The year 2024 marks 20 years since D12 released their final album as a fully unified group, D12 World. To many fans, the album represents the end of an era, as Hip-Hop icon Eminem would close the D12 chapter of his career in the years following this album, and it would be his last time riding with them for a full length project. While D12 as a group definitely made an impact worth celebrating, with 2004’s D12 World and their 2001 debut, Devils Night, both going platinum, the group has gone through its ups and downs over the years, and we may never get to see them all fully united again.

The group’s demise began when Proof was killed in a shooting in 2006. Since then, Eminem had his infamous hiatus and has mostly stayed as a solo artist since his reemergence after rehabilitation. Bizarre also became a solo artist, making several underground releases over the years, while Kon Artis changed his focus from rapping to becoming a world-renowned producer known as Mr. Porter. That leaves just two members, Swifty McVay and Kuniva as the only ones able and willing to celebrate this milestone on behalf of D12. Joined by fellow Shady Records artist from that era, Obie Trice, Swifty & Kuniva have embarked on a Canada-wide tour to celebrate D12 World‘s 20th anniversary, this show in Toronto being just the 6th stop out of 40+ shows.

Going down on a Tuesday night, the special event area in the back of The Rec Room slowly filled up with fans of that early 2000s era of Hip-Hop. Warming up the stage would be an emcee from Sudbury who we also recently saw open for R.A. The Rugged Man this past weekend, Rhythm And Poetry (R.A.P.). Joined by KingCanada, R.A.P. would set things off with the track “Doja Remix,” which had him spitting a rapid-fire flow over a sped up version of the sample used in Eve’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” The two would take turns performing songs, with KingCanada doing joints off of his album Back To Basics, and R.A.P. performing an unreleased tracked called “Who You” that he was previewing just for this D12 tour. The duo were solid getting some energy out of the crowd with their opening performance.

Next up would be Guelph’s own Robbie G, whose company R-Evolution Media helped book this entire tour. Proven to be one of the hardest working artists in the Canadian music industry, Robbie G has continued to book several concert tours across Canada, organizing and opening for major artists including D12, k-os and Lloyd Banks in 2024 alone, and creating opportunities for local artists from each city to perform. He’s also steadily recording new music, with two new albums Spiritual and Material released within the past year. Shortly after gracing the stage he’d speak on living out a dream, coming up in the small town of Guelph to now touring across the country and performing at a venue across the street from the CN Tower.

While Robbie G’s set had some familiar throwbacks like “Ball Drop,” “Do What You Do” and “Homies,” the bulk of what he performed would be new songs off of his Material album. With a diverse range of tracks, he nailed a rapid-fire flow on “Blow Up,” had the crowd waving their arms to “Icy,” and got the ladies dancing to what he called his strip club joint with “Bust It.” He’d also perform his verse from a collab with Merkules and Ekoh called “Devil’s On My Back,” which has a new music video dropping soon, and would be sure to let the fans know he had plenty of merch he was willing to autograph, from CDs to trading cards to clothes and even a book that he authored. As always, Robbie G put the fans in a good vibe and had them ready to turn up for the headliners.

D12 & Obie Trice’s tour DJ, DJ Invisible, would soon get his gear set up and got himself warmed up by chopping up M.O.P.’s “Ante Up” on the turntables. He’d effectively set the mood and bring us to the headliners’ hometown by playing Trick Trick’s “Welcome 2 Detroit,” and would next welcome Obie Trice to the stage.

Being a key part of that early 2000s’ Shady Records movement, Obie Trice himself was also celebrating the 20th anniversary of his own platinum-selling debut album with the label, Cheers. Back before COVID, we had seen him share the stage and go back and forth with Swifty McVay on the Cheers 15th Anniversary Tour, but this time he’d be the main focus for his own separate setlist, starting off with the hit single off of that album, “Got Some Teeth.” The comedic party record got the crowd grooving, and after some quick shoutouts acknowledging the occasion he was there to celebrate, Obie would get into a few tributes to some fallen legends.

The crowd got hyped as the beat began to build up for Obie’s Eminem & DMX collab, “Go To Sleep,” and we all got into a “DMX, RIP!” chant before the beat dropped and Obie spit his verse. The tributes would keep going, with Obie next performing a couple of his songs featuring the late Nate Dogg, including the Cheers single “The Set Up,” and the deep album cut “Look In My Eyes.” He’d then move on to his sophomore album, 2006’s Second Rounds On Me, performing another single featuring a singer on the hook, the Akon-assisted “Snitch,” and at one point got the crowd to sing the Drake song “going up, on a Tuesday!!”

While Obie Trice’s set did include a few more Cheers joints, including fan favourites like “Shit Hits The Fan” and “We All Die One Day,” his setlist was more of a celebration of the Shady Records era the album was made in rather than the album itself. He’d pull out more obscure gems like “Love Me” off of the 8 Mile Soundtrack, and even a mixtape track with Eminem’s “The Realest Label” remix where he shouts out the entire Shady roster at the time. Hearing Eminem especially got the crowd energized, as Obie and DJ Invisible got everyone rapping along to the first verse of “Without Me,” which famously features a sample of Obie Trice’s underground single “Rap Name” right at the beginning. Obie would of course perform the original track, the crowd shouting out the lyrics “Obie Trice, real name, no gimmicks!” as he got into his verse.

To close out his set, Obie Trice would perform one last Cheers cut with the Busta Rhymes-assisted “Oh!,” and got the crowd dancing to his remix of Eminem & Nate Dogg’s “Shake That” as he left the stage. The crowd was turned up for Obie’s entire performance, and he set the stage perfectly for D12 to come out with more Shady Records classics. Before D12 would hit the stage though, DJ Invisible spent some time chopping up records to give the crowd a break to re-up on drinks. He’d go behind the back as he performed cuts to Dead Prez’ “Hip-Hop,” DMX’s “Party Up,” and LL Cool J’s “Rock The Bells.” It would get a little weird for a Hip-Hop show as he played Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer,” still getting the crowd to sing along, followed by the opening theme to Lion King as he pulled out a giant NogginBoss Detroit Tigers hat and placed it on his head like a crown. Pretty soon, it was time for D12.

DJ Invisible started playing the piano intro from the 8 Mile cut “Rap Game,” and the crowd immediately recognized the beat and got turned up in anticipation, pulling their phones out as Swifty McVay graced the stage for his opening verse. Kuniva would follow right behind him, and they proceeded to rock the house, giving a shoutout to D12 World‘s 20th anniversary before performing the album’s intro, “Git Up.” Looking to show their diverse range over the first few songs, Swifty & Kuniva went from starting out hardcore to the more comedic “Nasty Mind,” with DJ Invisible chopping up samples of women moaning, prompting Swift to jokingly call him DJ OnlyFans. With women and sex on the mind, they’d next perform the Devils Night cut “Pimp Like Me,” with Swifty nailing the opening verse and getting the crowd to sing Dina Rae’s vocals on the chorus (side note: the singer currently has a GoFundMe after recently undergoing spinal surgery).

After another day-one throwback with “Shit On You,” DJ Invisible would then play the beat from Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement” as Swift & Kuniva gave some shoutouts. “DJ OnlyFans” would get a humourous shoutout, and they’d also create a moment for their guitarist Dirty Jake to shine, who they introduced as the son of Jeff Bass, one half of The Bass Brothers, who produced a lot of Eminem’s earlier records. Dirty Jake would play a few guitar riffs from classic Eminem songs that his father had a hand in producing, teasing a bit of “Cleaning Out My Closet” before going all the way in on “Lose Yourself,” getting the crowd to rap Eminem’s entire first verse. The standout guitar riffs made for an epic transition into the classic D12 cut “Fight Music,” and while the performance had the energy to start a mosh pit, the crowd was kind of soft, with most having their phones out instead of moshing.

Looking to bring back the party vibes after the intense “Fight Music,” Swift & Kuniva gave a shoutout to all the smokers and drinkers as they got into “Blow My Buzz,” followed by their features on Eminem’s “Under The Influence.” They would then pay tribute to their fallen group member Proof, keeping up the party vibes by playing one of his solo cuts, “Gurls wit’ da Boom.” The party vibes would soon transition back to that hardcore, as they next pulled out only the second song of the evening off of D12 World, the Crunk-influenced “40 Oz,” with Kuniva nailing his verse.

Seeming to slowly sprinkle D12 World cuts into their setlist rather than fully dive into the album, they next took it back to Devils Night, getting the crowd to sing along to Eminem’s hook on “Revelation.” D12 would then show off their ability to take a serious situation and make it comedic over the next few songs, as DJ Invisible played the classic beat from Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones,” and Swifty made it a funny moment by starting a “fuck Free World!” chant to recreate that classic scene from the 8 Mile movie. They’d then perform some of their more violent tracks, doing “Pistol Pistol” followed by the B-Real-assisted “American Psycho II.” With B-Real having a standout hook on that last song, DJ Invisible next played Cypress Hill’s classic single “How I Could Just Kill A Man” as they all took a break to change outfits.

By the time the Cypress Hill track ended, DJ Invisible, Dirty Jake, Swifty and Kuniva each were wearing ski masks with devil ears on them, which led into a dope choreographed, energetic performance of the pistol-toting mayhem of a track, “Get My Gun.” Swift & Kuniva bounced across the stage while nailing their verses, and after putting all of their energy out there, they next asked for some energy from the crowd. Seeming to be a nightly ritual for this tour, they’d divide the crowd in half, with Swift & Kuniva each taking a side, and whoever’s side chanted along to their call-and-response the loudest won a dinner bought by the loser. Swifty would keep up his winning streak as his side got the loudest “fuck you!” chant.

Nearing the end of the show, D12 would do another comedy bit, with Swifty doing excessive poses for pictures and Kuniva wanting to continue on to the next song. Swift would then proclaim that he’s the new lead singer of D12, which of course led into a fun performance of “My Band,” including the crowd helping cover Eminem’s opening verse, and Swifty nailing his own verse and dancing to Eminem’s goofy bridge on the song. D12 would then bring Obie Trice back on stage to perform their collaboration on the D12 World album, “Loyalty,” getting one last burst of energy from the crowd. Although they were teasing that they had to go, the fans knew there was one last song they couldn’t leave off the setlist, and of course they ended up closing out the show with the classic Devils Night single, “Purple Pills.” Swift & Kuniva would then say peace to the crowd, and invited fans to get a meet & greet with them for pictures and autographs.

This concert was an overall fun time, and while the crowd could have been more energetic, I think most wanted to capture the moment on their phones since it’s so rare to see these particular songs get performed live. Eminem doesn’t exactly do concert tours anymore, and even when he does perform live, it’s rare to see him do any D12 songs. For Eminem fanatics, this concert was a deep dive into a chapter of his career that he’s left behind, and while we can hope that one day Bizarre and Mr. Porter may join on a tour, seeing Swifty & Kuniva do their best is all the fans have right now to appreciate this music in a live setting.

Swifty McVay & Kuniva performed well on stage, having a good balance between the different types of songs in D12’s discography, and also balancing out the Eminem effect with their ability to shine on their own verses. Having Dirty Jake there on guitar and representing The Bass Brothers was also a nice touch. For me personally, there are a bunch of songs they left off the setlist that I wanted to see, like “Keep Talkin’,” “Shit Can Happen,” and “Words Are Weapons.” A song like “Instigator” would have especially highlighted Swift & Kuniva’s chemistry on the mic. Regardless though, it was a dope time celebrating D12’s music with two of the group’s members, and the fans definitely appreciated the moment.

The D12 World 20th Anniversary Tour continues through Canada, dates and tickets can be found here.

Big thank-you to Robbie G and R-Evolution Media for granting this blog access to review this show!

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