The Juno Awards are on Sunday, and the most important category probably won’t even be televised. The presentation of the award for Rap Recording Of The Year rarely gets any shine on the official Junos broadcast, but that doesn’t mean these nominees don’t deserve to be recognized on the same level as the guy who sings “Why you gotta be so ruuuuude?”
The most exciting music being made in Canada today is hip-hop. Period. Our rappers have never been more relevant, our producers have never been more innovative, and there’s a vibrant community in place to support our homegrown talent. Even though the Junos won’t give rap any airtime, it’s a disservice to these nominees to write off the Junos as irrelevant.
This year, both veterans and newcomers have been singled out in equal parts, with projects by Marco Polo, Naturally Born Strangers, P Reign, Saukrates, and Tre Mission all in contention for the award. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2015 Juno nominees for Rap Recording Of The Year.
Marco Polo, ‘PA2: The Director's Cut’
Naturally Born Strangers, ‘The Legends League Presents: Naturally Born Strangers’
P Reign, ‘Dear America’
Saukrates, ‘Amani’
Tre Mission, ‘Stigmata’
Tre Mission is Canada’s ambassador of grime, fusing the sounds of East London with North American rap on his debut record Stigmata. Largely self-produced, and released on acclaimed grime label Big Dada (in partnership with Last Gang), Stigmata boasts features from grime legends Wiley, JME, and Skepta, which should be enough to silence anyone wary of Tre’s ties to a sound that was, until recently, fundamentally connected to the UK. Kanye West put the world onto the superstars of grime via his “All Day” Brit Awards performance, so it’s inevitable that the sound comes to the United States. Thanks to Tre Mission, grime is already here in Canada.
Watch the Juno Awards Cypher, with Saukrates, Tre Mission, and Naturally Born Strangers rapping over beats by Marco Polo below.