WAITING FOR A SUPERSTAR
City’s anglo rap scene overdue for breakthrough
If Toronto can become a rap music hotbed, why can’t Montreal?
Although the city ’s francophone rap scene is booming — expect to hear Loud’s Toutes les femmes savent danser everywhere this summer — the anglophone rap contingent is still waiting for a breakthrough moment.
There are talented young Montreal rappers who create music and videos that are every bit as slick and professional as their American counterparts. Without the same linguistic barriers as the francophone side, it’s more plausible that an anglo rapper will be the one to finally break into the lucrative U.S. rap market and open the floodgates for their peers. But it hasn’t happened yet, and no one can be sure when it will, or who will be the one to do it.
It took a generational superstar like Drake to transform Toronto into The 6ix. Montreal, home of indie rock, electronic beatmakers and a world-renowned jazz fest, could be an artist or song away from rap recognition.
“That one big hit is what we’re collectively working towards in our own ways,” said Wasiu, a 27-year-old rapper who released the mixtape MTLiens 2 in 2017.
“We need someone, or a few people, to be the face of Montreal,” said Speng Squire, a 22-year-old from LaSalle. “We’re really close. We’re all coming together at the same time, and it feels dope just to be a part of it.”
For Wasiu and Squire — as well as St-Léonard’s Young Troy, West Island’s CJ Flemings, Little Italy’s Hua Li, Little Burgundy’s Nate Husser, Juno nominee Lou Phelps and many more rappers on the cusp — achieving personal success abroad will direct more eyes on the city’s scene as a whole.
Nobody in Montreal has a more colourful way with city-specific references than Wasiu (real name: Jimmy Wasiu Salami), who has lived in Côte-des-Neiges, Terrebonne and St-Léonard. He scored a local viral hit with the song P.K. Subban in 2016, which predicted the hockey star’s falling out over his strong personality. Wasiu’s lyrical world is one of UFOs, sports and poutine, and in his estimation, getting attention outside Montreal doesn’t mean toning down his local flavour.
“I recently had someone from Germany tell me they love the song Cigarettes and Poutine,” Wasiu said. “As long as it sounds good, the message can hit them afterwards and they’ll appreciate the lyrics when they dissect them later on.”
Majesty, a song by Wasiu and fellow Montrealer Apashe, was recently used in a Samsung commercial. Wasiu was shocked to discover another collaboration of theirs, The Landing (Wide Awake Remix), was chosen as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ new NBA playoff theme song.
Another way Wasiu is looking to enter new markets is by working with beatmakers from elsewhere. Rapping over unfamiliar beats keeps him on his toes and gets his name out in different circles.
“I collaborated with someone from Poland, and I have no idea what he’s saying, but it sounds so good. There’s a universal music language we can all tap into,” he said.
Speng Squire (real name: Devon Squire) can’t wait for his next album to come out.
This Moment Belongs to Us will be available shortly, and promises to complement the impending summer vibes by being a little brighter sonically than his 2017 release Expressions of Now. First single Cartier reflects what’s popular musically: it’s smooth, with a cool Speng in a celebratory mood about his bright future.
A fan of rap in high school, Squire began by writing before he was encouraged to try his luck in the studio. He only started taking rap seriously in 2016, but his development has been quick, which entails not only flooding the market with new music and performing shows, but cultivating a distinctive look and learning more about fashion. An independent rapper in 2018 needs to look and act the part.
“I want to make music for the rest of my life,” he said. “I want it to be my career. I’m going to dedicate myself every day to it — that’s what taking it seriously means to me.”
His producer, Montreal rap scene vet DRTWRK, thinks the MC can appeal to both older, discerning rap experts and younger kids interested in party music.
“He’s a rapper’s rapper,” said DRTWRK.
Added Squire: “I practise by listening to music. I listen and analyze flows, syllables, the speed and metaphors. I’d listen to my favourite albums and be so entertained. Now that I’m writing, I try to capture that same feeling and surprise myself.”
Outremont-via- St-Léonard rapper and producer Young Troy has achieved the greatest amount of international success out of this current freshman crop of local hiphop artists. The 24-year-old (real name: John Hyszko) scored a gold record in the U.S. as the producer of New York rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s song Beast Mode.
While he has done well on the production side, Troy is also trying to make it as a rapper and singer in his own right. He has a new album coming out soon and recently appeared on Guatemalan-American artist Carnage’s song Visa. He’s looking to build on the 2015 single All My Dogs, which got picked up by Drake’s OVO Sound radio show on Apple Music.
“I love producing, but I’m also into pushing myself as an artist. Production just happened to take off first,” he said.
Montreal has exported a number of high-profile artists on the production side of rap, including Troy, High Klassified and Kaytranada, but not on the vocal side. As someone who does both, Troy has insights from each perspective.
“It’s harder to go gold as an artist,” Troy said. “As a producer, you can send beats to people all day and it takes just one artist to like it and use it.”
Peggy Hogan, who raps as Hua Li, has also taken a different path than her peers: she has honed her craft as part of the Mile End indie rock and queer scenes. She’s a regular with the likes of POP Montreal and even performs at shows where she’s the only rapper on the bill.
She’s completing work on her new full-length, Dynasty, due this fall. “We’re trying to meet that golden era of rap with something a little more contemporary,” she said.
Being part of Montreal’s indie scene has put Hua Li in a position to understand why rock and electronic acts from here flourish internationally while our anglophone rap has remained underground.
“I think it’s because of record labels like Constellation and Arbutus on the indie side,” she said. “We don’t have any major labels that are headquartered here, and there’s no mid-label presence in Montreal for hip hop. There’s a lack of infrastructure, and Montreal hip hop is isolated.”
As a result, Hua Li is thinking about starting a label of her own, specifically for women of colour who play left-field hip hop. It would fill a much-needed space for marginalized artists, and it could also position them to receive investment money through arts grants.
DRTWRK and Wasiu have also dealt with a lack of arts funding directed toward anglophone rap in Quebec.
“I’m at a disadvantage trying to get a grant,” said Wasiu. “I’m trying to get it on the English side and there’s a finite amount they give out, and labels get precedence over independent artists. The deck is stacked against me.”
Wasiu’s producer Ghost also brought up something Montreal is lacking that isn’t as evident as money: a creative-director type with a strong vision who can galvanize a scene and properly market these artists for the masses.
“We need someone that brings it all together, and does things like organize a street team. That’s how someone goes viral,” said Ghost.
A promising aspect of this current rap generation, DRTWRK has observed, is they’re more inclined to work together rather than adopt the old “crabs in a bucket” mentality.
“When one guy has a show, we all go as a show of support. When someone drops a video, we all post it on social media,” DRTWRK said.
CJ Flemings, who released Forever Wanted More late last year and is already poised to follow it up, added that team-building is key to his future successes. “From all the experiences I’ve been through, you make it with the right people around you. Keeping a solid team around can make a difference. If the energy is real, everything will fall into place.”
It would also be disingenuous to say the anglophone and francophone rap scenes are disparate entities. As Joe Rocca, a solo artist and member of the popular franglais rap group Dead Obies, pointed out, highly touted young rappers Mike Shabb and Zach Zoya are francophones who rap in English. Céline Dion proved that making a transition to the anglophone market is not unheard of, and that could be what happens here, given the franco rap scene is a little further ahead.
“Sometimes I write in English, sometimes in French,” said Rocca. “I might rap and sing exclusively in English for a song or more; I can do it. I’ll probably do more, just because I can and I like it, but it’s always because it comes to my mind like that, and not an attempt to make it in the U.S.”
Even with all the talent emerging, it continues to be a challenge for anglophone Montreal rappers to pierce through. Eventually someone will strike gold in an unexpected manner, but in reality, years of building will be needed just to have that one flash-in-thepan moment. Montreal artists — rap and otherwise — have all contended with the prospect of leaving for busier markets in Toronto or the States to get noticed. Montreal’s first big rapper may need to create a name outside the city before creating one here.
“Being that Montreal is a smaller city, it’s harder if you don’t have that connection in the States. You can’t expect to just go platinum in Montreal,” said Troy.
“The sad thing is for me to really blow up, I might have to leave the city for a little bit,” Squire said. “But Montreal will always be my city, and I’ll always rep it.”