Supreme Genes Records has been building up a reputation in Toronto’s Hip-Hop concert scene. The Toronto-based indie label has put on several showcases to promote their roster of local artists while also bringing in some all-time Hip-Hop legends to headline their shows. Last year they went from hosting concerts by underground vets Killah Priest and Group Home at BSMT 254, to doing a series of larger shows at The Opera House, with headliners including Ghostface Killah, Styles P, and Conway The Machine. Now kicking off 2024 with their first showcase of the year, they’ve upgraded yet again to the bigger Phoenix Concert Theatre, bringing to Toronto a pair of New York City Hip-Hop legends: the Brownsville, Brooklyn duo M.O.P. and Corona, Queens icon Kool G Rap.

This would be a rare opportunity for Toronto Hip-Hop heads to see both of these legends perform on the same stage. Kool G Rap in particular seems to be more of a studio artist by nature, having scarcely done live performances outside of New York over his 30+ year career, with this only being his second time ever performing in Toronto (we were there to witness his first time back in 2018 too). M.O.P. also haven’t toured through Canada that often despite having a similar longevity, and their DJ would even later mention to the crowd that this could be their last time visiting right before they hit the stage. With Hip-Hop heads still celebrating the culture’s 50th anniversary, the Toronto fans were eager to celebrate the legacies of both Kool G Rap and M.O.P., who each have some of the most respected discographies in Hip-Hop history, and are among the most influential artists of the culture.

The timing around this concert would be in typical Hip-Hop fashion, as the first couple hours would have DJ Mercilless constantly spinning classic Hip-Hop tracks as the building slowly filled up with fans. Eventually the host of the evening, Lord Fury, would come out and give some shoutouts, mentioning some of the Juno award-winning Toronto artists he saw simply being spectators out of respect for the legends we were about to see. Fury would hype up the crowd and got everyone ready to turn up ahead of introducing the first artist to the stage, Asun Eastwood, who would hold it down with a solid 5-song setlist.

As the only local opener who may not have had familiarity with most fans, Asun Eastwood came with the right energy to make an impression. He spit his raps raw and performed songs that showcased his lyrical skill, with sharp rhymes and punchlines for days. Some of his standout tracks included “Shots Fired,” where he does an interpolation of 50 Cent’s “Many Men” towards the end of the song, and his single released last summer, the bar-heavy “Toast Tito’s Vodka.” Always one to be working on new material and having something different to serve up each time we’ve seen him, Asun would end his set with a new song he’d preview off of his upcoming project, a sequel to his Let Me Talk My Shit album called LMTMS Too.

There would be a bit of a break between artists, as Lord Fury returned to hype the crowd up, and DJ Mercilless spun some more tracks, pulling out some rare exclusives including a Sheek Louch freestyle over The LOX’ “Money, Power, Respect” where he’s shouting out Toronto neighbourhoods. The fans were curious to see which of the headliners would perform first, as you could argue that Kool G Rap is the O.G. who deserves the headliner slot for his influence and seniority, but that M.O.P. has the bigger hit records and the most energy. It turned out that Kool G Rap would be the next artist to hit the stage, and the fans got hyped as the time finally arrived for most to have their first experience seeing the legend perform live.

With many considering the late ’80s and early ’90s the golden era of Hip-Hop, Kool G Rap embodied that when he stepped on the stage, taking it back to the roots with a simple freestyle and call-and-response over a breakbeat. Joined by a couple hypemen to help engage the crowd, G Rap would go right into a couple joints off of his 1989 debut, Road To The Riches, performing the single “Poison” but with a twist, spitting his verse over the beat from MF DOOM’s “Yessir!.” With his voice now much deeper than when he first recorded the song, the more eerie MF DOOM production suited the track well, although he would go back to his original Marley Marl production when he performed “It’s A Demo” next.

Not wanting to be too predictable, Kool G Rap would bounce between eras, next pulling out a rarity from the 2000s with his DJ Premier collaboration, “First N****,” which effectively works as a reflection on his legacy as being among the first to elevate the lyricism in Hip-Hop to its peak. He’d next do some of his more familiar underground hits from the ’90s that got the crowd joining in on the hooks, doing the title track from his 4,5,6 album followed by 1992’s “Ill Street Blues.” Without a tour DJ on hand and DJ Mercilless filling in, there was a bit of a lack of coordination, but you could tell G Rap was having fun working through the queues with Mercilless, and the crowd was eager to hear what song he’d perform next. With each of his first 3 albums with DJ Polo widely considered Hip-Hop classics, Kool G Rap would make sure to at least touch on each of those albums from that chapter of his career, next pulling out a Wanted: Dead Or Alive track with the fan favourite “Streets Of New York,” the crowd turning up as soon as the beat dropped.

When Lord Fury first introduced Kool G Rap to the stage, he spoke on how G Rap gave birth to a lot of rappers’ styles, laying the foundation for artists like Big Pun and Nas to build upon and become legends themselves. G Rap would next give a bit of a nod to that, performing the 4,5,6 standout collaboration with Nas, “Fast Life,” nailing his own verse and letting just a few bars of Nas’ featured verse play before cutting off the track. With the last few songs having a bit of a walking pace to them, Kool G Rap next looked to turn the energy up, getting DJ Mercilless to play a Disco-style breakbeat that got the crowd moving as he spit a freestyle and did some call-and-response. Things would get even more groovy as they kept it unpredictable, playing the Funk-infused beat from EPMD’s “It’s My Thing” and G Rap spitting his classic verse from “The Symphony” over it.

Getting back to the mid-late ’90s, Kool G Rap went back to his 4,5,6 album again, performing “Take ‘Em To War” with the crowd joining in on the hook, and by fan request performed his 1999 Mobb Deep collaboration, “The Realest.” Fans would keep shouting out the songs they wanted to hear, and while there were technical issues with queuing up the beats, G Rap would perform a bit of his first verse from “Truly Yours” acapella before jumping into classics like “My Life,” “Rikers Island,” and “It’s A Shame,” nailing his verses and keeping the crowd hanging on to every word with him. With time for only one more song left in his setlist, Kool G Rap would take it back to ’89 with a full performance of “Road To The Riches” for the day-one fans, getting the crowd to turn up one last time before giving a salute and saying peace.

There would be another break for fans to re-up on drinks and use the washroom as DJ Laze-E-Laze got his gear set up, and he’d get himself warmed up by playing a set of Gang Starr songs, with the DJ Premier beats setting the vibe for M.O.P. to come out next. Pretty soon he’d blend some Rock vocals over the beat from Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement,” and we’d all know that Brooklyn was in the house!

M.O.P. would stagger out their entrance, with Billy Danze coming out first and killing a hype verse all by himself, and the crowd’s energy would get cranked when Lil’ Fame joined him on stage for his own solo verse. Once the duo were on stage together, they showcased impeccable synergy with the way they timed their vocals and choreography, and this is how they’d make a lasting impression throughout the entire setlist. They’d start things off by performing a couple joints off of their latest release, 2014’s Street Certified, with the tracks “Shake Em Up” and “187,” and the energy would only get higher as they got into the throwbacks.

One way M.O.P. has stood out throughout their career is the way they flip classic Rock samples in their beats, and they’d let their ear for samples shine over the next few songs. They’d let Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” breathe a bit, adding their signature adlibs over it and getting the crowd to sing along as the anticipation built up for the beat to drop for M.O.P.’s own song sampling the record. The crowd got hyped as M.O.P. performed their own “Cold As Ice” with a ton of energy, and they’d get the same effect by next playing “Eye Of The Tiger” before getting into a hype performance of “4 Alarm Blaze,” which DJ Laze-E-Laze produced himself for M.O.P.’s First Family 4 Life album and expertly flipped the sample.

Making sure to give the diehard fans some deep album cuts, M.O.P. would get into their highest-selling album, Warriorz, performing Brooklyn anthems like “Welcome To Brownsville” and “Home Sweet Home” to rep their hometown. They’d also check for the day-one fans in the building, with DJ Laze-E-Laze asking if anyone could name the very first single M.O.P. released. This would lead into a couple 1993/94 throwbacks off of their debut album To The Death, first performing “Rugged Neva Smoove” before actually doing the very first single off of that album, “How About Some Hardcore.” These tracks definitely got a big reaction out of the crowd, as Lil’ Fame & Billy Danze each nailed their verses on the throwbacks.

DJ Laze-E-Laze would next get a moment to take the front of the stage as he swapped places with Lil’ Fame and re-introduced him by his DJ/producer name, Fizzy Womack. Fizzy would get to run through a quick DJ set of his own, beginning with a tribute to the late DMX with the classic “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” before getting into a string of high-energy hits like Ludacris’ “Move Bitch,” Biggie’s “Hypnotize,” Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” and Fat Joe’s “Lean Back.” DJ Laze-E-Laze would speak on how you can turn any kind of music into Hip-Hop right before Fizzy chopped up Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” getting the crowd to sing along to the late Kurt Cobain’s vocals. Fizzy next closed out his DJ set by performing some more cuts over Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says,” the classic beat cranking the energy up in the room one last time before he’d let DJ Laze-E-Laze take over the turntables again.

After the DJ intermission, Billy Danze & Lil’ Fame came back out performing “Warriorz,” the song working as an energetic re-introduction for the duo. Having last performed some of their day-one throwbacks, they’d next get into a segment honouring DJ Premier, whose production helped elevate their career on later albums. They’d perform their guest feature on Gang Starr’s “Who Got Gunz,” followed by one of Preemo’s contributions to their Warriorz album, the upbeat “Follow Instructions.” The fans stayed turned up as the certified head-nodders continued, another standout Warriorz cut being “Calm Down,” which led into a clever segment where they played Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” to actually mellow out the crowd.

The mellowness wouldn’t last long, as M.O.P. would return with a hype performance of “Ground Zero,” restarting the song midway and having Lil’ Fame go acapella for the opening verse to really show off his impeccable breath control. Billy Danze would of course join in on the action and nail his own rapid-fire verse on the song, and the two nailed their vocal timing to perfectly fill in the bars with perfect execution. Things would get even more hyped as they next pulled out an unexpected track, doing their feature on Jay-Z’s “U Don’t Know Remix,” with Lil’ Fame tossing water onto the crowd as that Just Blaze beat kicked in. The fans were both surprised and excited to hear the Hov song get performed, as Lil’ Fame damn near tore the roof off with his opening verse: “1, 2, 3 and motherfucker we comin’, a hundred miles and gunnin’!”

After touching on some of their later work with “Blow The Horns,” it would be time for the grand closer everyone was expecting, although M.O.P. just jumped into the song without any warning: “Ante Up.” M.O.P. would abruptly cut the track off before the chaos could fully erupt and gave a warning to the fans to be safe, as the song is arguably one of the most hype, energetic, and aggressive certified-mosh-pit-starters in Hip-Hop history. While a lot of the fans may have been too old to really get the mosh pit going (or we just prefer to be safe), everyone still turned up, waving their arms and shouting the lyrics as M.O.P. performed the entire song with no verses skipped. Once the Mash Out Posse got done mashing out the stage, they’d thank the crowd and say peace, heading backstage for their meet-and-greet with VIP ticket holders.

With the way M.O.P. killed their performance, this was easily another early contender for the most energetic Hip-Hop concert of the year! It was my personal first time seeing the duo perform live, and for any first-timers like myself, I can say they blew expectations out of the water with their stage presence and execution, which you could tell has over 30 years of experience behind it. Between M.O.P. and Kool G Rap, this was a showcase of Hip-Hop excellence in its purest form.

While the concert was incredible and all emcees nailed their mark with their performances, there were some missed opportunities that left some fans wanting more. It would have been absolutely epic if M.O.P. were to bring Kool G Rap back on stage to perform their collaboration together, “Stick To Ya Gunz,” but that moment never came. Kool G Rap in his own setlist understandably skipped over his newer material from the 2010s and ’20s, but he also left out a few classics fans wanted to hear, like “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “Bad To The Bone,” or “Go For Your Guns.” Regardless of the exclusions though, most fans appreciated sharing the moment with these legends, and it was an overall epic Hip-Hop experience.

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