Before listening to a single note of Suris’ new album, “Pertinax”, I spent a few minutes just looking at the word. Pertinax. It has the distinct ring of a Stoic philosopher’s last defiant utterance or maybe a type of beetle known for its unusually stubborn shell. What a curious flag to fly for a collection of songs in an age of fleeting distraction. But...

It takes a peculiar kind of endurance for Raw Soul to release "Still High...", an album that acts as a profound dissertation on life, mental health, and the sheer audacity of survival. By day, he is a practicing lawyer in Vancouver; by night, he operates as a fiercely independent hip-hop architect, handling every single step of the writing, mixing, and mastering process himself. He...