On an October fall night in Hamburg, Germany, hundreds of people lined up outside a performance hall, waiting to walk through the doors to see Kuzi Cee play his music.
The line outside the hall wrapped around the corner of the building, with the energy from outside transferring over into the venue. But the show-goers didn’t get a set list typical of what is associated with music from the city Kuzi Cee calls home.
There was no country or folk music coming through the sound system. Instead, it was a mix of R&B, hip-hop and Afrobeats — a sound that Cee has been working on since he started taking his craft seriously around four years ago.
The Calgary-based artist has seen his career grow over that time. He’s gone from playing small venues in bars and clubs around the city, to doing shows at the Grandstand at the Calgary Stampede and singing vocals as a backup for artists including Michael Bublé and Jessie Reyez.
He’s opened for big-name artists like Ikky and Roy Woods, and, just last month, Cee took his talents overseas where he played packed shows at the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany.
WATCH | Kuzi Cee talks about his music career as a Calgary-based artist:
Featured VideoKuzi Cee details his time at a German music festival and how he’s managed to pave a path for himself in Calgary’s music scene
“It was one of the first moments where I could fully immerse myself in being a full-time musician,” he said.
“I would go to start the songs and I would be looking into the crowd and I’m seeing people’s mouths the words to songs … everyone was showing so much love and energy.”
Getting to that point, however, wasn’t an easy task.
For a long time, Calgary’s been associated with country music, something that Cee said has made things more challenging for musicians like him to launch themselves. Many often go to places like Toronto to pave their way into the industry.
“That’s kind of what we’re known for as an export for music, it is a little bit difficult,” he said
“It’s just because that’s not what people are looking for over here.”
Over time, that’s started to change. Platforms for hip-hop and R&B have emerged in Calgary over the last few years.
Musicians from those genres have started to see themselves play bigger shows and break into spaces that they couldn’t play before.
Those genres have also become more celebrated and showcased at public spaces across the city.
“There is a small knit community where we all do strive to help push each other to become better, to grow and kind of develop that scene here in Calgary to make sure that people know that we do have those exports in hip-hop, we do have those exports in R&B, dancehall, reggaeton,” Cee said.
“We have that spice over here as well. It’s predominantly making those reaches, making those leaps and beating that stereotype of I’m going to go to Toronto. We got it over here, too.”
