Picking up right where they left off at the end of 2024, Roadman Productions put together another epic night celebrating classic Hip-Hop to kick of 2025. On a snowy February night in Toronto, Hip-Hop heads would pack Lee’s Palace to see two iconic groups from the ’90s era: New Jersey’s own Lords Of The Underground (LOTUG) and the New York duo Onyx. While the snow storm may have prevented LOTUG from making the trip up north, Onyx were already on their own tour through Canada, having performed at the Raptors halftime show the night before to honour the 25th anniversary of Vince Carter’s iconic Dunk Contest performance, and were ready to tear shit down at their own concert!

The pairing of LOTUG and Onyx would have been epic to see, as the two groups have shared similar trajectories over their careers. Although with different styles to their music, they both rose to prominence with their respective debut albums released in 1993, and went on to be considered among the classic groups representative of the ’90s Hip-Hop sound. They also went on to find a renaissance in their careers in the 2010s and ’20s by hooking up with German production group The Snowgoons, making notable underground releases in recent years and even collaborating on LOTUG’s latest album in 2020. It was a bit of a letdown not being able to see LOTUG perform live, but Onyx did what they’re known for and brought enough hype to put on an epic show on their own.

The night would get started with DJ Law spinning on the ones and twos, and Friday Ricky Dred of the We Love Hip-Hop podcast hosting as they brought out several local artists to warm up the stage. They’d set off the performances by bringing out members of the Raw Dog Family, led by Blaxxx Bossalini performing a few cuts off his Concrete Jungle album. Many artists would have to power through some poor sound mixing throughout the night, as tracks with high bass would often drown out the vocals, but one who was able to cut through was Michelle Visa, who made the trip from Buffalo to perform at this show. She got a good reaction out of the crowd with her punchlines, showing off the wordplay on tracks like “Dublin” and leaving an impression on any first time listeners with her bars.

Next up would be Ayoo Bigz, performing a few cuts off of his latest album released with Onyx’s own 100Mad label, Where Do I Begin. He’d perform a similar setlist to when we saw him open for Mobb Deep & Smif-N-Wessun back in December, spitting aggressive raps on songs like “Seen A Boi Get Killed” and “Stamina,” bringing that hardcore energy to the stage. Following him would be an action-packed performance by Daniel Son, who performed cuts off his new album Bushman Bodega, including “Stone Cold” and “No Man’s Land.” Representing for Brampton, Daniel Son would bring out a few local legends as surprise guests, getting some added energy by having Raz Fresco join him for their collab “What’s The Mission,” and bringing out Saipher Soze to close out the setlist with their throwback “Graveyard Shift.”

Daniel Son would break the news to the crowd during his set that Lords Of The Underground couldn’t make it to the show, and so DJ Law would spin a LOTUG mix of tracks between performers. Lord Fury of Supreme Genes Records would come out to promote some upcoming events as well, as they have wrestling legend Kurt Angle coming to Lee’s Palace for a live interview March 15th, and an epic Hip-Hop show with Styles P, Cappadonna and Smif-N-Wessun performing at The Phoenix on 4/20. Next to bless the stage though would be the one who helped put this show together, JD Era!

While JD Era has been bringing a ton of Hip-Hop shows to Toronto through Roadman Productions in recent years, it had been a long time since we’d seen him do a live performance himself. The Mississauga-based emcee would make his return to the stage with new music off of his latest album, Yellow Goose, which is produced entirely by Onyx’s Fredro Starr and was released at midnight during this show. While he did start off with a couple throwbacks, most of his setlist was focused on the new material being performed for the first time, as he had the crowd joining in for cuts like “The Hustler’s Anthem,” “Yellow Goose,” and “Go Crazy.” He could have kept going in, with a few joints featuring Onyx themselves on the new album, but decided to keep his setlist short and sweet, making way for the headliners to come out next.

The crowd got hyped as Fredro Starr and Sticky Fingaz made their way to the stage and shouted out that they were taking it back to 1993. The first several songs Onyx performed would be focused on that year, as they were quick to knock out fan favourites off of their classic Bacdafucup album, including certified mosh pit starters like “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Shifftee.” The fans would jump around to the beat and chant along to the hooks, although Fredro & Sticky’s verses would sometimes get drowned out by the bass. They were quick to recognize that the sound mix was off, often pausing the show to ask the sound man to adjust the levels, but were still able to turn the crowd up with their easy to catch hooks, getting the fans to join in for “Bacdafucup,” “Bichasniguz” and even their throwback Biohazard collab, “Judgement Night.”

It was surprising to see Onyx pull out their biggest hit, “Slam” early on in the setlist, although it could’ve been that Fredro & Sticky could sense the sound mix situation wasn’t getting any better. They’d be telling the sound man to turn up the mics in the monitors throughout their performance so they could hear themselves, but 30+ years of experience allowed them to power through, and the fans were still turned up and able to recognize the songs. They’d eventually pause the show to switch to wired microphones, and got back into it with Sticky Fingaz performing his featured verse on Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP deep cut, “Remember Me.”

Moving through the years, Onyx would next take it to 1998 with a few cuts off of their Shut ‘Em Down album. They’d perform the hype “Raze It Up” and gave a shoutout to the Wu-Tang Clan before getting into their collab “The Worst,” although they’d cut the track after just doing the hook. They’d also give an RIP shoutout to DMX before performing the title track of the album, restarting it midway to try getting the sound mix right. There was a speaker towards the back of the stage throwing off their sound, and Sticky Fingaz would knock it over out of frustration during the performance. It’s a natural part of the performance for Onyx to appear angry as they deliver their aggressive raps, often shouting their vocals, but you could tell at this point that they were genuinely pissed off at the sound mix situation.

Continuing to push through with the performance like rock stars, Onyx would next show some more love to Eminem, shouting out the 8 Mile movie as they played Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Pt. II” (RIP Prodigy). With “Shook Ones” obviously being the iconic beat used for the climactic final rap battle in the film, Onyx would use that to transition into their own song that’s also featured in the 8 Mile rap battles, “Last Dayz.” While Fredro kept up the hype performance at the front of the stage, Sticky Fingaz would pull some stunts during his verse, running up to the green room and hanging out the window above the stage as he rapped, eventually jumping out the window to get back down to the stage. They’d keep it in 1995 for a bit, doing a couple more songs off of their sophomore All We Got Iz Us album, including the title track along with “Walk in New York.”

Onyx would mix things up by bringing back several emcees who had performed earlier in the night, getting Ayoo Bigz, JD Era and Daniel Son to join them on stage for a freestyle cypher over the beat from Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says.” It was a display of raw Hip-Hop as each emcee spit a verse over one of the most hype beats in the culture’s history, and the energy would continue to get more hype as Onyx next moved on to the 2010s with their Snowgoons-produced #Wakedafucup album. They’d perform some of the most energetic tracks off the album, doing the title track and teasing the hook to “Buc Bac” before getting the crowd to jump to “TurnDaFucUp.” This last burst of energy would have made for an appropriate closing to the show, but they decided to give “Slam” one more ride, performing the hook for the crowd to jump around to one last time. Fredro Starr would then perform a bit of his opening verse to “High Velocity” off of his 2025 solo album, Soul, before abruptly ending the show and heading to the merch booth for VIP meet and greets.

Overall, this was a fun way to kick off 2025’s concert season. The snow storm may have made it a struggle to get to the concert, with LOTUG not even being able to make it, and the sound mixing may have dampened some of the performances, but Onyx were able to still pull off a high-energy show with decades of experience to draw from. Even with some of their verses getting drowned out, Onyx has an endless supply of catchy hooks that even the uninitiated can pick up and chant along to, but this crowd was full of longtime fans who knew most of the songs anyway. It was also dope seeing some of our local artists able to represent Onyx’s 100 Mad label at this show, with Ayoo Bigz and JD Era having released new music with them.

Onyx are set to continue tearing up stages with a European tour kicking off this week, tickets can be found here.

Big shoutout to JD Era and Roadman Productions for granting this blog media access to review this show!

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