I'll House You

You in my hut now

Okay, time to offer up the ultimate Buck 65 merch item: my house! I know this sounds silly but I’m kinda serious. Let me tell you why you want to buy my house, especially if you’re a hip hop head.

First, the basics: Semi-detached house. I think we’re talking 1200 square feet. Maybe 1300. Two floors and a basement. Two bedrooms. One dope-ass huge bathroom. Hardwood floors. Nice little yard (front and back). Private parking space. Awesome group of close-knit neighbors who will definitely embrace you. All of this in an up-and-coming neighborhood in Toronto. 

Bonus features: Mud room. You don’t know how great and useful it is to have a mud room until you have one. Not a common thing to find in Toronto. Cozy room/office space. On the second floor, there’s a small room that could be used for a variety of purposes. It could be a nursery. It could be a big-ass walk-in closet. It could be an office. It could be a recording/studio space. Heck, you could probably even turn it into a small third bedroom, if you wanted to. I’ve seen smaller in Toronto. And as an added bonus, there’s a deck (new construction) off that room.

Also: unfinished basement. I know most people are looking for a finished basement. I use it as storage because I have a lot of stuff. I currently keep all of my bikes and baseball gear down there. About a third of my record collection is down there. The Buck 65 archives are down there. And all my gear is down there. It’s where I record. I recorded Billy, Flash Grenade, King Of Drums, Super Dope, Punk Rock B-Boy, North American Adonis, two more yet-to-be-released albums and a bunch of other stuff down there. History was made in that basement. And in case you’re wondering if the basement gets wet, I wouldn’t keep my equipment and record collection down there if it did. 

Now let’s get into the weeds a little bit. The house is wider than most Toronto houses. It feels very spacious, which is nice. High ceilings too. The kitchen is quite up to date. The appliances are all pretty new and in perfect working order. The dishwasher is brand new. There’s a workhorse washer and dryer in the basement. It also looks like there was a second bathroom down there once upon a time. If you wanted to add a second bathroom, you could do it pretty easily because the plumbing is in place. The furnace and hot water heater are both brand new as of just a few months ago. The nicest feature of the whole house is the bathroom. It’s weirdly huge. Modern fixtures. Claw-foot bathtub. Big shower. The fact that the house has just the one bathroom is made up for by the fact that it’s so big. Twenty people could hang out in there. Many of my guests have said it looks like a bathroom from a magazine. 

The backyard space is ideal for barbecuing and hanging out. There are planter boxes on three sides with some nice greenery and flowers. The garden in the front yard is beautiful. Two lilac trees. All kinds of flowers grow out there. There are nice surprises from the spring to fall. 

Here’s the most important thing to know. The house is the last house on the street (dead end), which has a lot of advantages. For example, you never have to stress out about blocking traffic when you’re loading into your Uber and it makes finding the place - for friends and deliveries, etc. - very easy. Now here’s the kicker: just beyond the dead end of the street (about 150 feet from the house) are railroad tracks that freight trains run on. So you wonder about the noise. The house has new windows and is insulated well. Unless you have all the windows open, the trains aren’t all that loud. After about two weeks, you don’t even notice them anymore. They don’t wake me up when I’m sleeping. On an average day, two-to-six trains may go by.  

But here’s the dope part: if you’re interested in trains or graffiti art, it’s a dream. During the warm weather months, you don’t see the trains from the ground floor. The view is blocked by the leaves of trees and vines that grow on a fence that runs along the tracks. During those times of year, you can see the trains from the second floor. In the cold months (when there are no leaves on the trees and vines) you see the trains from all the windows on the side of the house facing the tracks. There are engines and cars from every rail company in North America. And you know what that means, right? Every day is a free art show. You see pieces by legends every day. You see absolutely incredible whole-car masterpieces. Sure, you see some crap too. But the thrills are constant. Watching those trains and all that art go by has inspired a lot of the writing I’ve done over the years. 

The neighborhood is great. Centrally located in Toronto. It’s right in the middle of everything. I can bike to the CN tower in about 15 minutes. It’s a residential area but there are four groceries stores within short walking distance. Four! Lots of great restaurants and cafes. Nice park close by. Gas station close by. A library close by. Fire and police stations close by. Subway station close by. Everything you could need. And like I said, an incredible group of neighbors. Best I’ve ever had by a mile. We all know each other’s names. We look out for each other. We get together on special occasions. It’s the greatest thing. 

Another bonus for the hip hop heads is that Toronto is a great city for record-digging. Live Convention happens here every fall. And pretty much every tour stops in Toronto. There are hip hop shows here all the time. I saw Slick Rick here a few weeks ago. It’s a hip hop city.

I won’t say what I’m asking for the house here but it’s Toronto. It’s a big city. You can look up average home prices in Toronto. It’s not cheap but I can tell you that the asking for my place will be on the low end of what’s available in the city. It’s an ideal starter-home for a young couple or for someone who’s running solo. 

The house is move-in ready. Doesn’t really need anything. The roof may need looking at in the next ten years but the eavestroughs are brand new so there’s no issues there. You might want to update the kitchen a little some day. You might want to finish the basement to your liking. That’s about it! I’ve updated a lot of stuff myself over the last few years. You can move in tomorrow and chill. 

Buy my house. From me. We won’t have to pay realtor fees. If this sounds interesting to you at all, reach out. I’ll send you photos and we can talk about the price. Hell, if it makes any difference, I’ll throw in a copy of every release in my catalog, including all the rarest stuff. Who wants to buy my house? You can DM me on IG (or request to do so). That’s probably the best way. You can try me on Twitter but I’m not as on top of that account as I used to be. Don’t bother with Facebook. I’m not sure if you can message me through Substack, to be honest. There are ways. Reach out. Serious inquiries only.

Until the next.