TORONTO — There are some “firsts” in rapper Maestro Fresh Wes’ career that seem bigger than him, and next Sunday is certainly one of them.
TORONTO — There are some “firsts” in rapper Maestro Fresh Wes’ career that seem bigger than him, and next Sunday is certainly one of them.
At the time, the Canadian star officially became the first hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards. His name would be added to a long list of influential local bands such as kd lang, Tragically Hip and Deborah Cox.
The “Let Your Backbone Slide” performer, whose real name is Wesley Williams, has waited patiently for years, believing that the country’s music industry would eventually turn around as it had before.
“I love being first,” the Toronto native explained in a recent interview about Canadian hip-hop reaching new heights.
“I was the one who started breaking the foundation of international standards.”
As one of Canada’s earliest hip-hop artists, Williams blazed a trail for generations of Canadian rappers, notably Cardinal O’Fisher and Drake, who propelled the local hip-hop movement to a global level.
In his early twenties, he won the first Juno Rap Award in 1991 for his party anthem “Let Your Backbone Slide,” which laid the foundation for the Canadian rap scene in the United States. His 1989 record Symphony in Effect became the first Canadian rap album to be certified platinum, meaning it sold 100,000 copies.
“Symphony in Effect” becomes the first Canadian rap album to be certified platinum.
Most recently, “Let Your Backbone Slide” became the first rap song of 2019 to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. This year, he became the first hip-hop artist to win a Governor General’s Award for the Performing Arts.
In some ways, it seems Canadian institutions are racing to catch up to the influence of master Fresh Wes. If that was true, he didn’t seem to care too much.
“I got love,” said Williams, who won three Juno Awards during his career.
“But I was always hesitant to give my love.”
Although Williams never expressed it directly, he had mixed feelings about being toasted by the gatekeepers. For years, he has fought hard to gain respect for Canadian hip-hop when many in the mainstream dismissed it as a fad or ignored it entirely.
He always maintained an optimistic attitude, which he maintained throughout his tenure.
“It’s not just about me; it’s about a genre of music,” he said. “I represent the genre.”
Williams describes the sense of responsibility within the ritual and draws on childhood memories to illustrate its complexity.
When Williams was in high school, Olympian Ben Johnson visited his class. It was the early 1980s, and Johnson was a young, accomplished black Canadian sprinter with a promising future.
Shortly after that visit, Johnson won a gold medal in the 100-meter final at the 1988 Summer Olympics, making him a national hero. But days later he was stripped of that honor amid a doping scandal that forever tarnished his reputation.
Williams didn’t go into detail about Johnson’s case, but the experience reminded him how fragile it can feel to be praised.
“Standing still in your stead is a liability to your personal and professional development,” he insists.
That’s one reason Williams said he’s always looking ahead to the next endeavor.
In recent years, he has starred in the CBC sitcom “Mr. D,” hosted the YouTube cooking series “Chef Wes,” and established a trade scholarship for black youth at Nova Scotia Community College.
Earlier this month, he released Rap Prime, a 24-track compilation album that spans much of his career and reintroduces his inspiring rap songs to a new generation.
Some standout songs include his electrifying 2015 collaboration “Underestimated” with JRDN and JD Era; “Gravity”, his 2019 R&B fusion collaboration with Saukrates and O-Sound, which featured an excerpt from the 1998 Guess Who sample hit A few lines from the song “Stick to Your Vision.”
Williams celebrated his 56th birthday one week after being inducted into the Hall of Fame. That would make him the same age as his idol Leonard Cohen when he won the 1991 Juno Award.
The similarities were not lost on Williams, who sometimes recalled the memory when talking about his ambitions. The same year that Cohen was selected, Williams won his first Juno Award. Watching Montreal’s poet laureate perform on stage was deeply impressive.
“Just to see the standing ovation he got and the reception he got in the country, I was like, ‘Yo, that’s what you’ve got to be one day,'” Williams said.
“Who would have thought I’d be in this place now?”
With that in mind, Williams considered what Cardinal O’Fischer’s induction would look like in a Junos broadcast.
When he performs a medley of his past hits on Sunday, he plans to feature several Black Halifax-area performers to honor Canadians whose ancestors escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad.
They include local R&B singers JRDN and Kaleb Simmonds, as well as musicians Cyndi Cain, Gary Beals and Reeny Smith.
“I want to see my Scotian brothers and sisters feel represented,” said Williams, who moved with his family to Saint John, Nova Scotia during the pandemic.
“It’s not only part of my hip-hop history, it’s part of the history of black music in Canada.”
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Listen to a playlist of Canadian Press’ 2024 Juno Award nominees on Spotify: https://bit.ly/Junos2024
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2024.
David Friend, The Canadian Press
