It wont be long before Rappers start moving to Toronto to get put on.
Aside from Drake owning the throne, his OVO Sound re-writing the rules by the day, Canada has that artist friendly grant situation that encourages overseas artists to record in Canada. Sounds too good to be true right?
We’ve seen the 6 God, the Weekend, and Partynextdoor come through so who’s next? who’s the next one to emerge? Ahead off his debut London show, I caught up with Tory Lanez.
You have a lot of fans out here, your debut show sold out within a day, how did you get your UK buzz?
Semtex…. I really don’t know because I’ve never been to Europe in my life, like ever. So this is the first time I’m ever going to touch my foot on the soil. I guess people organically liked the music and thats what made it something. I’m just happy that they reacted to it like that.
It was just a lot of working, a lot of not wanting to be broke
This is probably one of the craziest experiences in my life. I’ve never sold anything out in just a day. The fact that I sold London out in a day is so much bigger than just a ‘sold out’ show.
How did you get into the Rap game?
Basically, when I was about 11 years old, my Mom died…and because she died it kinda left me in a place being the youngest kid of 6 kids, it left me in a place where I just wanted to express myself and I didn’t know how to. Music opened that portal up for me, it opened that door to express myself and talk about the feelings that I felt.
There was a lot of rebelliousness, I used to move very unruly, I got expelled from every school from 6th grade until 11th when I dropped out. Just that type of stuff influenced me and made me rap. I rapped a bunch of times and I kept going.
I was recording myself, going hard and selling my own mixtapes. Then eventually one day Justin Bieber calls me and Sean Kingston calls me and they’re like ‘Yo we wanna sign you’, and I’m like ‘Alright that’s, but I don’t believe its really y’all on the phone’, then Justin was like ‘Nah its really me, this is a real thing, we’re going to come up to Toronto on the tour and try to sign you’, I guess it kinda all started from there.
Justin Bieber was on Worldstar and he spat 8 bars of something that was mine, and somebody who had the mixtape that featured the 8 bars went on Worldstar and was like ‘Yo these are Tory Lanez lyrics’, then this made a big commotion online, eventually it lead to me signing to Sean Kingston for about 3 years, then when I got out of that deal I just went hard.
For the last 2 years I’ve been independent, just went super hard, had a good team around me. I wasn’t signed to no label, but it got me on the Meek Mill album, the YG album, everywhere I needed to be, and it got me here today. It was just a lot of working, a lot of not wanting to be broke.
Are you a Singer or a Rapper?
I just make music, that’s all it is at the end of the day. Whether I rap or sing on it its just got to be about the vibe, and how it sounds to people.
Are you working on an album?
Yeah, I’ve got some flames, I’ve got some super fire, I’ve got something super crazy. Im working on my album right now, thats really my main thing. ‘Say it’ was the first song, but the project itself……what your about to hear is probably one of the greatest projects of our time, just of being young. I just wanna salute to that you know.
Toronto is like a mini London, we kinda talk the same
Your coming outta Toronto, Canada. Whats the vibe over there right now. Obviously with what Drizzy is doing, and other people coming through, is that giving you a different type of focus.
Honestly, its the way that we’re bred out here in Toronto. Toronto is like a mini London, we kinda talk the same. I’m kinda’ Americanised because I’ve been here for so long, but out in Toronto we talk just like you guys, and we do a lot of the same things. I guess its just the way we were bred.
Whats your take on Ghost Writing? Is it really a bad thing? Is it really that much of a big deal?
It depends on whoever talks about it, feels about it. Music is music, some of the greatest songs have been ghost written, I write for people all the time. Honestly there’s nothing wrong with it, it doesnt take anything less from you as an artist. As long as you know within your own right you can do the same thing. As long as you know as an artist you’re still cold even without a ghost writer, nothing should matter at that point. Its just about creating music and making people feel good.
Would you take bars from somebody else?
Me? Hell no!!!!
But i’ve been writing my stuff for years, so its a little different for me.
Check out or download the full interview via 1xtra.
Catch Tory Lanez at Birthdays, London on Friday 28th August if you can get hold of a ticket.
