Back in 2008 there was an idea.
We have been playing local artists for years, and doing interviews with them on our radio show for years. These interviews usually wound up being a five minute promo for a release party, mixtape etc, from a listeners stand point, and mostly ours, they weren’t too interesting. These artists were deeper than a release party. How do we get more into what they are about? The idea, why not have these artists hang out for the whole show and do more in-depth interviews to give the listeners a chance to get to know the artist better. We called it the New North, a showcase and platform to introduce the next generation of Canadian hip hop artists.
The New North became a quarterly feature on our show. One month of each quarter we would feature a new artist once a week for that month, (take a second, you’ll figure it out). It worked well, the audience along with ourselves got to learn more about these artists and their personalities. The evolution continued to the point where we decided to experiment, why not take the featured artists from one month and make a song? We did, Heateration 101, featuring Grimace Love, Shad, Theology 3 and Famous, produced by Tone Mason. It turned out pretty good, so we did a few more, Represent, with Rich Kidd, King Reign, Shaun Boothe, and Richie Sosa and the Boi-1da produced No Love, featuring Mayhem Morearty, Frankie Payne, Luu Breeze and Andreena Mill. Well you know what had to happen next, an album.
The New North album contains the best of Toronto hip hop. We gathered a bit over 30 artists we felt represented what Toronto has to offer. There are more but how long would this album have been?!
We thank the artists for their time and efforts and for believing in this project. Thanks to Jay Devonish and the DMC team for their work behind the scenes. Thanks to Pro Logic, SCAM from Time Bandits, and Big Sproxx for allowing us to record these dope joints. Without any of these people this album would have never happened. This is our offering to the world, a snapshot of the brightest in the Toronto urban scene handpicked by The Real Frequency. Enjoy.
