New Toronto Sound

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.

Canada had hip hop artists right from the early days of the scene—the first known Canadian rap single, Mr. Q's "Ladies' Delight", was released in 1979 just a few weeks after The Sugarhill Gang's historic "Rapper's Delight",Michael Rancic
"Finding Mr. Q"
'' Hazlitt'', March 17, 2021. and the first French rap single, Lucien Francœur's "Le Rap-à-Billy", was released in 1983."Aut'Chose: Chaud comme un jukebox"
. ''Exclaim!'', November 10, 2014. For the most part, however, the infrastructure was not there to get most artists' music to the record-buying public; even "Ladies' Delight" was overlooked by Canadian music historians for many years, instead media and reference works erroneously credited Singing Fools' "The Bum Rap", which was released three years later in 1982, as the first Canadian rap single. Even if a Canadian hip hop artist could get signed to a record label, it was very difficult for them to get widespread exposure. Even if their music videos were played on MuchMusic, many artists could not get their records into stores or played on the radio.

A few Canadian hip hop artists broke through to mainstream success around 1990, and a few acts such as Maestro Fresh-Wes, Main Source, and Dream Warriors gained cult-status recognition internationally from the underground hip hop scene. However, through much of the following decade Canadian hip hop acts experienced a slowdown without any significant artists breaking through to the mainstream. No Canadian hip hop songs reached the Top 100 on the Canadian pop charts between 1992 and 1998. Beginning in 1998, however, a sequence of events spurred by the anthemic collaborative single "Northern Touch" finally brought hip hop back into the mainstream of Canadian music.

Canada's propensity to create quality artists who rarely achieved public recognition prompted AllMusic writer Jon Azpiri to state that Canadian hip hop is the "best-kept secret in hip-hop."

History

Early 1980s

In addition to "Ladies Delight", Mr. Q (Jay McGee) released a handful of other rap singles through the last several months of 1979; one, "Party Rapp", included lyrics about the 1979 Mississauga train derailment. He was also featured on ''Rap the Night Away'', a 1981 album by Bobby Boyer and Demo Cates which has been credited as the first full-length Canadian hip hop album.

Toronto's CKLN-FM was an early supporter of the genre, with Ron Nelson launching Canada's first hip hop program, ''The Fantastic Voyage'', in 1983.

Late 1980s/early 1990s: The rise of Canadian hip hop

Artists such as Devon, Maestro Fresh-Wes and Dream Warriors did briefly manage to break into the mainstream in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989, Maestro's first single, "Let Your Backbone Slide", was the first Canadian hip-hop single to break into the national Top 40, and the first to make the ''Billboard'' charts in the United States. It remained the bestselling Canadian hip hop single of all time until 2008. 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", Ground Control's "Another Dope Jam", MCJ and Cool G's "No Sex With My Sister" and "So Listen", and Kish's "I Rhyme the World in 80 Days".

In 1988 Michie Mee became the first Canadian rapper to sign a deal with a US record label. This action did not result in significant chart success for her—she has asserted in interviews that the reggae influences on her 1991 debut album '' Jamaican Funk—Canadian Style'' were met with resistance from US label executives and radio programmers.Border Block - Canadian Hip Hop vs. America
, CBC.ca, March 22, 2005.

The Toronto/New York-based hip-hop group Main Source released their classic debut album ''Breaking Atoms'', in 1991, 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 with rapper Frankie Fudge performing a rap break in Celine Dion's 1990 single "Unison" and female R&B duo Love and Sas rapping in their 1991 single "I Don't Need Yo' Kiss".

An important influence for the development of hip hop in Toronto was Ron Nelson and his ''Fantastic Voyage'' radio show which aired Saturday afternoons on CKLN-FM from 1983 to 1991. ''Fantastic Voyage'' was the first exposure many youths had to the hip hop genre and provided the first airplay for many Toronto artists including Maestro Fresh Wes, Michie Mee, Rumble & Strong, Get Loose Crew, Simply Majestic and the Dream Warriors. Nelson was also an early hip hop concert promoter, organizing the first major hip hop concert in Canada at Varsity Stadium in 1987 featuring Run DMC, Public Enemy and EPMD, and provided exposure for local artists at venues such as the Concert Hall, the Spectrum, and the Party Centre.http://startouch.thestar.com/screens/e95712c1-e4d7-459c-93c3-17f30c2367a8%7C_0.html In addition, Nelson helped set up events in Toronto that drew in well-known US hip hop acts, such as Big Daddy Kane and Run DMC.

The first urban-radio show in British Columbia was 'Soul Sonic Shocks' in 1987 hosted by Bay-Area native DJ Maximus Clean. Vancouver's first all-rap radio show, ''In Effect'', was launched in 1989 by Niel Scobie on CITR-FM.

Early to mid-1990s: Fight for recognition

In 1990, Denham Jolly's company 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—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 US station with no Canadian content responsibilities, while other Canadian cities often had no access to any urban music radio stations at all. After 1992, Michie Mee was the only Canadian rapper to make an appearance on the national pop charts until 1998—and even she didn't accomplish the feat with a hip hop song, but by partnering with the alternative rock band Raggadeath for 1995's "One Life".

Sol Guy, a hip hop promoter with Figure IV Entertainment, said in 1999 that

A special collaborative single, "Can't Repress the Cause", was released under the name Dance Appeal to advocate for greater inclusion of hip hop in the mainstream of Canadian music."Urban Music"
. ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. Participating artists included Devon, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dream Warriors, B-Kool, Michie Mee, Lillian Allen, Eria Fachin, HDV, Dionne, Thando Hyman, Carla Marshall, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Lorraine Scott, Lorraine Segato, Self Defense, Leroy Sibbles, Zama and Thyron Lee White.

Ottawa-based hip-hop group Organized Rhyme, which featured a young Tom Green before his rise to fame, had some success on MuchMusic with "Check the O.R." in 1993, but did not receive widespread radio airplay or reach the ''RPM'' charts. Maestro Fresh-Wes, who moved to New York City in 1992 and attempted to break into the US market with the albums ''Maestro Zone'' and ''Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be from Canada?!!'', found his career faltering in this era. Snow, who had a number one ''Billboard'' 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.

Many US hip hop artists were popular in Canada,"Major Rappers Rebound on Canadian Labels". ''Billboard'', November 12, 1994. and Black Canadian musicians such as Infidels, Deborah Cox and The Philosopher Kings had notable successes in the R&B, pop and rock genres; however, even the most prominent Canadian hip hop acts during this era, including Ghetto Concept, Rascalz, Farm Fresh, TBTBT, Graphidi Logik and Hip Club Groove, struggled to gain any kind of commercial traction. Although Toronto-market radio stations CHOG and CING-FM began to include some Canadian hip hop songs in their contemporary hit radio formats, the hip hop audience in the city remained loyal to WBLK—and for most artists the only venues available for reaching an audience anywhere outside of the Greater Toronto Area were campus radio and MuchMusic's '' RapCity'' and ''X-Tendamix''.

That began to change in 1996, when 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 Canada's francophone pop charts, and some controversy erupted in Toronto when Milestone was again passed over for an urban radio station on its second application. Instead, the CBC was awarded 99.1 to move its existing Radio One station, CBLA, from the AM band—and, ominously, this was believed at the time to be the last available FM frequency in the city. The CRTC decision was not met with as much uproar as there had been in 1990, because the ruling was not seen as much of a shock; indeed, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the CBC would receive the frequency.

The most notable Canadian hip hop album during this era, ''Rap Essentials Volume One'', was a compilation which featured the debut singles of both Kardinal Offishall and Choclair.

1998: "Northern Touch" and transformation

However, 1998 proved to be a transformative year in the development of Canadian hip hop, as the Vancouver hip hop band Rascalz quite unexpectedly found themselves at the centre of a sequence of events which gave Canadian hip hop an unprecedented level of media attention, leading the Canadian music and broadcasting industries to make a number of structural changes which would ultimately give hip hop musicians a more stable and commercially visible platform going into the 21st century.

First, Rascalz won the Juno Award for Best Rap Recording for their 1997 album ''Cash Crop''. Because of Canadian hip hop's lack of commercial visibility, the award was presented during the non-televised portion of the ceremony, along with the technical awards, rather than at the televised main gala. The band had not yet arrived at the ceremony when the award was announced—when they did arrive, they were simply pulled aside and told that they had won the award."Rascalz Refuse Award To Protest Junos: Rap Act Wants R&B Portion Of Ceremony Televised"
, ''Billboard'', April 4, 1998.

Alleging that racism was a factor in the award's scheduling, the band refused to accept the award."Kinder, gentler rap, eh? Canadians hip-hop onto centre stage"
, ''Ottawa Citizen'', March 7, 1999. Speaking to the press afterward, the group and their co-manager said that

For several weeks cultural critics and hip hop musicians debated the issue in the press—some suggested, in fact, that the hip hop award's lack of visibility could be seen as not just a result of Canadian hip hop's poor commercial performance, but also a contributing factor.

Soon afterward, Rascalz released "Northern Touch", a collaboration with emerging rappers Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair. Originally recorded in 1997 for a compilation album that fell through and was never released, the band opted to release it as a standalone single in 1998."Hit single "Northern Touch" still notorious 15 years after tearing up charts". Canadian Press, May 14, 2013. It became a galvanizing statement of purpose for Canadian hip hop musicians and beat the odds to become the first Canadian hip hop hit since 1991. Although the song just barely missed the national Top 40 charts, peaking at number 41 in ''RPM'', it reached the Top 10 in most major markets, and was the first Canadian hip hop song to reach the Top 100 at all, and the first to garner widespread radio airplay both in Canada and internationally, since 1991.

Maestro Fresh-Wes, now known simply as Maestro, also broke his own hit jinx in 1998, with " Stick to Your Vision"—buoyed, in part, by a Guess Who sample—becoming his first Top 40 hit in seven years. Although he would not actually reach the Top 40 until 2001's "BaKardi Slang", Kardinal Offishall also made his first appearance as a solo artist in ''RPMs Top 100 in 1998, peaking at number 91 with "On wit da Show". Artists such as Choclair, Jelleestone and Saukrates were also beginning to make waves in the press, as the year's more dramatic events renewed attention on Canadian hip hop.

As a result of the Rascalz controversy, the Junos moved the Rap award to the main ceremony the following year. It was won by "Northern Touch". The participating artists performed the song live at the ceremony, the first time a hip hop group had ever performed live on the Juno stage.

At the Juno Awards of 2018, the "Northern Touch All-Stars" were selected as presenters of the Rap award. Winner Tory Lanez was not in attendance at the ceremony, and after accepting the award on his behalf, the group launched into an a cappella rendition of "Northern Touch" in lieu of the time that would otherwise have been taken by Lanez' acceptance speech. Although presented as an impromptu decision, CARAS president Allan Reid later admitted that he had encouraged the musicians to do it.

2000s: The breakthrough

On June 18, 1999, the CBC's Toronto station completed its move to FM. Because the FM frequency offered better broadcast coverage of the region, the CBC found that it was able to surrender two FM repeater transmitters serving communities outside of the city—thus opening two new frequencies for license applications. In response, 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.

On June 16, 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.

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."TV show puts spotlight on hip-hop". ''Sudbury Star'', February 9, 2000. The show starred Merwin Mondesir and Mark Taylor as the hosts of a hip hop show on a campus radio station; the cast also included Michie Mee, DJ Shamann and Kardinal Offishall. As a tie-in to help promote emerging hip hop musicians, the series released a soundtrack album in conjunction with the first season, featuring artists such as Maestro Fresh Wes, Infinite, Frankie Ano, Bahamadia, Ja Rule, Black Child, Choclair, Rahzel, Jully Black and Erykah Badu.

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—as well as numerous record labels committed to rectifying their past lack of interest in the genre. In the 2000s, numerous Canadian hip hop artists, including Kardinal Offishall, Drake, Classified, k-os, K'naan, Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union, Buck 65, Belly, Moka Only, Lil 808, Shad