Sonic Time-Slip

Despite his success (multiple Juno awards, multiple platinum albums), Toronto vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Kevin Brereton—aka k-os—has always seemed to relish his anomaly status within the hip-hop mainstream. Since his initial 2002 breakout—fueled by an immaculate single (“Superstarr Pt. 0”) off an otherwise underwhelming album—Brereton has steadily released long-playing blends of hip-hop, reggae, pop-rock and electronic dance music, with eclecticism and positive, down-to-earth sentiment as his signature. But by 2015, popular music’s post-will.i.am, post-Gorillaz, post-Gnarls Barkly landscape had dramatically changed, and simply being varied is no longer enough to differentiate oneself. So: what can one do when the style that previously set an artist apart becomes commonplace?