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Music

Brookso Wants to Revitalize Montreal’s Rap Scene From the Outside

The Montreal rapper wants to escape the shadow of his younger brother, Tory Lanez.

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Whether or not Toronto is an actual hotspot for hip-hop may be up for debate, but your chances for success and attention are certainly higher in Toronto than in any other city in Canada. Rapper Brookso is one of the many hip-hop artists trying to make a name for himself in Toronto, despite the fact that he rarely calls the city home. His heart truly lies in Montreal, a cultural smorgasbord that hasn’t attracted nearly the same amount of attention in the hip-hop world when compared to its counterpart down the 401 highway. The rapper says he makes monthly visits to Montreal and he certainly feels at ease when walking through the downtown Quebecois streets, lounging around key areas in the city like the Forum and the Alexis Nihon mall, reminiscing over memories from living in the Heights, a section of the Montreal borough LaSalle.

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Brookso is also the older brother of Tory Lanez, an artist who has garnered attention outside of Canada with tracks like “Henny In Hand.” Aside from their bloodlines and being under the same collective, Wolfgang Umbrella, the two couldn’t be more different, and Brookso wants to do everything he can to stand apart from his younger brother. While Lanez is more immersed into elements of new school rap including trap beats and melodic rhyming assisted by autotune, Brookso is a stickler for the old school ways, vying to rap with purpose over production that could be could have been constructed in hip-hop’s golden era. Born in 1989, Brookso associates himself with artists who were born in what is considered to be the midpoint of the golden age of hip-hop. It’s a vibe and era that Brookso has captured on his soon-to-be released project, Kids From 89.

Along with fellow artist Robbie Winter—another fellow LaSalle native—Brookso was in Montreal making the rounds at local radio stations to promote new music. Both artists are spearheading a movement known as New Blood, which both artists feel has the power to improve Montreal’s standing in the view of the rest of the world from a musical and cultural standpoint. Their movement also aims to fix whatever tensions lie within the language barrier that has sometimes divided Montreal as well as the province of Quebec, which has caused many to emigrate to other cities. Before Brookso took to his radio station tour with Robbie Winter, he sat down with Noisey to discuss the “New Blood” movement, his music and aspirations, and his brother, Tory Lanez.

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Noisey: Can you make a comparison of the benefits an artist has in Toronto as opposed to Montreal?
Brookso: Canada, every year, gives out a budget for the art community and each province is supposed to split this money. But I’m pretty sure Toronto gets most of that. It’s wild now, it’s like a piece of the pie that anybody can get. There’s kids sprouting up from Brampton and Mississauga and everywhere around us. They’re getting chances that I’ve never seen kids [in Montreal] get, and why?

This is much bigger than just a cultural issue. People are being oppressed. It’s not even just about the colour of the skin anymore, it’s something totally different. I’m going to tell you right now, I’m not fluent in French. But if there’s an issue out here, they’re not going to look at me as an anglophone who can speak a little bit of french, they’re just going to say “are you french?.” That can’t be tolerated. New Blood is about ushering in a new era. I want all the artists to jump into this melting pot and that way we can be upfront and we can go against other cities.

How can you get other artists involved in this melting pot?
Well, how does anything get started? For one, it starts with a spark, but that spark can only be started by people who are tired, have had enough, are no longer apathetic, and they have to be at the forerunners. They have to be the people that go out there and say, ‘alright, no one else is going to say anything, no one else is going to stand up for themselves. But we’ll do it’. That’s why we’re here, we’ll make that sacrifice. [Montreal is] literally on the outside looking in and the people that are on the inside can’t [do anything] because they’re being oppressed 100 percent of the time. And I will stand by that.

How would you describe your musical style?
I’m forever evolving. Right now I’m doing Kids From 89, that’s an homage to the golden age of hip-hop. I never wanted to come out of the gate doing something that was too different without paying homage to the genre that I was in. It’s all vintage, golden-age, cutting-edge hip-hop. In a year from now, two years from now? Who knows?

If you know what kind of family I’m from, you may only know my little brother, but we come from a very musical background and the best is yet to come. Right now, it’s vintage hip-hop. You bring me Jay, I want to tear him apart. You bring me Kendrick, I want to tear him apart. Old, new, whatever you want to do, I want to tear him apart.

What makes you different from your younger brother, Tory Lanez?
Aside from the fact that we’re completely different people? My little brother accepted the music that he’s in, the younger, new wave of hip-hop. He accepts a lot of things that I don’t fully agree with in hip-hop. I grew up with Eminem, I grew up with Nas, I grew up with Big Pun. I grew up with these artists. So the whole newer aspect of it, I don’t really find the value in it, where he might right? But it’s hard for me to say that.