Taking us back to a different time; hip-hop royalty speaks during Black History Month

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

This article right here is going to take a lot of you back to a different time, a time when records were $8.99. A time when DJ’s knew the newest records dropped on Thursdays. A time when hip-hop was still hard to find, but was becoming more and more visible. A time where HMV sold cassettes, and when they jammed, we had to use a pen to reel them back in.

Back then, Monolith was known as Lyrical Coalition, Choclair was down by Pope, and everyone wanted to be like Saukrates. It was all about the Elite Squad, and if Baby Blue was playing somewhere, not only did you know for sure that the show was going to be rammed; it would definitely be a night to remember.

I am sure the hip-hop heads reading this will all remember a time when at 1:00 pm on Saturdays, you made sure that the radio was on so that you could catch The Power Move Show, and then the Masterplan Show at 8:00 pm.

For many, this was the golden age of hip-hop for Toronto. It was a time when T.O. was finally being recognized for the talent that we possessed. This is why when I heard that music journalist and documentary producer Del Cowie was hosting a conversation looking back at the 20^th anniversary of Toronto hip-hop, I had to make the trek down to Toronto Reference Library on Wednesday, February 19^th, 2020. The panel for the night was the crème de la crème of hip-hop royalty: Jully Black, Kid Kut, Carey Riley, and Solitair. The discussion. Toronto’s deep hip-hop history that can definitely be categorized as urban African history.

As I got off the elevator at the library, I was greeted with memories from my past. Dj Agile was dropping hit after hit, and did so through the course of the night. It was a nice touch. It was nostalgic for the older heads, and a history lesson for the young bucks. Del Cowie started the night by introducing the panel, and from that point on, it was a history lesson for all attendees. Kid Kut reminded us all what marketing and promotions looked like back in the day; it was definitely an eye opener.

“Basically, I pulled from all my resources growing up; friends and family. Solitair was on production with me, Jully singing vocals, Kardi – everyone had great material. We were like, these are the people in our city that can go. Let’s team up with these people, get our marketing and production budget behind them, shoot videos, and produce this whole sound to bring Canadian music to the forefront.

When you were touring, you needed to have merch. Oh, we need t-shirts? We made t-shirts. Where’s your promotional material? Oh, we need stickers? We made stickers. Okay, what else do you have? Well, we have little rags with our names on it. Whatever it was, we were simply trying a ting.

 One thing we must remember; Baby Blue was the blueprint for signing DJs to break records.”

Jully Black spoke directly to the younger generation about what it meant to put in the work. “I’m not a bragger. I like to let the music speak for itself. At the time, there was no social media. If social media were around when we started, it would have been a different thing. You know what, every time is it’s time. I would not change any of my experiences for the world.”

 Finally, Solitair dropped some well-needed wisdom that served everyone sitting in that room. “A lot of these kids don’t care about what you have to show for it. When we came up, we didn’t have anything but the culture. We invested in the culture, we believed in the music and we believed in the power of our voices. A lot of that has gotten lost to materialism. I think that materialism and capitalism is way more damaging than racism.

There’s a huge generation gap in hip-hop that I think the OG’s perpetuated. Everyone knows it takes a village to raise a child. The knowledge and the wisdom should get passed down, but it’s been obliterated.”

Yes! His words hit home. I have always been a huge hip-hop fan, and being there that night, even if it was just for a moment, reminded me that hip-hop is still alive. We just have to bridge the gap and revive it.