Tracing the 6’s boombastic hip-hop roots
Before Drake, there were pioneers Maestro Fresh Wes, Devon and Michie Mee
As the city plays host to the NBA all-star game this weekend, chances are you will hear a lot of dope local hip hop. As our hip-hop royalty continues to perfect the “Toronto sound” blowing up worldwide, Toronto is truly ground zero for hip-hop innovation in 2016. It wasn’t always so pervasive: Our first-generation rap artists fought to be recognized.
Besides b-boys with boom boxes break dancing in front of the Eaton Centre and sound crews block-rockin’ the suburbs, most locals were oblivious to the genre’s existence. Here are six events and institutions that helped galvanize a hip-hop culture we now take for granted. CKLN: Fantastic Voyage If you were a hip-hop fan living in Toronto in the ’80s, listening to Ron Nelson’s Fantastic Voyage on CKLN was probably like catching a blast of Radio Free Europe from the heart of Soviet Russia during the Cold War.
Starting in 1983, Fantastic Voyage was the first Canadian radio show dedicated to rap music, broadcast every Saturday from1to 4 p.m. on Ryerson’s campus station, CKLN (frequency 88.1 MHz FM, now home to Indie 88).
It was essential, blasting out an incendiary mix of U.S artists including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, LL Cool J, KRS-One and local talent that you simply could not hear anywhere else on the dial. Namechecked universally by all of the original innovators, the effect Nelson’s show had on that generation of local rappers and hip-hop producers cannot be understated: It was truly the sound of something happening. Beat Factory In 1982, Ivan Berry and songwriter Rupert Gayle formed Beat Factory, a management and production company specializing in urban Canadian artists and DJs. Most of these acts could not get signed to major labels and received no radio or TV airplay.
Through Berry’s tutelage, JaneFinch songstress and rap pioneer Michie Mee (whose high-octane Canadian-Jamaican funk had first been introduced locally by Boogie Down Productions at a Toronto show in 1985) became the first Canadian hiphop artist to be signed to a major label: Atlantic.
Berry went on to champion the mighty Dream Warriors, who became Beat Factory’s biggest success story, and contributed massively to bridging the gap between underground and mainstream with songs such as “Ludi” and Quincy Jones sampling “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style.” RapCity Meanwhile, at MuchMusic, Michael Williams and his producer Michele Geister were programming the first specialty show on the network: Soul in the City, based on William’s prior radio show of the same name in Montreal.
Off the success of that (and a caller who suggested a pure rap show to Williams one night as he guest-hosted Much’s City Limits), RapCity was born. Starting with an animated intro designed by Runt, RapCity delivered a heady cocktail of rap videos, news interviews and snippets of live shows every week.
It was a lifeline to hip-hop fans across the country, as well a platform for the emerging Toronto scene to be featured alongside the big players such as Run DMC, Beastie Boys, N.W.A, Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul and the Ultramagnetic MCs. RapCity was so charged with legit live-wire underground currents sometimes watching it felt like an act of defiance. Electric Circus Now best remembered for its tubthumping house music, glow-stick culture and “off the floor of a nightclub” styled broadcasts live Friday nights on MuchMusic during the ravey ’90s and early 2000s, Electric Circus started out as a low-key showcase for DJs and artists performing rap, hip hop, ragga and R&B Saturday afternoons on Citytv in 1988.
The show’s original producer, Joel Goldberg, maintained a grimy, spartan set where a mixture of U.S. (Queen Latifah, Boyz II Men) and Toronto artists (Dream Warriors, Michie Mee) could shoot the gift in style. One taping found local wordsmith Maestro Fresh Wes appearing alongside Stevie B, whose label, LeFrak-Moelis Records, offered Wes a deal on the spot after hearing him perform “Let Your Backbone Slide” live. “Let Your Backbone Slide” The first bona-fide Canadian hiphop anthem still moves the dance floor as much as it did 27 years ago. It features Big Daddy Kane-inspired MCing from Scarborough native Wes Williams, backed by an infectious beat courtesy of Peter and Anthony David (a.k.a. First Offence), and gonzo samples ranging from James Brown to the Mohawks, Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, and Public Enemy.
The music video (featuring future CBC newsman Dwight Drummond in a small role), directed by Electric Circus creator Goldberg and based on a very detailed storyboard by Wes himself, looked just as fly as anything coming out of New York or L.A., and was given serious rotation on MuchMusic, CBC, YTV and even MTV in the U.S. and Europe.
The song and video pretty much soundtracked the summer of 1989, and it remains the bestselling Canadian hip-hop song of all time, while Wes is correctly identified as the Godfather of Canadian hip hop. “Mr. Metro” While much of the first wave of Toronto hip hop was all about party breaks and clever lyrics, Devon Martin a.k.a. Devon’s “Mr. Metro” was the first to get overtly political, calling out racist Toronto cops.
Unsurprisingly, the song kicked up a ton of controversy, but it went on to win a MuchMusic Video Award. Devon later joined forces with Maestro, Dream Warriors, Michie Mee, B-Kool, Lillian Allen, Eria Fachin, HDV, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Self Defense and Leroy Sibbles (and more) to form Toronto rap/ragga supergroup Dance Appeal, whose single “Can’t Repress the Cause” railed against the Canadian music industry’s lack of inclusion and acknowledgement of hip hop.