Revenge Is Street Album: Return of the Original Street Rappers of Canada

The Toronto rap/hip hop industry has received an unprecedented boost in the arm in the last year from Kardinal Offishall's album release of "Not 4 Sale" on Akon's imprint Konvict Muzik to the incredible grassroots groundswell of Canadian actor Drake's mixtapes to street rappers from Regent Park Point Blank inking deals with Koch Canada(now E1 Music), the scene is seeing a revival not seen since the days of Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee in the late 80's and early 90's.

In the mid 90's Choclair was positioned to make the crossroads for the city and country with his signing to a major label Virgin Music Canada and later Priority Records. His other Circle clique member Saukrates signed to Warner Bros. Records. He later went on to sign to Redman's label Gilla House under Def Jam. During this timeframe two teenage street rappers began their quest to cement their neighbourhood in the Canadian rap world.

Benny Blacc and Sticky Green first burst onto the scene in the late 90's on Rocstone's single and video "Norpo" that aired across Canada on MuchMusic television's Rap City. The video still receives rotation MuchMusic's urban music channel Muchvibe. The success and popularity of the song led to the debut of The Smugglaz first single/video entitled "Street Rappers" on Canada's only music channel at the time MuchMusic. The video attained infamy for its hardcore lyrics about street-life in Canada and the original raw uncut version was deemed "2 Much 4 Much" until a revised video was aired.

The song and video caught the attention of the mainstream news outlet CBC National News.
A Prime Time award winning broadcast which aired "Street Rapper: A Documentary" at the beginning of the decade. It was a Canadian first to have a nation-wide prime time documentary about rap/hip hop. The Smugglaz' Street Rappers movement in the media did not stop there. NOW magazine in September 2001 had a cover story about The Smugglaz and "Street Rapper: A Documentary" and how the news reporters portrayed the community and the rappers in only one jaded negative light. The documentary also opened the eyes of American hip hop pioneer and legend Doug E. Fresh who appeared in the 15 plus minute program about Canada's original street rappers.

The stage was set for The Smugglaz to bring street rap in Canada to another level, but street life created setbacks for the infamous duo from the troubled area of Jane & Finch. In their absence, the street rapper movement exploded in Toronto's underground scene through Jellestone's "Hood is Here" music video that showcased many street rappers from various communities in the city. A new format had also formed in street dvd products such as Juice DVD, Ambush TV, and Rapsheet. The Smugglaz returned to the underground scene in Toronto in 2005 with the song 45th Dumpin and true to their past performances made mainstream news in September with a cover story in one of Toronto and Canada's biggest newsprint media The Toronto Sun entitled "Life and Death in Jane-Finch: Local Voices of Hip Hop".

The timing of their return coincided with one of the city's worse years for gun murder which was dubbed by the media as "The Summer of the Gun". The Smugglaz went on to sign a talent agency deal with Mr. Mckee of BluePrint Agency(now known as Mckee Agency) which houses some of the biggest acts in music across North America . The Mckee Agency is operated by award winning booking agent Chris Mckee.

In recent years, Chris has put together concert tours for international artists including: Rihanna, The Roots, Black Eyed Peas, Obie Trice, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Busta Rhymes, D12, Wyclef, Raekwon, Fat Joe, Joe Budden, Lil Flip, The Secret Machines, Royce Da 5'9, Fabolous, Naughty By Nature, Vanilla Ice, MOP, Ludacris, Girls Gone Wild, 2 Live Crew, Jon B, Glenn Lewis, ABC, Black Violin and dozens more. Chris has also toured most of Canada's top Urban acts including: Classified, Choclair, In Essence, Massari, Kardinal, Swollen Members, Shawn Desman, Maestro, Rascalz and many more.

The duo ended up performing on special shows in 2006 ranging from Canada Music Week to Toronto's BET Spring Bling to performing with 50 Cent's G Unit's Mobb Deep. The string of shows followed in 2007 with Papoose, Obie Trice, and The Clipse. The single "Break Out the Party" aired on Toronto's FLOW 93.5fm Radio in the same year. In 2008, The Smugglaz licensed their single "Jane & Finchin" for the Paramount Vantage/MTV Films "How She Move" movie(available on itunes).

The two founding members of The Smugglaz crew released two mixtapes later in the year under the titles "Benny Blacc presents Street Rapper:The Mixtape" and "NBA Nuggets DJ Bedz Presents Sticky Green's Facts of Life". The Smugglaz received a long run on the top ten countdown on Western New York's WBLK 93.7fm Radio for the song "Can't Stop Thinking About You" reaching as high as #2 on the charts for Unsigned Artists. The radio station awarded The Smugglaz with a nomination for Group of The Year at the first ever Unsigned Hype Awards ceremony in Buffalo, New York.

The tandem received United States hip hop publicity through two of the world's biggest hip hop sites worldstarhiphop.com and allhiphop.com in the summer of 2008 for their documentary from earlier in the decade on CBC television. Following up on the exposure the group travelled with Eminem's D12 group and Royce Da 5'9 for the "Never Say Never Tour". The Smugglaz opened up for legendary rap group Naughty By Nature in March 2009. The Smugglaz have recently signed to Jewlz Bailey Incorporated for distribution of their music and are scheduled to release the album "Revenge Is Street" later this year. In preparation of this release a couple of music videos have been filmed and are about to be released("I'm From Jane Remix" that includes all the top rappers from the troubled Jane street corridor and the album title cut "Revenge Is Street").

The first single off the album is entitled "Ragz 2 Riches" has been added to United States Radio station websites HOT 97 and WBLK in New York as well as Cleveland Radio station website hardcorejamz.com. Toronto urban radio station top 40 FLOW 93.5FM radio has also added the 1st single from the album. Check out the sites to vote and request it! The Smugglaz have also released a pre-album entitled "Family Business: Vault Muzik" as a prelude to the Revenge Is Street Album/DVD.