Allow me to reintroduce myself: The Get By

Gain more insight into significant hip-hop figures by checking out their revealing answers to our questionnaire.

The three members of the Get By, rappers Justis, Mantis and DJ Pangea, spent years honing their individual crafts, tossing beats and verses back and forth as friends are wont to do, before realizing their collaborative strength. Recently relocated to Toronto from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., the Get By released their debut Let Go in fall 2011, which is steeped in their natural camaraderie on display in this short questionnaire.

What was the first hip-hop record you every bought and where’d you get it?

Justis: My cousin Mark let me play through homemade mixtapes that featured a lot of Tribe as well as Dream Warriors and other Canadian artists. So I actually remember picking up two at the same time from an HMV: A Tribe Called Quest's Beats Rhymes & Life and the Canadian compilation, Rap Essentials Volume 1. I listened to both probably 20 times right after buying them.

Mantis: When I was seven or eight I convinced my dad to buy me MC Hammer’s Too Legit Too Quit at the now defunct Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street. I remember not even liking it but the older kids at school were talking about it so I figured it was really cool.

Pangea: Sadly, MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em, from my neighbour. The first one I got on my own was, once my tastes developed, was Method Man’s Tical.

Where did the name you perform under come from?

Mantis: I've had the nickname/alias Mantis since Grade 9 probably. I used to draw a lot and do graffiti stuff and Mantis just stuck.

Pangea: Pangaea was the time period when all the continents were connected. I kind of felt it symbolized unity and oneness and changed the spelling because nobody would pronounce it properly! I just thought it was fly to have a DJ name that sounded like a real name as opposed to “DJ whatever.”

Justis: One night after a pint-fuelled discussion, Talib Kweli's “Get By” came on the radio and Pangea was like “What about Get By?” We added “The” and instantly felt it completely represented us. Boom! Birth of a group.

What was the last book you read and how was it?

Justis: I’m currently reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's a novel influenced by real events about a heroin addict who escapes an Australian prison and travels to Bombay with a false passport.

Mantis: I got a cool book for Christmas called Unbuilt Toronto. It's kind of a glorified coffee table book, but super interesting. It outlines a bunch of proposed plans for Toronto's downtown, transit and waterfront [that] never came to fruition.

Pangea: Jay-Z's Decoded. I liked it for reminiscing, but felt he wasn’t entirely truthful. It’s easy to look back and say, “Oh, I see how when I said this, it meant this” but I don’t believe he was that insightful!

Where is your favourite place to eat on Earth and what are we having?

Justis: My grandmother’s kitchen. Nothing was better than her cooking: curry chicken, fresh-made roti, bakes and fish cakes.

Mantis: There's a restaurant back home in Kitchener called Ellison's. I've known the owner since I was kid. He's the nicest man on Earth and a very talented chef who makes my favourite soup, “Pepper Pot.”

Pangea: My Oma's house, no doubt about it. I don't know how to spell the dish name because it’s Hungarian, but it’s giant meatballs and peppers and pasta. I could live off it.

Which artist, living or dead, would you most like to collaborate with and why?

Justis: Dilla, Kanye West, Pete Rock, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone. They’re all artists I think are geniuses and revolutionaries; I'd just love to be a part of that.

Mantis: John Coltrane or Miles Davis. I’d be way too intimidated to even attempt to collaborate musically. I think it would have been really incredible to sample records and make a beat with the late J Dilla.

Pangea: I’d like to jam with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They had a way of crafting records and bending sound that was ahead of its time. I feel Jimi would be down with turntablism: he was doing the same things with the guitar.