OsamaSon will now play both days of the Toronto underground rap festival (Aug. 28-29), which has added Xaviersobased, ApolloRed1 and 1oneam to the bill after Nettspend, Che and more have dropped out. "It's been the craziest 24 hours of my life," co-founder Leo Strang tells Billboard Canada.
First Class Fest is facing some serious turbulence, but is stabilizing before liftoff.
Just days before the Toronto festival, which lands at the Bowl at Sobeys Stadium on Aug. 28-29, multiple artists dropped off the bill, including one of its biggest names. Nettspend, who recently notched his first Billboard Canadian Albums placement with Early Life Crisis in March, abruptly announced that he would "not be making it to Toronto" via his Instagram story on Tuesday night (Aug. 25).
First Class Fest voiced its displeasure following Nettspend's cancellation, explaining via Instagram that the cancellation came at the very last minute and without an explanation. In his place, headliner OsamaSon will now play both nights of the festival with different sets on each night.
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First Class Fest has dealt with four cancellations overall, with Che and Black Kray dropping out within the last week and Skaiwater cancelling in July. The festival has booked a total of seven artists to fill the gaps.
New additions inlcude ApolloRed1, who is signed to Playboi Carti's YVL label imprint, Toronto breakthrough Twentythree, who is set to play his biggest homecoming show to date and Xaviersobased, the eclectic "jerk" hip-hop rapper taking over Che's slot.
They join a lineup of up-and-coming names like Young Thug protégés Diamond* and Tezzus, who are playing back-to-back sets, Billboard Canada 2026 Artist to Watch Sorisa and U.K. underground pioneer Lancey Foux, whose new album The Time of Our Lives is out on the same day as his performance.
Co-founder Leo Strang tells Billboard Canada it's been "the craziest 24 hours of my life," having had to find a replacement less than 48 hours before the festival's scheduled start. He describes all the artist cancellations as "devastating," some of which he also found out about in real time, like many festivalgoers.
"Every time we've gotten bad news, we've taken 30 seconds to grieve and then we've started picking up the phones and inquiring with new artist teams to make a replacement," he says. "I think our replacements have shown that we've been working swiftly on all of them. It's my job to try and make that bad news good news. You can't appeal to everyone, but I’m just doing my best to get a solid replacement, and I feel like we have done that."
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Friday night headliner OsamaSon stepped up to fill Nettspend's spot and personally chose to play a unique set comprised of unreleased fan-favourite songs and leaks, offering fans a rare, special setlist. The rapper was eager to extend his first-ever stadium festival performance into a double stint and even personally called the organizers to share his excitement. First Class Fest previously promoted his first-ever club shows in Toronto.
With each of the lineup changes, Strang says he has sought to find creative solutions, offering to switch set times, cover travel fees or even send a private chauffeur.
"When I've been called and told these artists are going to drop out, I'm not immediately taking that as what's gonna happen," he explains. "My brain immediately goes to finding creative solutions. We have done every single thing that we are contractually obliged to do every single time, and it is actually a violation of our agreement when artists drop out of our festival."
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Strang says he's sought to "defend the brand" and make sure the public knows that they've done everything in their power to give them a good show.
"We are young and we're not [wearing] suits per se," he says. "We're creative people, but we pride ourselves in doing good business and having an organized festival. We've done everything in our power."
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First Class Fest started in 2022 as a way to bring American underground rap stars to Canada for their first-ever headline shows in the country, which was frequently skipped. After years of booking artists like OsamaSon and Che in local venues like Toronto's History and Montreal's Olympia, the festival has now upgraded to its first-ever outdoor show, with the Bowl at Sobeys Stadium welcoming up to 9,000 people.
Through a representative, Che declined to comment for this story. Billboard Canada has reached out to Nettspend for comment but has not heard back by press time.
