Tona: The Titan of Toronto

11 months ago 04th Mar 11:00

Music to this MC is literally life; with an extensive catalogue of music to his credit, Tona, the African born – Toronto raised MC is already establishing himself as a lyrical master. With followers of Hip-Hop and those who navigate behind the scenes all paying attention to what he has to say, Tona is a glowing example of what a true MC should be.

When did you first realize you had the ability to rap?

First time I knew I had the ability was around age 10 when I wrote my first two raps. I was introduced to rap around age 9 and but back then I had one of my peers writing all the raps for me as part of a group I was in. To be honest I can’t remember what the lyrics were about, but that was the point of recognition.

Was it something you had to nurture or did it come naturally?

The transition into a career in Hip-hop was much easier for me then it might be for some other peoples simply cause I’m a fan first of the art, it’s a lifestyle that can’t be forced. First time I ever got involved in emceeing was at around age 10-11, back at that age, I wasn’t writing my own lyrics, just spent most of that time studying groups like; The Youngsters, Tribe Called Quest & L.O.N.S. just memorizing there verses and spitting them on other beats as practice. That way I was developing flow while incorporating my own swag to it.

You have garnered some serious radio play in your home city of Toronto that has quite a roster of artists to its credit, how did you secure that?

Basically I secured that by just building a communication with my city threw the music. Never once did I go in the booth with the mentality I need to make something for radio or make songs I might think people want to hear. Once I started putting together my catalogue of material, I started passing out promo CDs to everybody I was in contact with and it got to the point where DJs and Radio personal would start hitting me up for music regularly.

Has the internet been of importance in your Hip-Hop presence?

The internet has been a presence and I know somewhere in the future it will have more of an impact than it has now. The game has gone digital, no avoiding it now. Vinyl spots that carry wax and CDs are almost obsolete. There are as many negatives as there are positives about the internet presence we can politic about for days but the main plus factor is that it connects you to the world within a matter of minutes

You have worked solely with one producer on your next album Direct Deposit, how was that?

Building that whole project with Lyve was a dope experience. Me and Lyve have been working on music together for a minute, he’s just one of those producers that always used to appear on my projects, it’s only fitting we built an LP. A lot of the music we came up on were them one producer blessing the whole project joints like; Gangstarr, Slum Village and Wu-Tang.

Do you find approaching a project that way, with just one producer, gives it more cohesiveness?

It could give it more continuity if you have a dope producer that builds around the artist and has enough versatility to give every song some new life. Using one producer threw out an whole project can stagnate the flow of the album if the producer is stagnate himself. Thing with Lyve is you wouldn’t have any idea he produced all the beats until you check the credits. Kid has that much range in his catalogue.