Conjunctures [02]: Sydanie on the death of Toronto’s music scene
An interview about Toronto's black diasporas, creativity, and a powerful optic from the hood.
Conjunctures is a monthly interview series examining the crisis of cities. A conjunctural analysis, as per cultural theorist Stuart Hall, is a combination of circumstances, histories, or events that produce a crisis. Conjunctures is a digital meeting place with artists and organizers poking and prying at the crisis of their city, sharing love notes to intersections along the way. I spoke with rapper and organizer Sydanie for this month's interview.
Sydanie — rapper and organizer
Sydanie is an alternative rapper from Toronto’s west end—specifically, the Jane strip. After she first released her music in 2012, her sonic impact spread rapidly through the city. As a ‘supernatural rapper mom,’ her music moves against limited genre categorization, blending a multiplicity of sounds and histories. Her pensive, witty, and catchy lyricism works through her roots, healing, and geographical naming of her optic of the city. Sydanie is as hard as she is soft.
The rapper’s entrance into the Canadian music scene was refreshing and explosive. After the release of her album, 999 (2019), she was titled the new face of Canadian hip hop by CBC and Globe and Mail — but the rest of us in Toronto already knew. Her work was then longlisted for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize. Sydanie is a legendary rapper in Toronto — one of the best, in my opinion — but some of you probably heard her work through Bambii’s Infinity Club (2023).
As zealous as she is a rapper, Sydanie is also a revolutionary organizer. She co-founded The Mocha Project 2.0, an organization providing innovative arts programming and support to low-income black and brown mothers and youth (ages 18-35) in the west end of Toronto. In this interview, we chat (and laugh a lot) about creativity and black diasporic identity, her multi-generational history in the city, organizing for young black moms, and the death of Toronto and its music industry.
Huda Hassan: When did your relationship with Toronto begin?
Sydanie: I was born in Toronto, but my grandparents came here in the 1960s. My mom was born in Toronto, too. The other day, I wondered what frames our relationship to the city as artists? Why is it so deep for some of us versus others? I hold dear that part of my narrative is my grandparents coming here from time, and my mom being born here.
Once I got to high school, I learned about black people's relationship and responsibility with indigenous communities, in terms of our navigation and identity. It's important for us to connect to the land [and] build that relationship with indigenous people, especially as displaced people. My relationship with the city starts before me.
My grandpa used to tell me about the Jane strip before it had pavement. He would say: ‘we were on the Jane when it was a dirt road.’ I used to pay him no mind when he said that shit. But they were actually here that long. My relationship with the city is deep. I don't just beat my chest [about it]. I actually have [learned] the knowledge in terms of my family time and place in this city. It deeply informs my creative identity and everything I know.
HH: I’m in awe that you’re a third-generation Torontonian.
Sydanie: Between me and my daughter, we're second or third generation. We're basically from Halifax (laughs).
HH: What intersection feels most like home to you in Toronto, and why?
Sydanie: Jane and Finch, south side, you already know! I'll give a little sprinkle to Jane and Weston Road, too. All in all, it's the Jane part of me.
If there's an intersection that feels most home to me, it's Jane and Finch. My family is from there on a generational tip. My mom still lives in the Finch, and my sister has her own crib in the Finch. That's home.
HH: Tell me about your fondest memory of the Jane strip. How did it shape you?
Sydanie: It would probably be when I got my crib. I'm at the same place off the Jane strip; the same crib that I've been in when I got my very first apartment. [My fondest memory] would be that crux of time. It was 2010, and my grandma passed at the beginning of the year. There was a lot of movement for me. It was the first year I was out on my own. I got my first basement apartment in Scarborough at Victoria Park and Finch—
HH: Shout out to Chester Lee and the East End.
Sydanie: Yeah, eh? I’m a real T-dot shorty.
It was the summer, and I was turning 17. I had this little summer job, and it’s my first summer in my first place. My cousin found me and she said: You can't stay here. So I moved to Montreal for six months. When Christmas time rolled around, my grandma passed; I ended up coming back to Toronto. The sequence of events led me to my crib. When my grandma passed away, everybody moved out of [our home] and went their separate ways. When Big Mama dies, the family gets mashed up.
My grandparents were my primary caregivers. My grandma was my number one, the one person who was in my corner. As soon as I had barely turned 18, she passed. And I was like: what the fuck am I gonna do? I was stuck. I fucked up my situation in Montreal. At the time, I was just a mod teenager. But I set fire to that [knowing] I'm going somewhere else. But I also couldn’t go back home.
Boom. Then, I got a call about a crib. Before I had gone to that basement apartment in Chester Lee, I was staying in a shelter. I had to put my name on a shelter list. While taking down my information for housing intake, one of the shelter workers found out I’m from Finch [West]. She saw that my mom’s door number was next to her mom's door number: they were neighbors. I don't know if that helped push up my application… but Toronto's housing system was never good. In those times, it wasn't that quick to move. In less than a year, I got a crib.
I got kicked out of the shelter. I had to get my crib, move to Montreal, and come back to Toronto. When I came back to Toronto, I was here for maybe six weeks before I got a crib, and I've been here ever since.
HH: How do you feel your relationship to your home strip shaped your music and expression?
Sydanie: It’s one of my foundational building blocks. There is a sense of pride that comes with coming from the Finch, Dixon Road, Regent Park, or the Vern. There are issues of identity and self-acceptance. As Canadians — no shade if you're coming from these places where people are glamorizing the impoverished — you have the social advantage.
As Canada grows in cultural identity around music and hip hop, people become more proud and beat their chest about where they're from. People start talking about the Durham region [the suburbs of Toronto] now, but before, they were not proud of where they were from. But I've always had that. I always went against the grain in terms of how I referred to myself. People know I’m not that kind of bad gyal: I was in a lot of bad situations and circumstances, which then brought the worst out of me. But I'm a good yute! (laughs)
[Yet] still being a good yute, making my little weird house music—weird in the context of what is common in my hood—I'm still from where I'm from. I'm still that bitch. Let's get it.
HH: I always emphasize to young folks, such as my students, that when you’re from the ends of the city, surviving housing, you’re shaped differently: you can endure institutions with a practical, strategic optic.
Sydanie: It informs your identity and gives depth that people who don't have a shared intersectional experience don’t have, especially in a place like Canada. America is different because there are so many offshoots of cultures, styles, and cliques. There could be a community of 1,500 people. They [could] have a particular type of music, an intersection of five different weird shits because of a combination of migration and socio-economics. But what informs them is American pride.
In Canada, we're scrounging for the resources to make something happen. We're forced to align ourselves with what's popular to make more.
Americans are proud of whatever they do, whether techno, punk, or the electronic scenes. But they're gonna stand 10 toes in it; it's gonna be a wave, and somebody will bite that wave as the epicenter of the universe. In Canada, we're scrounging for the resources to make something happen. We're forced to align ourselves with what's popular to make more. When you have the cultural innovators — i.e., me — pushing the envelope, it's not as easy to get onto something edgy, weird, and different. [They] won’t put money into this.
America is culturally ready for a Doechii because it’s been pumping out Doechii’s and different dark-skinned emulations of black creativity for a long time. That's not a new thing. But Canada doesn't have enough spoons to take a chance. It slows down our overall creative or cultural development and our identity.
HH: Is there someone from the Jane strip who has significantly influenced you?
Sydanie: The first person who comes to my mind is the elder who runs Emmett Community Garden, where Mocha Project 2.0 will be based this year. Her name is Miss Charlyn Ellis (a Black woman, mother, writer, poet, earth worker, and activist who has been growing food with communities for over twenty years). Miss Charlyn is an amazing person. She's been volunteering for the Emmett Community Garden as the Project Coordinator since 2009, providing free food and urban gardening programming to seniors and young women. She has dealt with impossible barriers, bureaucracies, racism, and white supremacy — people trying to come and push her out of her unpaid position. She’s volunteering her time to keep the space accessible to people of the community, because many outside organizations and bureaucratic powers have tried to take access to the space that a lot of people in the community are not even able to get access to, much less food.
Miss Charlyn committed much of her time to maintaining this space and helping me along my journey. She's never denied me. I've had so many periods of stillness, for myself and the weather, but Miss Charlyn has always been there. Without her, I would not be able to do any of this deeply revolutionary work. Miss Charlyn is truly a remarkable, amazing black woman. And I'm so honored to be in her community and her care.
HH: Tell me about the Mocha Project 2.0 and its ethos.
Sydanie: Mocha Project 2.0 has been around since 2016. It's when I first started programming. I was inspired by my friend who had passed away many years ago, right around when I had [my daughter]. She was a young mom: 24 years old. Her name was Aisha. When she passed away, she had two kids. I always had it in my heart: I'll make something for her whenever God aligns me with the resources. The Mocha Project continues that work, creating accessible, revolutionary spaces [for moms and kids], like Miss Charlyn.
Mocha Project 2.0 stands for Mothers, Organizing, Community, Healing, Art. I was thinking of who in the community to serve. The project is about creating space for young women like myself: young moms in the hood who might have creative interests but might not necessarily be artists, but who are creatively driven and want to share space with the community and their kids.
Mocha Project 2.0 is going to be based in the Emmet Community Garden this year. We'll have three plots and manage a little kids' pizza garden, where kids grow tomatoes, onions, and peppers. They’ll grow corn, squash, and beans in the sister plots. It's a women's wellness and remembrance plot inspired by the loss of young women in our communities.
Mocha Project 2.0 has gone through so many phases and changes as I have. When I first started the project, I was undiagnosed with ADHD. Once things started to go online during the Pandemic, it became really hard for me to manage. Things started to move at a speed I was not able to manage. I had done a doula fundraiser, but I froze all activities, projects, and anything with the Mocha Project, because I was still doing it alone. The pandemic challenged me a lot in terms of my mental health and what I'm able to and not able to manage. I had to take a lot of time to re-evaluate my capacity. People in my community, like Miss Charlyn, told me I should start programming again soon. I was trying to focus on getting a bag, but had people constantly remind me there's value to what I'm doing.
In 2023, I started programming again. Since then, things have started to pick up. I'm able to do things more intentionally. I know myself more. When I'm burnt out, tired, or procrastinating, I have more tools that allow me to scale my project and see the full fruition of what I have going on in Mocha Project 2.0 — like our Reading Salon. I started an annual Back-to-School event. I did it for the first time last year, and it was beautiful. To God be the glory.
I can’t begin to describe the value of the Mocha Project 2.0’s Reading Salon: it's a back-to-school event right before Labor Day weekend. It's themed around literacy and positive self-image. We give free haircuts and braid-ups to students between grades four and twelve. We got some sponsors. We were able to give away backpacks and have a barbecue. The reading salon portion features local authors to come and read to the kids while they're getting their hair done. The whole concept is inspired by barber shop and hair salon culture. It's a place of communion, community, and sharing stories. How do we emulate that and bring that community aspect to the children while implementing and involving literacy?
Come on, y'all — let’s read a book.
HH: Looking back to your earlier memory of obtaining your first apartment—your current home—how has the city changed since then?
Sydanie: The city is cold out here. It's hard. I spend many days trying to rehearse gratitude and feeling it's a privilege to be doing all this. [Remembering] I should be here. I don't know how to describe it. When I was younger, there were certain things you would only see downtown. You're from the east end, so I'm sure you already know: housing is different, homelessness is different; everything is different. They’re building condos. It’s wild how they’re gentrifying neighborhoods; more and more homeless people are [emerging] while the city is building new housing that are empty buildings. Every unit is empty on Weston road — and they’re small high rises where 60 to 110 families could live. It's blown up to crazy proportions. The pot is bubbling over. People have to make shifts, make do, and it's crazy.
There are many different ways to look at it, and I feel selfish to focus on the arts. But there has been irreparable damage to our identity in terms of Toronto and Canadian music. As Torontonians, we have been scouring together a musical identity. Then the person who so-called put us out there and gave us a ting ended up being the mascot for the ninja from Naruto: Kakashi Sensei. When Kakashi Sensei opens his eyes, he can take other people's powers. We had a sensei as our mascot, taking other people's style when he should have been lifting us and putting the light on us so we could create our own. Now it's created a ripple effect of muddled identity. But that also doesn't matter. There are so many other things to worry about!! It's dark out here in the city of Gotham.
HH: It is Gotham City. Toronto is dark, and it hit me most when I left.
Sydanie: There are not enough resources here. And it's sad. I'm exiting a long chapter of apathy. I had to shut myself down, not take in certain things, focus on paying my bills, and not on what was happening. There's a lot, and I'm just one [person]. I'm not even a cog in the bumbaclaat wheel.
HH: There are a lot of similarities between Toronto, Montreal, London, Accra, New York, and other cities. They’re all enduring crises and gentrification. What do you think the trigger is for the current state of cities?
Sydanie: The whole concept of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer — it's bigger than that. There will be an irreparable, irreversible financial collapse that is felt worldwide. Again, shout out to apathy. I'm not committed to the inner intricacies and workings of Babylon. I'm poor already. But I'm a child of God. The [problems] are the work of Satan (laughs). My job is to stay tethered to the spirit of the Most High, continue to heal myself, and when it's my time to, I’ll peace out.
We’re not cracking the cold [city], my nigga, believe me. No shade. If Harriet Tubman couldn't do it, you're not gonna do it! Just learn how to be more resourceful. We could identify racism, white supremacy, capitalism, colonialism, and climate change. These are all the big structures and powers that have been grinding us to dust since the beginning. These structural collapses are what they have always been doing to find more powerful, less humane ways to take us out.
HH: If you’re introducing someone to Toronto, where are you guiding them?
Sydanie: I'm so biased. I always tell mans to come to The Jerk Box at Jane and Lawrence for all of your authentic, traditional Jamaican [cuisine]. Whatever Jamaican food they're telling you to get downtown, don't go there! I know there are bare hot spots in Scarborough, but The Jerk Box is a 15-minute walk away from me. I can't tell you about the stuffed patty on Sheppard East, but I can tell you about that oxtail and jerk chicken here. You get me?
A Toronto type day where you want to get out of the hood real quick: dip over to High Park with your jerk chicken, Francis Vale, or even the beach is all on this side. If you are of the vegetarian persuasion — or want more Rasta styling — there's a sick vegan restaurant, Veez Vegan, on Weston Road and Eglinton. These two intersections are very close together in the West End.
It's coming to that time of year when everybody loves to be in Toronto.
HH: Despite the barriers and lack of resources, we come from a beautiful city, if you consider the land and people make the place.
Sydanie: Everybody loves the freaking CN Tower, but my balcony [on Jane strip] oversees the Humber. As I'm talking to you right now, I can see the sunlight sparkling on my left.
It’s beautiful. I love my city.
Conjunctures is an interview series on gentrification and the crisis of cities, a digital meeting place. Each month, I’ll interview an artist, thinker, or organizer poking and prying at the crisis in their town, sharing love notes to intersections. The following interview will be in April.
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Buy and support Sydanie’s music:
Support the Mocha Project 2.0 and donate.
This is a beautiful interview, and I find it so interesting to learn about life in Toronto!
im really enjoying these!!