Vancouver, B.C. - A very busy Adam "Vudu" Sloan kicks back with HHC for a quick minute to let us know what's going on with his recent release celebrating the Western Canadian hip-hop scene's strong female presence on the mic, Front and Center: Westcoast Women in Rhyme, Vol. 1.

Vudu: "First off we got Róisín (pronounced Ruh-sheen), who's living near Seattle right now. She's usually telling gritty life stories in her raps, but has flipped a Saturday night story on the CD for us. Jessica May also draws from her personal past on her track, and is pretty new to the rap scene but has been writing for a long time. Kia Kadiri bounces between Victoria and Vancouver, and has been getting some high profile gigs like the Jazz Festival. Dee One hangs with the Freshcoast crew, and Chena has her own crew. Lady Precise is one half of StinkMitt, who are definitely the raunchiest group on the CD, and she displays her versatility on her solo track. Coco has a jazz background and it shows on her track, with all the amazing harmonizing she put down on the choruses. Ndidi Cascade always has a string of live shows lined up every month, keeping the live scene thriving, and Shankini has gained recognition with her battling skills."

"I really only scratched the surface with Front & Center: Volume 1. There are 11 different artists on those 16 tracks, and I could easily do a Volume 2 with completely different artists. Almost every weekend you can go to a show and see someone onstage somewhere, rockin' the mic."

While pondering ways to expose his music to a large arena of people, Sloan decided to put together a compilation of his best tracks and while doing so, discovered that the tracks he was selecting were mostly graced with female emcees. He took those tracks already done and followed leads on a few more girls who could represent and help put the women front and center.

"I decided that it would be a good angle to take, to make it all women, and groundbreaking at the same time. As far as the tracks on the album go, there is something for everyone on there. The radio might prefer something R&B like Coco's 'On My Own' or Lady Precise's 'Str8 with Myself,' while the club will like Róisín's 'Cold Fusion' and Dee One's dancehall flavoured 'Grind 'n' Groove.' Underground heads will dig Chena's 'Challenge the Mind,' and so on. There's no filler on here!"

The album hit the streets on August 12 of this year to a "great" response, Sloan said. The album received rave reviews in the Georgia Straight, VanCity's free entertainment weekly and its release party received coverage on Much Music's Going Coastal when Chris Nelson came out and taped the show and interviewed Sloan as well as a few of the artists. (The clip is up on his website for anybody who missed it.) Front and Center is available across Canada off Fusion 3 at loads of major retailers, as well as off Sloan's website at http://www.inthachamber.com. (American residents are best off picking it up at U.S.-based http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/vudu)

Vudu: "You never know who's going to blow up. I think Kia is hooked up with a release scheduled for next year, Shankini is making waves with her independent CD and winning Much Music's freestyle competition if I recall correctly, StinkMitt has been shocking audiences with their raunchy stage show and their new CD, Coco has a CD scheduled for next year as well, Ndidi did a cross Canada tour this summer, Róisín is nearing completion of her CD on In Tha Chamber Entertainment, and Jessica May is working on hers too. Hopefully everyone will have a taste of success."

Released even more recently, on November 18, is Sound Barrier Volume 1, the instrumental version of Front and Center and a "little showcase" for Sloan. "It shows that Canadian producers are perfectly capable of creating original dope sounding tracks." said Sloan, who's been called the Canadian Timbaland, noting his ten year history behind the decks.

Vudu: "If you go to my website http://www.inthachamber.com you can see that I've dipped into other musical areas, such as dub reggae and electronic ambient as well. I've drawn from what I've learned doing those styles and added them to my repertoire."

His next planned release for February of 2004, Sound Barrier Volume 2, will delve into reggae and dancehall flavoured instrumentals (mostly created with the Akai MPC 2000XL), a style he used for the majority of the production for local dancehall artist OSC (Original Spoil Child), who is in the midst of releasing his debut album Fa Betta Fa Wurze.

He's also got Róisín's album, her fourth full-length and possibly first enhanced CD, in the works, and he's in talks with Jessica May as well. He hopes to finally get his "perennial backburner solo project" off the ground next year as well, called Rx11.

Vudu: "Right now there is a general feeling in hip-hop that everything has been done, and we've got to find that new direction. That's why you're hearing dancehall, Indian singing and sitars, and other external influences in the music now. It is becoming more, and loosing its ghetto-ized status. It has touched and crossed over every type of music out there: rock, country, you name it. So meditating on that, I am working on new ideas that I can bring to hip-hop. The hip-hop aspect will be first and foremost, and anything else will be converted into hip-hop form so it may sound more like evolution than revolution, but it will be creative, fresh and interesting."