Canadian hip hop
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| Music of Canada | ||
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The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the late 1980s, and it developed much more slowly than Canada's popular rock music scene.
Although Canada had hip hop artists right from the early days of the scene, the infrastructure simply wasn't there to get their music to the record-buying public. Even Toronto – Canada's largest city and one of its most multicultural – had difficulty getting an urban music station on the radio airwaves until 2000. As a result, if a Canadian hip-hop artist could get signed, it was very difficult for them to get exposure — even if their music videos were played on MuchMusic, many artists simply couldn't get their records into stores or played on the radio. However, a sequence of significant events in the latter half of the 1990s finally brought hip hop fully into the mainstream of Canadian music.
Besides Toronto, there are other hip-hop scenes in Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, and many more.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early 1990s: The rise of Canadian hip hop
Devon, Maestro Fresh Wes and Dream Warriors did manage, for a brief time in the late '80s and early '90s, to break into the mainstream. Maestro's first chart hit, "Let Your Backbone Slide", was the first Canadian hip-hop single to break into the Top 40, and remains as of 2007 the best-selling Canadian hip-hop single of all time. Other notable rap singles of this era include Maestro's "Drop the Needle", Devon's "Mr. Metro", Dream Warriors' "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" and "Wash Your Face in My Sink", and Kish's "I Rhyme the World in 80 Days".
In addition, DJs K-Cut and Sir Scratch of the Toronto/New York-based hip-hop group Main Source were Toronto natives. In 1991, Main Source released the undisputed hip-hop classic Breaking Atoms, which featured the debut of a young Nas before his rise in popularity.
Rap also began to surface in Canadian mainstream pop in the early 1990s. Rapper Frankie Fudge performed a rap break in Céline Dion's 1990 single "Unison" and appeared in her video. Female R&B duo Love and Sas performed rap in their 1991 single "I Don't Need Yo' Kiss".
[edit] Mid-1990s: Follow years
In 1991, Milestone Radio applied to the CRTC for an urban music station in Toronto, which would have been the first such station in Canada, but that application was denied in favour of a country music station (something which Toronto already had on its radio dial).
The decision was controversial, and hurt the Canadian hip hop scene considerably. Hip-hop and R&B fans in Toronto relied on Buffalo, New York's WBLK, an American station with no Canadian content responsibilities, while other Canadian cities often had no access to any urban music radio stations at all.
As a result, only one Canadian rapper, Michie Mee, made an appearance on the national pop charts between 1991 and 1998 — and even she only managed it by partnering with the hard rock band Raggadeath. Snow, who had a hit in 1993 with "Informer", is sometimes mistakenly labelled a rapper, but in fact his style was more accurately described as dancehall (a style of reggae) than as hip-hop. As well, Tom Green's band Organized Rhyme had some success on MuchMusic with "Check the O.R.", but did not receive widespread radio airplay or reach the RPM charts.
It should be noted that many American hip hop artists were popular in Canada, and that Black Canadian musicians such as Infidels, Deborah Cox and The Philosopher Kings had notable successes in the R&B, pop and rock genres. But for Canadian hip-hoppers, by and large the door was closed.
That began to change in 1996, when several pivotal events occurred in close succession: first, the Urban Music Association of Canada was formed to build the domestic and international profile of Canadian urban music. The following year, Dubmatique broke through as the first Quebec rap band to top the francophone pop charts, and a controversy erupted in Toronto when Milestone was again passed over for an urban radio station. Instead, the CBC was awarded 99.1 to move its existing Radio One station, CBL, from the AM band — and, ominously, this was believed at the time to be the last available FM frequency in the city. The controversy, however, would directly result in the actual launch of an urban station a few years later.
[edit] Late 1990s: "Northern Touch"
Most importantly, however, the Vancouver hip hop band Rascalz gathered an all-star crew of emerging Canadian rappers to record "Northern Touch", a galvanizing statement of purpose for Canadian hip-hoppers which was released as a single in 1998, beating the odds to become the first Canadian hip hop hit since 1991.
Later that year, Rascalz refused the Juno Award for Best Rap Recording, citing that the award was presented during the non-televised portion of the ceremony along with the technical awards. Stung by the allegation of racism, the Junos moved the Rap award to the main ceremony the following year. Also in 1998, Maestro Fresh Wes, now known simply as Maestro, broke his own hit jinx, with "Stick to Your Vision" becoming his first chart hit in seven years.
Hip-hop acts such as Choclair, Saukrates and Kardinal Offishall were also beginning to make waves in the press, as the Juno Award controversy and Maestro's comeback renewed attention on Canadian hip-hop.
In the same year, the CBC's Toronto station completed its move to FM. Because the FM frequency offered better broadcast coverage, the CBC found that it was able to surrender two repeater transmitters serving communities outside of the city — thus opening two new frequencies for license applications.
[edit] 2000s: Canada's first urban music station
In response to the opening of two former CBC frequencies, the federal cabinet issued an order-in-council to the CRTC directing it to give precedence to applications that took into account Toronto's cultural and racial diversity, effectively guaranteeing that Milestone would get a license in the new round of hearings. In 2000, the CRTC awarded one of the frequencies to Milestone, on the company's third attempt. The other frequency was awarded to Aboriginal Voices for a station to serve First Nations communities.
At the beginning of this same year, the internet became home to Canada's largest rap/hip-hop website publication and community HipHopCanada.com. Also in 2000, the CBC created and aired Drop the Beat, a television series about hip hop music and culture which was billed as one of the first such series in the world. The show starred Merwin Mondesir and Mark Taylor as the hosts of a hip hop show on a campus radio station.
Finally, in 2001, CFXJ (Flow 93.5) debuted as Canada's first urban music station. Urban stations quickly followed in several other Canadian cities, as well, and for the first time, Canadian hip-hop artists had a network of radio outlets for their music.
Swollen Members, Nelly Furtado, k-os, Buck 65, Sixtoo, Classified, DL Incognito, Jully Black, Jarvis Church, Shawn Desman, George, Sweatshop Union, Glenn Lewis, Dead Celebrity Status, Remy Shand, Toya Alexis, K'naan, Rich London and Cadence Weapon were among the rap and R&B acts to benefit from this new era in Canadian music.
The national satellite radio network CBC Radio 3 has also included many Canadian hip hop artists in its playlist, including K'naan, Mood Ruff, Classified, Social Deviantz, Ghislain Poirier, Cadence Weapon, Buck 65, Dragon Fli Empire and OK Cobra.
[edit] French Canadian hip hop
Montreal, being Canada's second largest city and one of the world's largest French-speaking cities, has developed its own niche of French language hip hop, which later spread to Quebec City and throughout the province of Quebec. This was largely an underground phenomenon until the emergence of Dubmatique, who became in 1997 the first francophone Canadian hip hop group to reach Canada's francophone Top 40 charts.
The movement flourished and even crossed over to France, with acts such as Muzion, Dubmatique and Prince Ayman. Other acts now include Manu Militari, Yvon Krevé, Damien, Anodajay, Catburglaz, Taktika, Sir Pathétik, Ghislain Poirier, Omnikrom and Treizième Etage.
[edit] Influences
Although American East Coast hip hop is a major influence on Canadian artists in the genre, Canadian hip hop also incorporates a number of other influences not commonly seen in the mainstream of the American genre.
The black community in Canada is much more dominated by people of Caribbean heritage than is the African American community in the United States. As a result, Canadian hip hop is significantly influenced by the rhythms and styles of Caribbean music. English Canadian hip hop tends to be influenced by Jamaican, Trinidadian and Bahamian styles, while francophone hip hop from Quebec is commonly influenced by Haitian music. Artists such as Michie Mee, Dream Warriors and Kardinal Offishall have incorporated dancehall or reggae into their music.
The genre-hopping "Tom Waits with a beatbox" style of Buck 65, who integrates country, rock, folk and blues influences into his music, has also become a major influence on Canadian hip hop in the 2000s. His influence is especially strong on hip hop artists from the Maritime provinces, such as Classified and Jesse Dangerously, but can also be seen in artists such as Ridley Bent.
Electronic music is also a significant influence, notably seen in artists such as Cadence Weapon, No Luck Club and Ghislain Poirier.
[edit] See also
- List of Canadian hip hop musicians
- List of Canadian hip hop groups
- American hip hop
- Mexican hip hop
- British hip hop
[edit] External links
- HipHopCanada.com
- ( STOLEN FROM AFRICA - Canadian Hip-Hop Media
- UGSMAG.com (Canada's Independent/Underground Hip Hop Magazine)
- UrbanologyMag.com (Canada's 1st internationally distributed urban lifestyle and culture publication)
- STOP RANCING MOVEMENT - MONTREAL aka REAL CITY Hip Hop
- Element416.com (Toronto Hip Hop)
- Sicksofour.com (Vancouver Hip Hop)
- Vanhiphop.com (#1 Vancouver Hip Hop Community)
- MegaCityHipHop.com
- Project Bounce Radio
- Canadian Content Archives
- Border Block - Canadian Hip Hop vs. America
- Pass Da Mic TV (Vancouver's Only HipHop TV Show)
- kingsofmusic.com
- Merciless Musick : Trilingual HIP-HOP - Francais-English-Espanol - The life and times of visible minorities in Canada
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