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THE ORIGINAL "STREET RAPPERS" OF T-DOT!!!!!
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INFAMOUS AND CONTROVERSIAL "STREET RAPPERS" VIDEO('99-2000)The Smugglaz Juice DVD volume 2 snippet
Add to My Profile | More VideosJUICE DVD 2 ALL-STARS IN STORES NOW featuring THE SMUGGLAZ with an exclusive interview.
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---------------------------------NEW REEL 2007
Add to My Profile | More VideosGR81 Entertainment is proud to present The SMUGGLAZ UNSIGNED HYPE FEATURE SEGMENT(COMING SOON) on UNSIGNED HYPE DVD by the popular United States DVD KING JORDAN TOWER FILMS. The company has worked with rap stars such as The GAME, Lil' WAYNE, D-BLOCK, and DMX for projects such as Come Up and Burn DVD. The SMUGGLAZ cross the border and make Canadian history!
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Make sure to make a request THE SMUGGLAZ on FLOW 93.5FM (Toronto's only urban commercial radio station *[email protected]) and on Project Bounce(Toronto's most known underground radio station *projectbounce.com). Make sure to request THE SMUGGLAZ in your city for shows. TBOOK SHOWS ect. CALL 1.289.808.4172 OR E-MAIL [email protected]
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The duo first burst onto the scene in 1997 as special guests on a track entitled "Norpo" by Rocstone as teenagers on MuchMusic and have been pushing the underground T-Dot movement ever since. In 1999 and 2000 the duo gained national fame or as some called "infamy" through their controversial music video and single "Street Rappers" that got banned from MuchMusic and later documented on CBC's The National program with millions of people watching. The SMUGGLAZ! Arguably the most respected and popular street rap group coming out of the Jane-Finch section of T-dot! (Toronto you dun know).Stick Up Kid has been shot 15 times. A ridiculous total, by all accounts. Even 50 Cent and his nine bullet holes can't match it. "It was two different occasions," he says slowly and reluctantly. "It was like years ago, five, six years ago, Nov. 11, 1998. I got shot four times."
He pauses. "Then, the year after that, Nov. 11, 1999, I got shot 11 times."
And that's all he says about it. Ask him if he knows who shot him, or why, and you'll get a flat 'No'. There's no bravado, nor does he seem to exploit it to inflate his street cred.
"It just made me take this rapping more seriously," Stick Up says. "I could've been gone two times but I'm still here, you know? God has me here for a reason. I think it's to do this rap music." Words from Stick-Up Kid of the Smugglaz from newspaper giant The Toronto Sun for a cover story on the group."The project that we're doing right now, it's gonna guarantee us the power to do a lot for our city," Blacc says to the media outlets. And ask anybody in their neighbourhood about the thriving Jane-Finch hip hop scene, and invariably the first name to leave peoples' lips is Smugglaz. Younger MCs in the neighbourhood say they grew up listening to Tha Smugglaz, that if you want to know about Jane and Finch rap, start with Benny and Stick Up.
"They're the big ones to us," says Burnz, an 18-year-old rapper who lives in the area. "I grew up listening to their music. I remember people like Stick Up and Benny told me, 'Hey, you're a rapper, keep doing your thing.' I took that to heart."Having been rapping, performing, and releasing albums on the street for a decade, Blacc says it's almost time for him and Stick up to put Jane and Finch and the TDot on the hip hop map in terms of reality rap. The group has released music videos nationally on MuchMusic("Street Rappers"), but due to the hardcore content it was deemed "2 Much 4 Much".Blacc says when he first started rhyming at age 12, he would be on the corner spitting lyrics about the kinds of things he'd see growing up there.
For instance, on Jan. 11, 1993, his older brother's best friend was shot dead in Blacc's family townhouse at 15 Shoreham Ct. Only 21 at the time, the young murder victim had been affectionately known as GR8 1.
Blacc didn't want to disclose his old friend's name out of respect for the family. However, Toronto Sun archives show that Landale Walters was killed when a gunman fired five shots from a 9-mm through a window of the basement townhouse."It just made me know that you could be here one minute, gone the next," Blacc says. "The best thing to do is to make a mark." But along the way to making that mark there have been a few obstacles. Blacc ended up doing a two-year bid in Joyceville federal penitentiary north of Kingston for gun-related charges. Locked up for a period of time, he came out two years ago a "stronger" man, having done a lot of reading, exercising, and even some recording in the jail's small music studio for inmates."I'm a lot stronger, you know what I mean?" Blacc says. "I'm just trying to keep legit, I'm doing this music thing, I'm trying to bring a better name for my neighbourhood and city."..
