Toronto, Canada has one of the largest Jamaican communities in the world. It's no surprise that Canada's first hip hop artists were Jamaican Canadians such as Michie Mee and the Dream Warriors. Snow, a white anglo Torontonian, had a huge hit in Jamaica and Canada with "Informer", a song that demonstrated his use of Jamaican language. Kardinal Offishall, another Jamaican Canadian, has rapped about the "Bakardi Slang" of Toronto, and internet memes have illustrated the ways in which Toronto talks Patwa--even the late mayor Rob Ford was filmed cursing in Jamaican while out late at a local restaurant. Most recently, Drake, Canada's most successful hip hop artist ever, has been not only concerned with representing his hometown, but also engaging with Jamaican language. This paper will track the discourse around Patwa in Canadian/Toronto hip hop and look at how Drake continues as well as alters the narrative. ;xNLx;;xNLx;What, however, do we do with Drake? Acknowledging his use of language as Multicultural Toronto English—and English that is inflected by Jamaican creole—provides a direct link to the history of Canadian hip hop and Toronto’s identity as a produced Jamaican space. But it also legitimizes his use of an identity. How do we critique Drake while insisting on the history of Toronto as Jamaican space and Canadian hip hop as Jamaican-inflected—and most certainly NOT fake Patwa?;xNLx;;xNLx;This timeline provides a range of articles and sources relevant to the discussion.;xNLx;;xNLx;Thanks to Sharine Taylor and Isis Semaj Hall for thoughtful questions and ideas!
Maestro Fresh Wes album--features "Let Your Backbone Slide".
"In 1990, when the last spot on Toronto's radio dial was up for grabs, the CRTC gave it to a country music station, rather than one of four dance/black music applicants, two of whom would have included regular rotations of reggae in their programming (Gerard 1990,33). This became something of a racial issue and The Committee For Dance Music Radio put out a song called 'CRTC (Can't Repress the Cause)'" (McCuaig 64).
With L.A. Luv. Hip hop MCing and dancehall chat.
Album from Michie Mee and L.A. Luv
Dream Warriors Album
Song and video connecting dancehall and hip hop. Video shot in Waterhouse, Kingston.
Kardinal Offishall debut album.
Video by Little X with Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black and Sean Paul.
Del Cowie writes about success of Canadian Hip hop. Interesting comment regarding "[combination of] soul and R&B as well as the distinctly West Indian sounds that have come to be identified as particularly Canadian in hip-hop"
Derrick Mathis writes in L.A. Weekly about the challenge to Canadian hip hop with reference to Choclair: "Conventional wisdom holds that Canadian hip-hop productions just don’t sound American enough to be successful in the U.S. Perhaps an even bigger obstacle for U.S. acceptance is the sound of Canadian hip-hop voices; many Canadian rappers are first- or second-generation Caribbean immigrants who pepper their rhymes with inflections from Jamaica, Haiti or Trinidad."
Tune discussing Toronto slang/Patwa.
Tune using bam bam riddim--clear combination of dancehall and hip hop.
Video--one a Muchmusic video award.
Guy Dixon writes about the compilation Jamaica to Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974.
Drake debut album.
Thesis by Keith McCuaig for a Master of Arts in Music and Culture at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Presentation at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics conference, Accra, Ghana, August 2011. Investigation as to whether London youth language contains traces of Caribbean creole.
Drake's second album.
Video from TheDudeMcFly demonstrating Patwa-laced Toronto slang.
Third Drake album.
Rob Ford caught speaking Patwa late at night at Steak Queen in Toronto.
Essay by Lars Hinrichs in The Variability of Current World Englishes (DeGruter 2014).
Nick Krewen writes in Socan Magazine about the impact of Drake on Toronto hip hop artists.
Jodee Brown writes about regge in Canada/Toronto, but there is a discussion of hip hop: "[Klive Walker] also says a lot of Jamaican-born artists who grew up here during the emergence of hip hop in the 1980s and ’90s chose hip hop instead of reggae given there were more opportunities to make money."
Niel Scobie's Master's thesis. "By using theories of hybridity and third space, my thesis investigates Michie Mee’s articulation of a recognizable hybrid identity that projects both Canadian and Jamaican sensibilities."
Nadeska Alexis asks questions about Drake's use of Patwa: "Is it just me, or is Drake sounding more Canadian than ever in 'Jungle?'"
"lmaooooooooo at everyone who said drake has a 'new accent' obviously you've never met a toronto roadman before"
Carl Wilson attempts to look at the Canadianness of Drake; also discusses the language that Drake uses as Jamaican.
Del Cowie looks at Michie Mee's career--use of Patwa is mentioned.
The 1,200 sq ft mural by Adrian Hayles has brought Torontonians together to celebrate their local artist. September, 19, 2015 @ 1526 Eglinton West.
Key quotation from Leon Neyfakh's interview: Drake has been channeling those diverse inputs with great enthusiasm lately, most obviously in his use of Toronto-by-way-of-the-Caribbean slang (ting, touching road, talkin’ boasy and gwanin’ wassy) and even religious Arabic words like mashallah and wallahi, a wink to Toronto’s Somali population. “We use [that lingo] every day,” he says, “but it just took me some time to build up the confidence to figure out how to incorporate it into songs. And I’m really happy that I did. I think it’s important for the city to feel like they have a real presence out there.”
Rawiya Kameir interviews Kardinal: "Literally from the very first song I had on the mainstream, which was 'Bakardi Slang,' it was a song about the city that I came from, the slang that we used and the styles that we did."
Eul Basa lists many slang terms, but basically says that Scarborough (one of the boroughs of Toronto) slang is, basically, Patwa. Another article here: http://www.narcity.com/toronto/15-slang-words-spoken-in-toronto-that-you-could-use-in-your-relationship/#comments
This paper serves as a short note about an ongoing innovation in the pronominal system of multiethnic adolescent Toronto English. The plural noun mans is in the early stages of grammaticalizing into a first person singular pronoun in this speech community in a way similar to the development of man in Multicultural London English.
Ed Conroy discusses the Jamaican and other Caribbean connections to hip hop in Toronto.
Anupa Mistry writes about Drake's Patwa: "It was a club staple at a time when Drake was still living in Toronto, listening to local radio, and partying in local spots, so even though his patois might make you cringe, his nostalgia was on brand."
Rob Kenner discusses Drake's use of Jamaican and dancehall tropes with no mention of Canada/Toronto
Fourth Drake album.
Jordan Danville interviews Sharine Taylor about meme that makes fun of Drake's use of Patwa.
Toronto Public Library provides a guide to online sources relating to the Jamaican music scene in Toronto.
Joel Rubin, in The Journal of Hip Hop Studies, discusses Drake's development of identity through his videos.
Anupa Mistry interviews Kardinal Offishall, Kid Kut, Jully Black and Sean Paul about "Money Jane". Kid Kut: "We are about that Caribbean vibe: everybody you knew, even from two doors down, was West Indian. That was what Toronto sounded like, to me."
Sharine Taylor discusses the links between dancehall and pop, including an analysis of Drake's "Views".
Sajae Elder discusses Drake, Patwa and Toronto, asking "what does Toronto actually sound like?”
Eternity Martis discusses Patwa in Toronto as well as the history and context of Jamaican.
Safy-Hallan Farah writes about the language of Drake--the coopting of Jamaican Patwa but also Somali.
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