When 420 lands on a Saturday, you know there’s going to be plenty of parties to go to. For Hip-Hop heads in Toronto, that place to be would be The Rooftop on College, where local artists D.O.V. and DJ Chino would both be celebrating their birthdays along with the cannabis holiday, and they booked a special Hip-Hop showcase to mark the occasion, headlined by none other than Termanology. The bar located above Fran’s Diner on College Street would get filled with friends, family, and fellow local artists there to celebrate with D.O.V. and DJ Chino, as well as Termanology fans taking the rare opportunity to see the Boston-based emcee perform live in Toronto.

An emcee who stays consistently keeping his pen game sharp with no shortage of new material, Termanology is gearing up to release his 50th project, Time Is Currency, set to drop on April 26th. Term would have a few shows lined up around the release of the new album, having performed in Montreal a couple days before this Toronto show, and the official album release party set for NYC the following week. Going into this show, fans could expect to hear a bit of a preview of the new album, plus of course the years worth of throwbacks Termanology has under his belt, with his catalogue going back almost 20 years.

The night would get started with a beat showcase, with producers Im’peretiv and Sibbs Roc each getting to play some of their original instrumentals, followed by an emcee named Raw Tal3nt warming things up on the mic with some trap-flavoured songs. Pretty soon one of the birthday boys would get to perform, as D.O.V. took the stage, joined by Gambit to form the duo Hella Treez, and together they’d bring the crowd in as they performed their weed anthem “Bluddy Waters.” It would be a quick performance, as Hella Treez did just one more song, getting the crowd to join in on the hook for “Represent” before D.O.V. would go back to his birthday celebrations, and they’d make way for another duo to take the stage, Fuego Gawdz.

The duo made up of emcees Che Uno and Wizdome Bunitall, Fuego Gawdz, came through and made an impression with their bars. Wizdome cut through crisp on the mic with a sharp delivery as he performed his latest single “Shep’s Lil Bro,” and Che Uno would stand out by seamlessly going bilingual throughout his verses, flipping between Spanish and English within the same rhyme. The duo had a solid 5-song setlist and had the crowd behind them as they closed out with their single “Salud.”

Next up would be a solo artist whose music I’d be experiencing for the first time, TRA (Tha Rhyme Animal), representing S.A.R.S. Records. A vet in the Toronto scene, Tha Rhyme Animal seems to be looking to make a comeback in 2024 after having not released any new music in a few years. He’d perform some of his new singles released this year, living up to his name by spitting some of the sharpest rhymes we’d heard all night, with a vicious delivery on songs like “Back 2 Jail” and “Crying Shame.” He would slip up a bit, forgetting the lyrics on his newest single “Came From,” getting DJ Shortcut to restart the song a couple times and contemplating just cutting his set short, but the crowd cheered him on so he wouldn’t choke and he eventually got through the Toronto anthem.

Following TRA would be a few more Toronto vets, next being Roshin, who’d hold it down for a solid 4 songs. He’d get the crowd to shout “P!!!” in honour of the late Sean Price after performing their collaboration, “Same Damn ‘Lo Sweater,” and spit some smooth flows on one of his newer songs, “Hurricane Rugged.” Roshin would be followed by a couple surprise appearances, with Daniel Son performing a few tracks, and bringing out Saipher Soze to do their collab “Graveyard Shift.” After popping on and off stage to give shoutouts and hype up the crowd throughout the night, DJ Chino would proudly announce that Termanology was officially in the building, and that Term would be coming up to the stage next after a smoke break.

Termanology would grace the stage once all the fans returned from the smoke break, and got everyone gathered around as he got into his setlist. He’d start by highlighting some of the iconic producers he’s worked with over the years, kicking things off with one of his many Statik Selektah collabs, “Right Now,” followed by a Buckwild-produced joint, “I Dream B.I.G..” Shouting out The LOX, who feature on that latter Biggie tribute, Termanology would quickly get into a tribute to the artist who he considers his biggest inspiration, the late Big Pun, performing the song “Judo” and getting the crowd to join in on the hook that features Pun’s wordplay: “Ju-do know that I got a gun!”

Continuing to highlight iconic producers, Termanology of course had to get into a DJ Premier segment, taking it back to his 2008 album, Politics As Usual, with the songs “So Amazing” and “How We Rock.” The Premo beats had every head in the crowd bobbing as Term ripped through his verses with precision, and he’d be sure to give a shoutout to the legendary producer for recently celebrating the 30th anniversary of Nas’ Illmatic album. He’d also give a shoutout to Bun B, whose collaboration on “How We Rock” was the Texas legend’s first time working with Premier.

While Termanology’s set was off to a good start, things would unfortunately go sideways and affect the rest of the show. Technical issues would arise and prevent DJ Shortcut from being able to play Term’s beats on his equipment, and it would put a big pause in the performance. Termanology would try to hold the crowd over by spitting an acapella verse and posing for pictures as DJ Chino tried to help DJ Shortcut sort things out behind the turntables, but the delays would cause Term to shorten his setlist by a few songs. One of the hosts for the evening, JSN, would smooth things over by handing out gift bags to the crowd, with some fly t-shirts from his Igami “Ostrich” clothing brand. Chino and D.O.V. would also use the time to thank everyone for celebrating with them.

When they finally got the sound working again, Term would bring out each of his special guests to make sure they all got a moment to shine on stage. He’d bring out Harlem, New York singer Mia Jae to cover Masspike Miles’ vocals on his 1982 track “You Should Go Home,” and would run into technical issues again, having to go acapella with the crowd clapping the beat for them for the last verse & hook. They’d take some more time to get the sound back, and Term would next bring out singer Nim K to perform their collab on the upcoming Time Is Currency album, “Uptown Fly.” Nim K would also get to perform one of her own songs solo, mellowing out the crowd with her soft RnB vocals.

Besides the singers touring with Termanology, there would be one other surprise guest, as Term next brought out Detroit’s own Bronze Nazareth, who’d perform his song “The Bronzeman” and pump some energy into the crowd. Termanology would give Bronze Naz his props, letting the crowd know that they have a joint album together that’s set to come out in October, and would get back to performing his own music. He’d do another tribute to the late Sean Price, letting P’s verse play on their Statik Selektah collab “Population Control” before nailing his own verse, and getting the crowd to give another one of Sean’s trademark “P!!” shoutouts.

With meaningful collaborations on the mind, Termanology next pulled out a track from his 2022 collab album with Paul Wall, Start 2 Finish, performing his verse from the song “Thailand.” He’d then bring back Mia Jae to perform “Up Every Night” with him, adding some soulful vocals to the hook and nailing her cover of the Bell Biv DeVoe “Poison” sample. With technical issues persisting throughout the entire set and causing multiple delays, Termanology was running short on time and decided to cut straight to his big finale, performing that DJ Premier-produced single that first put him on the map back in 2008, “Watch How It Go Down.” He’d apologize to the crowd for all the issues that caused his set to be cut short, but kept a cool head and stuck around to take pictures and sign autographs with the fans.

While most of the fans kept a positive attitude and stuck with Termanology through the technical issues, you could tell that the issues dampened the energy of the show, both with the crowd and with Term’s performance. Term kept it professional, still powering through his performance despite the issues, but his momentum clearly took a hit when the technical issues started, and it was tough getting it back after that. Overall though, it was still a fun time celebrating both 420 and the birthdays of D.O.V. and DJ Chino with some live Hip-Hop music, with all of the local artists delivering solid performances, and Termanology fans at least getting to hang out in the same space as him.

Big thank you to DJ Chino, D.O.V. and Hella Treez for putting on this show and granting this blog media access to review it!

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