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| Beat Factory | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| Founder | Ivan Berry Rupert Gayle |
| Status | Defunct |
| Genre | Hip hop, R&B, reggae |
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario |
Beat Factory is a historic Canadian music brand that operated during the 1980s and 1990s under the leadership of Ivan Berry. [1] [2] As a small talent management firm and functional music production house, [3] the rap music outfit filled a notorious void in Canadian music due to the lane of representation it fostered in support of a generation of then-underdog hip hop artists including its debut line up of Krush And Skad, Dream Warriors, HDV and Michie Mee & L.A. Luv. [4] [5] Today, the Beat Factory brand remains a nationally-acclaimed founding force of rap music and hip hop culture in Canada. [6] [7]
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Founded by a budding entertainment entrepreneurial 19-year-old Ivan Berry, alongside his songwriter partner Rupert Gayle, the Beat Factory brand was born in 1982. [8] Young, fresh, innovative and revolutionary in its small but mighty Pickering production house of rap music, Beat Factory represented a historically Black Canadian roster of talent spanning two-generations of Canadian urban hip hop music in Canada—from Michie Mee to Keisha Chanté, and Dream Warriors to Kardinal Offishall. [9]
The first of milestones for the brand, the release of the 1987 Break'n Out compilation, A Beat Factory Production featuring the production of Scott La Rock and KRS-One, Rumble & Strong, Street Beat and Michie Mee & L.A. Luv. [10] The "Made In Canada" production featured the KRS-One "Elements of Style" opening rhyme, "Boogie Down Productions is proud to introduce Canada's greatest, musically-inclined, intellectual representative for the rap industry on a whole, a major breakthrough for female emcees everywhere ... her name, Michie Mee ... this is BDP reporting live from Canada. [10]
In 1988, under Beat Factory management, Michie Mee became the first Canadian rapper signed to an American record label, First Priority Music, distributed by Atlantic Records. [11] Then came the success of Dream Warriors, who sold 800,000 copies of their debut album And Now the Legacy Begins , released in 1991. [12]
In 1996, Berry founded Beat Factory Music Inc., an independent record label branch of Beat Factory, distributed by EMI Music Canada and BMG Music Canada. [13] The label released a series of compilation albums, known as RapEssentials and GroovEssentials . [14] These albums included the first singles by Kardinal Offishall and Glenn Lewis, who both became prominent artists in the 2000s.
