New Tech New Voices: Toronto’s Rappers
There’s long been a sentiment that Toronto’s rappers have to find success in the United States before their own country will appreciate them. As Amanda Parris writes for CBC, she first heard Tory Lanez at the same time as fans south of the border, even though the Brampton-born artist had been creating and selling mixtapes around the GTA for years.
This is largely due to the lack of institutional promotion of Canadian hip hop. The Juno’s Rap Recording of the Year award is rarely televised (even after The Rascalz protested the issue in 1998) and except for the Monday night slot on G 98.7, there’s no major radio station or program in dedicated to playing local rap. Traditionally, mediums like these have created a community around artists — something that’s been missing from Canadian hip hop for a long time.
Parris’s experience isn’t unique. Many Toronto hip hop fans weren’t listening to our country’s biggest stars, including Drake, until American money was put behind them. But recently, this has slowly been changing in Toronto — thanks to video streaming sites like YouTube.
Hip hop and the internet have developed alongside each other, and the genre lives online in a unique way. It is the soundtrack to today’s memeing culture, HipHopHeads is the most subscribed music-genre subreddit, and millions of people watch videos the genre’s top radio shows online instead of listening live.
Toronto’s rappers are using this to their advantage. With the absence of traditional media support, they’re meeting their fans online to create their own communities. Submitting their song for radio play is often less important than getting a strong music video up on YouTube. The scripts are often similar — shots of the artist and their friends going wild for the camera mixed with footage of the surrounding neighbourhood. While it doesn’t sound unique, this is the first time for many seeing their area celebrated — whether it’s the Esplanade, Rexdale or Scarborough.
These videos are getting millions of views, and not because they’re expertly crafted productions. It’s the content that matters. The comment sections are filled with fans celebrating the slang used, congratulating their friends featured in the background, or shouting out locations they recognize.
The success of these videos is leading to live shows featuring a range of rappers and collectives (a new phenomenon in what was formerly the Screwface Capital). Production companies are being created and independent management teams are popping up. The industry’s major players are also noticing — both traditional labels and new Canadian focused ones like OVO and XO — and giving these rappers some commercial viability.
A new pride is bubbling in Toronto’s hip hop community, not just for the city as whole, but for individual neighbourhoods, cultures and ways of life. Listeners are connecting with artists in ways never seen in the city before, and it’s starting with YouTube.
