Related Research Articles
Dream Warriors were a Canadian hip hop duo from Toronto, Ontario, comprising King Lou and Capital Q. Described as "a pair of deft, intelligent rappers" by John Bush of AllMusic, they were major contributors to the jazz rap movement of the early 1990s. Their 1991 debut album, And Now the Legacy Begins, was cited by Bush as one of the finest alternative hip hop records of the golden era. Before the release of their second album Subliminal Simulation in 1994, the duo became a group with the addition of rapper Spek and DJ Luv. In 1996, they released a third album, The Master Plan, before the two new members left the group a year later. Though their subsequent releases did not garner similar commercial success as their debut, the duo released a well-received greatest hits album in 1999. Their final album, The Legacy Continues..., was released in 2002.
Drop the Beat is a Canadian television series produced by Back Alley Film Productions that aired on CBC Television in 2000 and 2001. A short-run dramatic series, the show was one of the first television series in the world centred around hip hop music and culture.
Wesley "Wes" Williams is a Canadian rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and author. He is known professionally by his stage names Maestro Fresh Wes or Maestro as a musician, and is credited by his birth name as an actor. One of the earliest Canadian rappers to achieve mainstream success, he is credited as the "Godfather of Canadian hip hop". His debut album, Symphony in Effect (1989), was the first certified platinum album by a Black Canadian artist, and his 2023 induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and 2024 Governor General's Performing Arts Award were each the first for any hip-hop artist.
The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much slower than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the early 2000s.
"Northern Touch" is a Canadian hip hop single, which was released in 1998 by Rascalz in collaboration with Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair. It is one of the most important individual songs in the history of Canadian hip hop, which almost singlehandedly transformed the genre from a largely ignored underground movement into a viable commercial endeavour.
Jason Drew Harrow, better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall, is a Canadian rapper and record producer. Often credited as Canada's "hip hop ambassador", he has been regarded as one of the country's most prominent hip hop producers during the 2000s and is distinctive for his reggae and dancehall-influenced style of hip hop.
Kareem Blake, better known by his stage name Choclair, is a Canadian rapper. He was one of the most successful rappers in Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Choclair has been nominated for six Juno Awards, winning four.
Luke Boyd, better known by his stage name Classified, is a Canadian rapper and record producer from Enfield, Nova Scotia.
The Juno Awards of 1998 were presented in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The primary ceremonies at GM Place before an audience of 10 000 on 22 March 1998.
Karl Amani Wailoo, better known by his stage name Saukrates, is a Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer. He is the co-founder of Capitol Hill Music, and lead singer of the hip-hop/R&B group Big Black Lincoln. He is also a member of Redman's Gilla House collective.
Melanie Durrant is a Canadian urban contemporary-style singer. She attended the Arts program at Earl Haig Secondary School and also trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Melanie Durrant has received multiple accolades throughout her career. She was nominated in several categories at the 2004 Canadian Urban Music Awards and at the MuchMusic Video Awards. Melanie Durrant has collaborated with artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, Common and Slakah The Beatchild. She has shared the stage alongside Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Jill Scott and Sean Paul.
Sheldon Pitt, better known by his stage name Solitair, is a Canadian rapper and record producer from Toronto, Ontario. He is a founding member of the now defunct Black Jays record label and production team. Solitair has been producing hip hop and R&B for nearly 20 years, and has produced for Nina Sky, Glenn Lewis, Cham, Maestro, Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Ivana Santilli, Jully Black, Choclair, and Sugar Jones among others.
Shadrach Kabango, known professionally as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian rapper and broadcaster. Beginning his career in 2005, has released seven studio albums and three extended plays. He won a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 2011 and five of his albums have been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, the most short-list nominations of any artist in the prize's history. In 2013, CBC Music named Shad the second-greatest Canadian rapper of all time. Shad hosted Q on CBC Radio One from 2015 to 2016, and hosts the International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on HBO Canada and Netflix.
Desmond Francis, better known by his stage name Infinite, is a Canadian rapper, best known for his contributions to the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike soundtrack, and as a member of hip hop group Ghetto Concept.
Da Grassroots is a Canadian hip-hop production team from Toronto, Ontario, composed of Mr. Attic, Mr. Murray, and Swiff. The Juno Award-winning group contributed to the development of Toronto hip-hop throughout the 1990s, highlighted by the release of their debut album Passage Through Time in 1999.
Baby Blue Soundcrew was a Canadian DJ group from Toronto, Ontario, specializing in hip-hop and R&B music. The group was composed of Kid Kut, KLC, C-Boogie, and Singlefoot. They are notable for releasing two commercially successful compilation albums in 2000 and 2001.
Kwajo "Cinqo" Boateng—known by stage name Kwajo Cinqo—is an artist, producer, CEO and member of two-time Juno Award-winning hip-hop group Ghetto Concept. Initially beginning his career in 1992 alongside Dolo and Infinite, who was introduced as a new member in 1994, Kwajo is now the President and CEO of Global 7 Entertainment Inc. (G7). He is also an artist/producer under G7 Records—a subsidiary of Global 7 Entertainment Inc..
Ritchie Acheampong, better known as Rich Kidd, is a Canadian hip hop recording artist, record producer and film/video director from Toronto, Ontario. He is a two-time nominee for the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year as a solo artist, garnering nominations at the Juno Awards of 2013 for The Closers and at the Juno Awards of 2014 for In My Opinion. In 2013, he formed the project Naturally Born Strangers with collaborators Tona and Adam Bomb. That group's debut release, The Legends League Presents: Naturally Born Strangers, won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2015.
Citizen Kane was a Canadian hip hop duo, active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They were most noted as two-time Juno Award nominees for Rap Recording of the Year, for their EP The Epic at the Juno Awards of 1999 and their album Deliverance at the Juno Awards of 2000.
Kevin McKenzie, professionally known as K-Cut, is a Canadian record producer and DJ, most notably as a member of East Coast hip hop group Main Source.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Hip-Hop in Canada Gains Recognition". Billboard , April 4, 1998.
- ↑ "Our Lady Peace leads Juno nominations". Halifax Daily News , February 12, 1998.
- ↑ "Dion leads Juno nominees: Ladies and Twain also up for awards". The Globe and Mail , January 28, 1999.
- ↑ Steven Green and Karen Richardson, T Dot Griots: An Anthology of Toronto's Black Storytellers. Trafford Publishing, 2004. ISBN 9781553956310. p. 52.
- ↑ "Maestro working on some new rap tricks: Frankenstein suggests toning down volume on his raps". Edmonton Journal , January 24, 2001.
- ↑ "Drop the Beat becomes a CD: Canada's first hip hop TV show releases soundtrack". National Post , March 7, 2000.
- ↑ Matt Jost, "Frankenstein :: The Science of Sound :: Ill Adrenaline". Rap Reviews, July 22, 2014.