The Rise of Mindflip, one of Canadian rap’s most promising new talents
A look into what the future holds for the Gatineau rapper
Mindflip, whose real name is Simon Béland, is set to have a busy summer. New songs, Montreal’s Metro Metro festival in late May, and Sorel-Tracy’s Gib Fest in July are just a few things the rapper will have on his plate in the coming months. And yet a lot of this is new for Mindflip, who hasn’t been a professional musician for very long.
To understand his rapid success and where he sees his career going from here, I spoke to Béland by phone. We talked about how he blew up, new music, and the future.
Hailing from Gatineau, Béland listened to lots of Quebec rap growing up—especially Lévis-based duo Taktika and the larger hip hop collective known as ‘83’—but only started rapping at the age of 19. From the get-go it seemed to come naturally to him, an unsurprising fact if you’ve listened to his smooth flows on tracks like ‘Destined for Greatness’ or ‘Hits Different.’
“The first song I wrote, I wrote it without writing, you know?” he tells me. “I would freestyle, then listen [to the beat], then freestyle another line. I wrote the song in my head and my friends liked it.”
This experience taught Béland the importance of trusting your instincts when making music.
“Your music is good when it [comes to you] intuitively,” he says.
In 2018, Béland released ‘Everywhere We Go’ on Spotify and YouTube. After the YouTube channel Rap Nation published the music video in January of 2019, he started gaining traction among hip hop fans online. The video currently has over 7.5 million views and the song is still one of Béland’s most listened to on Spotify.
Mindflip’s popularity saw another surge with the release of ‘Run My Shit’ in early 2021. The track quickly became the rapper’s biggest single yet and is in large part responsible for his current success: it was on Spotify’s popular ‘Hot Hits Canada’ playlist, which brought him many new listeners. It featured a more traditional rap style reminiscent of 90s hip hop, with both East and West Coast influences (in fact, Béland names New York rappers Nas, AZ and the Notorious B.I.G. as sources of inspiration for his music, as well as legendary California rapper and singer Nate Dogg).
In the year and a half since ‘Run My Shit,’ Béland hasn’t remained idle. Despite not being signed to a label and having to deal with a global pandemic, he has come out with seven new tracks at regular intervals, in line with his stated goal of releasing a new song every six to eight weeks.
His most recent single, titled ‘High On Life,’ features lyrics celebrating positivity and living life to the fullest and a smooth beat produced by 2FACES and DJ Nerves that’ll definitely have you bopping your head. It was released on April 29, 2022.
And Béland is already talking about releasing a new song on July 8th which he says will be completely different from his previous songs.
“I’m coming out with a track that has those summer vibes, almost like Calvin Harris […], but with rap verses […],” he says.
Béland’s ambition and desire to try new things doesn’t stop there: he tells me he wants to start breaking into the German music scene next year as well (and the American scene the year after). The move is natural for Béland considering the fact he feels his sound will be appreciated in Germany, where he says audiences often enjoy an older style of hip hop. This is shown in his music’s statistics.
“I have more listeners in Munich than in Quebec City, [for example],” he tells me.
The future clearly has a lot in store for Mindflip. And with a new track coming out in less than two months, hip hop heads—and music fans in general—have a lot to look forward to.
In the meantime, you can listen to ‘High On Life’ on Spotify or YouTube. Or you can catch Mindflip performing in concert this summer, including at Montreal’s upcoming Metro Metro festival, which will also feature the likes of 50 Cent, Lil Baby, and fellow Quebeckers Koriass and Fouki.
Music, art writer
