Tagglyne is a Canadian rapper who doesn’t fit the mold of a rapper from Canada. Or anywhere for that matter. Influenced by the likes of Eminem, 50 Cent, Obie Trice, D12, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Fabolous, Ludacris, Childish Gambino and MC Chris, as well as non-rap musicians like Terror Jr. and Metric, his eclectic music tastes are as wide and varied as the subject matter of his music. Combining obscure pop culture references with sexually explicit innuendo, Tagglyne seeks to carve his own path in the music industry by not being beholden to a certain style or genre. He just writes about whatever interests him and, wherever the words take him, he allows himself the freedom to explore new avenues, resulting in a style that, while clearly inspired by those who came before, is all his own. Growing up in Canada, he spent most of his early years being quiet and preferring to stay under the radar rather than drawing attention to himself. But after seeing the movie ‘8 Mile’ at age 12, he finally found an outlet for all the thoughts he had kept bottled up to that point. Through his writing, he sought to create worlds that were much better than the reality he was living and in doing so, found his voice. Unfortunately, this would also be to his detriment. Surprising everybody by defying their preconceived notions about him only led to his being outcast and isolated even more. And so, he sought solace in movies, television, books and any medium that told stories that reflected reality but wasn’t necessarily based in it. His love of things that went against societal norms did make him stand out more amidst his peers. But not always in a positive way. There were a few who saw his potential, but after years of not fully living up to it, they too lost faith in his abilities. As did he. After a prolonged illness, he decided to take up writing once more. But seeing the work he put into scriptwriting result in the same failures as before and finding it difficult to convince others to collaborate with him, he decided to find a creative outlet in which he only had to rely on himself. Digging up some old song lyrics he had written in high school, he decided to update them and set them to music. But as he did so, he was inspired to write even more. And eventually, he had enough verses written for multiple albums. Donning the pseudonym, “Tagglyne”, as a nod to his love of movies, he incorporates numerous references in all of his tracks. Each song acts like a playlist of what media he’s recently consumed. From R-Rated gangster crime epics to ’90s children’s TV Shows, there’s a little something for everyone. Provided you’re already aware of or able to Google all the little nods and asides scattered throughout his prose. Despite not being musically trained, he taught himself how to make beats and built the music around his vocal performances. To him, the writing was the most important part. So he relied on listening to whatever sounded best to him to guide the way when recording a track. Echoing the words of Rick Rubin, he knew what he liked. And as long as he was happy with the results, then that was what mattered the most. As he completed more tracks, his confidence grew, leading him to come up with even more complex rhyme schemes. Not only does he use obscure words and phrases, but he consistently attempts to rhyme them in intricate ways until he quite literally runs out of words to rhyme. Rather than being confined by the constrictions of a beat, he lets the words dictate the pace and rhythm, to varying degrees of success. Having released two “albums” already; ‘Stone Groove’ and ‘Rap Recklessly’, you can clearly delineate his improvement as time goes on. Now hoping to use that momentum to showcase all he has learned in his latest upcoming project, ‘Everything Lasts Forever’, here’s hoping that the third time will be the charm for Tagglyne. So that people who are finding the current state of Hip Hop to be repetitive and monotonous will finally have a new artist to listen to multiple times over in order to fully appreciate all the work he puts into every lyric, as opposed to just having similar-sounding beats playing in the background as they go about their lives. Time will tell eventually. Everything lasts forever.