Rift honed his sing-song flow as Selfhelp alongside Thesis Sahib as part of London, Ontario-based rap duo Bending Mouth with a self-titled album (2002) and vinyl EP (2004) – both amongst the earliest Backburner releases – with production from Fresh Kils, Uncle Fes, Timbuktu, Jesse Dangerously and Savilion, and then followed that up with two solo Selfhelp albums (Old Friends in 2009 and Broken Shadows in 2010) and an album focusing on the subject of nostalgia under the name The Garthim-Master (Ghosts of Nostalgia, 2011), finally settling on Rift for Carry the Fire and future projects.