indie-week-2008-live-from-the-rivoli/ - Melissa Girimonte, Toonage Blog

September 2004
By Thomas Quinlan

PIMP-T's 2002 debut album, Power Is Mindful Peace, was laughable at best but somehow got him positive attention from MuchMusic, MusiquePlus, and even a nomination for Best Urban Recording at the 2003 East Coast Music Association awards. Pimp Tea's sophomore album, An Urbal Remedy, shows more growth and maturity than just a change of name. Sure, he still rocks simple lyircs that are occasionally a little sloppy, but he's adept at making some catchy hooks that burrow and next in your brain. Don't believe me? Check out both sides of the album's first twelve-inch single, "Shake Ya Caboose" with "Super Dude (Jorun remix)." Plus his beat selection doesn't hurt either. Aside from Halifax hip-hop legend Jorun, who improves the odd dance-rock of "Super Dude" with a remix and contributes another highlight with "Hick Hop," Pimp Tea enlists the production services of Classified ("This Is Me"), Nevski ("Shake Ya Caboose"), and Darrow Productions ("P. Titty"). Pimp Tea likes to keep it fun and dance-ready, whether it's rock-inflected, mixed with electronica, or just straight hip-hop, but he does get serious for a little lesson on the "Music Biz" with a densely produced beat from J-Bru. While the proper section of the album is short (ten songs and an intro), the bonus section contains a number of remixes and live versions of previously released songs, the original "Super Dude," and a scathing Ed the Sock interlude criticising the video for "Tha PIMP-T Theme," which shows that Pimp Tea doesn't take himself too seriously. The enhanced portion of the album contains a few more bonus tracks and some live performance footage. An Urbal Remedy is simple but catchy, and fully stocked (Brockway, www.pimptea.com) - Exclaim

Fredericton Rapper Pimp Tea to bring his Urbal Remedy to Halifax's Khyber Club, Antigonish's Evolve Festival

25 August 2004
by Stephen Cooke
Entertainment Reporter

If you think East Coast hip-hop is confined largely to the boundaries of the Halifax Regional Municipality, it's time to take a look beyond the Enfield Big Stop.

Fredericton's Pimp Tea has been a standard bearer for burgeoning urban music scenes around Atlantic Canada since his debut CD Power Is Mindful Peace picked up a 2003 East Coast Music Award nomination. Now he steps up to the plate with his second platter An Urbal Remedy, displaying personal advances in performance, lyrical flow and recording skills on a disc brimming with personality and smart humour.

A Maritime tour promoting An Urbal Remedy hits Halifax tonight at the Khyber, followed by shows at Sydney's Maple Leaf Lounge on Friday and Evolve Festival in Antigonish on Saturday afternoon.

By day, Pimp Tea is U.N.B. computer sciences grad student Troy Neilson, but the rest of the time he lives up to his stage name's acronym - Positively Influencing More People To Excel Artistically - by putting out the Atlantic Canada Hip-Hop Newsletter and writing for HipHopCanada.com, establishing connections that have paid off on An Urbal Remedy while drawing the underground community even closer together.

"I wrote a feature about (producer and ex-Universal Soul DJ) JoRun and reviewed the last three Classified CDs, so I managed to get to know them a bit better, which made collaborating easier as well," says Neilson while preparing for his mini-tour.

"It's important because there's so much talent out here in terms of beat makers in Atlantic Canada, putting an album together helps get their names out there. Now I've got young M.C.'s approaching me asking where they can get beats for their recordings, and I've compiled a list of everyone working in Atlantic Canada where they can send their information."

Pimp Tea supports his homeboys like stage sidekick Rory Borealis, Curbside Prawjek, DJ Scout and MC Mickey D by bringing them out on the road and getting them some wider exposure. Not bad for a guy from the small rural community of Charters Settlement, found 20 minutes outside of Fredericton, down a dead end road.

Sounding urban in the country is the basis of one of An Urbal Remedy's more whimsical numbers, Hick Hop, combining a heavy beat with a backwoods banjo.

"It's sort of poking fun at being from the country, but ultimately that's where I grew up. I'm really just telling true stories, although I don't think they make three horsepower snowblowers. It just rhymed better," he chuckles.

"I really was given my own snowblower, but I think mine was more like eight horsepower. But when Buck 65 got an ECMA in Halifax, he said 'Oh wow, a total hick won in the urban category,' and I thought, 'That's it, I'm doing Hick Hop.' On the way home I wrote the chorus in my head, and asked JoRun to come up with the beat with a banjo on top of it. And I kept coming up with images, like burning brush as a child or our mailman Jack who always had gum when he came by."

Playing around with hip-hop imagery and overturning clichés are part of what makes Pimp Tea's tunes so enjoyable, like the faux-boasting of Super Dude or the party anthem Shake Ya Caboose, where it's his own rear end that's going into motion, and not "some scantily clad female."

Even the whole "pimp" thing is aply on the hustler stereotype, which the goateed, bespectacled Neilson doesn't believe would be taken seriously by his audience.

"It's a tough question, there's a few angles to it," he explains. "The clothing I wear, I don't usually shop at retail stores, I buy a lot of my clothes at second hand stores. It seems a lot of mainstream hip-hop is based on being flashy and spending money on expensive clothes, so I tried to come up with a flashy, funky style based on stuff I could find at second-hand clothing stores.

"As for the message, it's important to keep things positive and not get into misogyny or drugs and alcohol. Especially considering that my target audience is 15- to 18-year-olds, that's what I feel comfortable about having them buy."
- The Chronicle Herald (Nova Scotia provincial)

by Lori Sheffield
6 October 2004

Every once in a while there is an artist who comes out, where you can’t tell if you are in awe of their music, in shock or in love. Pimp Tea does just that.

Over the past 20 years, there have been advancements in the world of music, resulting in many new genres coming out: from New Wave of the eighties, to the Grunge of the nineties and now to Hick Hop for the millennia.

Now you may ask, what exactly is Hick Hop? It is a unique blend of rap with lyrics focused on real world experiences with some almost country undertones, a different fusion indeed.

The up and coming artist of this new genre is Fredericton’s own Pimp Tea - Troy Neilson. The moniker Pimp Tea stands for “Positively Influencing More People To Excel Artistically” and the name suits when listening to his newest album An Urbal Remedy.

Instead of picking some of the usual topics for rap songs, the album includes songs such as “Can I Get a CS,” a song about computer science.

It may seem gimmicky and reminiscent of Weird Al, but Pimp Tea is far from that; he somehow masterfully and successfully combines Andre 3000 with Buck 65.

There are only two words to fully describe Pimp Tea’s music – innovative and original.

An Urbal Remedy is unlike anything else I have ever heard. One of the best parts of Pimp Tea’s music is that he raps about every day experiences. I also get the impression that Nielson truly enjoys what he does.

The lyrics are tight and the rap has a nice flow, but he still has a way to go artistically and is a bit rough around the edges.

Neilson’s lyrics and beats are memorable and addicting. “Shake Your Caboose” is the one song that has stayed in my head since my first listen. The uniqueness of the album is what makes it so captivating, each song has a different beat.

That alone makes An Urbal Remedy stand out from many of the popular CDs recently released. - The Aquinian, Fredericton, NB

16 August 2004
Wilfred Langmaid

The musical idioms change, but one thing remains the same.

Our local area is filled with talented, creative, unique musicians.

A half-century ago, people like Don Messer and Earl Mitton developed "down east" music for the masses.

A generation ago, local rockers Pat Flanagan, Peter Patrick, Mike McLenahan and Tom Blizzard came within an eyelash of national fame as the band The Naked Lunch.

Today, we have a wide assortment of local talents, but there is no one quite like 25-year-old Troy Neilson.

By day, he is an articulate, soft-spoken Masters student in Computer Science here at UNB.

However, his musical persona - Pimp Tea - is a unique form of rap that titillates and inspires. It is unique and brilliant, and it is totally home-grown.

His solo debut Power Is Mindful Peace garnered a 2003 East Coast Music Awards nomination.

Neilson's latest project, the album An Urbal Remedy, will be launched locally on Wednesday.

It is very home grown, diverse and totally self-produced.

Last week, Neilson told our freelance writer James Harvey, "I'm just doing the music that's in my heart.

Whether you're taking me as a joke or understand the concept, everyone has a different opinion on what it means."

"What I do feels right."

Rap music, hip-hop or anything in the urban music scene may not be the cup of tea for all our readers, but we can salute a hard-working young man of integrity as he follows his artistic muse.

He is doing what countless other people do today - some in career growth mode, and some in relative obscurity - and what generations have done in the past. He is following his artistic muse to fulfill his calling and be all that he can be.

Like most local musicians, Neilson has made sacrifices.

He told Harvey of "many late nights and stress filled days" and added "I don't go to the movies, don't eat out, stopped drinking. Anything that cost extra, I didn't do, and I saved a lot doing so."

The sacrifice is worth it, and we salute Neilson on his latest accomplishment - and for being part of the lineage of great, unique local music.

After all, he is part of an unbroken chain.

His great great uncle was none other than Don Messer himself. - Daily Gleaner, Fredericton, NB

3 April 2006

Novelty act or hip-hop, East coast style? As the self-proclaimed "super-dude" of Fredericton, NB, MC Pimp Tea keeps it real, small town style. Pimp ran down a few of his greatest hits, including "SuperDude," "Pimp Tea’s Theme" and "Shake Ya Caboose." The irreverence continued when Pimp Tea's "hype man" sauntered onstage in a mechanic's jumpsuit with a sandwich and a vicious head nod. Super-dude indeed. - Ryan Patrick, Exclaim