Remembering Canadian hip-hop legend Bishop Brigante

Canadian rap legend Bishop Brigante has died at the age of 46 after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

Brigante is known for his role in establishing the Canadian battle rap scene, as well as hit songs like Its Fo Twenty and Trust Nobody. He also made headlines in recent years for his work trying to get the colonoscopy screening age in Ontario lowered to 30 years old.

Today on Commotion, Juno Award-winning artist Choclair and Views B4 The 6 podcast host Big Tweeze join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to look back on the decades-long legacy of the Scarborough local.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Choclair, you and Bishop go way back. You're both from Scarborough. He was featured on a few songs from your second album. Tell me about the first time that he came on your radar.

Choclair: I believe it was Manifesto [Festival], but I'm not a hundred percent sure if that was the event. I remember we were in a tent, and DJX introduced us. He just kind of came in like Scrappy-Doo. He came in and started rapping, doing all this stuff, and then we became cool. 

And then I brought him on the road, and I remember him telling me, "I'd never left Scarborough till you took me on the road." I'm like, OK, maybe Ontario, maybe Canada, but Scarborough? He was like, "No, man." And then we created this great bond. We traveled and toured, wrote music and did so much stuff together. It's been I think almost 30 years. Long time, long time.

Elamin: Before the travel and the tour and everything else, Bishop Brigante first got Toronto's attention as a teen battling other rappers on the legendary Power Move Show on CKLN 88.1 FM. But it was Kipling to Kennedy that got him buzzing beyond his hometown. It's off the compilation Rap Essentials 2001. That song was an ode to the train stops along Line 2 of Toronto's subway line. Tweeze, what did you think when you first heard it?

Big Tweeze: I mean, as Choclair mentioned, DJX produced that song and was the host of The Power Move Show. Bishop had told me this great story one time that as he was going to DJX's house, he didn't have rhymes written for anything. And that's how he came up with Kipling to Kennedy, man. So it's just a testament to what a quick-minded guy he really was. You know what I'm saying? I think it's great. I love the song, by the way, man. It's so Toronto. You can't help but love it, right?

Elamin: I'm enjoying Choclair kind of smiling and nodding as you talk about Bishop's style. Maybe Choclair, you can talk about this a little bit as an MC yourself. What would you say it was about Bishop's rap style that sort of set him apart from other rappers coming out of Canada at the same time?

Choclair: Because he was just authentic to who he was, you know? He rapped how we rap, he respected the rap culture and the talent of doing it…. I think when [Kipling to Kennedy] came out … me and my manager at the time were like, "Yeah, we're going to put that record out now by itself." So we put that record out. 

And the best part about everything is just him as a person. Because we would be in studios and on the road and everything like that, he always helped make me better as a person, but also made music better, because it'd be like, "I don't know about that line, Chocs. You need to change that line," or whatever…. People don't even realize some of the times where he was in studio with me and was writing music and we would work it out. So it's his authenticity and his friendship, his brotherliness towards me. Just overall a great person.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.