Toronto: Beat-making capital of the world?

Story by Karen Bliss | Thursday January 21st, 2016

Atlanta, you have some competition. Toronto is arguably the beat-making capital of the world.

“We’re becoming leaders of the sound right now, more specifically because of what Drake’s output dictates to the world. Everything after that is influenced by him because he’s so big,” says Rich Kidd, a JUNO Award-winning artist with Naturally Born Strangers and veteran beat-maker/producer.

Rich Kidd“It is recognized,” he says, “but it should be put in context of, these are the guys that are shaping the sound of what’s coming next.”

“These guys,” meaning Drake’s beat-maker/producers — and there are many.

Since starting from the bottom, Drake has made it his mission to use as many of his Toronto peeps as possible on his tracks: most notably, beat-maker/producers Boi-1da and Noah “40” Shebib, who are all over his work. But he’s also worked with far less familiar names, like Matthew Burnett, Tone Mason, Frank Dukes, Vinylz, Sevn Thomas, T-Minus, PartyNextDoor, WondaGurl, and more.

Of course, Toronto hip-hop producers have long landed their beats on songs by major artists, pre- and post-Drake; it’s just that his global stardom is putting a spotlight on the city — The 6, as he’s branded it. His profound respect for Toronto talent has led his fellow rap stars to seek out those very same beat-makers.

But a beat-maker/prPrezident Jeffoducer can’t just work away in the basement on FL Studio, or some other software, hoping Drake will call them on his cell phone. So, how did they get their breaks? How did they make those connections?

SOCAN spoke with six from The 6 — Sevn Thomas, Frank Dukes, Prezident Jeff, Matthew Burnett, Jordan Evans, and Rich Kidd — who’ve created beats used in songs by Drake, Eminem, Kanye West, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Travi$ Scott and The Game.

What they do is very competitive, but theirs is a supportive community, they all say. They work in tight circles, but those cliques aren’t impenetrable. Like any business in which it takes years to establish yourself, the successful ones are wary of those trying to work their way in, or poach their clients. For the up-and-coming, as much as it’s about talent, it’s also about being genuine, respectful and having good energy. Then the door opens.

“Thank God my parents raised me to always listen to people who I respect; that’s the vibe that comes across when you meet me,” says Prezident Jeff, born Jeffrey Offe, whose C.V. includes Canadian Roy Woods, the U.K.’s Little Simz and American Kevin Gates. “I’m very respectful and humble. I don’t like to talk about myself. That’s been the consistent thing. I often wonder how I’ve been able to get in certain circles — because I know a lot of bigger producers — and I chalk it up [to the fact that], besides my talent, they like my vibe.”

Matthew BurnettMatthew Burnett — who got his start in high school, signed as a staff producer to Boi-1da and worked under him for three years — agrees that respect is key; beat-making/producing is one area of hip-hop where swag and braggadocio likely won’t get you a break when you’re just starting out. “Based on experience, if you’re trying to approach someone who’s more established, obviously the biggest thing is your intentions, your personality, and also your talent level, because we’ve come across people who have ill intentions,” Burnett says.

“But if you’re a talented person and you’re new on the scene, but you have a great energy about you and you’re likeable, then you suggest, ‘Maybe we should work together?’ Or a lot of times I’ll be in a session and that person’s name will come up as a new guy on the scene, and then [I’ll say to them], ‘He played me some of your music and it sounds great. We should work together.’”

Jordan EvansIt’s really that simple.

Says Jordan Evans, “the producers that are making songs with big artists, it’s a pretty small community, and we help each other out a lot. I can speak for myself, Matthew, and other people that we work with, we definitely mentor a lot of the new guys, the new beat-makers, giving them help, advice, pointers, and whatever they need. “

Evans, Burnett and Boi-1da co-wrote Eminem’s 2010 hit “Not Afraid,” a No. 1 song that’s now cerfitied 10-times platinum in the U.S. alone. Breaks don’t come any bigger than that. And they all come about differently.

Frank Dukes (born Adam Feeney) started in high school as a DJ. By reverse engineering, he figured out the samples used by his favourite producers, like RZA, Pete Rock and DJ Premier. He had a manager at the time who shopped his beats. “Around early 2000s – 2004 or 2005 — I got my first real placement with G-Unit for a Lloyd Banks song that never came out,” says Dukes. “I think I got $5,000 for it and, at the time, I was young and that seemed like a shitload of money for making music. It made me realize I could do this for a job.”

Frank DukesFor Dukes, a bigger turning point came when he changed his approach to songwriting. He sampled The Menahan Street Band for a mixtape, and ended up becoming good friends with them. When he moved to New York for a bit, he hung out at their studio and absorbed their approach to writing and recording music.

“That just opened me up to a whole different world of making music, making beats, and making songs from an idea-based perspective,” he says. “Nurturing it and developing it into a song, as opposed to just making beats and sending them out to people.”

Sevn Thomas (born Thomas Rupert Jr.) counts his start in the music industry at age two in Jamaica. His uncle, dancehall DJ Rappa Robert, would bring him to the recording studio when he worked with UB40. Groomed for this life, he was creating beats on a Korg Triton in Grade 5 and was also a recording artist. At age 10, he had a nationwide hit with “Too Young for Love,” on Master T’s compilation, under the name Suga Prince. He signed to Sony BMG at 15.

Sevn Thomas“I was working out of Sunny Diamonds’ studio in Grade 9. Sunny is a staple in the city, being an engineer and a cultivator of talent,” he says. “Everybody would go to Sunny Diamonds’ for their first session. That’s how I how built a lot of my relationships – that I’ve been able to maintain to this day.

“I’ve known Boi-1da for about 12, 13 years. I was working on my album, when I was with Sony BMG. Boi-1da would come to Sunny Diamonds’ studio, and he’d hear some of my beats and he’d be like, ‘Yo, what’s your full name? I want to draw up a contract with my lawyer.’” Sevn recounts. “At that time, he’d really just started taking off with Drake’s success, ‘Best I Ever Had’ had just come out. So Far Gone had just come out. So he got caught up in the whirlwind, but he was a man of his word, and he came back a couple of years later, after I entered Battle of the Beat Makers 2012. I had a faceoff with Wondagurl. We re-matched, like, three times; the judges weren’t able to choose.”

That’s how he earned his break with Drake, through Boi-1da.

These six from The 6 aren’t the only ones making noise: Big Pops (The Game, Meek Mill); Mikhail (Flo Rida, Vybz Kartel, Lil Wayne); Moss (Ghostface Killah, Raekwon); Raz Fresco (Tyga, French Montana, Mac Miller); and the team Tone Mason (Drake, Jay Z, Dr. Dre) all continue to make beats and co-write songs for the highest-profile hip-hop artists. .

And many of the next generation of Toronto beat-maker/producers are taking advantage of the Battle of the Beat Makers, founded in 2005 by Sound Supremacy Entertainment’s Clifton Reddick. The battle has become the world’s most distinguished producer face-off, offering a platform to hundreds of beat-makers from all over the globe. Boi-1da won three times. So did WondaGurl, then 15. T-Minus is also an alumnus. The most recent battle was in December of 2015. Having come a long way, Boi-1da was now one of the guest judges, and helped pick the 32 qualifiers.

Since 2013, Toronto can also claim a dedicated non-profit school called The Beat Academy, which nurtures and educates budding beat-makers through workshops, and also stages Battle of the Americas International Beat Battles. #TeamTO beat Team Texas at SXSW 2014 and Team L.A. during Grammy Week 2015.

The academy is the brainchild of “homeless to Harvard” student Toni Morgan, who previously ran the Made in Canada MC battles, which were so successful she went from living in shelters to her first apartment.

“Toronto is the North American epicentre of raw talent,” Morgan says. “The diversity of the city lends itself beautifully to the way young creatives are influenced. When Beat Academy began, our goal was — and continues to be — to create avenues of access for undiscovered beatmaker/producers to turn music production into employment- a full-time career.

“We have watched basement beat-maker/producers get signed to labels, work with Grammy award-winning artists and become full-time musicians because of our commitment to connecting unknowns to the world of popular music. I have seen the entire music industry shift to include beat-maker/producers as part of the songwriting conversation.”

Photo by Melissa Gamache

Emilie & Ogden: Charm and Grace

Story by Patrick Baillargeon | Thursday January 21st, 2016

Ever since she launched 10,000 in October of 2015, singer-songwriter and harpist Émilie Kahn has barely had a moment to herself. She hit the road alongside Ogden – the model name of Lyon & Healy brand Celtic harp she uses – opening for Montréal’s Half Moon Run. It was a long trip that took her all over Europe and the U.S.

Ever so shy, the young woman born in Saint-Lazare (about halfway between Montréal and the Québec-Ontario border) speaks softly and calmly, in the manner of her touching, gracious songs. Kahn’s musical universe is contemplative, dreamy, a folksy kind of indie pop that veers between melancholy and romanticism. These songs were created over a period of three years. Back in 2013, despite a critically acclaimed EP, the artist was still filled with self-doubt about her potential, and the significance of her work.

“I had moments of very deep doubt while creating 10,000,” says Kahn. “When I signed with Secret City (Patrick Watson, Jesse Mac Cormack), I was still unsure of my songs’ musical quality. But I slowly grew more and more confident. I chose that title for the album while I was writing the song of the same name, where I wondered if I’d ever make it with my music. In that song, I sing the words ‘Ten thousand talents that you’ll never see, ten thousand talents that I’ll never be…’ There are so many people making music! So, even though I know I can make it, I was still afraid no one would notice. Ultimately, this album is the antithesis of those fears.”

Emilie & OgdenAs for her previous EP, Kahn tapped Jesse Mac Cormack to produce her album. “I was in another musical project before and I had recorded with him before. I also heard other stuff that he produced and I really liked his work,” she says of the prolific producer and musician. “As soon as I got Emilie & Ogden, I contacted him. He’s very young, but he’s so creative! We did large swaths of the album at Studio B-12, a strange house of a million rooms in the middle of the countryside. We stayed there for a week. Most of the vocals were recorded in another studio, near Morin Heights, with Éloi Painchaud. That process was quite lengthy, a long and winding road,” Kahn admits about the incubation of 10,000. “Then the album sat in a drawer for awhile, because we had no idea if we’d find a label willing to put it out, or if we would put it out ourselves. But, in the end, Secret City approached us.

Shortly after wrapping up the recording for 10,000, Kahn covered Taylor Swift’s “Style” and made a video for it. So far, the clip has been seen more than 325,000 times on YouTube.

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” says Kahn. “I still love playing that song, but on the other hand, I don’t want to become just a YouTube sensation. It was quite intense when it started getting traction, just before I released the album. I wondered if it was a good idea, but with time, I do think it was. I thought it was interesting to take a pop song and turn it into something completely different. By taking a different approach, we can sometimes create different emotions than the ones evoked by the original. My cover created a small buzz and helped attract audience and media’s attention to my music.”

“In the end, it’s Taylor Swift herself that got the ball rolling by tweeting a link to my cover version. I wonder if she actually watched it!” laughs Kahn, admitting her love for sugary pop songs. “As a teen, I listened to a lot of indie stuff: St. Vincent, Feist, Metric… I was already in a band when I was in high school, and when I listen to the stuff we played back then, I realize it’s not that far from what I’m doing today. But I still listen to full-on pop, like Beyoncé, Drake and, of course, Taylor Swift!

“Somebody told me once, after a concert, that I actually make pop songs, but orchestrated and interpreted in a completely different way. So, in the end, my music is very much a melting pot of all my influences.”

Photo by Amir Parsamehr

Jean Derome: Fight for your right

Story by Nicolas Tittley | Tuesday January 19th, 2016

According to the United Nations, 2016 is the international year of… legumes. As yummy as they can be, they aren’t exactly exciting, artistically. That’s why we thought it best to remind you that 2016 will also be the second half of the “Jean Derome Year,” as proclaimed by the man himself. The saxophonist, flutist, composer and seasoned improviser decided to celebrate his 60th birthday by revisiting four decades of daring music – after being awarded a career grant by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

The idea was quite simple: showcase a small sample of his massive repertoire in a series of concerts spread over a period of 12 months; concerts featuring small and large orchestras that will teeter between improv and interpretation, originals and covers. The “Derome Year” will also be marked by a documentary titled Derome ou les Turbulences Musicales (Derome, or Musical Turbulence), a photo exhibit, and an album, Musiques de Chambre 1992–2012.

“In my musical genre, a world première is, most of the time, also a world last!”

“I sometimes feel like I went straight from up-and-coming to a career grant,” jokes the musician, who started his professional career in the early ‘70s. “I thought it would be interesting to take a step back and look at how my music has evolved throughout the years. What I knew for sure is that I didn’t want to do your classic retrospective; I liked the idea that if you didn’t specify it, the listeners would have no clue as to whether a piece was new or old.”

Jean Derome

Photo: Martin Morissette

That’s one appropriate way to describe the so-called “contemporary music” with which Jean Derome has practically always been associated. That musical style can tap into any musical genre or era, and its boldness and lack of precise parameters make it timeless and elusive. “It’s the perfect music for me, because it’s a grey area in and of itself,” says Derome. “It’s a music that’s flexible, mobile; one can borrow from jazz, folk, rock and contemporary music.”

It comes as no surprise that the Derome Year began in May 2015 in Victoriaville. The creator and artistic director of the Festival de Musique Actuelle, Michel Levasseur, invited Derome to perform Résistances, an electrifying new creation re-uniting 20 musicians, most of whom are friends and colleagues from the Ambiances Magnétiques imprint – a label he co-founded about 30 years ago alongside Joane Hétu and René Lussier. Résistances is part composition and part improvisation, but directed by the maestro. Inspired by Canot Camping, which is another piece for large orchestra, this show seemed doomed to be a one-time affair despite – or maybe because of – its scope, as is so often the case for contemporary music works.

“In my musical genre, a world premiere is, most of the time, also a world last!” says Derome with a mirthless smile. “But that’s the other advantage of spreading the celebrations over a period of one year: we can play stuff again that was played only once before, and re-visit pieces that weren’t quite done saying what they have to!”

Although he‘s a multi-instrumentalist, Derome is mainly associated with the saxophone, his main and favourite instrument for many, many years. “I spent the first half of my career playing mainly the flute and the second playing mainly the sax,” he says. “When people ask me what I do, I simply say I’m a musician or a saxophonist.”

Even though the saxophone is like an extension of his own body, Derome often uses other instruments. In concert, it is not a rare thing to seem him reach for one of the many bird calls he’s been collecting for years, a toy instrument or any other object whose sound he enjoys. He’s been known to play a potato chip bag solo during a dance recital… “When I discovered bird callers and whistles, it extended my musical vocabulary,” says Delorme. “I’m totally aware that it seems almost comical to watch me play these weird objects, but to me they are simply a way to express the sounds I hear in my mind.”

Despite the fact that he earns a living composing for the movies, theatre, dance recitals or TV – he has no reservations in calling himself a working musician – Derome is, at heart, an explorer who’s not one bit afraid of rushing head-first into the unknown. He’s a staunch practitioner of a very demanding and resolutely anti-commercial art form destined to an audience that expects to be surprised. The artist has described his trade as a bona fide priesthood. So from this perspective, has his career been nothing but one long struggle?

“Maybe, but I’ve never had to fight people,” he says. “I’ve had to fight myself to avoid the temptation of becoming a sourpuss, or blasé. Sometimes I think I could retire, but that never lasts for very long because of new projects, and I’m incapable of saying no. An apple tree gives apples. A musician plays music. That’s all there is to it!”