Truth be told, I wasn’t a Tory Lanez fan. There was nothing about him that struck me as someone I should care about, and so the Toronto mentality goes as not showing love while they’re here. I just didn’t think that there was anything that struck me, but it wasn’t until I listened to Lost Cause that I started to change my mind a little bit. Then he was featured on a few more songs on hooks for artists that I would listen to, and then I started to come around a bit more. 2015 has been a breakout year for him, having signed a deal, sold out The Hoxton (popular venue in Toronto), and really the narrative that we don’t support homegrown artists has changed, and it’s a beautiful thing. That’s why I wasn’t reluctant to listen to his two new mixtapes that he released on Christmas Day. There’s the rap side and the R&B side of Tory that usually I’d be annoyed at because more times, if you’re good at one thing, just stick to that one thing. But because of his versatility with Autotune, he makes it work, and believe me, as someone who’s annoyed with the constant usage of it, I wasn’t turned off by it between the two tapes. Chixtape 3 is a continuation of a story that started off in the first one, but I did listen to Chixtape 2 afterwards to get a feel of the context, and it’s greta how they’re laced together.

Having a Gangster Grillz mixtape, which The New Toronto is, that’s a big deal, and the aggression is evident right off the bat with Makaveli and New Toronto, which puts this city (my city) in a light where people wouldn’t have thought we had the brashness to keep up with our neighbours to the South. Just like Andre 3000 said “the South got somethin’ to say” at the Source Awards, the North would like a word with the rest of the music world as well. Tory provides, and you won’t be disappointed. I’ve finally seen the light, myself.

Download both tapes @ thenewtoronto.com