Canada

Aubrey "Drake" Graham, Business, Canada, Indigenous (Native), Manitoba, Music Industry (Trade), Music Publishing, Toronto March 9, 2021

Nagamo Publishing looks to give a voice to performers, composers, artists of the Indigenous hubs of Canada

Nick Krewen Special to the Star After two years of building its production library, Toronto-based Nagamo Publishing is ready to take on the world. As the first exclusively Indigenous-created music production library and composer agency on the planet to serve media needs, Nigel Irwin, Nagamo Co-Creative Director and Composer says the shingle offers a lot of variety.  “Our bread and butter is contemporary music fused with traditional sounds, as well…

Aubrey "Drake" Graham, Canada, Grammy, Hip-Hop, JUNO, Songwriter, Spoken Word, Toronto, Voice March 5, 2021

Drake still at top of his game in Scary Hours 2 – plus addresses the upcoming Certified Lover Boy

Nick Krewen Special to the Star Drake not only dropped a new three-song EP called Scary Hours II at midnight: he also dropped a new video and – to top it all off – a new 24-hour fully curated radio channel. With short notice on Thursday night, the man who has been  setting hip-hop trends for the past 11 years shared on his Twitter and Instagram feeds that he’d appearing on…

Alt. Rock, Canada, Rock, Toronto, Uncategorized March 4, 2021

Toronto’s Monowhales started out as “the misfit children of Humber College”

By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published March 4, 2021 Toronto’s Monowhales’ story of triumph, is, in a weird way, a story of Triumph. The local alt-rock trio’s singer, Sally Shaar, took songwriting lessons from Triumph guitarist and singer Rik Emmett at Humber College, no doubt a contributing factor to the mesmerizing melodies put forth on the new seven-song Monowhales effort Daytona Bleach that’s out Friday. “It was fantastic,”…

Business, Canada, Education, Hip-Hop, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers, Songwriter, Spoken Word, Technology, Voice February 20, 2021

‘To be a rapper, you really have to be genuine’ – Duane Gibson on motivation, perseverance and connecting with youth

Nick Krewen Special To the Star “Stay driven.” For 20 years, that message has been the underlying theme of Toronto hip-hop veteran Duane “D.O.” Gibson’s presentations at over 1000 schools across Canada.  Offering four programs that focus on the topics of anti-bullying, self-confidence, leadership, peer pressure, literature and Black history, to name a few, Gibson estimates he’s delivered more than 2500 of his empowering speeches and workshops to hundreds of…

Blues, Delta Blues, JUNO, Montréal, Polaris, Québec, R&B, Soul, Voice February 12, 2021

Singer Dominique Fils-Aimé finds inspiration by looking to Black history

By Nick Krewen Special to the Star There’s a reason every Dominique Fils-Aimé album has been released in February: Black History Month. “I wanted to underline the link between Black history and music genres,” the Juno Award winner and Polaris Music Prize finalist recently explained from her Montréal home.  It especially makes sense when you consider the trilogy of 2018’s Nameless, 2019’s Stay Tuned! and this year’s Three Little Words,…