Drake & K'naan Co-sign Toronto's Young Buck Jane-Finch UpTop Rappers

Christine Steen
May 22, 2015
4 min read

(WWETV) Drake is undoubtedly the most successful hip hop artist to ever come out of Toronto. This week there were leaks from his upcoming album "Views From The Six". Drake seems to have taken a new approach to put his city on the map by paying attention to some of its up and coming rappers on his instagram.

The city of Toronto has a rich history of hip hop that goes back to the early 80's with the likes of unheralded rap pioneers such as Top Secret (Ryan Lord) and Butch Lee of Sunshine Soundcrew. The Maple Leaf Ballroom on St. Clair the Sunshine Sound Crew were the foundations of Canadian hip hop just as much as DJ Kool Herc jams in house parties in the 1970's were for hip hop's birthplace in New York.

DJ Ron Nelson was the inspiration for many during the lean early years of Toronto's hip hop growth as he brought down many major artists in the city to perform with The Six's best on stage in places like concert Hall bringing such hip hop legends like Big Daddy Kane & Biz Markie.

From there it led to the signing of Michie Mee with First Priority/Atlantic Records who was raised in the Jane strip area in the 80's which made her the first ever signed urban artist to an American label. She was fortunate enough to get the attention of hip hop pioneer KRS ONE during the DJ battle era with Boogie Down Productions as she battled many female emcees and won wars in both America and Toronto. She landed gigs on big tours with American major label artists such as MC Lyte and Queen Latifah. Her claim to fame single was the ever so catchy single "Jamaican Funk".

Following her lead was Maestro Fresh Wes who released the classic "Let Your Backbone Slide" & "Drop The Needle" from his debut album "Symphony In Effect" in 1989. Universally known as Canada's "Godfather of Canadian Hip Hip" Maestro Fresh Wes has let the world know about the rich history of Toronto hip hop with such American hip hop media as XXL Magazine:

What stages has Canadian hip-hop gone through to get where it is now? When I first started out, Toronto was like a younger brother to New York City. The reason I say that is because everyone came to Toronto. Scott La Rock, KRS-One. Everybody came to Toronto. I opened up for UTFO when they had “Roxanne, Roxanne.” I opened up for Sparky D at the Concert Hall—Toronto’s version of The Apollo. I saw Cut Master DC battle DJ Cheese. We got history. If you look at the back of the BDP Criminal Minded album it says “peace to Ron Nelson and the Toronto posse.” Cause we been doing it. Toronto is only an hour flight from New York. We’ve been doing it since ’78, ‘79. A lot of these young cats coming up right now, especially in the States, don’t really know the history of the culture. It’s not their fault, but they don’t know. Everything is about who is hot right now. But it’s important to know the history.

Name some Canadian hip-hop pioneers that haven’t got the props they deserve. I mean, we had cats like Sunshine Sound Crew, Butch Lee—that was the MC that I grew up listening to. Butch did his thing. And all by word of mouth, cause we didn’t have no commercial radio station. My man Ron Nelson. I don’t think he gets enough props. That’s the cat that put me on when I was fifteen years old. He’s the cat that brought up all of the acts, whether it was LL Cool J, Run DMC, Fat Boys, the Beastie Boys. Ron was a catalyst for not only the Toronto scene, but the Canadian hip-hop scene.

READ FULL XXL MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Big Daddy Kane performing at Concert Hall in the 1980's.

In the 90's, artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, and Saukrates represented the city by being signed to American labels. Later guys like Knann and Drake followed the trend of being acquired by major labels. Throughout this timeline there has always been the hardcore reality/gangsta rap in pockets of the city with acts like Point Blank, Ghetto Concept, and Concrete Mobb.

One certain region in the city known as Jane & Finch became notoriously known for its street rap, but not after the very successful Dream Warriors singles "Wash Your Face In My Sink" and "Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" overseas.

Soon after came the teenage sensation of The Smugglaz who repped the hard realities of living in the area which caught the attention of hip hop pioneer Doug E. Fresh & CBC National News that created the first ever prime time television hip hop documentary in Canada dubbed after their Toronto street anthem classic "Street Rappers".

Now the current top dog of hip hop industry Drake has taken notice to the region's young up and comers Robin Banks and Top 5. He has posted himself watching on his instagram Top 5's music video and Toronto rapper Robin Banks who invented the term "TT right now," popularized by Drake's caption game. Drake reps thoroughly his home city and has his eyes on the industry that is slept on from American audiences. Another worldwide hip hop ambassador for Toronto Knaan who became famous for the hit song "Wave Your Flag" also keeps his ears open to the underground scene by co-signing his fellow Somalian new Jane-Finch rappers. Stay tuned and pay attention to the world of the ever growing Toronto hip hop scene.

Learn more about Toronto hip hop history with underground Jane-Finch rapper legend Sticky Green (from The Smugglaz) and Daneo with forthcoming First Edition of WWETV Exclusive Toronto Rappers & Hip Hop Documentary series.