NOW MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Toronto Street Rap

I just so happened to be talking with Ian Kamau recently, one of the artists featured in NOW's cover story on racism in the Canadian music scene last week. I also have a story related to gangsta rap and racism in music. The kicker is I am not black, and not even a rapper, but a kid whose parents escaped Vietnam as boat people and settled in Toronto's Jane-Finch area.

Jane and Finch has a decades-old reputation for guns, gangs and drugs. So back in 2004 I started Jane-Finch.com and began directing homemade rap music videos for local artists. This was the pre-social-media age and before DSLR filmmaking took the world by storm. Basically, I was one of the first guys in my 'hood with a Sony Handycam and a website.

My goal was to show life beyond the media stereotypes. To some, the area conjures images of the Wild West, but my experience was kids riding bikes in the summer and tobogganing down hills in the winter. As a teen, I spent summers shooting homemade kung-fu movies with my friends. I shot a zombie movie in Grade 12 at C.W. Jefferys, now known as the high school where Jordan Manners was killed.

You can read the rest of the NOW article here.

You can see an exclusive article with Paul Nguyen in Before The 6: Now or Never Toronto Rappers & Hip Hop Documentary as he speaks candidly about the artists who helped shape the community such as The Smugglaz, Sticky Green, Maestro Fresh Wes, and Michie Mee.

Make sure to watch the 2nd Most Watched Documentary in Toronto Hip Hop History click pic below!

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