Canada. Does anyone care?
 

Do people outside of Canada pay attention to Canadian Artists?

Although Toronto has a rich hip hop community there are very few reputable rap artists that can say they are legitimized in the game. Other than Drake and a handful of names there have been very few breakout artists to come out of the city let alone the Country. Me being from Toronto it takes a lot of going through mediocre talent to find something great.

So I just wanted to get some feedback and thoughts on how you view Canada/ Toronto as far as talent and whether or not you pay attention at all.

Yeah, Buck 65 and Kid Koala. There's Sweatshop Union, people seem to like them. I don't care to listen to them other than a few tracks, but I wouldn't argue that they were a bad collective at all. Uh, K-Os, but I never really got into him. I hate Classified. I know Adeem is from New Hampshire, but he was on that Project Canada thing.

Oh yeah, speaking of which, that's a great thing to bring up. Buck 65, Sage Francis, Sixtoo, and Adeem had a really interesting piece out called The Canada Project.

I'm sure you guys know Buck 65 and Sage Francis. If you don't know Sixtoo or Adeem, well, Sixtoo is another weird producer/rapper off of anticon., though he's kind of a poor rapper, in the sense that his delivery is really dry. But his production is neat.

Sixtoo - Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man (Parts 1-3)


Adeem is a member of Glue, with Maker and DJ DQ.

Glue - Sober Window Story

Heart is from Canada. They kicked ass sometime back in the late 70s before they became an 80s ballad group with large hair.




And of course I like the old 70s french canadian prog band Harmonium ..

K'naan is one of my favourite rappers. Although, most of his musical inspiration comes from his childhood in Somalia.
Chad has a similar story, and he's a really strong rapper as well, the guy just needs to get some better production going for him. And I'm pretty sure Warsawpack are Canadian, they're fantastic as well.

I'm sure Pete could reel off some more names.

K-os is a pretty sweet sweet rapper. I have the Joyful Rebellion.

I live in Canada, so yes I do care :) Not so much about rap, though there is some great talent out there especially here in Toronto.

Swollen Members are Canadian rappers but I don't care much about them.

Forgot about them, but haven't heard much from them lately.

There's a lot of local rappers and hip hop groups and such, but I think there's just a select few who are able to break into the US.

D-Sisive has the best Hip-Hop album of 2009 in my opinion, and there are a number of other good Candian Hip-Hop artists.

Norway has rappers .. The czech republic has rappers .. I would be more surprised if there weren't rappers in Canada ;)

Not so much about rap

Glad you brought up Sixtoo, I love his stuff. I thought about mentioning him when I first saw this thread but since his best stuff is instrumental, I didn't. His last 3 albums have been superb (Jackals and Vipers, Chewing on Glass, and Duration) but I also like his early rap stuff once in a while. It's not great, but not bad either. Dry delivery but it's good for walking around with.

seattle, washington was definitely not part of canada in the 70s ;)

Shad anyone?

Oh well .. it was formed in Canada at least and all the old members lived there as far as I know in the early days although I'll be the first to admit I'm no expert on the history of Heart.

Interestingly, Roger Fisher's son is a member here. ;)

yes, yes, and more yes

Not many people actually know this, but Canibus is actually
Canadian.He is kind of an idiot, but he definitely has skills.:dj:

canada hip hop
 

u guys should check FAC BOIS from tdot

I'm from Toronto and I honestly can't stand the nickname T-Dot. Maybe that's because I'm not from "the 'hood" :p:

Can't say I like it when norwegian hip-hopers act like they come from the "hood". Because they don't, they come from one of the countries with highest living standard in the world. Most of them have had it easy and in my opinion, that whole hood culture really feels out of place here. Fortunately, most of them don't do this, at least not to a large degree.

Not sure if some of you canadians have similar feelings towards your "gangstas".

Pretty sure Kardinal Offishall is Canadian, he's pretty good, he can get annoying at times though.

There's also Snow, Canada's answer to Vanilla Ice! Check out Informer by Snow it'll either make you laugh or you'll be amazed.

I don't know about any other city in Canada, other than Montreal, (though I'm sure they all have a similar situation), but most of Toronto is middle and upper class. Like any city there are homeless people. In north Toronto (North York) there are the projects, where most of the gangsters are from. I live in North York but not in the projects. The East End (Scarborough) also has some low income areas. The hood culture doesn't seem out of place to me but that's because I've grown up knowing it was there.

I feel exactly the same with Australian rappers. Not necessarily because they don't come from hard circumstances, but the whole schtick is painfully American and it really grates.

The problem is Celine Dion. All because of her, people are afraid of Canadian artists and run as soon as they hear "band/artist from Canada" in fear of all Canadian talent sounding like Celine.

Oh ****

Her and Nickelback

Yeah it's pretty unfortunate that if you play in an alternative rock band but you don't sound like those twats Nickelback then you won't make it big in Canada. There are a few exceptions to this, however it does create incentive for smaller bands to become the "local legends" of their cities, like the way The Villains are pretty huge in Calgary.

J Roc from Trailer Park Boys is pretty damn hood.

I don't think many people pay attention to us when it comes to music. and since this is in the Hip-Hop section I take it your talking about this genre of music. Canada does have some good artists in this genre but I think the audience (especially in the States) like to hear about drugs/guns/money and the rags to riches stories. Canadian rap/hip-hop doesn't really follow that trend, from the hip-hop I've heard so I don't think it appeals to them at all.

he was WAY cooler in street cents though.

Street Cents? Whuzzat?

Um.....I doubt it has anything to do with what is being sung about.


Maestro is also Canadian.

Anyways here's a list of a few Canadian hip hop groups:

Sweatshop Union
OK Cobra
LuciDream
Internal Affair
Gruf the Druid
WarsawpacK
K'Naan
K-OS
Swollen Members
Buck 65
Classified
Moka Only
Kid Koala
Red Ants

this guy??? :laughing:



yeah he's canadian.

the dream warriors were another pretty decent canadian hip hop group from the 90s as well.



anyone else remember tom green's rap career? their big single was about hooking up with the DWs hehe







as for J-Roc and street cents it's another old canadian tv show that started off his career in the entertainment business. spotted him and a few other trailer park boys at a QOTSA show last year, dude is short (or i'm just tall haha).

Bite your tongue, Snow was awesome and it seems like only west indians understood Informer.

I should check out this Street Cents on the Youtube or something, I love the TPB. And oh man! Coolzville on the Queens show.

it's all good haha. bubbles was behind him but didn't look at all the same without the glasses. street cents was actually a consumer show for kids the 90s, helped teach my generation to not buy into all the corporate hype being pushed our way. not even close to TPB hahaha

Well it sounds like the coolest counter-propaganda i ever heard of.