It’s said that art mirrors life. In hip-hop’s case, there’s always been a deliberate entanglement of perception and reality. The hip-hop heads demand their Producers, DJ,s, and MCs be real…but never too real. Successful hip-hop is about the hint of the danger, the tease of it, the mystique. Hip-hop is about balance.

While the Canadian music scene continues to shock the industry in its central hubs (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal), a trend of homegrown, outside-the-norm, left-hook-out-of-nowhe...