Rise of Jessie Reyez elevates Remix Project
TORONTO Tucked away on a neighbourhood street in downtown Toronto, a meeting of eager creative minds could be hatching the next music superstar.
It’s welcome night for the 14th edition of the Remix Project, a mentorship program for young adults looking to enter Canada’s music industry, and while most of the new recruits are strangers the energy between them is palpable.
Organizers are feeling it too — they’re hot off the buzz of their latest alumni success story: four-time Juno Award nominated singer Jessie Reyez. Her career blossomed after she joined the program in 2014 and it’s here Reyez met many of the people who helped launch her career.
Remix Project prioritizes underprivileged and marginalized youth in hopes that by giving them guidance, production resources and valuable connections, they’ll be able to overcome some of the industry’s biggest obstacles. The participants aren’t just experienced singers and rappers, but also audio engineers, photographers, DJs and public relations managers looking to get a career foothold.
“Remix isn’t a place where you start doing music,” says Ritchie Acheampong, better known as producer Rich Kidd, who won a Juno as part of rap collective Naturally Born Strangers in 2015.
“It’s a place where... you’ve built your skill. Maybe you feel you’ve put in 5,000 of the 10,000 hours you need, and now it’s just like, how do I take it to the next level?”
A year before he worked alongside Drake on his breakthrough “Comeback Season” mixtape, Acheampong was part of the Remix Project's first round of students in 2006. He now serves as mentor to newcomers.
Roughly 400 hopefuls applied to fill 45 spots in this year’s Remix music program. The leaders hand-picked the group based on their skills and ambition, and will put them through nine months of rigorous workshops and classes in their specialized field.
Twelve years after the Remix Project formed, its influence is becoming increasingly undeniable. Amid a renaissance in Toronto’s music scene — led by Drake, the Weeknd and more recently Daniel Caesar — some of the program’s graduates have found themselves among the most sought-after talent in the industry.
Francis Nguyen-Tran (who produces under the pseudonym FrancisGotHeat) oversaw the creation of Drake’s “4422” from the “More Life” album, and he’s a frequent collaborator with fellow Toronto-area rapper Roy Woods.
There’s also producer Ebony Oshunrinde, better known as WondaGurl, whose resume after Remix Project includes laying down tracks with Jay-Z, Rihanna, Big Sean and rap’s new generation of household names like Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert.
Acheampong says with Toronto’s status among the global hip-hop community where it is today, there’s never been so much potential for locals artists, who once lived in the shadows of Los Angeles and New York.
“We’re in a generation where Toronto is cool to the rest of the world,” he said.