ThisIsWalder.com showcases TDot Spitters

Anyone can make a music blog nowadays. It takes no effort to sign into WordPress, post a video and rant about any topic under the sun, but it takes a nonstop grind and a serious passion to turn a blog into a household name and use that name to make a positive impact for the artists that blog covers. Toronto’s hip-hop blog ThisIsWalder.com attempted just that by supporting homegrown talent at its Showcasing Toronto event hosted at Revival last Sunday night.
Many of the city’s top spitters such as JD Era, Tommy Spitz, Raz Fresco and Peter Jackson hit the stage with that TDot flavour as Flow 93.5 FM’s Dames Nellas turned the night into a jam, spinning party tracks between sets.
Daniel Minichini, one of the organizer’s of the night’s events, said the motive of the showcase was to add exposure to Toronto talent and showcase buzzing acts, who play an influential role in the character of our Toronto hip-hop community.
From Juno award nominated emcee JD Era to the young Bakersclub rapper/producer Raz Fresco, each act was vastly different from the next and original in their own right, but together represented the identity of hip-hop in the north.
“[Hip-hop] is such a niche market and it’s so focused on the diversity of the scene. Starting from the roots, we have so many hip-hop artists that are coming from so many different places in Ontario and I think the root comes from the nature of our city. It is very musical and it’s very artistic,” Minichini says.
Mr. OneTwoooo, Tommy Spitz took a break from his musical hiatus, and proved that he hasn’t missed a beat during his time away and performed new, unreleased music for the audience. The self-proclaimed ‘Top 5 in Canada’ emcee chose the Walder showcase to return to the stage because of his respect for the blog and its contribution to Canadian hip-hop.
“[Thisiswalder] didn’t treat me like a promoter trying to make money off an artist or money off of a show. This is Walder is hip-hop,” Spitz says.
The support wasn’t fully there in numbers at the venue, but by eliminating the American headliner and turning the focus on local talent, Toronto is one step closer to recognizing the underappreciated skills we harbour. ThisIsWalder.com took the culture off the screen and onto the stage, where it belongs and no matter the turnout, demonstrated that the blog really does support Canadian hip-hop.

Best Of Big Ticket

The monthly hip-hop hub The Big Ticket celebrated its “best of” event earlier this month at The Velvet Underground, where artists who had left a lasting impression on the city could come back and wow music lovers once again with their beats and rhymes. The night, designed for the hip-hop community, shone a light on Toronto emcees such as Perfeck Strangers, Twelfth Letter, Scott Ramirez and SepTO, who all took a turn to vibe with the packed house and celebrate the culture of rap. The beauty of The Big Ticket event is the respect it shows for the professional business of hip-hop and the art of the culture.
Tommy Spitz returned from his musical hiatus, performing alongside MC T.R.A at the talent-packed event. The self-proclaimed “top 5 in Canada” says his relationship with Big Ticket founder Chris Jackson has stretched past 20 years and that the intimate Big Ticket event acts as the summit of hip-hop culture in Toronto right now.

“[Chris has] kept a certain status with respectable artists performing. He keeps it an environment that anyone can come to. It’s a real hip-hop culture vibe. It’s more about culture than trying to put people on. It really feels like hip-hop in the building,” says Spitz.
A fresh, interactive element to the seven-month old event was added this time around. Citizen Kane’s Spade and Perfeck Stranger’s Dan-e-o interacted with the crowd to present the first ever hip-hop court, where they acted as lawyers, presenting arguments around the question of who won in the highly publicized Nas and Jay-Z beef. They used tracks such as Nas’ “Ether” and Hova’s “Takeover” in their statements and asked the audience to weigh in as the jury. Through a Twitter verdict, hip-hop heads in attendance named Nas the winner of the beef.
Interaction continued throughout the night between performers and audience members, which added an intimate feel to the event and is something KemiKAL enjoyed about performing. The young artist, who is also known as a talented producer, displayed his artistic capabilities as he performed tracks off his recently released album Elevator Music Going Up.

“A lot of artists, they don’t look at the crowd. They don’t say anything to the crowd,” he explains. “You have to give off a vibe that you’re a person like them, you’re just there to entertain for the time being. A lot of people look at it like a play and they have to come up and play their part and they have to stay in this character… and stay in this one dimension. You need to be connecting and let them feel you and let them know that you’re really doing this.”
In a short timespan, Jackson and supporters have left a profound impression on the Toronto hip-hop community, with a monthly event aimed to support local talent and bring professionalism in hip-hop to the forefront.