The Return of The Known Unknown

In an oversaturated music market, the key to success is originality and finding your own lane. Toronto’s own multi-talented artist Tika Simone has done just that with the comeback of her “The Known Unknown” showcase series that returned Sunday night at the Crawford and featured two up and coming Toronto artists who will headline the event, Derek Wise and Jelly Too Fly.

Jelly has become a staple in the Toronto hip-hop scene and is continuing to create a buzz throughout the USA with her new project King and an unmistakable stage presence that is hard to forget. It is safe to say the Toronto femcee kills every stage she performs on, so to kick-off the new “The Known Unknown” series with Jelly is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Toronto artist Derek Wise is creating quite the buzz online as well with his latest project Vacay and was approached by Tika to be a part of the event. As his first ever performance as an artist, Derek says he is humbled by the opportunity.
“It means a lot to me, because it lets me know that I’m on the right road. It’s definitely a good look,” he says. “[The event] does what it says. I’m unknown. I’m a new voice so this event will let [Toronto] know who I am.”
Tika took time away from the event series to rebrand it as a spotlight for up and coming Toronto artists. The event, which began in 2010 as Intimate & Interactive grew into something that Tika never even, expected. She returned with a bigger and better series for the city.
“Our mission is to prove that in Toronto, we actually have support for our own and are capable of supporting our own and not just our own on a large scale but on a small scale where people are generating their own attraction in the city,” Tika says.
“It’s really turned into this magnificent thing and I needed to figure out a way to not only showcase artists, but to bring it to Toronto on a bigger scale. We decided we are going to show the actual process that we go through and we are doing that through a reality web series.”
Tika says this web series will air weekly and will feature viral auditions, showcasing artists vying for a slot on the bill of the next event.
The multi-talented Tika humbly states that she is proud of her work on the project, the fruition of the event and every artist that she has gotten a chance to work with during the process. She says she hopes the series will take place monthly, along with seasonal larger scale events.
“I’m more of an idea person, I’ve never been really successful at the cultivation, but this is one of the few things that I can say I really worked my behind off on it and it came to be something very lovely and very close to me,” she says.