It wasn’t a full house at The Observatory on March 5, but the crowd and rapper Camm Hunter jammed out to a mix of old hits and new songs.
With a very strong fan base and the show being open to anyone, not only Algonquin students, people came from all over Ottawa and farther. Hunter was expecting the crowd to be different from other shows but still gave it his all.
“I have fun regardless, get up there get to jump around and play music, I can’t complain,” Hunter said in an interview before the show.
The rapper released his second mix tape titled, Just Saying, following his first Just Me, this past January. The album went to number one on iTunes’ hip-hop/rap chart right after it was released.
Hunter is one of six members of the Canadian band Down With Webster. He was a solo rapper before he joined the band and has since continued doing his own music apart from them.
But he is still very much a part of the band, which is something he reassured the crowd during his performance.
What drives Hunter to do his solo music is the music itself.
“I just like making music and I like rapping and I find that a lot of time just by nature of having two rappers and a singer it’s fairly limited (in Down With Webster).
I get to write a lot, but in terms of what I get to do on songs, so I like being able to make songs where I get to do the whole thing,” Hunter said.
“It’s kind of selfish but it’s something I like doing.”
Hunter started his set off with a few new songs from Just Saying then played several older favourites from his first mix tape, including F*** That and SOB.
He later switched back to new songs including his favourite off the album, Dog, and finished off with his most popular song, Oh Lord.
With Down With Webster member, Diggy the DJ backing him up and Hunter’s drummer, Emerson Tavares, the rapper’s stop in Ottawa on his Just Tour made for a great night of music at the Ob.
Hunter makes his own beats with the help of Marty Martino, another Down with Webster member, then adds raps and records.
“It’s pretty easy, it’s what comes naturally to me and it’s what I’ve always liked doing,” Hunter said.
From Carleton University students to Algonquin students to die-hard fans from Montreal, everyone seemed to enjoy the show.
It was Brianna Kazen-Laury, a second-year culinary management student’s first time seeing Hunter.
“It was good, I really, really enjoyed myself,” Kazen-Laury said.