Savadouchi: “For Big Boy We Mourn”

By Vanessa Nim

“Here I say, ‘for Big Boy we mourn.’” Over the sounds of Bay Street construction, Savadouchi (Sava) played me a short line from his song “Man Down.” 

Best known for his popular song “Katana”, the up-and-coming Scarborough rapper reflected on the subtle inspiration behind his music.

“In the majority of my songs, actually, I have this little ad-lib ‘R.I.P. PJ Raps.’” 

Small references like these can be found scattered throughout Sava’s tracks and social media pages in honour of the rapper’s best friend, Patrick Jordan. Better known as Big Boy or PJ Raps, Jordan passed away unexpectedly in March 2016. 

“On a Wednesday, [Big Boy] showed me four songs and he was like, ‘These are the songs I’m going to put out’, after five years of him making songs,” Sava recounted. “I said, ‘Okay, sick. On Saturday, I’m going to come to your house and record.’ Then Saturday came, and my other boy called me and he says, ‘Hey, Big Boy died.’” 

Sava and Jordan started making music together as teenagers. Today, Sava credits Jordan as the main inspiration behind his music.

“My goal when I die is to — when I see my boy — just to show him, ‘I did all of this for you’,” said Sava. “That’s what made me really start doing music, taking it seriously — it’s just to continue my boy’s dream.”

Since Jordan’s death, Sava said he has “used death as a motivation.” In his song “Casket” from his recently released music video, he writes about how losing his friend inspired a new mindset for him. 

Video courtesy Savadouchi via YouTube

“Now that I see my boy’s life was cut short - it opened my eyes to a lot of shit in the world. I stopped stressing about the little things,” he said. “There’s a line in Casket, in the chorus it says, ‘How can I die if I’m alive in my mind,’ which basically means nothing can kill me as long as I’m good up here.”

As an up-and-coming artist in the saturated Toronto market, Sava talks frequently about struggling in an industry that can sometimes fuel inauthenticity. “Casket,” he said, is about breaking away from external anxieties and creating a mindset that keeps you alive and authentic to yourself. 

Photo courtesy Christopher Jameer

“I want people to know Savadouchi as a Scarborough kid who made it from nothing, who was inspired by something real," Sava said, reflecting on the future of Savadouchi and his place in the public eye. 

“I just want them to know my story and why I started doing this. I want them to know my boy. I want everybody to know my boy who died.”

Yung Tory’s new EP is the comeback he deserves

By Will Lofsky

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A post shared by Yung Tory (@yungtory) on Nov 27, 2018 at 5:07pm PST

Photo courtesy yungtory on Instagram

Yung Tory’s major-label debut, Still Here, is sure to rebuild his status in Toronto.

After a tough year for Tory, the project shows that he is still having fun and really in his element, with a brand new project on Def Jam executively produced by Timbaland.

His energetic, high-pitched, melodic vocals and signature low, mumbled verses and ad-libs on tracks like “Aww Shit” and “I Wanna Rock” shine over the simple, tough trap beats that got him noticed in Toronto and Atlanta. 

Tory can do much more than make bangers though, and his wavy, synth-heavy pop and R&B tunes, spanning the majority of his project, show both sides of his loud, outgoing personality. The songs “Lola” featuring Lauren Sanderson, and “Said You Love Me” are radio hits waiting to happen.

Listen and share my new EP ''Still Here " out now! 🎸 https://YungTory.lnk.to/StillHere More from Yung Tory: https://www.instagram.com/yungtory/ https://twitter.com/1yungtory https://www.facebook.com/YungToryOTF/ Music Video Produced by Ty Productionz.

Video courtesy yungtory via YouTube

Tory’s previous album, Rastar, which featured major artists — Fenix Flexin from Shoreline Mafia, Uno The Activist, Valee, and Fetty Wap — had some fantastic records and was a great way to address the Toronto rap scene that roasted him after a video of him getting beaten up and robbed by his former manager leaked on 6ixBuzz TV.

If he had not responded the next day on Instagram, his career may have died last year. Ever since then, Tory has struggled to maintain relevance and lost fans despite millions of streams online. Critics were even calling upon Lil Durk, one of the key influencers of drill music and founder of Tory’s previous label, Only the Family, to remove him from their roster.

Since the incident, Tory has clearly been making moves despite Toronto’s disloyalty, from his collaboration with popping Italian rapper, Dref Gold, on the song “Stop Cappin,” to his interview on No Jumper, and several releases on WorldStar’s channel. 

While it may still be a long road for Tory to glow up again in Toronto, he certainly is on his way with over 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, his hard work and perseverance is bound to pay off.

Opinion: Tory Lanez’s Constant Need for Attention

The Toronto rapper constantly makes headlines with his penchant for starting conflicts

Photo courtesy of Anton Mak/The Come Up Show/Wikimedia Commons

By Manus Hopkins

Having a hard time keeping up with all the feuds Tory Lanez keeps seeming to land himself in? You aren’t the only one. The 26-year-old Brampton rapper has earned himself a load of publicity taking shots at some of the biggest names in the industry.

Lanez has been on the music scene, putting out mixtapes since 2009 and has risen to fame over the past 10 years. After being picked up by Mad Love and Interscope Records, his first full-length studio album, I Told You, was released in 2016. Though his music has received critical acclaim, he has still found other ways to continue reeling in attention.

Lanez’ oldest and longest-running feud was with Toronto superstar Drake. It dates back to as early as 2010, when Lanez was just a teenager. It all started with a callout from Lanez, and in 2015 he dropped a mixtape called New Toronto, which some saw as a slight to Drake, the reigning king of Toronto’s rap scene. Drake even name dropped Lanez’ mixtape in his song “Summer Sixteen,” rapping “all you boys in the new Toronto wanna be me a little.”

Though they buried the hatchet in May 2017, the two rappers spent a few years continuing to make vague jabs at each other on their tracks. When the end of their beef became Instagram official, Lanez didn’t waste a lot of time busying himself with other high-profile conflicts.

Lanez’ feud with Drake had earned him a great deal of publicity. For better or worse, it made people notice him and pay attention to him in a way they hadn’t before. With his name in the headlines, he was able to attract more potential listeners. It seems as if getting himself into disputes with other stars proved to be a way for him to stay relevant.

Lanez began using Twitter as a new platform to throw insults at his contemporaries, starting more feuds and gaining more attention. He had short-lived public disputes with artists such as Jacquees in February 2016. Later that year, Lanez also had a fiery dispute with rapper Travis Scott, of which eventually led to an in-person confrontation where blows were almost thrown.

In some cases, the hostility between Lanez and his rivals blew over quickly. Other contentions have lasted longer and continued into the present. A still-ongoing war of words ignited in 2017 between Lanez and Eric Bellinger after Bellinger accused Lanez of trying to steal his tag, twice. By this point, Lanez had become known for landing himself in hot water with other rappers, and he hasn’t failed to uphold this reputation.

Lanez started to step up his game in 2018 and throw more disses and challenges wherever he could. His ego-tripping got him into trouble with rapper Joyner Lucas and another tweet at the expense of Royce 5’9” created animosity between the two. The rifts were settled with a couple of diss tracks and an apology respectively, but Lanez’s more recent feuds haven’t ended just yet.

We’re only a few months into 2019, but it’s already been a busy year for Lanez and his pot-stirring. Not all of Lanez’s contemporaries share the view that he is “The best rapper alive right now,” as he not-so-subtly proclaimed in a tweet.

Some rappers took issue with Lanez’s self-praise, including Mysonne and Don Q, whose accusations that Lanez stole his rhymes earned him a diss track from Lanez, titled “Don Queen.” Lanez has also claimed he could outrap prominent artists: J. Cole, Pusha T and every artist on Dreamville Records.

Maybe Lanez is clever and knows igniting feuds is a good way to keep his name on everyone's lips and doesn’t mind the integrity it costs him. Or maybe he’s just insecure and needs to prove he is the best rapper around for his own validation. Either way, he’s sure to be back in the headlines soon enough with more drama.

Patrik talks about Toronto inspirations in recent ‘Spadina’ EP

By Cole Brocksom

Canadian rapper Patrik talks about the Spadina EP, his experience in Toronto and his artistic message.

It was -14 C outside on January 25th but things were getting heated inside Lee’s Palace on Bloor Street. High energy performances from local artists on stage, and the bruised and sweaty audience members thrashing in the mosh pit fueled an atmosphere of frantic excitement.

The intensity coming from the crowd was matched when Toronto and Montreal-based rapper Patrik took the stage. But instead of the reckless, devil-may-care attitude in the pit, Patrik’s energy is drawn from his passion for the subjects of his music. He believes the most important thing he can do with his music is to deliver a message that’s important and relevant to the audience.

“I’m a person of the people,” he said on stage, inviting audience members to come talk to him backstage after he finished performing. His set was brief, but still brimming with passion for the people, and for the message he gives them through his art. Fans lined up in front of the back room at Lee’s Palace to be greeted by handshakes, hugs, and a big smile from Patrik.

“[At] a lot of my shows, I always ask, like, ‘who came here by themselves?’ And people will be like ‘yo, me.’ That’s what’s up.” Patrik explained in an interview that, despite growing up with five siblings, he has always had the personality of a loner. He often chooses to watch movies or read when his friends would rather go to parties.

“I just want to teach people that it’s ok to be you, you know?” Patrik said, “It’s ok to not be like your best friend, or not be like your girlfriend, or not be like what your parents want you be.”

Patrik grew up in Toronto but has spent the last year living in Montreal, where he began writing the Spadina EP released last November. Based on his experiences growing up downtown, Spadina was written to give “a universal perspective of a young black man’s experiences in the city of Toronto growing up in low income housing.” Patrik said moving to Montreal to write the album helped him focus on the most important things that happened to him in Toronto.

“It’s like, ok, you’re gonna write a song about Spadina. Like yeah, but you’re on Spadina every day. I could write so many things. But then it’s like, ok, I’m not on Spadina, what are the most important things that happened there? Boom, boom, boom, song.”

Patrik said that at the release party for Spadina, held at Brimz in Toronto, he was told that it was refreshing to have a Toronto artist who is actually from Toronto itself and not the GTA like many other artists.

“But because Toronto is becoming a Mecca for music, they all identify with Toronto. Which I think is amazing because Toronto’s going to build a very specific type of sound of music. And that’s what I like about this project because it doesn’t sound like anything else that a Toronto artist has put out, you know?”

The six-song track listing of Spadina includes songs with titles like “Bay St. Interlude”, “Speaker’s Corner”, and the titular opening track “Spadina Ave.” The entirety of the album is filled with references to Patrik’s family and friends, his Toronto lifestyle, and his faith. Patrik also touches on topics from the internet and social media, to crime and poverty, all packed into a 20-minute run time.

“I’m a huge fan of, small, compacted music. ‘Cause we live in a generation now where you can’t make a twelve-song album, or a fifteen-song album. No one has the attention span for it,” Patrik said, miming scrolling on a phone screen. He described it as a Tinder society, where everyone is so caught up in everything available on the internet and people are constantly looking for the next thing. He made reference to Pusha T’s Daytona from last year as an example of the compact, consistent project he wants to create.

“It’s like, do less, say more. You know? So that’s what I’m all about,” Patrik said. He said he wants his listeners to take realize his music is “more than just me putting words together, singing, rapping, or giving you a fresh beat to bump to.”

Patrik views his talent for writing songs as a gift from God, and sees it as an opportunity to address critical issues and get people to start meaningful conversations. “So, for me, it’s like own the craft, work at it, as if God himself said ‘hold this down, I’m coming back for it one day. If you didn’t do well with it, I’m gonna be disappointed’.” This motivates Patrik to address topics like abuse, violence, and heartbreak.

“All I can do is speak my truth and whoever rocks with it rocks with it,” he said, “I just want to uplift people, man. That’s all I want to do.”

Future stays in his own lane on The WIZRD

The WIZRD is good - but not great like the other Future projects that served as the blueprint for Toronto’s rap sound

By Xavier Eeswaran

Atlanta-born rapper Future’s impact on this generation's rap music cannot be understated. When it comes to rap’s hottest sub-genre, trap music, Future is the leader of an era. Since his debut album Pluto dropped in 2012, the genre’s top charts have been filled with Future songs and trap influenced by Future’s iconic autotuned melodies and mumble raps that have shaped hip-hop’s landscape.

Nearly two years removed from his last full-length release, Future returns with The WIZRD, an album titled after the nickname his late associate, OG Double D gave him before his passing in 2013. From the album’s title to the, “I been poppin since my demo bitch,” hook that Future repeats on “Rocket Ship,” Future is very reflective of his past on The WIZRD. It is almost as if he has done what he set out to do when first started rapping. This might explain why Future crowned new rap sensations Lil Baby and Gunna the kings of trap music earlier this month.

The album starts with the soulful upbeat “Never Stop” where Future reflects on the good, the bad and the ugly that has shaped him. From there, Future sticks to what he is good at; fast paced, catchy, strip club anthems. This includes “Jumpin on a Jet,” “Rocket Ship,” “Crushed Up” and “Faceshot.” While these songs are good, they’re nothing we haven’t heard from Future before, just like this album.

The album features highlights such as the insane beat switches on “F&N” and “Baptiize” that are sure to amp up any fan of trap music. As well as some amazing features on “First Off” with Travis Scott and “Unicorn Purp” with Young Thug and Gunna that are sure to find way into your playlists.

Despite these highlights, there are cons. The album is too long (20 songs), the songs as a collective sound too similar to each other and there should have been more features. Toronto superstars Drake and The Weeknd who have collaborated with Future in prior projects (Drake and Future dropped their collab retail mixtape What A Time To Be Alive in 2016, The Weeknd and Future topped charts with their songs “All I Know” and “Low life”), could have been used very well on this album but were nowhere to be found. This is unfortunate, given Future’s influence on Toronto’s rap scene.

Future’s influence on Toronto’s rap sound is undeniable: he makes autotune and trap go together like salsa and chips, essentially setting the stage for Toronto rappers such as Lb and Casper, known for gritty lyrics coated in autotune. Drake and Future’s classic production techniques of simplistic drum patterns and filtered synths for vocal room are a huge part of TNG Casper’s sound, spotted on his biggest hit, “Freeze” featuring Top5. According to Casper’s official website, his early influences came from his father’s taste and own music as a member of Too Bad to Be True, and then as he got older, Future, The Weeknd, and Drake crept in.

Lb, the baby-faced hit maker, is known throughout Toronto’s local hip hop sphere for his catchy hooks and autotune, like on his track “My Phone” which currently has over a million views on Youtube.

While Casper and Lb are known almost exclusively in Toronto and the greater Toronto area, Future’s influence also reaches mainstream Toronto stars as well. 88Glam, a hip hop duo signed to The Weeknd’s  XO label, composed of Toronto artists 88 Camino and Derek Wise (formerly of Kensington Market collective Get Home Safe with fellow Toronto rapper Jazz Cartier) have the city and hip hop fans in awe of their quick flows and strong bars, delivered in the language Future made cool for clubs — autotune. Fellow XO artist, Nav, of Rexdale, has also adopted autotune into his arsenal, the key to his success in making him one of the well known names in rap.

While Future’s influence is more evident than ever on Toronto and hip hop in general, it’s due to his previous work and not necessarily The WIZRD. Overall, The WIZRD is good, but not great. Future sticks to what he’s good at with the catchy trap bangers, but he doesn’t experiment outside of his comfort zone like he did with his last full-length album Hndrxx.

If Future’s run from 2015 to 2017 where he dropped hit mixtapes (Monster, Beast Mode, 56 nights, Purple Reign), chart topping albums (DS2, Evol, Future, Hndrxx) and some huge collaboration albums with Drake and fellow Atlanta native Young Thug was his championship run, then The WIZRD is Future looking back at a great career while showing that he still has the it factor to compete.