File this under the softest wussiest beef that hip-hop has ever seen. In one corner it’s fast-talking former Fast Forward Weekly music and film editor Mark Teo. In the other it’s local rapper and Jann Arden collaborator Transit.
If this was on MediaTakeOut.com it’d come with a headline like “NUUUH UUUUHHH… Transit Serves Marky T… WITH A POSTCARD.” If it was on World Star well… it wouldn’t be on World Star because there’s no twerking and virtually nothing else entertaining about this clip.
It all started in November when Mark Teo wrote an opinion piece about the trouble with prideful city anthems. Using Transit’s overly earnest “Calgary” as his main example he pointed out that the video was “maddeningly stereotypical” adding “There’s stock shots of the city’s nondescript skyline Calgary tower included. Its final verses are carried by Jann Arden (who else?). And the biggest offender might be its chorus — which in declaring that “we are not just cowboys” operates under the presupposition that we are in fact all just cowboys. Sigh.”
Our boy Teo added “’Calgary’ feels like something developed by a tourism board. It feels like a marketing campaign selling a substandard product (that is to say the Calgary tower Jann Arden and a smug defensiveness about “not being cowboys”). Or a cry for attention external validation or both. Or a clumsy attempt to capture the city’s zeitgeist. Worst of all it feels like misinformed civic pride.”
Shit did not sit well with Tran who has apparently been biting his tongue for nearly five months. Yesterday however he finally addressed his hater with a new vlog.
Transit’s not delivering his message of love from his beloved Calgary however and there’s no Jann Arden here to back him up. Instead he’s on a Euro trip waiting for his dinner at an Amsterdam restaurant (a city that he’s already wholeheartedly embraced repping it hard with a fitted cap).
He goes on to describe that he doesn’t want to lash out Teo instead deciding to take the high road. What that means apparently is sending Mark a postcard from Amsterdam.
It’s all pretty boring but there’s at least some passive aggression to keep things beefy —he goes on to explain that it’s cold in the winter in Canada and Mark must be feeling real butthurt to be sitting at his shitty desk job while others are out there living their dreams all around the world. He goes on to tell Mark that he should make sure to bundle up in Calgary (which apparently is now a cold sad place).
While we await Transit’s postcard in the mail check out his Mark Teo diss clip below along with the original “Calgary” music video. We’ve reached out for Mark to respond but he’s too busy bundled up in blankets and a hot water bottle miserably typing away at a desk in a cold wretched office as he longs for a hot meal and a shot at his destiny.
