Rich history of the genre explored in new CBC documentary 'Northern Beats'
Canadian hip-hop pioneers like Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee find comfort in the success of global stars such as Drake and The Weeknd.
"The fact that Drake made it makes me sleep well, because this was the whole vision that we had here in Canada," Michie Mee says in the "Northern Beats" episode of the CBC docuseries Black Life: Untold Stories. "And Drake took it to a whole other level."
The episode delves into the origins of Canadian hip-hop, its evolution, and how artists struggled for recognition and commercial success in the 80s and 90s.
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It looks at pivotal moments like Vancouver hip-hop group Rascalz turning down a Juno award in 1998, which would have been given at a non-televised event the day before the telecast. "Urban music, reggae, R&B and rap: that's all Black music and it's not represented at the Junos. We decided that until it is, we are going to take a stance," the group said in a statement at the time.
"The Rascalz's refusal of the Juno actually amplified what was invisible to a lot of people, which was [that] infrastructure in Canada … had no interest in supporting any kind of Black music or anything, period," hip-hop historian Mark Campbell says in the episode.
"What did Canada lose by not supporting this first generation of hip-hop artists? We lost the ability to build the infrastructure to support artists like Justin Bieber or Alessia Cara today or Drake or The Weeknd," Campbell said. "All of those artists, their infrastructure is not in Canada. They're touring the world, they're topping the charts, and none of their benefits are really coming back to this country. We could have learned something by exporting Michie Mee. By supporting the Dream Warriors."
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