Boogie Down Productions was a hip hop group, originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, five months after the release of BDP's debut album, Criminal Minded. The name of the group, Boogie Down, derives from a nickname for the South Bronx section of The Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The group pioneered the fusion of dancehall reggae and hip hop music and their debut LP Criminal Minded contained frank descriptions of life in the South Bronx during the late 1980s, thus setting the stage for what would eventually become gangsta rap.
Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, better known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist, and activist. Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and maintained an underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.
The Canadian hip hop scene was first established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much more slowly 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.
Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity both premiered in the US at the Sundance Film Festival and Double Happiness won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at Torino. She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also a member of an alternative rock band called Playdoh Republic.
R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks the top R&B and hip hop songs in the United States, based on audience impressions from a panel of radio stations monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. It was also used in sister publication R&R, which listed the chart as Urban National Airplay. The chart is not the R&B/hip-hop subset of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, but rather uses a separate panel of R&B stations in urban and urban adult contemporary markets. It was the primary airplay component chart of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart until the issue dated October 20, 2012, when Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs was revamped to include digital sales, streaming, and airplay from all radio formats. The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart encompasses two separate airplay charts, both of which are based on radio spins rather than audience impressions: Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop and Adult R&B Airplay, which measure airplay on urban contemporary and urban adult contemporary stations respectively.
Aubrey Drake Graham is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Drake initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation in the 2000s; intent on pursuing a career in music, he left the series in 2007 after releasing his debut mixtape Room for Improvement.
OVO Sound is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded by hip hop artist Drake, Oliver El-Khatib, and long-time producer Noah "40" Shebib, that began operation in 2012. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner Records.
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.
Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, known professionally as PartyNextDoor, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer.
Daystar Peterson, better known by his stage name Tory Lanez, is a Canadian rapper, singer, composer, and record producer. He received initial recognition from the mixtape, Conflicts of My Soul: The 416 Story released in August 2013. In 2015, Tory Lanez signed to Benny Blanco's Mad Love Records through Interscope Records. Lanez released his debut studio album, I Told You, on August 19, 2016, which included the singles, "Say It" and "Luv", which peaked at number 23, and 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. His second album, Memories Don't Die was released on March 2, 2018. On October 26, 2018, Lanez released his third studio album, Love Me Now?.
"Free Smoke" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake from his album, More Life (2017). The song was released on April 18, 2017 as the third single from More Life after "Passionfruit". The song features additional background vocals by Baka Not Nice, who is one of two credited musicians on More Life. The song was perceived by the media as a diss track to Kid Cudi, as well as other rappers he could be feuding with, the song has reached the top 20 in Canada and the United States.
"Gyalchester" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake from his album, More Life (2017). The ninth track on the playlist, the song was written by Aubrey Graham, István Megyimorecz, Rico Brooks, and produced by iBeatz. The song features additional background vocals by Baka Not Nice, who is one of two credited musicians on More Life. The term is a portmanteau of the patois-spoken word for girl or "gyal", merged the British city Manchester, perhaps indicating that beautiful women originate from that area.It has been frequently noted that Drake has been fond of British urban culture.
6ixBuzz is an entertainment and hip hop music media platform based in Toronto, Canada. The company provides entertainment stories, comedy skits and music videos on its website, for which it has drawn comparisons to US-based WorldStarHipHop and UK-based SB.TV. With over 300 videos uploaded, 50,000 subscribers and 20 million views, 6ixBuzz is the largest rap-based promotional YouTube channel in Canada.
Halal Gang is a Canadian hip hop collective based in Toronto, Ontario. The name stems from the preponderance of the group having Muslim origins with East African and Caribbean Canadian roots. The group was established in 2010 as a group of youths from Regent Park inspired to make music. Its original carnation includes Puffy L'z. Mustafa the Poet, Mo-G, Safe and Smoke Dawg.
Mustafa Ahmed, better known by his stage name Mustafa the Poet or simply just Mustafa, is a poet, singer, songwriter and filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario.
Jahvante Smart, better known by his stage name Smoke Dawg, was a Canadian rapper from Toronto, Ontario. Smoke Dawg was a part of hip hop collective Halal Gang alongside Puffy L'z, Safe and Mo-G who come together with the Prime Boys to make the supergroup Full Circle. His debut studio album Struggle Before Glory was released posthumously on November 29, 2018 and was rated 8/10 by Exclaim!.
Lorenzo Lee-Jae Wright, better known by his stage name Big Lean, is a Canadian rapper and songwriter from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Lean began making music in 2008, two years after his friend and rapper Blits was shot dead as he felt that he should carry on his friends legacy. He gained attention in 2011 being featured on the single "Reality" by DJ Charlie Brown released alongside other Toronto artists P. Reign, Belly and Jahvon. He is independently signed to the label Da Degrees.
Gordon Mathieu Phillips, better known by his stage name Jimmy Prime, is a rapper from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Jimmy is known for coining "The Six" as a nickname for Toronto and being the frontman of hip hop group Prime Boys.
Jordan Whiston, better known by his stage name Jay Whiss, is a Canadian rapper and songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. He first gained international attention after the release of the single "Watch This", which appeared on OVO Sound Radio in late 2015. Whiss also appeared on the Noisey documentary 6IX RISING (2017), which showcased hip hop culture in Canada. He is one-third of the hip hop collective Prime Boys, alongside Jimmy Prime and Donnie. Prime Boys released their debut studio album Koba World on 27 July 2018; the album received a 9/10 score by Exclaim!. Whiss was also featured in the short film Remember Me, Toronto (2019) by Mustafa the Poet.
6IX RISING is a Canadian documentary film about the hip hop culture in Canada. The film was released on November 16, 2017, distributed by Vice Media's online channel Noisey and made in collaboration with Nicolas Girard and Rafael Ruiz for Worship Studio.
