Shades of Culture was a Canadian hip hop trio from Montreal. Its members are known as DShade, Revolution, and DJ Storm. The group performs mainly in English. Shades of Culture was one of the first Quebec hip hop groups to become known outside of their province."Tour d’horizon du rap anglophone local : La minorité silencieuse". Voir, Olivier Boisvert-Magnen 31 October 2013
History The trio was started in 1991 in Montreal.C, Scott. "Shades of Culture celebrate their 10th anniversary", Montreal Mirror, 2002. Archived at the Wayback Machine. They won the Big Break competition in 1992, and then recorded record several demo tapes .
Shades of Culture participated in a number of Canadian tours with U.S. and Canadian bands, including Bad Brains,"Video Premiere: Shades of Culture 'Hip Hop Sh!t'". Ion, 06/21/2016 (The Almighty) Trigger Happy, SNFU, and Ten Foot Pole. After performing regularly for three years, the trio recorded an EP entitled Paying Rent. This three song demo also included a video which aired regularly across Canada.
After completing their fourth tour across Canada, the trio released their first full-length CD entitled Mindstate in 1998,"Forgotten Treasure: Shades of Culture “Mindstate” (1998)". Music is my Sanctuary, MF Gold — May 7, 2012 and later several 12" singles with Mr. Len and DJ A-Trak. They also released a self-titled "Mindstate" single featuring Desi DiLauro. Their video aired regularly on Muchmusic, MusiquePlus, BET and MTV. The trio band subsequently took several short tours around Quebec with pop group Backstreet Boys. They also opened for Eminem, Gang Starr, KRS-One, The Beatnuts, Ben Harper, Onyx, and Jurassic 5.
In 2000, one of their songs was included on the compilation album State of the Union."Various State of the Union". Exclaim!, by Patrick Lejtenyi. Sep 01, 2000
Shades of Culture were DMC Competition Judges in 1998 and 1999. They appeared in the movie Hang the DJ and worked on the sound effects and music score for Wesley Snipes' movie Art of War. They were included in The Source magazine's article about the hip hop scene in Montreal, as well as in a segment about scratching on FOX Network's Popular Mechanics for Kids.
In 2003, the group opened for The Roots at their Montreal concert."Tour Kickoff: Hip-hop band mixes new tunes with old-school favorites in Montreal". MTV News, Alyssa Rashbaum. 02/03/2003.
The trio conducted a seminar on scratching and sampling at "Les Rencontres", and were on the first cover of Vice Magazine (then called Voice of Montreal).
Discography 1996 Payin' Rent (EP) 1998 Mindstate 2000 A Little Bit About Us"What were you doing in '93? We know...: Where were we in ’93?". Hour Community, Isa Tousignant – May 15, 2008 2002 Unbreakable/D.I.Y (double single)
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