The Underground Vault: An Underground Hip-Hop Monthly:
Volume 2, Issue 1
Description :
This volume will center on the scenes of one major North American city Toronto For twelve issues, I will share oral histories, notes,
biographies, and the like, all relating to Toronto8217s hiphop past This research will accompany two larger projects, a dissertation on the history of Toronto8217s rap scene, and a meaty chapter in an upcoming encyclopedic book on Canadian hiphop history If you8217re not into Toronto rap, read no further Or, stick around and let me convince you otherwise The Greater Toronto Area (or the GTA) has, over the years, been home to a variety of hiphop scenes and spaces As an early adopter of hiphop, Toronto has also felt the cultural zeitgeists that have riddled hiphop from the start In the early 821680s, this, for Toronto, meant sound crews and lots of em From Chic Dynasty, to Sunshine Sound Crew, TKO, Kilowatt, and everything in between In the 821690s, this meant demoshopping and the adoption of New Yorkian 8216grit8217 through labels like Treehouse and Beat Factory In the late 821690s, and early 2000s, we have, surprisingly dope, attempts to break out into commercial success artists like Kardinall Offishall, Choclair and KOs were well suited for this goal All the while, indie spaces thrived And this is just the music all elements were alive in well in Toronto, from the bboy to the graff writer, to the journalist and knowledgepasser, Toronto had it all Over the next year, I hope to be able to provide clarity to these events As with the first volume, treat this as reference material In the case of volume two, consider all issues as supplementary bonuses to the two larger projects described above As a historian, and as this project is themed towards history, be mindful that this will naturally slant the coverage in these pages That said, don8217t be confused Toronto has remained thriving throughout Artists like Daniel Son, Futurewave, Sibbs Roc, Finn, Lord Juco, Raz Fresco, King Bliss, Asun Eastwood, Bozack Morris, etc have all kept the tradition of Toronto8217s grit alive If you8217re into more modern flares of rap style, we have that too, although it8217s too far outside of my zone of comfort to speak on