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Is Toronto's Hip-Hop Scene Repeating Its Own Successes?

...There is an undeniable uniformity among most of the acts receiving a significant industry co-sign – trap-leaning, downtempo, lyrically repetitive male artists, writing songs primarily about the pursuit of wealth, power and the objectification of women. 

Is Toronto's Hip-Hop Scene Repeating Its Own Successes?

By External Source

This is the digital era. Artists no longer have to fight tooth and nail to create and release content. So why, both internationally and here in Toronto, does so much of the music receiving financial backing and industry support all sound so similar?


In the last five to 10 years there has been ever-increasing outside interest in Toronto’s hip-hop and R&B scenes. While this is a beneficial trend for local musicians, including me, there is an undeniable uniformity among most of the acts receiving a significant industry co-sign – trap-leaning, downtempo, lyrically repetitive male artists, writing songs primarily about the pursuit of wealth, power and the objectification of women. 

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This isn’t hate or saltiness on my part. Drake and the Weeknd have been influential musicians, and I’m grateful for the outside attention and interest they’ve brought to Toronto. Yet so much of the music being pushed in their wake barely strays from the template established on If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and there are so many artists that fall outside it – all sonically or lyrically distinct in their own ways. You wouldn’t know it based on the narrow genre being sold as the Toronto Sound.

So are most hip-hop and R&B artists these days simply not seeking to innovate? Or is the music industry not supporting and incentivising originality and innovation among “urban” artists? Maybe it’s a little of both.

The limited depictions of the lives, bodies and ideas of Black people in mass media is a well-known, well-documented problem. Black artists are subject to the pigeonholing of our identities and the erasure of our individual diversity. We are shoved into predetermined templates, tailor-made for the consumption of a society socialized to believe we are inferior. When this is done long enough, many Black artists internalize these depictions and in turn create art that snugly fits into such templates. They can then be conveniently cherry-picked into stardom by the powers that be, leaving Black artists who remain bold and steadfast marginalized. 

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So there is a clear issue with race, but there’s also a gender issue – continue reading Matthew Progress's It's time to stop pigeonholing Toronto hip-hop in Now

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Kneecap Blasts Norwegian Government at Oslo Festival, Accusing It of Funding ‘Genocide’ Against Palestinians
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Mo Chara, DJ Provaí and Móglaí Bap of Kneecap performs on the West Holts Stage during during day four of Glastonbury Festival 2025 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 28, 2025 in Glastonbury, England.

Music News

Kneecap Blasts Norwegian Government at Oslo Festival, Accusing It of Funding ‘Genocide’ Against Palestinians

The Irish rap trio went after the Norwegian government over its investments, which are currently under scrutiny, at Øyafestivalen.

Irish rap group Kneecap – which has drawn a storm of criticism, support, attention and legal action over the past half-year – continued to speak out about the war in Gaza during an afternoon set at the Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, on Friday (Aug. 8).

Right before the trio of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí took the stage, an English-language white-text-on-black-background message played on a video screen, accusing the Norwegian government of “enabling” the “genocide” against the Palestinian people via investments held in the county’s sovereign wealth fund (referenced as “oil pension fund” in the message). “Over 80,000 people have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,” the band’s message continued. “Free Palestine.” The message was greeted readily by a cheering audience. Most estimates (including those from health officials in the area) place the Palestinian death toll at more than 60,000. That number does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants. An estimated 18,500 of those killed were children.

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