Zimbabwe-born, Toronto-based hip-hop artist Charmaine has been dropping music on SoundCloud since she was seventeen. The artist found her calling during difficult times and decided that music will be the way she will lift her “family up to a better life”. Today Charmaine is signed to Warner Music Canada and seen by many as the rap Queen of the North. 

Charmaine’s debut single “BOLD” was a wonderful example of her brash hip-hop swagger coupled with addictive R&B appeal. Since then, she has been dropping song after song charting playlists across various streaming services through North America. Stream her latest album HOOD AVANT-GARDE, featuring collaborations with Haviah Mighty, Valentino, and Kali now on SoundCloud. 

Most recently Charmaine joined First on SoundCloud, the organization’s new, one-of-a-kind accelerator program focused on dedicated investment in collaborating with artists on their career milestones with the goal to drive their long-term success. The program works closely with musicians on creating opportunities, tailored to each individual performer, and so this particular event was one perfectly crafted for Charmaine: “Bad Bitch Mentality” Release Party and Exclusive Nail Pop-Up event hosted in a backyard of a trendy nail salon, Naked Beauty Bar, in Toronto’s West End. 

Attendees were greeted with custom cocktails named after Charmain’s songs (“Bad Bitch” and “Double Dutch”) and had an opportunity to indulge in some self-care by getting custom nails, designed by Charmaine’s personal nail artist, Ronda, and inspired by her latest single “BBM (Bad Bitch Mentality)” which we all got to watch together at the end of the night (public release is October 15). 

The event brought together Charmaine’s friends, fans, fashion icons, musicians, and dancers under one canopy on a warm October night. “As women, we’re always put into these boxes and taught to compress ourselves in order to fit society’s expectations,” Charmaine shared with Warner Music, “but that’s not me. I’m here to encourage women to do what they want, when they want, how they want, and to not give a damn what anybody else has to say about it.” This music video premiere was an excellent way to showcase Charmaine’s unique and unapologetic personality in its full spectrum of colours from tropical flowers to hot pink nails and her lovely speech, calling attention to the women who worked with her on this music video. Even with the limited capacity, the energy in the space was ecstatic, DJ chanlmarshl was setting the vibe, and Charmaine was joined on the dance floor by her fellow hometown artists like Lexxicon, GIMMEMAR, and Ty Senoj.

This might only be the second Soundcloud event we see in Toronto (read here about the first) but it is the first of many more milestone events coming up from First on SoundCloud and we are definitely hoping that some of them will land here. Up next are creative projects from Payday, Lourdiz, Ela Minus, Sofia Mills, Kid Quill, and Pa Salieu, additional info on these events will be announced in the coming weeks.

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SoundCloud Creator Forum, in collaboration with The Remix Project, took over a vacant storefront in Toronto’s West End for three days packed with workshops and panels led by industry experts. Attendees spent time learning DJ skills from Chippy Nonstop, shared their sound with fellow creators, and set in on engaging panel discussions focused on building a career in and out of Canada. Among the artists participating in the panel were Just John and Adrian X, 8 Til Faint management, and Jessie Reyez‘s manager Mauricio Ruiz, among many others.

Once the chairs were cleared out, the two solid days of learning came to an end with a wild party. The doors to the first half of the evening programming opened at 7 pm but the lineup of wishful guests stretched down the street for most of the night, hoping to see their local fellow artists, promote their music, and mingle with the industry insiders.

The evening’s lineup featured Jayd Ink, Amaal Nuux, TOBi, and a headline performance by Anders. Jayd Ink, a Toronto-born R&B singer-songwriter, was first up. Jayd has been releasing music since 2013 and is known for her well-written lyrical stories packaged into silky R&B tracks. Jayd has a wonderfully calm stage presence, completely unaffected by the packed crowd, she worked her way through a variety of original tracks like “So Many Ways” and “Privately”.  Next up was Amaal Nuux, a Somali-Canadian R&B artist, one of ten children raised in a conservative Muslim household, she was a late bloomer when it comes to music but today Amaal is signed to Universal Music Canada/Public Records (think: The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, etc). Amaal has an engaged and established following and some of them were here to sing along.

After a brief break, hosted by DJ Rosegold, TOBi took the stage. The Nigerian-Canadian rapper and singer is frequently spotted at various events around the city. TOBi has a unique voice and a hard-to-miss look topped with a signature fedora. In his own words, TOBi is “a child of African American music, Yoruba culture, Western education, and Eastern philosophy,” he told Ones to Watch. The man is also very at home on stage, at one point the room got so loud TOBi stopped all music and raised his arm in the air, demanding quiet and respect from the room before proceeding into “Ride” (originally produced with Clayjay).

Closing out the night was Anders and at this point, the room was hot, briefly out of beer, and packed to the brim. With tracks like “Bad Habits” and “Bad Guy” Anders created a cult following around his music. Back in 2018, Noisey called him an artist who is “secretly ahead of Toronto’s R&B world” but I would argue that Anders is a Toronto signature sound. Influenced by the likes of Drake, coming up at the same time as Majid Jordan, Anders is at home, making the music for The Six. This was the crowd at their most comfortable and most wild, cheering, singing along, throwing their hands up in the air, trying to sneak into the green room to shrug shoulders with the performers.

After 11 pm the room turned over for a late-night set with Undisposable taking the city into the morning light.

Having never attended a SoundCloud showcase I wasn’t sure what to expect but what I got was undoubtedly a fun surprise. What was truly special, however, is seeing the local music community come together in one room for a night of messy shenanigans, supporting and learning from one another.

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