Noah "40" Shebib — Drake's right-hand producer, engineer and principal architect of the "Toronto sound" — has opened up about his own beginnings in the city's hip-hop scene, the rise of OVO Sound and creative spaces past and present in a new documentary.
Directed by Alim Sabir, Toronto Rising offers a seldom-seen look into the award-winning producer's musical journey, from discovering the piano as a child, to building his own present-day recording compound, the aptly-named State of the Art (SOTA) Studios.
In the short doc, viewers follow Shebib from his childhood apartment in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood, to a formative basement apartment further into the city's West end, to a former studio at the Carpet Factory building in the city's Liberty Village. The legendary, now-shuttered King St. location of Island Foods (and its renowned roti) even gets a shout-out.
"I've always considered myself a visitor in hip hop," Shebib shares towards the end of the short. "When I was 21, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I learned a lesson in the hospital, which was that as long as I had like one finger that still worked, no matter what the world took from me. I could play the keyboard and I could make music. All the things in my life just kind of pointed me in one direction. I'm here to play my part and to leave my impact."
You can watch Toronto Rising below.
Of course, Shebib was all over Drake's 2021 full-length Certified Lover Boy — and its inclusion of an unfortunate R.Kelly credit.
Directed by Alim Sabir, Toronto Rising offers a seldom-seen look into the award-winning producer's musical journey, from discovering the piano as a child, to building his own present-day recording compound, the aptly-named State of the Art (SOTA) Studios.
In the short doc, viewers follow Shebib from his childhood apartment in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood, to a formative basement apartment further into the city's West end, to a former studio at the Carpet Factory building in the city's Liberty Village. The legendary, now-shuttered King St. location of Island Foods (and its renowned roti) even gets a shout-out.
"I've always considered myself a visitor in hip hop," Shebib shares towards the end of the short. "When I was 21, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I learned a lesson in the hospital, which was that as long as I had like one finger that still worked, no matter what the world took from me. I could play the keyboard and I could make music. All the things in my life just kind of pointed me in one direction. I'm here to play my part and to leave my impact."
You can watch Toronto Rising below.
Of course, Shebib was all over Drake's 2021 full-length Certified Lover Boy — and its inclusion of an unfortunate R.Kelly credit.
