Tipped as the next big thing to come out of Montreal, Rami B, Dumix, and Tony Stone have been recording and releasing as Planet Giza since 2013. The trio recently released their new EP, Don’t Throw Rocks at the Moon, showing off their musical polymath skills with a blend of funk, disco, trap, R&B, and soul. We talked with the group about influences, social media, and the language barriers between Toronto, Montreal, and Paris.
The following has been lightly edited.
What are some of your current influences?
Rami B: Tyler, the Creator, Anderson .Paak, and The Alchemist – lately, he switched up his style, and I like it very much.
Dumix: I’ve been listening to Steve Lacy and Madlib. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Brent Faiyaz, OutKast, and old Lil’ Wayne.
Tony Stone: I’ve been kind of all over the place: Marvin Gaye, Joey Bada$$, and Brent Faiyaz, as well. I’m also listening to a lot of Wizkid.
What are some of your all-time influences?
Rami B: The Neptunes, for sure. Also, Roy Ayers, Pete Rock, and Q-Tip. These are the artists that I’m always, always listening to.
Dumix: I grew up listening to a lot of southern hip-hop; I started straight listening to dirty south music growing up. I always go back to OutKast, UGK, and that stuff. I also go back to Lil’ Boosie, T.I., and Gucci Mane. Anything that’s southern hip-hop, I go back and listen to.
Tony Stone: OutKast, definitely, and Jay-Z. D’Angelo’s Voodoo is one that I always listen to, and it helps me recharge. Also, I can’t forget The Neptunes.
How does the music you listen to influence how you make your music?
Tony Stone: We take all the different things we’ve been listening to, the different sounds, and we come together and pitch all different ideas. We could be making a dance beat, and then someone will say, “What if we added something right here?” Most of the time, it makes sense.
How do you decide which musical ideas to try and which to discard?
Rami B: Most of the time, it’s unanimous. We’re usually like, “Let’s do it.” And if it doesn’t work we’ll try something else.
Dumix: We don’t bump heads like that. I feel like we can all try anything. If it sounds right, great. If it doesn’t sound right, we don’t do it. No one is scared to say “Nah,” or anything.
What’s the most overrated, right now?
Rami B: Clout, that’s what’s overrated.
Tony Stone: You can’t do nothing with clout.
Dumix: The thing that I enjoyed about music in the past was that an artist could be mysterious. Now, I feel like fans just want to know all about an artist, and they expect to know everything about you. It takes away from the art itself. Sometimes the artists don’t want to be in the limelight and do all that glitz-and-glam stuff that is also a part of clout-chasing.
Tony Stone: If you go into our catalog, I’ve never said the word “clout” one time. I made a promise to myself that I would never use the word “clout” in a lyric.
How do you manage the tension between having to promote yourselves on social media but not wanting to seem like you’re clout-chasing?
Dumix: That’s a constant battle with us. We talk to people, industry people, or whatever, and it’s like: “The music is nice, but the social media is lacking. They could have more ‘likes,’ more followers.”
Tony Stone: More engagement.
Rami B: Show your face more and everything.
Dumix: But we’re not really like that. We do everything, all the social media stuff, but it’s a big conflict for us. We’re working on that, trying to make things have more impact, but still keep some privacy.
What’s the most underrated, right now?
Rami B: Being yourself is underrated. People are always trying to create some sort of story, some sort of a persona, on the internet or in this industry. They’re showing us that they like stuff they don’t really like, just because everybody says they like the same things.
What are you excited about right now?
Rami B: Definitely excited about our EP. I’m excited to do more shows when we’re able to do that again.
Dumix: I’m excited for things to go back to normal, god willing.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Rami B: Shows for sure. And hopefully, we continue to grow our brand and everything. We put in a lot of work during quarantine. We didn’t let the pandemic get into our heads, and we still put in work. So hopefully, it all pays off this year.
Dumix: We’ve been on the right path with our music. We’re not going to fall off. We’re going to keep going.
Bonus Question: What’s the relationship between Montreal and Toronto hip-hop? Are the two scenes close, or is there a rivalry?
Rami B: There is some sort of a relationship, but the thing in Montreal is the language barrier. It cuts everything off between English and Francophone acts. Since we rap in English, we don’t get a lot of attention from the French media. They don’t talk about us a lot more outside of Quebec. On the other hand, we have friends that rap in French that get lots of love in Montreal and Quebec. We produce for them – and a lot of other French acts – so it’s kind of weird we don’t get mentioned more by the French press.
Do you feel closer to French hip-hop – le hip-hop – than the Toronto scene?
Tony Stone: We’ve established many more connections to Paris and French acts in Europe compared to Toronto because of that language barrier. You really have a community of supporters in France as opposed to Toronto where they might not know as much. We have a lot of fans in Paris; they love our songs and everything we do.
