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![Drake’s
success
and
the
opulence
of
the
OVO
Fest
deceitfully
distract
from
the
curse
that
historically
swathed
Canadian
hip-‐hop.
Symptoms
of
which
included
no
mainstream
crossover
success
and
no
musical
longevity.
The
first
Canadian
rapper
to
briefly
break
the
curse
was
Maestro
Fresh-‐Wes
with
his
1989
single,
Let
Your
Backbone
Slide,
which
breached
the
Top
40
and
U.S.
Billboard
charts
but
failed
to
secure
Maestro’s
spot
among
the
ranks
of
commercial
American
rappers.
Toronto’s
nascent
scene
then
produced
female
emcee
Miche
Mee,
who
came
close
to
curing
the
curse
when
she
signed
a
record
deal
with
an
American
label
in
1998,
becoming
the
first
Canadian
rapper
ever
to
do
so.
But
she
failed
to
galvanize
fans
south
of
the
border
and
her
efforts
resulted
in
no
significant
chart
success.
In
that
same
year,
Canadians
were
plotting
their
revenge.
Vancouver
hip-‐hop
band
Rascalz
teamed
up
with
fellow
Canadians,
Checkmate,
Kardinall
Offishal,
Thrust
and
Choclair,
to
produce
Northern
Touch—an
incendiary
love-‐letter
to
Canadian
hip-‐
hop
that
garnered
both
domestic
and
international
radio
play.
The
tune
became
Canadian
hip-‐hop’s
first
hit
sine
1991.
The
song
served
as
the
turning
point
in
Canadian
hip-‐hop,
paving
the
launch
pad
for
the
eventual
astronomical
ascension
of
Torontonians
Drake,
K’naan
and
Kardinall
Offishal.
The
track,
however,
did
little
in
propelling
any
of
the
featured
rappers’
individual
careers
save
Kardinall
Offishal’s.
Kardi
signed
with
established
R&B
singer
Akon
and
released
his
single
Dangerous,
which
shot
up
to
number
five
on
the
Hot
100
and
went
triple
platinum
in
Canada.
Kardinall
rode
the
momentum
and
followed
up
with
two
gold-‐certified
singles.
Those
were
to
become
the
pinnacles
of
Kardinall’s
career.
That
was
in
2008,
and
in
2009
the
curse
was
finally
eradicated
for
good
with
Drake’s
seminal
release,
Best
I
Ever
Had.
The
song
catapulted
to
number
two
on
the
Hot
100
and
officially
became
the
most
successful
Canadian
hip-‐hop
song
ever
in
the
U.S.
But
why
did
it
take
so
long,
or
what
did
Drake
know
that
everyone
else
didn’t?
A
year
before
Drake’s
foray,
Now
Magazine
published
Toronto
Hip-‐Hop’s
Bad
Rap—
an
article
diagnosing
hip-‐hop
in
Toronto
or,
more
appropriately,
the
Screwface
Capital.
Writer
Addi
Stewart
quotes
Universal
A&R
rep
David
“Click”
Cox.
“[Canadian
artists]
need
to
find
their
own
identity,
create
something
special
and
unique.”
Cox
understood
the
solution,
but
even
he
probably
wasn’t
anticipating
the
nature
of
artistry
that
was
afoot.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/drakefeaturestorybyzaafirc-160908172403/85/A-Feature-Article-I-Wrote-4-320.jpg)
![Stewart
then
cites
old-‐school
griot
Kamau.“I
think
Canadian
artists
need
to
find
their
own
identity,
stop
trying
to
fit
into
some
box.
Just
be
honest
and
communicate
something
you
feel
like
communicating.”
It’s
as
if
Drake
studied
this
piece,
unearthed
the
blueprint,
stretched
it
across
his
wall
and
commenced
devising
his
Grammy-‐nominated
So
Far
Gone—arguably
the
most
special
and
unique
independent
hip-‐hop
project
of
the
last
decade.
“The
game
changed
the
minute
Drake
dropped
So
Far
Gone.”
Rapper
J.
Cole
told
Rap
Radar’s
Elliot
Wilson,
“I
gotta
come
and
play
my
best
hand
too
cuz
[Drake]
clearly
came
with
his.”
On
the
tape,
an
independent
Drake
overdoses
on
candidness
as
he
dissects
his
precarious
relationships
with
women
and
his
melancholic
moods
as
he
teeters
on
the
precipice
of
uncertainty,
flirting
acutely
with
the
possibility
of
failure
while,
simultaneously,
seducing
success.
Rambunctious,
upbeat
moments
of
oozing
confidence
and
boasting
are
intermittent.
Drake’s
ambitions
and
insecurities
play
hide-‐and-‐seek
throughout
the
record,
which
is
simply
the
internal,
rap-‐sung
soliloquy
rumbling
in
Drake’s
mind
as
he
challenges
himself
to
a
staring
contest
in
the
mirror.
Drake
crossed
every
point
on
that
article’s
checklist.
A
mixed-‐race,
half-‐Jewish,
former
Degrassi-‐actor,
who
grew
up
in
posh
Forest
Hill,
raps
and
sings
about
those
very
things.
“He
introduced
a
new
way
of
doing
it,”
says
vocal
coach
Nevon
Sinclair,
“by
meshing
rap
and
melody
(singing)
and
people
loved
it.”
Drake
embraces
his
sensitivity
and
welcomes
heartbreak,
while
at
the
same
time
brags
about
his
bank
account
statements
and
how
he
should
have
called
his
grandmother
in
the
nursing
home.
What
box
can
they
possibly
toss
that
into?
Drake
didn’t
run
from
his
identity,
he
ran
with
it.
An
especially
daring
thing
to
do
in
a
genre
otherwise
dominated
by
street
narratives
and
gangster
personas.
Haters,
or
in
the
6god’s
case,
atheists,
often
charge
Drake
with
lacking
street
credibility
and
not
being
“hard”
enough—but
the
Dubai
crowd
on
the
night
of
March
14,
2015
doesn’t
seem
to
care.
And
why
should
they?
Citizens
of
Dubai
admire
Drake
for
his
love
affair
with
his
hometown
and
his
urge
to
represent
it,
and
that
is
what
allows
them
to
accept
him
as
one
of
their
own.
Dubai,
on
the
international
map,
is
an
anomaly
just
as
Drake
is
on
the
hip-‐hop
map.
And
that’s
how
they
both
manage
to
constantly
one-‐up
and
re-‐invent
themselves
while
forever
staying
true
to
their
roots.
Dubai
may
host
the
tallest
building
in
the
world,
but
it
is
in
Toronto
where
the
Views
From
The
6
have
never
been
clearer.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/drakefeaturestorybyzaafirc-160908172403/85/A-Feature-Article-I-Wrote-5-320.jpg)
More Related Content
A Feature Article I Wrote
- 1. Hip-‐Hop in Toronto 2015 AD (After-‐Drake) By: Zaafir Chaudhary Gleaming in all-‐white attire, self-‐proclaimed 6god—the six referring to Toronto area codes 416 and 647— Drake stands in front of a congregation of over 16,000 believers in the Dubai International Stadium. The Toronto Raptor’s global ambassador is there for the Middle Eastern leg of his Would You Like A Tour. Before jumping into his set, the 28-‐year-‐old rapper tells the crowd to cheer for his fellow Toronto disciples DJ Future Da Prince and keyboard player D10. As the night unfolds, Drake sequentially brings the show’s only two performing guests onto the stage—Scarborough’s P. Reign and Hamilton’s OB O’Brien—to share in the exaltation. Drake then croons, “Just hold on, I feel at home.” And why wouldn’t he? He practically brought home with him. The penalty for idol worship in the Sharīʿah law city-‐state likely fails to cross anyone’s mind tonight because they know Dubai wouldn’t dare indulge in the hypocrisy of crucifying someone so similar to itself. Dubai and Drake share more than just the D in their five-‐letter-‐long names; the two manmade marvels are equally intoxicated by the lust of seeing their city expand and reach new heights— Dubai literally and Drake lyrically. Toronto now officially sits on the international hip-‐hop map and trumpets its own unique sound, identity and fleet of recognizable artists. This is the story of how Drake, in a few short years, managed to take Toronto to the world and then bring the world back to Toronto. This is the story of hip-‐hop in Toronto 2015 AD (After Drake). “Hardly Home but Always Reppin” -‐Uptown In 2009, an unsigned Aubrey Graham (Drake’s real name) released a track with Lil Wayne, just months before inking a deal with him, entitled Ransom. Before Drizzy raps his verse he shouts out, “40 I see you. Boi-‐1Da! Toronto I got you, I got us,” indelibly announcing the arrival of Toronto and his team into the mainstream hip-‐ hop world. Since their on-‐record introductions, Toronto-‐born Noah “40” Shebib—Drake’s engineer and producer—and Ajax-‐based Mathew “Boi-‐1Da” Samuels— the beat-‐ maker behind hits such as Headlines, Best I Ever Had and 0 to 100/The Catch Up— have ascended into the highest echelons of hip-‐hop royalty. Boi-‐1da has gone onto work with heavyweights Jay Z, G-‐Unit, Nicki Minaj and a slew of other world-‐renowned artists. In 2010, Eminem borrowed Boi-‐1da for his chart-‐ topping, Grammy-‐winning anthem Not Afraid.
- 2. 40, the architect behind the Drake sound, has since produced Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Jamie Foxx in addition to winning a host of SOCAN, ASCAP, Grammy and BET awards. 40 popularized the somber, atmospheric sound with his production on So Far Gone—the mixtape that catapulted Drake, and by extension Toronto, into stardom. “I just give everybody a piece of this and make do with what’s left” -‐Free Spirit In 2011, Drake posted a handful of songs from a shadowy Scarborough-‐native calling himself The Weeknd onto his October’s Very Own (OVO) blog. In that same year, Drake scouted the mysterious crooner as a singer and songwriter for his platinum-‐selling sophomore delivery: Take Care. Not only did The Weeknd enjoy official album credits but he also toured with Drake, opening up for him in cities across the globe, including Toronto of course. Today, The Weeknd boasts his own label (XO) as well as being signed to Republic Records, featuring on soundtracks for movies such as The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey, winning four Juno awards, headlining on two world tours and selling hundreds of thousands of albums worldwide. The most recent recipients of slices from the Drake pie are two University of Toronto graduates who form the duo Majid Jordan. Drake collaborated with them for his biggest hit to date, Hold On, We're Going Home. The song debuted at number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-‐Hop and also peaked at number five on the Canadian Hot 100. The song has sold over two million copies and is officially the highest charting Drake single in Canada ever. In 2012, with fellow Torontonian Oliver El-‐Khatib, Drake founded Toronto-‐based label OVO Sound and signed Majid Jordan and a relatively unknown Mississauga soloist named PartyNextDoor, PND for short. Drake brought PND on tour with him and featured his vocals on his third album, Nothing Was The Same, and ever since then nothing has been the same for PND, whose tour dates have been set for venues across North America and Europe. “Drake has undoubtedly helped to give shape to this new landscape. Toronto has always had good hip-‐hop in terms of producers and studios but Drake cemented a real Toronto hip-‐hop scene,” says producer Jaime Smalbach. “Just like the west coast and the east coast have their respective sounds, now people are starting to talk about the north, the Toronto sound.” “OVO that major shit, Toronto with me that mayor shit” -‐Pop That
- 3. “When it comes to this city, I mean, I’m so vocal about how much I care,” Drake told CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi, the former host of arts and culture radio show Q on October 17, 2013. “All I ever wanna do is just see this city get the recognition and the love it deserves, see people from this city shine. Y’know, I put a lot of people in positions to do great things. That’s all I wanna keep doing.” Drake has managed to jam his Canadian foot in the backdoor of the American mainstream music market, and he is holding that door open behind him, smuggling in Canadian talent. But the musical immigration loophole isn’t one way. Once every year, Drake grants U.S. artists a Toronto music visa enabling them to walk back through that door into the Canadian market. The trade-‐off comes in the form of his OVO Fest. The OVO Fest, held annually since 2010 at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre during Caribana weekend, prides itself on fêting the crowd with an aggregate of both novel and veteran and local and international talent; tickets for the two-‐day long jubilation sell-‐out within minutes. Rick Ross, Bun B, Young Jeezy, Fabolous, Kardinal Offishall, Eminem, Jay-‐Z, The Weeknd, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Nas, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz, ASAP Rocky, French Montana, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, Snoop Dogg, James Blake, Wale, Big Sean, Ma$e, TLC, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, YG, Trey Songz, 50 cent, G-‐Unit, Tinashe, PartyNextDoor, OB Brien, Majid Jordan, DJ Khaled, Outkast and Usher have all graced the OVO Fest stage. This year’s three-‐day revel even features a stint by famed comedian Kevin Hart. The diversity in artists competes only with the diversity in the audience. In the crowd, Toronto’s multiculturalism blooms in full-‐splendor. “We are definitely now seeing more and more different ethnicities and both males and females at Toronto hip-‐hop shows,” says PB $tyle$, director of A&R at Protect Yah Neck Records Canada. Toronto has always been hailed as the Mecca of multiculturalism but it can now, and only now, subsume hip-‐hop host to its attributes. “Stadium packed, just glad to see the city on the map I just gave the city life, it ain't about who did it first It's about who did it right” Wu-‐Tang Forever But the stadium wasn’t always packed nor was the city always on the map. “Performances largely happened in small bars,” says rapper More Or Les. “There wasn’t any viable infrastructure. There were groups of rappers, producers and DJs that existed, but didn’t necessarily work together to benefit themselves or hip-‐hop as a culture.”
- 4. Drake’s success and the opulence of the OVO Fest deceitfully distract from the curse that historically swathed Canadian hip-‐hop. Symptoms of which included no mainstream crossover success and no musical longevity. The first Canadian rapper to briefly break the curse was Maestro Fresh-‐Wes with his 1989 single, Let Your Backbone Slide, which breached the Top 40 and U.S. Billboard charts but failed to secure Maestro’s spot among the ranks of commercial American rappers. Toronto’s nascent scene then produced female emcee Miche Mee, who came close to curing the curse when she signed a record deal with an American label in 1998, becoming the first Canadian rapper ever to do so. But she failed to galvanize fans south of the border and her efforts resulted in no significant chart success. In that same year, Canadians were plotting their revenge. Vancouver hip-‐hop band Rascalz teamed up with fellow Canadians, Checkmate, Kardinall Offishal, Thrust and Choclair, to produce Northern Touch—an incendiary love-‐letter to Canadian hip-‐ hop that garnered both domestic and international radio play. The tune became Canadian hip-‐hop’s first hit sine 1991. The song served as the turning point in Canadian hip-‐hop, paving the launch pad for the eventual astronomical ascension of Torontonians Drake, K’naan and Kardinall Offishal. The track, however, did little in propelling any of the featured rappers’ individual careers save Kardinall Offishal’s. Kardi signed with established R&B singer Akon and released his single Dangerous, which shot up to number five on the Hot 100 and went triple platinum in Canada. Kardinall rode the momentum and followed up with two gold-‐certified singles. Those were to become the pinnacles of Kardinall’s career. That was in 2008, and in 2009 the curse was finally eradicated for good with Drake’s seminal release, Best I Ever Had. The song catapulted to number two on the Hot 100 and officially became the most successful Canadian hip-‐hop song ever in the U.S. But why did it take so long, or what did Drake know that everyone else didn’t? A year before Drake’s foray, Now Magazine published Toronto Hip-‐Hop’s Bad Rap— an article diagnosing hip-‐hop in Toronto or, more appropriately, the Screwface Capital. Writer Addi Stewart quotes Universal A&R rep David “Click” Cox. “[Canadian artists] need to find their own identity, create something special and unique.” Cox understood the solution, but even he probably wasn’t anticipating the nature of artistry that was afoot.
- 5. Stewart then cites old-‐school griot Kamau.“I think Canadian artists need to find their own identity, stop trying to fit into some box. Just be honest and communicate something you feel like communicating.” It’s as if Drake studied this piece, unearthed the blueprint, stretched it across his wall and commenced devising his Grammy-‐nominated So Far Gone—arguably the most special and unique independent hip-‐hop project of the last decade. “The game changed the minute Drake dropped So Far Gone.” Rapper J. Cole told Rap Radar’s Elliot Wilson, “I gotta come and play my best hand too cuz [Drake] clearly came with his.” On the tape, an independent Drake overdoses on candidness as he dissects his precarious relationships with women and his melancholic moods as he teeters on the precipice of uncertainty, flirting acutely with the possibility of failure while, simultaneously, seducing success. Rambunctious, upbeat moments of oozing confidence and boasting are intermittent. Drake’s ambitions and insecurities play hide-‐and-‐seek throughout the record, which is simply the internal, rap-‐sung soliloquy rumbling in Drake’s mind as he challenges himself to a staring contest in the mirror. Drake crossed every point on that article’s checklist. A mixed-‐race, half-‐Jewish, former Degrassi-‐actor, who grew up in posh Forest Hill, raps and sings about those very things. “He introduced a new way of doing it,” says vocal coach Nevon Sinclair, “by meshing rap and melody (singing) and people loved it.” Drake embraces his sensitivity and welcomes heartbreak, while at the same time brags about his bank account statements and how he should have called his grandmother in the nursing home. What box can they possibly toss that into? Drake didn’t run from his identity, he ran with it. An especially daring thing to do in a genre otherwise dominated by street narratives and gangster personas. Haters, or in the 6god’s case, atheists, often charge Drake with lacking street credibility and not being “hard” enough—but the Dubai crowd on the night of March 14, 2015 doesn’t seem to care. And why should they? Citizens of Dubai admire Drake for his love affair with his hometown and his urge to represent it, and that is what allows them to accept him as one of their own. Dubai, on the international map, is an anomaly just as Drake is on the hip-‐hop map. And that’s how they both manage to constantly one-‐up and re-‐invent themselves while forever staying true to their roots. Dubai may host the tallest building in the world, but it is in Toronto where the Views From The 6 have never been clearer.