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Music

The Best Rap Music in Toronto is Coming from Its Inner Pockets

This Apac video is a perfect illustration of what's so great about Toronto's neighbourhoods.

It feels weird to step back and recognize how every region in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond—from Ajax to Missisauga—has had a hand in the way modern hip-hop sounds. But the video above for Apac's song "Hit Or Sum" is another entry into contention for the best music to come out of the city, and despite it being filmed in Armel Court, it feels like it could've been released in anywhere in Toronto in 2015, and stand true with the representation of what makes Toronto's new scene so great.

The consistency between these artists, beyond their shared location, is in the sonics. The whole thing seems to veer away from 40's underwater drum kit and into a style that's reminiscent of last year's dance-happy GS9 movement, which itself was a clone of Chicago's drill scene. Toronto's addition to the dogpile includes even more jubilant dancing by Somali and West Indian youths, and sharper production that makes Toronto's winters seem warm compared to their icy edges.

Slava Pastuk is the Editor of Noisey Canada. Follow him on Twitter.