This may come as a surprise to some people, but the Canadian hip-hop scene is actually a lot bigger than just Drake and the Weeknd.
Majid Jordan, an artist signed to OVO, performed in Toronto last Thursday. At the end of his set Drake made a surprise appearance on sage, performing God's Plan live for the first time. He announced he was back in town finishing up his new album and that he would release a new single the next night.
Not even 24 hours in and Nice For What already has over 2.6 million views. #1 on trending. Viral shit.
A Toronto native myself, it's always an event when Drake comes to town. He's got his fair share of haters here too, sure, but his music is shown nothing but Love. Whenever a new Drake single drops Toronto plays it to death in the best way.
Tinted windows rolled down at red lights with Look Alive shaking the glass is still a common occurrence around here.
It got me thinking though, aside from a rare Drake appearance every now and then, not even anyone in Canada is talking about Canada's hip hop scene.
In the 1990's if you asked someone about Canadian hip hop, you might get some mention of reggae artist Snow's Informer. Beyond that there was nothing really going on. Of course there were some great underground artists at this point, and at every point, but as far as recognition on the world stage goes, Canada was just a blip on the map.
Things started to change in the 2000's. Artists like Madchid and The Swollen Members started making some noise south of the boarder. Haling from British Columbia, They showed the world that the polite Canadian stereotype doesn't apply to all of us. They were a bunch of wild rowdy rappers and they did their country proud.
Candian radio stations started playing a lot more hip hop around this time too, but nothing nearly as explicit as The Swollen Members' music. This was the time artist's like Kardinal Official, Classified, K'naan, Shad, K-Os, and many others got some national recognition for the first time. Every one of these artists are great really; in their own respects they are phenomenal, but heir music does seem to come off as very "Canadian". That's not a bad thing necessarily, its just the passion and aggression of hip hop seems to clash with the kind, Canadian demeanour. Synthesizing these two elements is what makes Canadian hip hop unique, and doing it well is what makes a Canadian artists successful.
2008 is when I first started hearing rumblings about this kid from Toronto hanging out with Lil Wayne and Young Money. Then in 2009, Drake dropped Forever and the world hasn't stopped talking about him since. With verses from some of the biggest names in hip-hop at the time, Forever perfectly exhibited Drake's unique flow and ability to switch from aggressive MC to R&B loverboy with ease. He had successfully taken the smooth, polite Canadian cadence and sold it to hip-hop fans in a way they would accept.
Drake's Friend Abel Tesfaye started to make a name for himself at this time as well. Releasing songs like The Morning on Youtube under the name The Weeknd, Abel's sound caught on quick. He released his first mixtape, House of Balloons, in 2011 and the industry loved it. His dark subject matter with hypnotic melodies with twistedly romantic lyrics started a wave of this part-rap-part-R&B kind of sound that's everywhere now. It's a sound that Drake has used a lot, along with other Canadian artists like Belly and PARTYNEXTDOOR. In fact, it has now become the de facto sound when people think of Canadian hip-hop.
This is fine; its a great sound after all, I love a good Weeknd Ballad. It's just not the whole story; we're so much more than just OVOXO.
many picture Drake, but THIS is the gaodfather of Canadian hip-hop
The Vancouver scene that birthed the Swollen Members didn't stop just because Toronto stole the spotlight. Swollen Members disbanded but Madchild has made a great career for himself. He's released four solo albums and started BattleAxe Records, a label with many up and coming Candian artist's.
The Vancouver scene is also home to the Stopdown Killaz, a crew including rappers like Merkules and Snak The Ripper. Merkules spent most of 2017 releasing covers of the year's biggest hits. In many cases his cover is way better than the original. Merk is extremely underrated which is a shame because not only is he one of the most talented rappers in the country, its clear he's a genuinely nice guy; a true Canuck. Snak The Ripper is a dark maniac in his songs, rapping about the rural Candian life of trucks and winters and lacing it with the hip-hop culture he came from. Snak had a bit of a fued with Madchild in 2016, with the two trading diss tracks back and forth about some words Madchild got caught saying about the Stompdown boys. The tracks were aggressive and raw and showed that the Canadians don't mind getting down too.
Viceland's Noisey did a great documentary about Canadian hip-hop last year titled 6ix Rising. As the title suggests, the move focuses entirely on Toronto. Many of the artists in the movie, like Pressa for example, embody that "OVOXO" sound to a tee. This is no surprise, as the OVO Sound label is an aspiration for many Toronto Artists. There's also, however, plenty of rappers in the city who don't fit that mold. They want to open some doors that Drake hasn't already torn down.
The problem is that the world doesn't seem to want to listen what else Canada has to say, they just want to crank One Dance and dream of the Views from the 6ix.