Vancouver-based hip hop recording artist (and new Rebel!) Matt Brevner

Rebel News
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May 19, 2021

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Vancouver-based hip hop recording artist Matt Brevner checks all the right boxes to be a darling of the left.

He’s a visible minority; half Trinidadian and half Japanese. He cares about social justice and improving the lives of the people who live on the fringes of society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. He’s been nominated for a Juno and a Western Canadian Music Award, to name just a couple of his many accolades. He takes the time to foster and mentor up-and-comers in his industry.

Even Daily Hive had kind things to say about Matt, writing in a 2017 feature that “these young artists are lucky to have a local talent like Brevner to look up to. Brevner takes the time and acknowledges all the local rappers and artists that are hustling to make it in the music industry.”

Though many in the music industry who knew Matt were aware that he was a strong Christian, Matt was suddenly and unceremoniously cancelled from the music scene after he was spotted with a street preacher evangelizing to Vancouver’s marginalized.

Matt was instantly labeled a homophobe. Then the lie was repeated in the mainstream media over and over again, until it didn't matter if it was true or not. He lost his contract, his friends and the career he’d worked for a decade to build.

But he survived, and now he works for Rebel News as a video journalist doing the valuable work of telling the stories of churches, normal people and businesses hit by the pandemic lockdown. And he’s even got new music set to drop. Matt joins me tonight to discuss what it’s like to be a victim of cancel culture and come out the other side.

Spread the Word!