Music

These struggle rappers used #BellLetsTalk to share their tracks

by Josiah Hughes

Yesterday was the fifth annual “Bell Let’s Talk” day, an event where a giant corporate telecom company donates a small portion of their wealth to causes that help people deal with mental illness. Every time anyone used the “#BellLetsTalk” hashtag on social media, the company donated five cents to the cause.

There’s no question that mental health issues are worthy of attention, and people should be praised for having the courage to speak up about these things that we rarely talk about enough. But, as some people pointed out, adding a corporation’s name to every mention of mental illness can definitely give it it a gross marketing feel.

Things get even murkier when Twitter gets involved, as the marketing aspect is compounded with other people’s various marketing ploys. As they have in previous years, thirsty musicians quickly hopped on the trending hashtag to peddle their various projects.

There were plenty of fire mixtapes being bandied about by struggle rappers of all kinds, plus some rock songs and electronic music thrown in for good measure. Here, a look at some of the music shared during #BellLetsTalk.

T.J. Freeq, a rapper from Georgia, wrote “hope this really helps out those kids” with the hashtag before sharing a DatPiff link to the new mixtape from his crew Saran Rap Gang:

Omni Omniscent, a rapper from California, hopped on Canada’s favourite hashtag to share “Haile Selassie 2,” a kind of amazing trap song that sounds like a Lil B song recorded into a MacBook’s broken internal mic:

This guy was hoping he’d get some attention from the former Mr. Amber Rose:

This kid had his hype in the right place, complete with three fire emojis, but he didn’t get his promo game tight enough to have his mixtape ready to go for the big day:

Bronx rapper Big Exodu$ kept it going today, sharing a seriously lyrical, lo-fi hip-hop track with the tag earlier today:

This kid at least didn’t make it about himself, instead talking about his friend Sam Hamilton’s “Swimming Pools” remix:

A Memphis rapper named Ray Da Tay wrote “up with me fuck with me” before sharing a track called “MJ” produced by Nightmare Status Beats:

Ohio rapper Dez Tha Reason shared a drugged-up flip of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” using #BellLetsTalk as well as #NaomiCampbell and #Cookie:

Miami’s Kingg Ysn ChooChoo shared a track called “Got Clout,” complete with Soundcloud art that sees him pointing a gun at the camera:

It wasn’t all American rappers hopping on the tag, however, as Whitby, Ontario’s Vince Guglielmi shared an amateur rap track repping the 905:

Another Canadian electronic artist who goes by the name of Alicia TheBest wrote the hashtag eight times to promote her bedroom synth track:

Drew Brown kept it Canadian as hell, sharing his bluesy adult-contempo rock jam “Tiger” with anyone clicking on the #BellLetsTalk hashtag as well as the Juno Awards account:

It’s unlikely that any of these desperate artists will be signing any record deals despite their crass self-promo, but Bell Let’s Talk managed to raise over six million dollars for its cause.