One of Canada’s all-time greats when it comes to Hip-Hop music, Toronto legend k-os has embarked on a nation-wide tour as he gets set to celebrate some milestones in 2024. Dubbed The MeMyselfAndEye Tour, k-os is out celebrating his multi-decade legacy with a truly solo stage show, with his only backing on stage being a DJ as opposed to the full band we’re used to seeing him perform with. Having not really toured much in recent years, this would be a rare opportunity for him to connect with both day-one fans and new fans across the country, as he gets back into performing live music in cities he doesn’t get to visit that often. So far this year he’s toured through cities in British Columbia, Alberta, and even Yukon, with this show in London being near the end of his Ontario run before he heads out east to the Maritimes.

Arguably the biggest and most successful Canadian Hip-Hop artist of the 2000s decade, k-os will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his critically acclaimed, platinum-selling and Juno award-winning sophomore album, Joyful Rebellion this August. He’ll be releasing a reissued, deluxe version of the album on vinyl, including bonus, previously unreleased songs recorded from that era later this year, along with a similar re-release of his 2002 debut Exit lined up for the summer, and a re-release of 2006’s platinum-certified Atlantis: Hymns For Disco already open for pre-sales for an early May release date. Along with him celebrating his classic albums released in the 2000s, k-os has also been working on recording a new album rumoured to be executive produced by Drake and set to drop later this year. Going into this concert, fans could expect to hear all of the throwback hits k-os released over the years, with a little hope to hear a preview of the upcoming album.

While k-os often gets labeled as a Hip-Hop artist, he’s one of the most diverse musicians the genre has seen, with his style and influences ranging from Rock to Reggae, Funk, Pop, RnB, Jazz, Folk and even Country. That diversity would be reflected in the lineup of local artists opening for him at this show in London, with the first group to hit the Club Fuego stage being a similarly diverse duo hailing from Oakville, Ontario, YASSiN & Sean Terrio.

Fans expecting this to be a straight Hip-Hop show were in for a surprise as YASSiN & Sean Terrio started the evening off with an Opera-style cover of Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” with Terrio’s high-pitched vocals blowing the minds of anyone hearing him sing for the first time. YASSiN would control the tempo with the instrumentals he played on keyboard, and him and Sean would next get the crowd grooving to a smooth cover of Childish Gambino’s “Redbone,” getting the crowd to snap along to the slowed down version of the beat. The most captivating moment of their set had to be their cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” the stripped down version with just YASSiN’s keyboard backing Sean Terrio’s vocals making his powerful singing performance stand out and command the attention of the room. While the duo acknowledged they weren’t exactly the type of Hip-Hop artists you typically see at a rap show, they still had some fun with it, performing a sung cover of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” before closing out with one of their own original songs: a slowed down, acoustic version of their single “Take My Time.”

While YASSiN & Sean Terrio stuck to a slow tempo throughout their performance, the pace and energy would pick up with the next couple artists bringing different styles of Hip-Hop to the stage. London’s own Young Trizzy brought a blend of Hip-Hop and RnB, spitting a freestyle verse over a traditional boom-bap type of beat before doing some sung raps on his song “Feedback.” The hometown artist had much of the crowd behind him as he showcased a heavy Drake influence behind his style of rap, getting the crowd to wave their arms to his hooks.

Next up would be a Kitchener-based artist, Macsøs, who brought a more hardcore style of rap to the stage, his hypeman Manatee sounding straight out of a Heavy Metal band. Macsøs would showcase incredible breath control as he seamlessly went from singing on his hooks to spitting rapid-fire raps in his verses. Songs like “Ain’t That Funny” and “King Like Charles” stood out as he walked through the crowd and clapped hands with the fans while he rapped, and Manatee got in on the rapping as they performed their collab “Minute Made.” Macsøs would give a shoutout to Robbie G for booking this show and giving local artists an opportunity to perform, and would close out his set by performing their collaboration “Hometown Hero.”

The final artist to open for k-os would be Robbie G himself, who’s company R-Evolution Media booked most of the shows on this k-os tour. One of the hardest working artists in Canada, Robbie G has been steadily touring all over the country throughout 2024, having booked tours for major artists including D12 & Obie Trice, k-os, and Lloyd Banks this year. Not only has he helped deliver these concerts to fans across Canada, but he’s also created opportunities for local artists in each city to perform, while also promoting his own music.

With more than a decade in the music business, Robbie G’s catalogue is diverse enough for him to pull out a different set of songs for each concert tour he does. We saw him just last week opening for D12 & Obie Trice in Toronto, where his setlist mostly focused on straight rapping, while this setlist opening for k-os featured some of his more emotional and experimental tracks. After setting things off with hype, celebratory tracks like “Ball Drop” and “Blow Up,” he would perform some of those more emotional songs about his mother and step-mother, doing his Saukrates collab “Keep That Lady Proud” and getting the crowd to shout “fuck cancer!” as he performed “When I See You.” He would also throw in an experimental, acoustic-sounding track with his remix of Russ’ “Adventure” between usual mainstays in his setlist like “Living My Dreams” and “Homies.”

Robbie G was definitely able to get the crowd behind him as he served up a diverse range of songs, going from sad and emotional to upbeat party vibes. He would close out his set with some new songs off of his Spiritual and Material albums, including “Devil’s On My Back,” which has a newly released music video, and got the crowd to join in for “You Know This.” He had the crowd vibing with him throughout his entire set, and would be sure to promote future shows he’d be bringing to London, including Chris Webby in May and Lloyd Banks in June, before joining the fans in the crowd as we got ready for k-os to make his appearance.

Always one to stand out both in music and fashion, k-os would make his entrance with the instrumental from Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” playing, sporting a cowboy hat and mask, and an Iron Maiden jean jacket. He would greet the crowd with a freestyle over that Rush guitar riff before getting into the intro off of his soon to be re-released Atlantis: Hymns For Disco album, “Electrik Heat – The Seekwill.” The upbeat party record got the crowd energized, and things would get even more groovy as he pulled out a throwback for the day-one fans, “Superstar Pt. Zero,” getting a soul clap going over that classic piano loop and nailing the fast-paced flow. He’d keep up the pattern for the first bit of his set, going back to Atlantis with the deep album cut “CatDieseL” followed by a 1999 throwback with his feature on Rascalz’ “Top Of The World,” bringing back memories of seeing him share the stage with the Vancouver-based trio at Drake’s All Canadian North Stars concert two summers ago.

With that last Rascalz collaboration having a bit of a Caribbean flavour to it, k-os would next get into his Joyful Rebellion intro with a similar style, “Emcee Murdah.” After having seen him perform this song sped up over Dr. Dre’s “Forgot About Dre” beat at past concerts throughout the years, it was refreshing to see him perform it over the original beat and the original tempo, as he got the crowd to join in as he crushed the vocals on the chorus. The crowd would stay right there with him, singing along to his classic hooks as he got into a familiar routine for “Heaven Only Knows,” performing the song over the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” and spitting an off-the-top freestyle for the second verse. His freestyle for this segment included some wordplay with the venue’s name, Club Fuego, and he’d also shoutout some children standing in the front row.

After mellowing out to the acoustic segment, k-os would pick the energy back up as he got the crowd dancing and singing along to his classic “Man I Used To Be,” that incredible drum loop resonating with everyone as he first got us singing along to the original song he sampled to make the beat, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall,” before performing his own vocals. Continuing with the Joyful Rebellion hits, k-os barely had to perform as the crowd covered the vocals for “Crabbuckit” and clapped along to the beat. K-os would briefly take it to 2009 with his Yes! single “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman” before going right back to ’04 with an incredible performance of “Crucial” that included interpolations of The Beatles’ “She Loves You” and The Police’s “Roxanne” blended nicely into the track.

Delivering hit after hit, the crowd continued to sing along with k-os as he next served up what may be the catchiest song of his entire catalogue, and the most appropriate to perform on a Saturday night, “Sunday Morning.” It was another one where k-os barely had to do anything as the crowd sang the chorus for him. With his singing vocals shining on the last several songs, k-os would remind the crowd that he’s also good at rapping, pulling out an obscure track off of his Yes! album to close out with, “Zambony.” He’d nail the rapid-fire flow and got the crowd bouncing one last time before leaving the stage. The crowd was in a great vibe and wanted more, as you could hear chants for 1 more song, then for 3 more songs, and even some chanting out “5 more songs!” Faking out the crowd with a non-encore, k-os would come out and toss some fresh roses into the crowd as a thank-you before heading backstage again for a meet-and-greet for fans with VIP tickets.

Overall, it was a great time revisiting these Canadian classics with k-os, although a lot of the fans did want to see more from him. While he showed a lot of love to his two highest selling albums, Joyful Rebellion and Atlantis: Hymns of Disco, I personally wanted to see more throwbacks from Exit get performed, like “Freeze,” “Fantastique,” or “Masquerade.” There’s also two highly underrated albums, 2011’s BLack On BLonde and 2015’s Can’t Fly Without Gravity that he didn’t touch on at all, and we got no previews of any new music yet to be released. While the diehard fans were left wanting more, k-os did perform all of the essentials, showcasing his unique way of blending genres and having an eclectic ear for samples. It may not have been the deep dive into one of Canada’s greatest Hip-Hop discographies some of us wanted to see, but k-os did put on an incredible performance showcasing his classics, and the fans were happy to share the moment with him.

The MeMyselfAndEye Tour continues through Ontario with shows in Kingston, Barrie and Ottawa before heading out east to the Maritimes. Tour 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!

Check out this playlist of k-os concert videos from all the times I’ve seen him perform over the years.

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