Events: Manifesto rocks Toronto

September 23.08 @ 1:45 am

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The Young, Fresh & New team was out in full force at the Manifesto festival this weekend. With performances from Tona, Rochester, Monolith (Grimace Love, Wio-K, Dan-e-o, IRS), Zaki, etc, the 4 day event was wrapped with an all day free affair at Nathan Phillips Square last night that transformed the Toronto Civic centre into a hip hop cultural playground.

Upon arrival we obtained our all access passes to the backstage and witnessed the class reunion of sorts. A mixture of current and emerging stars in Canadian hip hop (K-os, K’naan, Sol Guy, Rascalz, Grouch, DJ Nana, Marvel, Kamau, Hero) were reacquainting and networking. Proof that you not only have to always been on the grind but you have to support your own. Lucky for us we then captured the Rascalz legendary performance of “Northern Touch” with Choclair and Thrust. Check out the video below from the artists’ viewpoint behind DJ/Producer Kemo.

Speaking of Kemo, we were able to catch up briefly to find out that the man behind Kardinal’s Double Platinum single/ringtone “Dangerous” featuring Akon, is now living between Vancouver and LA. Not one to brag, Kemo alluded that he was receiving positive responses worldwide on his recent success and had a handful of things on the go to be on the look out for. Check out the shout out to Young, Fresh & New here from Kemo:

From workshops on break dancing and graffiti, a huge graffiti mural by some of Toronto’s prominent artists, tons of supporters and an after party hosted by DJ Premier and Pete Rock, Manifesto was truly a reflection of hip hop culture and Canadian hip hop history (past & present).

Check out some of the photos below from the event.

Keep an eye and ear open for details on next year’s festival here: http://www.themanifesto.ca/