Musicians are transients, a less-constant presence in their
respective scenes than Depression-era hobos riding from town to town in
boxcars. Stalwart observers note the faces and names of performers only
if they stick around long enough to grow roots; there is too much
turnover to get attached otherwise. From time to time they will
reminisce about the disappearance of certain players before they had
overstayed their welcome. Why do the good ones go while the talentless
ones stay? One such man who made an early exit from the Portland hiphop
scene is Chris Riser, long ago known as I-Trans.
Starting at the age of 16, Riser frequently attended hiphop shows in
town. “I’d go to as many as I could,” says Riser. “I’d try to freestyle
in the crowd and start ciphers.” Though now clean shaven and reserved,
at that time Riser was a dreadlocked fireball of energy, exploding with
rhymes in between sets at shows. But like so many other musicians not
earning a paycheck from their songs, Riser’s life changed and he was
forced to put his creativity on hold.
With the birth of his first daughter in 2000, then his second in
2003, he would be far too busy and concerned with his family to think
about rapping for the next nine years. Then Riser met up with an old
acquaintance—a friend of his brother’s who had turned him on to
hiphop music when he was 10 years old. “We both had kids and were
talking about how much we love hiphop but that we’re so busy with our
families,” says Riser. “But he really encouraged me to get back into
it.”
From there it was a short leap to Riser releasing the CR EP,
a collection of songs he had been sitting on, some for as long as three
years. The self-produced, written, and packaged album is both an
introspective trip into the now-29-year-old emcee’s life, and a primer
on how to deliver fresh rhymes. Riser hasn’t lost much game over his
nearly decade-long hiatus and can still twist patterns with the best
emcees out there.
While performers come and go with ease, real artists do not. They
may become distracted by the meanders of life but they’ll return to
performing for the rush and release that they crave. Now on the
comeback trail, Chris Riser has a lot to say and in a style that
demands attention; hopefully he will not disappear on us again.