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by Jeff Bateman |
Most likely it didn't take that Newsweek cover to clue you in to the fact that rap is a present-tense thing. It's a phenomenon, and arguably the most radical left-turn popular music has witnessed since Elvis invented rock 'n roll - the love it or hate it reactions are that intense!
Rap is the sound of black America, the product of life and hard times in inner city N.Y. and L.A. Not suburban Toronto, which makes the emergence of a dynamic Canadian rapper something of a shock to those who don't understand the intense, clubbish rap scene in that city. Maestro Fresh-Wes is a 22-year-old who's been stringing together def rhymes and laying down beats for years in his east-end neighbourhood. His album, Symphony in Effect, is outselling most of what's on the national hit parade these days. Nobody short of New Kids on the Block could have lured 6,000 fans to a Mississauga, ON shopping mall on the off-chance of an autograph.
He drew another massive crowd in Vancouver, and kept scribbling for hours until every last fan got what they wanted -unheard of behavior for most rockers.
The nice-guy good cheer is beside the point. Where the Maestro cuts it best as a rapper, an inventive motor-mouth who's funnier, angrier, and more intense than most of his Statestide rivals. Like he says, he's got no choice, "Rap is a very competitive type of music, everybody wants to be the best. If you don't have that attitude, get out of the business now." And that's the way Wes lets his backbone slide.
tgmag@tgmag.ca