MY PERSONAL COT
Falice Chin 

COT is the first hip hop crew that I really became a fan of. I was always a punk-rock chick before that... I disliked rap, disliked the culture, etc etc. It was not until I met Size and COT that I changed my views on Mcs and DJs. 

The first COT I met was last year at Size's house. N-DIT came to his house to pick us up to Jubilee's youth night. I wasn't a Christian back then and Size told me that "Nathan is a cool guy, but he plays his music too loud in the car." So in my picture I imagined some hardcore gansta-rap dude booming his music like nuts. 

Door rang and in came a skinny dude named Nathan. He shook my hand and I was thinking like dude only old people shake hands when they meet. My first impression of him was Whoa what an ideal McDonald's worker! He had really short and neatly trimmed hair, clean-shaved, T-shirt and pants. In the car I was thinking, "Man that ear-ring doesn't match his looks, he's too straight-edge." 

Terakoza or TK was the second COT I met, it was the same night I think. But maybe I just met him in a split second and forgot him. I met him the next week again and that's my first real memory of him. 

TK came into Jubilee and free-styled with Size (I was hanging out with Size prior to that). I thought TK looked like a baby, or a really young kid blown up. I'm pretty sure I told him that too and he said, "Yeah everyone says that." I asked him his age and he's like 19, THAT was a real suprise. Then he started recording Rickki's singing and I got annoyed because I was trying to do my homework. Then N-DIT came to join them and I couldn't recognize the dude cuz this time I guess he changed into his "Hiphop outfit". 

So this went on for a while, I came to know N-DIT a bit better cuz he always gave me rides. But I never actually knew that he seriously rhymed like TK and Size until a few weeks later when he said he likes rhyming in French. He rhymed something like "Je dis salut a tout les fools dans ma vie" later I heard it again in La visage de la verite. I was like "Hey je peux practiquer Francais avec toi!" (Hey I can practice French with you!) blah blah blah. And TK I just liked him cuz he looked a cute baby, I also remmembered TK as the guy who likes to eat everything. 

I didn't meet Belo until a month later or something. One Jubilee night N-DIT, this kid named Ryan, and I were walking out the church and a skater looking dude in a toque came talking to them. He saw me and he's like, "you got cool hair... yeah I really like that" left briefly after. I thought of him as a real laid-back causual person. I'm probably more right about him than N-DIT. Anyways I met him again in N-DIT's life group one night, he just went on and on reciting Bible verses, finding quotes, giving advices etc etc. I was like, "Whoa this dude is like the priest or something..." 

Later I looked into his Bible, it was pages and pages of notes, highlighted and underlined verses, and glued with tinfoil page turner thingies. He drew grafs all over it, decorated it real nice I would've never guessed it was a Bible. That night I also played the guitar and he really encouraged me, he said, "I didn't sing along cuz I just enjoyed hearing you go off with your guitar, I like that." he said something like "You know how some people just show off with solos and all that, I don't it like that, I just like watching people really get into their inistruments, go off with it." Belo also prayed for me out loud with the mic when I got baptised, I'll never forget that I totally appreciated his words. 

The more time I spent with these boys, the more I came to love them. N-DIt lives close so thats no problem, TK and Belo live way down south so it's harder to chill with them. Nevertheless I see them in Church and the first time I heard their music I was shocked by how good it was. I just imagined them to be real amateur MCs that rap for fun. I never expected a quality produced song to come out. The beat and lyrics are soo tight and fresh! 

So since then I've been chasing after every news of the crew, their music and album and all that. I started spreading COT songs all over Napster, checking their website regularly, listening to them freestyle, playing the music to my friends, and staying home listening to the radio waiting for their song to play. I'd say I'm a pretty crazy fan of theirs, of my friends, which is kindda funny. When they are on stage I just yell "U guys are so HOT!" For real COT is a bunch of real cool dudes, and knowing their personalities and values just makes their songs mean so much more.