Self-Released
Released on October 23rd, 2026
I don’t like spiders, but I can get behind Anansi (Aunt Nancy. Get it?). This clever play on words introduces Pat Clifton’s spellbinding album, inspired in part by conversations with his grandmother and part lived experiences growing up black in Alberta. Here’s my hot tea take after letting it all sink in.
If anyone tells you there’s no hip-hop in Alberta, I would have a list of artists I’d introduce them to. With Halfcut taking home the Rap YYC Music Award this year, boom-bap, real-rap, hip-hop, is bubbling back to the surface. And if Pat Clifton has anything to say about it, Alberta will be, maybe already is, leading that charge.
Clifton’s latest project, I Spoke With Aunt Nancy, is introspective, lyrically sharp, and rooted in storytelling that makes you want to run it back. There’s a particular kind of wizardry that happens when someone with roots in poetry picks up a mic. They pull you into a story, leave you with a line you weren’t expecting, then let you ponder what the hell you just heard.
Take The H8 U Give, for example. The title brings to mind The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas’s novel whose title references Tupac Shakur’s famous interpretation of THUG LIFE: “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody.” Clifton offers his own iteration of the term. Fittingly, this album gives 2pac vibes: deeply personal, spiritually conscious, and socially aware. Hip-hop, with messages drawn from the artist’s own experiences. Poetic.
Then there’s Brudda Doe. Why did I cry the first time I heard this song? I really would “get it out the mud for the blood.” (A sick double entendre, by the way. This album is full of lyrical moments you’ll catch on the third, fourth, and beyond run-throughs.) That feeling of loyalty, love, and doing whatever it takes for your people hit me somewhere deep. Clifton doesn’t just rap at you, he makes you feel something and discuss it with whoever will answer your texts in the moment.
The beat switches, flow changes, diction, cadence, lyrical content… WHOA. Co-produced by Matthew Miller and Clifton himself, this album had me making the stank face more than once. Impulsive was released as a single, so if you’ve heard it, you know the energy. But this isn’t one of those projects where the singles are highlights and the rest fills out the tracklist. Every song feels like it could have been a single. I genuinely don’t know how he chose.
Created by Corrina, the artwork deserves its own conversation, but I’ll leave that discovery to you. Go look at it, then listen. It’s the perfect visual companion to the music. Clifton is intentional with his collaborations too, from Michael DeSouza’s bass contributions to verses from Pierre Mvono and myself. The beat Miller and Clifton created for our track? I accidentally ate way too much of it, haha. I genuinely didn’t know how to stop rapping. And before anyone assumes my favourite track is the one I’m on, let me be clear: it isn’t. I promise there’s more to discover. If you’ve heard The Night They Took Chloe Cooley, go enjoy the rest of the album. Actually, even if you haven’t.
Seven songs is rude. I need more. I’m selfish.
Until then, seven songs means this project is going straight back on repeat.
