A decade deep into his career, Your Old Droog is continuing to build up his reputation and has embarked on his biggest headlining tour yet, hitting 10 cities across the USA & Canada in support of his latest album, Movie. The Brooklyn-based emcee has been somewhat reclusive throughout his career, staying in the studio and consistently pumping out new albums and EPs to maintain a presence in the Hip-Hop underground, while rarely being seen on stages outside of New York. Slowly but consistently building up traction and gaining new fans with his witty lyricism and sharp cadences, YOD is an artist who continues to reach new heights with every new project released and every tour. Starting off in the east coast before heading out west, this stop in Toronto would be the only Canadian city on The Movie Tour, with many fans north of the border looking forward to seeing YOD perform live for the first time.

As far as this writer remembers, Your Old Droog hasn’t performed in Toronto since 2015, when he was opening for Royce Da 5’9″ and DJ Premier on The PRhyme Tour. Back then he was a mysterious new artist with only a couple of EPs released, who many initially thought was Nas using an alternate persona until they saw him in person. Since then, Your Old Droog has released several albums and EPs, building up his reputation as a true-to-form emcee with never ending creativity when it comes to lyricism. Although his voice may initially draw comparisons to Nas for first-time listeners, Droog has developed his own unique style and approach to lyricism that makes him stand out, using his signature “what?” and “who?” adlibs to put an emphasis on his punchlines and pop culture references. This may be The Movie Tour, but with it being so long since Your Old Droog last performed in Toronto, fans could expect to see songs from across his entire discography get performed live for the first time in the city.

Warming up the stage for Your Old Droog would be Toronto-based emcee, The 6th Letter, representing the BKRSCLB collective. With a modest crowd full of Hip-Hop heads having formed on the dance floor of Adelaide Hall, 6th Letter would get everyone vibing out to his tracks as he powered through a bit of a flu season sickness to deliver his raw raps, getting arms waving to his weed anthem “Chain Smokin Pt. II” early on. The 6th Letter would be promoting his newest album, The Cream Tape, and would perform a few of the new songs like “Multiple Choice” before bringing out fellow BKRSCLB artist Raz Fresco as a surprise guest, which got the energy in the building especially turned up.

Looking to spread some awareness on the increasing violence amongst the youth in Toronto, Raz Fresco & The 6th Letter would perform a recently released track they recorded during Fresco’s sessions with DJ Muggs for his The Eternal Now album, “Strange Fruit.” This may have been the most hype song of the set, as the hook resonated with the crowd and could even be applied to Hip-Hop as a whole: “the youths ain’t growing like they used to / everyone’s a killer now.” Ending on an uplifting note, The 6th Letter & Raz Fresco would perform another one of their collaborations to close out the set, bringing back memories of seeing Raz Fresco at Bastid’s BBQ this summer as they performed “S.I.N.,” getting the crowd to wave their arms to the beat and leaving the stage with positive energy.

After a short break, Your Old Droog’s tour DJ, Edan, would get set up behind the turntables, and would begin to introduce the headliner with one of the most obscure, unexpected entrances I’ve ever seen at a Hip-Hop show. Putting on a wig to make himself look more like a hippy from the ’70s, Edan would pull out a guitar from behind the DJ booth and would start playing a familiar riff. Your Old Droog would soon join him on stage with his own guitar, and together they would get into the guitar solo section of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” with Droog actually shredding it!

For an underground emcee known for delivering raw raps, the guitar entrance was completely unexpected, and shows that even a decade deep into his career, there is still a lot of hidden talent in Your Old Droog’s musicianship he has to showcase to his fans. After that Black Sabbath cover though, he’d quickly pull out a microphone and got busy doing what the fans all came to see him do: spit some ill raps. He’d start off with a punchline-heavy freestyle, referencing a few famous rock bands within his verse and showcasing a ton of wordplay, before getting into track 1 off of the Movie album, “Success & Power.” With the fans hanging on to every word Your Old Droog spit, Edan would also keep us guessing by flipping the beats for Droog to rap over, throwing on Redman’s “Tonight’s Da Night” for the second verse of “Success & Power,” and flipping the Willie Mitchell sample used to create GZA’s “Liquid Swords” midway through Droog’s performance of the bar-heavy “Mercury Thermometers.”

With the flows perfectly in-pocket and easy to follow along to, the fans would often shout out Droog’s punchlines for him, with Droog creating a comedic moment by cutting off the track as we finished the line “you know who had charisma? Hitler!” a little too enthusiastically. He’d use it as a moment to highlight his Jewish heritage before continuing on with the bars, pulling out a cut off his Jewelry album, “BDE.” With a few fans in the building wearing MF DOOM gear, Droog’s collab with the late legend was a pleasant inclusion in the setlist. Droog would continue to rock the mic with an acapella freestyle, the references flowing into each other as he spit the line “my DJ cutting like Larry Bird” and Edan would get a moment to perform cuts on the turntables to the throwback ’90s NBA on NBC theme. The live creativity would continue, as Droog performed his second verse from the Space Bar cut “Cosmonaut,” and Edan would flip to some J Dilla beats just as Droog references Dilla in his verse.

Looking to sonically take us to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York with his next few songs, Your Old Droog would next perform the street-smart “Under The Train” and had us shouting out shawarma and halal food in a call-and-response. He’d continue to highlight the cultural diversity of his hometown with the throwback “Bangladesh,” getting arms waving to the hype track, and would next get into a few romantic songs for the ladies, with “Train Love” referencing all the New York City subway lines. This would continue into the Movie single, “I Think I Love Her,” with Edan tossing in a tasteful sample of Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend” for a few bars. The romantic segment would end with Edan handing out roses to a young lady in the crowd before Droog got back to that New York aggression.

Next performing another standout, bar-heavy track off the Movie album, Your Old Droog would get into his verse from “Crescent Moon,” with Edan flipping the beat to MF DOOM’s “Hey!” partway through and pausing the track to highlight Droog’s penchant for obscure but clever references: “who the fuck is Steve Lacy??”. This would then turn into a bit of a standup comedy segment, with Droog referencing one of his favourite comedians, Jerry Seinfeld, to drop some lines on underground rap culture, and getting a “fuck Michael Richards” chant going to the Seinfeld theme music. Even his jokes were filled with niche references, but the crowd was made up of sharp fans who were with it, especially applauding his shoutout to Canada’s own Much Music.

Your Old Droog would continue with some more fan favourites off of the Movie album, performing his introverts anthem “Yodi Dodi” with Edan of course flipping the beat to the original Slick Rick song it interpolates, “La Di Da Di,” and throwing in the It Wasn’t Even Close cut “Bubble Hill” before getting the crowd to chant along to the catchy hook on the mainstream rapper-dissing “What Else?”. He’d use the song as a way to critique the lack of creativity in mainstream music, getting the fans to cheer if they were tired of seeing stereotypical white rappers speed-rapping a ton of syllables with no lyrical substance, before driving home the message on “Mind Your Business.” Being a white rapper himself who breaks that mold, Droog would get into another Movie cut that gives some introspection, rapping at a walking pace about his childhood on the song “How Do You Do It,” which highlights his experience of immigrating from the Ukraine at 4 years old and learning English as a second language.

Getting back to showing off the way he mastered the English language, Droog would next perform his punchline-filled verse on “DBZ,” with the last line of his verse making way for him to start a “no Diddy, no baby oil!” chant before going in with an all-raw, bar-heavy second verse that doesn’t appear on the album version. “This ain’t a mattress, stop sleeping on the king!!” Fans cheered as Droog announced he had a full length album in the works with the song’s producer, Madlib. He’d then do a throwback for the day-one fans, performing his decade-old first single, “Nutty Bars” over the beat from MF DOOM’s “Yessir!” before leaving the stage for Edan to shine. Edan would get his own segment to perform an old-school freestyle, holding the microphone with one hand and rapping while cutting up the turntables with the other. The energy in the room was hyped with all the action going on on stage.

When Your Old Droog returned, Edan would play an old-school Country riff for him to rap over, and he’d perform his verse from “3 MILLI” before showing off his appreciation for dope guitar riffs. His next track would be the Led Zeppelin-sampling “Either Way,” which he’d perform in full before pulling out his guitar and playing the full riff from “How Many More Times” himself, with Edan joining in on guitar as well. While the Led Zeppelin song was playing from the turntables for them to play along to, they made sure to play some riffs without any backup, next doing the guitar riff from Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” and getting the crowd to vibe out. Droog would thank the fans for enjoying the moment with him before leaving the stage, but would come back for one last song before ending the show, doing the emotional “Grandmother’s Lessons” to close out. Thanking the crowd one last time, Droog would invite the fans to meet him at the merch booth for pictures and autographs.

Overall, this was a great concert that saw Your Old Droog pull out his full bag of tricks. The execution of his performance was flawless on the mic, as he made sure to spit every word to every verse all raw with no backing vocals, and it blew minds seeing him shred on guitar as well. I had some first-time listeners in my crew, and YOD was able to leave a lasting impression on them with the way he delivered his wordplay and punchlines. For longtime fans, it was dope seeing him perform tracks from most of his albums, while of course leaning into his newest release, and it kept things fresh seeing Edan flip on some alternate beats to add new energy to each track.

It still feels like Your Old Droog is one of Hip-Hop’s best kept secrets, as those in the know can’t deny he’s an elite emcee on the mic, and he’s able to make new fans both with his raw skill and his relatability. My only gripes have to do with the song selections, as there are a few joints I was hoping to see get performed live that he didn’t do. “The Magic Watch” would’ve made for an incredible storytelling moment to mellow out the crowd while letting the message of each verse resonate, not to mention the vivid imagery in his lyrics that showcase another aspect of his game. I was also hoping he’d perform the title track off the Movie album as his encore, as not only is it a fitting closer to a live concert along with the album itself, but especially being in Toronto, I’m sure he would’ve gotten a hype reaction to the lyric “[I] got the bounce like Kawhi, Game 7, Toronto!” Regardless of the nitpicking, it was still an incredible time seeing Your Old Droog perform his first show as a headliner in Toronto, and we’re hoping he’ll be back many more times as he continues to elevate.

The Movie Tour continues on to the west coast, tour dates and tickets can be found here!

Big thank you to RAP SEASON and Ink Entertainment for granting this blog access to review this show!

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