We’ve already covered Im Just Jim, so we’ll move ahead with more artists from this city.
Scott Free
Scotty Freezerbag has persisted as an OG to the Brantford scene through many decades. From his battle rap history in King Of The Dot leading to his presentation of Bell City Battles at Charlie’s Bar, through to featuring on many tracks from the top artists in the scene. His branding of UCWT & TeamTrashbag with Tipsy Russell has seen great success on merchandise runs and building a grassroots supporter base. Despite his long resume, his first commercial project was released in January 2021, as a self titled compilation of his top tracks from the past 10 years mixed with some unreleased newer tracks.
MLNY
Maloney is another head on Bell City’s Mount Rushmore of Hip Hop. From the early days of YouTube featuring a weekly cypher dubbed “Monday Massacre,” and it’s featured group of artists from his group IACOM and affiliates. Upon moving to Toronto, he hosts Breaking Wreckords Radio interviewing international legends, and hosts reoccuring MC contests with $500 cash prizes across social media.
Late Night Villains
Tyler Durand is a longtime staple in the city of Brantford’s music scene. With over a decade of grinding through multiple styles and working with multiple local legends, he’s become a local legend himself. Easily some of the best performances in the province as well. His brand MAWLIFE (Might As Well Live In Freedom Everyday) has some of the dopest gear put out in the city and you can usually find someone in some at any gathering. Late Night Villains is his departure from rampaging every production type in favor of self production.
Kidd Dreadd
Local favourite Kidd Dreadd made a name for himself for his top tier performances, infectiously fun tracks, and genuine personality. He represents Mawlife and releases projects with his brother Tyler Durand/LNV, Tanisha, & Kwami. His last minute booking at Ice Szn 1 saw him pull a mass amount of people into the crowd for his bombshell solo performance that easily took set of the night, much like majority of his performances do.
Jack Craven
Although Jack Craven was born in Toronto and loves to represent the city, the portion of his career spent in Brantford definitely left a mark. Songs like Garage Song being a tribute to him and his friends in Bell City led to a massive performance at Club NV with the crowd filled from front to back with fellow classmates and artists within the network. Since then, he has performed all over Ontario and built a solid network to continuously drop quality tracks and music videos.
Danny Heights
Danny Heights unique style and years of grinding have brought him great accolades. From a feature where Madchild mentions Brantford in his verse, to a Cryptic Wisdom feature that reached over 50k Spotify streams, Danny has been working hard and providing benefit to the network. He was toted to go on a 30 show Canada tour supporting a Canadian legend before the national shutdown nixed the plans.
Revert
Revert is a local lyricist capable of many styles and holds deep prowess in his versatility. His rebranding from Yung Revert sees his Spotify releases with features from LSC X & Cetti, showcasing a more punk/emo style, and a hip hop song with intricate multis and flowflexes. His back catalog is going to come forth commercially this summer, and there are some great songs that are going to resurface.
Blaake
Blaake is a highly slept on artist with a great catalog of music both unreleased, and released. His lowkey nature sees him make music more so for enjoyment than anything else, which brings out a lot of genuinity in his tracks. He aced his performance at The Now You Know Tour’s opening stop with fast flows, diction, and especially his singing of more melodic tracks. He’s dabbled in producing his own beats, which hold a ton of personality. Lately his release catalog leans more towards the melodic side, but don’t sleep on his bars.
Bosh
Bosh has been a very talented rapper since his first tracks in the mid-2010’s. His signature fast flow mixes awesomely with his unique flow shakeups to ensure each track has unique vocal patterns to follow. As someone who works extremely hard for his family aside from music, his tracks are DIY and he puts out everything he makes with passion. The occasional self production from Bosh also holds a lot of artistic credibility.
Videographer Spotlight – Reepa Media
Producer turned videographer Erik Reardon, aka Reepa, has personified the entire Brantford scene with his music videos. His history running his studio has an incredible line of artists including many from this list, but Reepa’s time investment in learning videography has undoubtedly created a massive change in the entire city’s product. From his smooth captures to crazy effects, any videos holding the Reepa Media branding are top of the line Bell City productions. His career as a videographer has expanded into contracted documentary work, as well as product photography.
Honorable Mentions
So, it turns out some local rappers don’t have promo pictures, but even more do not have music on streaming services. Even some of the most talented in the scene. Here’s looking at you Tipsy Russell, Jus Win, Burrowz, Leebo Bands, Austin Hamilton, 2mil, & S.A. From Tipsy’s talent, to Win’s resume, to Burrowz accolades, to Leebo Bands’ ventures, to Austin Hamilton’s project history, to 2mil’s lyrical content, to S.A’s unique personality, there are many stories left to be told in the history of Bell City.
Reepa & I have started brainstorming about a Bell City Hip Hop documentary, and we hope to one day release a comprehensive guide to the history of the scene, including every single relevant person and detail to our history. We will keep you updated on the process as we make progress.
