Hip-Hop 2011: That Canadian Sound

Features Year In Review Dec 2011

By Del F. CowieThe amount of talent in Canada's hip-hop production scene is ridiculously deep with talent and hip-hop heads around the world are beginning to notice. Here are just a few of the many Canadian producers who made a lot of noise in 2011.

T-MINUS
Producing "I'm On One," the inescapable summer hip-hop anthem featuring Drake, Lil' Wayne and Rick Ross put the 22-year-old Ajax, ON protege of producer Boi-1da, born Tyler Williams, on everybody's radar. This year T-Minus's melodic production was also heard on Nicki Minaj's "Moment 4 Life," Lil' Wayne's "She Will" and five songs on Drake's Take Care.

RICH KIDD (pictured)
When you are the first name uttered by Jay-Z's recording engineer Young Guru as a new producer he rates highly, you're doing something right. Prolific 23-year-old Toronto producer/MC Rich Kidd was again the model of heatrock consistency in 2011, producing countless tracks for Canadian artists like the Get By's "Faster" and Tona's "We Do" as well as making in-demand featured appearances on tracks like SonReal's "Already There." Rich Kidd also delivered the fifth consistently strong mixtape in his free download series We On Some Rich Kidd Shit, featuring Maestro Fresh Wes, k-os and Saukrates among many others.

MUNESHINE
Dalmeny, SK's Muneshine produced virtually all of D-Sisive's Polaris Prize long-listed Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye and contributed to his newest project Run With the Creeps. While his Larger Than Life collaboration with Dutch production team Vinyl Frontiers was an MCing project for Muneshine, fans of his dusty '90s-influenced production shouldn't fret. Upcoming material includes the Twin Peaks project with MC Ghettosocks and his solo album There is Only Today.

BOI-1DA
The 25-year-old from Ajax, Ontario who, along with Drake's engineer Noah "40" Shebib, has been instrumental in directing recent widespread attention to Canada's beatmakers, added a second Grammy to his shelf in 2011 for his production on Eminem's Recovery. Much like Chin Injeti, Boi-1da is in wait and see mode to see if anything he contributed to Dr. Dre's Detox will surface. In the meantime, he laid down tracks for albums by Game, DJ Khaled and Big Sean and produced "Headlines," Drake's Take Care leadoff single with Shebib.

FRANK DUKES
In 2011, this Toronto producer and 50 Cent collaborator contributed two songs to Danny Brown's XXX and cast Shad in a different sonic feel on "Flawless" from the Real Frequency's The New North compilation. He also arranged Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band's Nirvana cover "Stay Away" and has apparently been logging studio time with buzz-heavy jazz upstarts BadBadNotGood.

CHIN INJETI
This former member of '90s soul/R&B group Bass is Base snagged a Grammy in early 2011 for his work on Eminem's Recovery after scoring work for Clipse and Jay-Z among others in recent years. Though the Surrey, BC native's work contributed to Dr. Dre's Detox with production partner DJ Khalil has yet to surface, he's remained busy releasing a solo EP and joining Universal Music Canada as an A&R rep.

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4Comments

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-12-03 21:15:18wheres megaman....gtfoh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-12-05 11:26:10where's d-sisive>

Posted by TheChief On 2011-12-05 14:37:58D-Sisise is a) not a producer - this is a producer list, and his primary sound partner Munshine is on the list and b) D-Sisive's Jonestown 2 is on the best hip-hop of the year list - incidentally the fourth year in a row that one of his releases has been on our best of the year list.

Posted by Nameless Poseur On 2011-12-08 17:01:23Yo what about SonReal? Or does he just mix his stuff. Kids blowing up!