While we’ve spent most of 2023 celebrating Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and the legacies of some of its most impactful artists over the decades, it’s about time we get back to an artist who’s still in the middle of their recording prime today, Conway The Machine. This most recent decade in Hip-Hop has seen Conway along with his Griselda family put Buffalo, New York on the map. Taking the Wu-Tang approach and conquering both as a group and as individual solo artists, Griselda and Conway have gone from building up a buzz in the underground by flooding the market with several mixtapes, to signing to Eminem’s Shady Records for their major-label debuts, to now going back to the independent grind with each Griselda artist seemingly on their own path. Conway has gone on to establish his own Drumwork Music Group, where he’s started to sign and promote his own artists from Buffalo, and even brought his city the annual Drumwork Music Festival (which we attended in its inaugural year in 2022) to further build up Buffalo’s local Hip-Hop scene.

Always having new mixtapes or albums to drop every single year, Conway The Machine’s latest release has been his third official studio album, Won’t He Do It. The album dropped in May and was supposed to be immediately followed by the Won’t He Do It Tour, but unfortunately Conway suffered a severe leg injury and had to postpone the tour, this particular stop in Toronto being rescheduled twice. While the fans have been eager to see Conway perform for just his second time in Toronto, we gotta shoutout how Supreme Genes Records has handled the show cancellations, replacing their Conway booking at The Opera House with Ghostface Killah back in June, and shuffling to get the very first show of Styles P’s Respect My Legacy Tour to replace the cancelled October date. Using these bookings to showcase their own roster as well as other Toronto-based artists, Supreme Genes Records has consistently brought that raw, underground energy to fit the headliners of their shows, and this one would be no different.

Slightly switching things up this time around, rather than start with local artists, this show got set off with a Virginia-based emcee visiting Toronto for his first time, NiE. It seemed like the sound crew was using his set to test out the sound levels on the equipment, as his first few songs had him completely drowned out by the full song playing through the speakers. They’d get it right midway through his set though, and once NiE was able to cut through on the mic, he really got the crowd behind him. Spitting with consistent high energy and showing off impeccable breath control to rap every word on songs like “The Realist,” NiE effectively warmed up the crowd, going right up to the barricade to get the fans engaged, and even redoing a verse from his first song acapella to show that he doesn’t lip sync.

DJ Mercilless would hold it down on the turntables between artists, doing a set completely dedicated to Hip-Hop legends who have passed away. He’d start off with a legendary producer we recently lost, The 45 King, playing one of the biggest hits he produced with Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life,” and would continue on with tributes to the late Biz Markie, Sean Price, Prodigy, 2Pac, Biggie and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. After a masterfully curated set by DJ Mercilless that dug into the deep album cuts rather than the obvious hits, Supreme Genes label head Lord Fury would come out to introduce the host for the evening, comedian Quinn C. Martin, who would engage the crowd with some standup comedy bits between artists.

The first artist Quinn C. Martin would introduce to the stage would be a Brampton-based emcee we hadn’t seen perform since before COVID, Saipher Soze. Being a former Connect The Dot Champion, we know Saipher Soze comes from the school of performing raw with no recorded vocals to clutter up the sound, and he ripped the mic without having lost a step. Between throwbacks like “God Body” and some newly recorded songs including “Rebelz,” Saipher Soze was able to get the crowd behind him purely off of the raw skill showcased on the mic. Quinn C. Martin would follow Saipher Soze’s set with some more comedy, and it was at this moment a fan in the crowd collapsed and passed out in the middle of the floor; Martin would efficiently talk the crowd through letting the paramedics in to do their work and kept the show rolling with positive energy. The fan seemed ok as he was able to walk himself to the exit with some help.

Continuing his standup bit to bring the crowd’s attention back, Quinn C. Martin would introduce the next artist, Snackz, and tossed the microphone into the crowd where the Rochester, New York-based emcee was standing. While he missed the catch, Snackz quickly recovered as the beat dropped and he began his set by performing his first song in the middle of the crowd, rapping with a circle of fans having formed around him. The energy was cranked off the stunt alone, as fans bobbed their heads to his bars, and he made his way to the stage to continue his performance. With Mobb Deep’s Prodigy’s birthday coming up the following day, Snackz would perform a tribute to the late legend by spitting a freestyle verse over a medley of Mobb Deep beats, and would perform songs promoting his album All Things Considered.

Next up would be a few Toronto-based emcees hitting the stage, starting with Lord Juco, who would simply go in with several punchline-filled verses. Not wanting to waste any time talking, he’d have the DJ keep flipping beats for him to rap over and kept it raw throughout his set, spitting a flow designed to make the bars stand out. Eventually Asun Eastwood would join him on stage to perform one of their collabs together, which made for a smooth transition into Asun’s set. Taking over the stage by himself, Asun Eastwood would go in with a few joints showcasing his sharp rhymes and smoothly delivered punchlines, including his 2023 summer single “Toast Tito’s Vodka,” and would be joined by Lord Fury to perform their brand new collab “Yardy’s Jerk” for the first time. Closing out the Supreme Genes set would be MBK Supreme representing for the ladies with her single “Bitter,” spitting some aggressive raps that go just as hard as any male rapper.

There would be a bit of a break for Quinn C. Martin to do some more comedy and talk his way around a heckler as DJ T got his gear set up. Once DJ T was good to go, he’d get the crowd warmed up again by playing some Griselda tracks to set the vibe, and would bring some of the tour openers on stage. Opening for Conway would be Drumwork artist Goosebytheway, who makes a few featured appearances on Conway’s Won’t He Do It album. The Buffalo emcee would get a quick segment to perform a few of his own songs off of his album, By The Way Vol. 1, and would be joined by singer Shuan2x to perform their collab “Star.” The Drumwork set was a solid warmup, as Conway’s hypeman would come out next to do an energy check with the crowd, and we all got turned up as it was time for Conway The Machine to hit the stage!

As the crowd lit up their phones to welcome Conway The Machine, the man himself came out walking with a cane to support his still recovering leg, and set it off with track one off of the new album, “Quarters.” Just like most of the other emcees who blessed the stage before him, Conway The Machine came through sharp on the mic, spitting his vocals raw and delivering his verses with precision. He’d go in with several songs off of the Won’t He Do It album, including “Brucifix” and “Brick Fare,” and got the crowd to sing along to the chorus on “Monogram.” Despite fighting through the leg injury and having the hectic schedule traveling from Buffalo to make this show within hours of getting home from his European tour dates, Conway didn’t seem bothered at all, losing the cane and picking up his energy as the set went on.

The entire first half of Conway’s set ended up being focused on new 2023 music, as he showed off his precision rhyme patterns on “Stab Out” and “LALO,” talked his shit on “Brooklyn Chop House,” and brought Goosebytheway back to do the chorus as he performed “Tween Cross Tween.” With his hypeman emulating his adlibs and the crowd joining in for the hooks, Conway was comfortably in his pocket, nailing every verse word for word on the mic. He’d start to take it back to his previous albums released in the 2020s so far, alternating between 2022’s God Don’t Make Mistakes and 2020’s From King To A GOD as he performed verses from “Piano Love,” “Lemon,” the second half of “Dough & Damani,” and “John Woo Flick,” even going acapella on the latter track.

After one more From King To A GOD single with “Jesus Khrysis,” Conway would start to dig into his B-sides and mixtape bag, saying “I got about 800 of these!” as the beat for “Raw Oysters” dropped and he spit that rapid-fire hook. This would turn into a medley of throwbacks for the underground, day-one fans, Conway proudly proclaiming “I’ve been doing this for 8 years!” as he took it back to 2015’s Reject 2 mixtape with the first verse from “Blakk Tape,” before teasing other classic tracks. He’d bounce between years pulling out rarities like “200 Pies” and other mixtape joints to tease verses from before eventually landing on the 2019 Griselda track “DR BIRDS,” getting the crowd to wave their arms to the WWCD classic.

Nearing the end of his time on stage, Conway would acknowledge that he usually ends his set with “DR BIRDS,” but kept going with a few more mixtape joints. He pretty much read my mind as he said “I didn’t hear ‘Scatter Brain’ yet though” before dropping the fan favourite single off of La Maquina. He’d nail both of his rapid-fire verses from “Scatter Brain,” going acapella for the second verse before getting into another favourite off of that mixtape, “KD,” the high-energy track turning the crowd up and getting everyone to bounce. To close out the show, Conway would perform one last hype, celebratory track acknowledging the success it took for him to get here with “Family Ties,” making sure to nail every word in his verses even after the beat-switch to the faster tempo. Conway would then take time to thank Lord Fury and Supreme Genes Records for organizing the show before saying peace to the fans and being presented with a gifted pair of shoes on his way off stage.

This was Supreme Genes Records’ final showcase of 2023, and they capped off their year with another epic event that connected some of Toronto’s sharpest emcees with our neighbours from Upstate New York. They’ve been able to consistently bring fans together who appreciate sharp lyricism in Hip-Hop, and did so yet again with this long awaited Conway The Machine concert. Artists like Asun Eastwood and MBK Supreme seem to always be working on new music and have been able to bring something different to the stage every time they’ve performed this year. Conway The Machine obviously has a similar work ethic and sets the bar when it comes to the independent grind, consistently putting out new music every year and is starting to be able to regularly go on world tours. Conway even had new, unreleased music ready to show off at his meet-and-greet at 611 Purple Factory the next day, showing he’s always got more left in the chamber.

It’s great seeing the success of Conway The Machine and the Griselda brand continue to grow, all while they keep their roots planted deeply in the underground, where the emphasis is put on technical skill and authenticity more than pop sensibilities. With this being only Conway’s second time performing in Toronto, there were plenty of long-time fans in the building just getting their first opportunity to see him perform live, and there’s bound to be plenty more opportunities in store for the future. Conway’s performance took fans through his most recent albums while also sprinkling in a few throwbacks for the diehard fans, and he’s sure to have even more new music to perform next time he goes on tour.

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