MIXED BREEDS is a monthly competitive concert series put on by Raw Dog Entertainment and Raw Dog Apparel that features local Toronto/GTA-based artists performing songs in head-to-head matchups. Similar to a Verzuz matchup, the artists take turns performing their songs live in front of a crowd at Toronto’s premier 420-friendly vape lounge, Planet Paradise, and a panel of judges selects a winner based on their live performance. Artists can win a wide range of prizes as they progress through the monthly tournament, from promo and merch down to cannabis goodies provided by the MIXED BREEDS sponsors. While the monthly event showcases local, up-and-coming talent who may still be developing their craft, some artists who have participated in past years have gone on to achieve major success, including BET Freestyle Friday World Champions and Juno award-winners.

So far in 2023, the tournament has returned for the first time since the pandemic, with events taking place in each month since April. Now in its fifth month of the tournament, the August edition dubbed Addicted To Hip-Hop would feature four new matchups, plus performances by Toronto emcee Dusty Wallace and some special guests. It also happened to be landing on Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary, August 11th, marking the date in 1973 when DJ Kool Herc first had that Bronx, New York rec room party where he innovated on the turntables, inventing the technique of isolating a breakbeat in a record and looping it for break dancers to get down to. With the birth of Hip-Hop being celebrated worldwide, you knew the Toronto emcees performing tonight were going to bring their A-game to the stage to honour the occasion.

While Raw Dog Entertainment’s JDon typically hosts every MIXED BREEDS event, this time he had Toronto emcees Swann and Mic Gutz returning to share the hosting duties with him. JDon would set the party off with a quick setlist of his own, getting the crowd warmed up and hyping them up before he’d get Swann to take over and introduce the first matchup, M-D vs. NeverStray.

Both being newcomers to the MIXED BREEDS tournament, M-D and Neverstray both had a similar new-school, melodic style of rap. M-D would set off the matchup with his song “Time Waster,” sometimes getting drowned out by his own recorded vocals on the hook but bringing a solid delivery on the verses. Neverstray would introduce himself with “Cold Cash,” cutting through a little sharper on the mic to overpower his recorded vocals and also showing some diversity, going from lightly sung vocals on the hooks to a deeper tone when rapping the verses. The trend would continue in the second round, as M-D performed a new, unreleased track (possibly called “Exquisite”), still having moments where his recorded vocals drowned out the mic, and Neverstray gave a bit more passion and stage presence as he performed “Be Safe.” Myself and my fellow guest judges would give Neverstray the unanimous vote as the winner of the matchup.

Following the first matchup would be Swann returning to introduce a more hardcore style of rap to the stage with performance of his own, this time joined by fellow Reel Wolf member Resin. They’d do a throwback tribute to the late Louie Rankin, performing their collab “Chaotic Methods” before getting into some brand new music released this same night off of the new album Hail & Fire Mixed With Blood, a collaboration between Swann and D.O.V. fully produced by Swann himself. Resin would get to kill one of his featured appearances on the album before D.O.V. came up to spit an acapella verse, him and Swann then ending the set with their song “Raging Bull.” The Reel Wolf set cranked some energy into the crowd before the next matchup, Kontex vs. Jurazzic Darren.

Kontex and Jurazzic Darren were each going into this matchup with a 1-0 record in the tournament, myself having last seen Kontex compete in the June edition of MIXED BREEDS. Both artists had comparable styles with catchy hooks and speedy flows, with Jurazzic Darren performing a track called “Bad Habit” and Kontex opening with the same song he closed and earned the victory with back in June, “All Night.” Both artists showed off dope flows and rhyme schemes in their second songs, but Kontex was able to make himself stand out a bit more with the diverse range of flows he pulled off on the song “Splash,” going from rapid-fire speed raps to chopped and screwed within the same verse. Although the competition felt close, this is another matchup where the judges gave an unanimous vote in Kontex’ favour.

After Swann had hosted and introduced the first two matchups, even doing the traditional smoke gun blast into the crowd to mark halftime, Mic Gutz would take over the hosting duties for the second half of the show. We’d get right into what may have been the toughest matchup of the evening, the 1-0 Konan Doyle (who we also saw back in June) vs. Reapa. While Konan’s last matchup was an automatic win due to a no-show, this time he’d have tougher competition.

Konan Doyle would bring a completely different set of songs to this matchup, starting with the intense “Turn It Off,” which had a hook that was easy to catch on to and some sharp verses. Reapa answered with his song “Anxiety,” delivering equally intense, rapid-fire verses and a hook that moved the crowd. Neither emcee had backing vocals to clutter their delivery, each showing off incredible breath control to nail their verses, and this would continue into Round 2. Konan Doyle came with a more battle-oriented track, “Beast Mode,” riding the beat smoothly with varying flows and getting heads nodding. Reapa would do a more emotional track reflecting on going through a divorce, similarly delivering a perfect flow to go with the beat.

My fellow guest judges were torn on this matchup and it almost went down as a tie – you really couldn’t vote the wrong way. Both performances were incredible, but for me it came down to one small slip-up in one bar in Konan’s verse that made me vote for Reapa, who nailed all his verses. We’d get the two emcees to each spit an unplanned acapella verse at the end of the night to help with the tie-breaker, and while both still killed it with the bars, flows and rhyme patterns, Reapa just seemed a bit more prepared and earned the win.

Next up would be a few special guest performances before we’d get to the main event matchup. Mic Gutz would bring up Specs, and they’d perform a few tracks as a duo, delivering some boom-bap styled head-nodders and of course some weed anthems. They’d be followed by one of my fellow guest judges, Jeff Adams, who actually won the MIXED BREEDS main event matchup in June and has since officially joined the Raw Dog family. Jeff Adams probably drew the biggest crowd of the evening, as most of the building gathered near the stage to see him perform a handful of songs including “10 Toes Down” and “Wordsmith.” Host Mic Gutz would return to do his newest single “F’d Up” before introducing the final matchup of the night, Dustin Wareham vs. MLNY.

Both being veterans in the Toronto music scene, MLNY would describe this as a student vs. teacher moment, bigging up Dustin Wareham for giving him one of his first opportunities to perform live on stage many years ago. He’d set off the matchup by taking it truly old-school to celebrate Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, starting with a cover of Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend” which eventually turned into a near 7-minute raw freestyle over multiple beats. MLNY took the opportunity to really pay tribute to classic Hip-Hop, as he’d maintain the flow of his freestyle and spit consistently as the beats flipped between Wu-Tang Clan’s “Ain’t Nuthing Ta F Wit’,” Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones,” The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By,” Souls of Mischief’s “93 Til Infinity,” Nas’ “NY State of Mind,” Craig Mack’s “Flava In Ya Ear,” and EPMD’s “Da Joint.” After that incredible display of raw talent, Dustin had his work cut out for him.

Dustin would be sure to honour Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary by shouting out all the other elements besides MCing, bigging up the DJs, graffiti artists and break dancers. Unlike MLNY, he’d take a more traditional approach to his performance, doing an original song with a hook-verse-hook format that fit the weed lounge vibe nicely. MLNY would follow up with yet another freestyle, this time setting it off with a cover of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s “The Message” before spitting his own raps over varying beats, including a hype moment over A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario.” Continuing to honour the roots of Hip-Hop, Dustin would take a moment to highlight how the culture and music was also used as a way for the people to express political issues, shouting out the conscious emcees before performing his 2016 throwback “Bukka Bukka,” which explores the social and economic conditions that lead to gun violence.

This was another tough matchup just because of the different approaches each emcee took with their performances. I personally voted for Dustin because he performed original songs (and I may have had some bias from seeing him perform at other shows over the years), but other judges gave the nod to MLNY for the way he took it old school with his raw raps and kept the crowd engaged with all the classic beats he used. DJ Tictactic came through with the tie-breaker, highlighting the amount of work MLNY put into curating which beats he’d use for his freestyles to truly honour Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary.

Closing out the show would be a couple special guests both celebrating their birthdays, Dusty Wallace followed by Blaxxx Bossalini. This would be Dusty Wallace’s first time performing in a few years, and he’d tease a few of his throwback tracks, bringing a bit of trap flavour to the stage. He’d do a hype performance of “Weirdoz,” with his homie Humble Child running through the crowd as he rocked his guest feature on the track, and got the crowd involved as he performed the smokers anthem “Irie (Feeling Good).” Blaxxx Bossalini would join Dusty for one of their collabs and would also get to perform a few of his own songs as the judges took some time to figure out their votes for the end of the night.

Overall, this may have been the best MIXED BREEDS event yet. Every matchup went ahead as planned with no no-shows, and JDon curated the artists to really take us on a journey through Hip-Hop’s history, each matchup progressively having a more old-school style to their music. It was a display of the diverse range of styles and sounds within Hip-Hop as it’s evolved over the years, also showing the diversity of artists we have right here in Toronto and the GTA. Hip-Hop started at the underground level with communities of artists coming together to compete, and MIXED BREEDS definitely lived up to tradition in honour of the culture’s new milestone.

The level of competition continues to elevate as MIXED BREEDS progresses through the monthly matchups. The next event will be Friday, September 8th, right back here at Planet Paradise.

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