2013 has seen R&B turned on its head with artist returning to the genres roots, as well as pushing the boundaries even further than before, and Zaki Ibrahim is Canadas answer to it. Drawing from Sade, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, and J. Dilla as inspiration, her debut full-length album, Every Opposite, has an apocalyptic allure that makes it impossible to forget. The album was nominated for and part of the shortlist for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. She is no stranger to awards, having been nominated for a Juno for her 2009 EP Eclectica: Episodes in Purple. Her live performance is highly energetic and captivating, with a mix of sonics and visuals that transports the listener to the center of Zakis universe.
Coming off of his recent Soundclash Music Award win, R&B Singer and songwriter Brendan Philip is turning heads with his carefully honed and crafted live show. Having supported the likes of fellow Canadian Shad, as well as international star MIA, Brendan is poised to shine brightly and captivate many new fans. As a part of Fake Art Records, Brendan has released his new A/B side Feryouh/Wildside on cassette and digital download in July of 2013.
Visuals and more info (below) on the Toronto installment of this year’s UNITY Festival.
UNITY FESTIVAL 2013
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Day 1 Thursday July 18: The Mod Club, 277 College Street, Toronto
Free Your Sound: 2vs2 Beatboxing Battle in Partnership with BeatboxCan. To enter the 2vs2 battle, you will need to submit a video. Details to be posted shortly.
Day 2 Friday July 19: The Phoenix Concert Theatre, 410 Sherbourne Street
Free Your Style: Breakdancing and All Styles in Partnership with IBE. Want to qualify? Then attend this year’s pre-qualifiers at the AGO on Friday July 5th at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Details will be posted shortly.
Day 3 Saturday July 20: Yonge-Dundas Square
UNITY Concert at Yonge-Dundas Square. A full day of performances from youth, artists, headliners, breakdancing battles, live graffiti, and much more! Auditions are completed! Thank you for everyone that auditioned this year! Announcements of the youth performers will be made shortly.
Day 4 Sunday July 21: Daniels Spectrum Theatre 585 Dundas Street East.
Free Your Voice: Lyricist Battle and Showcase. If you are an MC or a spoken word artists between the ages of 13-19, audition to be part of Unity’s “Free YourVoice — All-Styles Lyricists” event taking place on July 21st, 2013. This is your chance to be a part of Toronto’s largest urban arts youth festival and share your voice and your words with the Toronto MC/Spoken word/Hip Hop community. Auditions taking place: Sunday June 2nd from 10AM-3PM at Don Montgomery Community Centre, 2467 Eglinton Avenue East. Please email: uniffectcoordinator@unitycharity.com to reserve an audition slot.
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The Big Ticket monthly transforms into the official NXNE and iStandard presents hip-hop event this week, featuring Perfeck Strangers, a special live appearance/performance from Monolith and much more!
It’s the ultimate HIP HOP party and performance series in the TDot. You get the best Hip Hop music, video’s and live performances. Hip Hop lives in Toronto at the Velvet Underground, the second Friday of every month!
The January 11th edition we kick off the new year in a Big way with the best of the past 6 months. We have had a lot of great performances since July and it’s hard limit the number of performances, but you will definitely not want to miss these heavyweights as they bless the #BIGTICKET stage.
Performing Jan. 11th., Large Live and Direct / Robots Wearing Sunglasses / Perfeck Strangers / KemiKAL / SepTO / T.R.A. / Trace Motivate / Tommy Spitz / Scott Ramerez / L.I.U.
If you have not yet been to a #BigTicket event, this is definitely the one you want to attend. HashTag #BigTicket on twitter. We hope to see u Jan 11th! #Pro
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Rich Kidd and SonReal wrap up their “The Closers” tour back in The Mega with a show presented by the mu$icbIZ, who are also celebrating the release of their mobile app.
Big shoutout to these two dudes and their teams (Addy, Byron whatup!). What they did with this project was nothing short of historic, on several levels.
This is a #BIGTICKET exclusive as Maestro chops it up in the studio and talks about disco Rap!!! 2013 will be Maestro’s 25th annivarsary in the music industry and is celebrating with a brand new LP called Orchestrated Noise and has just released the precursor EP Black Tuxedo, available now on iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/too-melodic-feat.-suzka/id559636946?i=559636947
If this year’s edition of the Manifesto festival feels oddly familiar, it’s because the festival is going back to its roots. Faced with a shrunken budget due to a fall-off in corporate sponsorship, and spurred by a desire to emphasize the other initiatives they run throughout the year, Manifesto’s organizing committee opted to make this edition of the festival a smaller affair, cutting it back to its original three-day length from last year’s high of 11 days.
Manifesto started in 2006 as a celebration of urban arts and youth culture, and especially to provide performing opportunities for musicians that fell outside the rock-oriented scope of many other local music festivals. As in previous years, the highlight of the festival is the closing concert, which will take place on Sunday at Yonge-Dundas Square.
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Flipside of flyer with more details after the jump!
Who Got Next? – Artist Showcase
Thursday, September 6
Live @ The Hard Rock Cafe, Toronto (Dundas Square)
Celebrating local talent, 12 artists will showcase their music for some of the industries biggest names including the senior VP of Island Def Jam Records, Max Gousse.
The event will be hosted by Sir Lancelot and special guest Trixx, with the soundtrack by DJ Wrispect.
Doors open at 7:00pm, showtime is 8:00pm.
Admission is $15 or $10 before 9:00pm, with proceeds being donated to MusiCounts Music Education Charity | www.musicounts.ca
Volume six in his “We On Some Rich Kidd Sh*t” series (coincidentally subtitled “City on my back”) gets a release party with a live performance from the man himself supported by a nice deejay/special guest lineup too!
This year you get Wrispect, Nana, Mensa, and Meka from 2DBz! + Lancelot and Lowkey from YHTK!
We all know the type of energy Rich Kidd brings to a stage so needless to say this is a must attend.
