About
In partnership with Toronto2.0, these low-key sessions are intended for anyone interested in exploring the craft and the art of writing better lyrics, and learning about everything from performance to the pen to telling your story. It is an homage to the community created by Danny Castro and Anthony Marshall, as well as compilation records (Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing) created by Rawkus Records in the late 1990s.
This is about flows, expression, storytelling and community. While grounded primarily within Hip-Hop, all artists, writers, poets, and genres are welcome.
Session overview
Each session will be split into two halves roughly an hour to an hour and a half long each. The first half will be structured. It will be a community-oriented process where the topic will be explored through lyric, song, and artist suggestions by the audience. There will be short writing sessions/activities built into the agenda for each session to practise and get in the habit of writing consistently. The latter half of the sessions will be a more vocal process with freestyles and/or collaborating a on a specific beat.
The sessions are envisioned as split into groups of three (three sessions in one group) with each group discussing several tenets within the same realm and the group ending with a facilitator/guest speaker.
Schedule
Workshop: Writing over beats vs. making a song from scratch
Location: South Sitting Room, 3rd Floor, Hart House
Hosted by Naseha Chowdhury, Sami Huda, and Guests.
The idea for the first session is to discuss the different approaches to song creation with the two most prominent ones being writing lyrics to a pre-made beat or working with a producer from the ground up. The session will go over how these approaches impact the process of song writing and whether one approach stands out as superior.
Workshop: Lyrics vs. Music
Location: South Sitting Room, 3rd Floor, Hart House
This session will negotiate the different levels of importance given to the lyrics of a song vs. the music by different people. Due to the subjective nature of the debate this session will draw from people’s experiences and opinions and discuss how both should be worked on to create a good song.
Showcase and Performance Opportunity: Hip-Hop and R&B
Location: Arbor Room, Basement, Hart House
Hosted by Naseha Chowdhury, Dylan Konde Johnson and Nidhil Vohra.
A showcase event from Lyricists’ Lounge attendees performing their original pieces involving the dialogue portion of the artist's songwriting process. This showcase will merge the wider University of Toronto audience with the up-and-coming Toronto Hip-Hop and R&B community, in the newly renovated Arbor Room. The event includes a cypher portion, all creatives are welcome to participate! Register in advance for updates.
We Do It For The Culture
Location: Arbor Room, Basement, Hart House
With Special Guests: Dan-e-o and Keysha Freshh!
Part of the We do it For the Culture: a Hip-Hop at 50 Event Series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop, curated by Hart House, York University, and the Roots Rhymes Collective.
Workshop: Focusing on R&B
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
With Special Guests: TBD
This session will discuss what is R&B and how an R&B song is made. We will look at the commonalities between popular songs within this genre and also discuss people who have been known to bend boundaries within this genre. This session will also draw from people’s experiences and opinions of how they go about their own music.
Workshop: Writing your own song
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
With Special Guests: TBD
This session will be facilitated by an external speaker and the first half will be spent understanding the songwriting process of any genres the group wants to discuss that hasn’t been talked about before. The second half will be spent writing a rough draft of one’s own song in their genre of choice.
Workshop: Why do we Write?
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
This session will understand people’s motivations behind writing, whether that be songwriting, poetry, story writing, screenplay writing, or journaling. Through discussion and debate about “Why we write?” the aim is to understand how people go about trying to connect their work with the audience (if that is the aim). The idea being that this may expose participants to multiple approaches towards writing that they can apply to their own craft.
Workshop: Creative Block
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
The aim of this session is to discuss the presence of creative and writers’ block and where this stems from for different people. People are encouraged to contribute their struggles with the same in a positive environment as the group will try to understand ways to deal with the same in their own crafts. Strategies used by popular artists will also be studied to provide external ideas.
Workshop: Freestyling
Location: Board Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
With Special Guest: TBD
One known approach that artists use is to freestyle melodies, flows, and cadences before writing to a particular beat. Additionally, many like Jay Z have even been known to freestyle entire songs without penning down anything to them. This session will go over this idea of freestyling and understand its importance in the process of songwriting.
Workshop TBD
Location: South Sitting Room, Hart House
More information coming soon.
Workshop TBD
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
More information coming soon.
Workshop TBD
Location: Burwash Room, 2nd Floor, Hart House
More information coming soon.
Facilitators
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Dylan Konde Johnson a.k.a. Caijo
Artist
An artist who uses rap as his main expressive force, the Zimbabwean lyricist sees Hip-Hopas a doorway to explore the human condition. His expression of his own identity, to sex positivity, to not-so-subtle political undertones that discuss issues of the dictatorship in Zimbabwe, and address questions to the system of white supremacy - there is no stone Caijo seems to be willing to leave unturned.
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Nidhil Vohra
Student, Emcee, Poet
Student, Emcee, Poet.
Nidhil Vohra is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, with a double major in Peace, Conflict and Justice and Political Science, and a minor in Cinema Studies. He is currently a Program and Communications Assistant at Hart House Hip-HopEducation. Nidhil is also a poet and rapper, and has been featured at the Mosaic Institute Art Festival and the Wingword Poetry Festival 2021, amongst other places. His content is usually politically charged and centred around themes of social injustice and the plight of minorities.
He releases music under the name “Nidhil Vohra” and has an account dedicated to spoken word and poetry on Instagram called “@nidhilsnotebook”. He is extremely interested in the intersection of popular media and social mobilization, and believes that by translating scholarly research into art forms, one can begin the process of change in the masses.
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Naseha Chowdury
Singer/Songwriter, Creative and community builder and organizer
Naseha is a R&B/soul singer/Songwriter based in Toronto. Raised in a strict and religious household in Scarborough, music quickly became her secret love. Naseha began to write poetry and perform spoken word during her Undergrad at UofT to come to terms with her own struggles with religion, mental health, and relationships. She currently works at Hart House in a full-time basis and is passionate about community development and creating opportunities for marginalized artist.
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Sami Huda
Community Builder, Artist Manager, Creative Director, Photographer
Sami Huda is a Toronto based music writer, creative director, artist manager and photographer. He is currently serving as the Social Media Strategist and Community Manager for Ebay Luxury & Streetwear. Sami is passionate about community development and has been an instrumental figure guiding and connecting marginalized artists with local opportunities. Through his prior involvement with SeriousBetty he has organized showcases and released online publications for new releases.
Website
Guests
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Daniel Faraldo a.k.a. Dan-e-o
MC/Actor/Songwriter
A Scarborough-based emcee, Daniel “Dan-e-o” Faraldo first won a Rap-Off Contest on Toronto’s “Electric Circus” dance show at the age of 13. Five years later, in 1996, his first single “Dear Hip Hop” (considered a Canadian Hip Hop classic) was featured on Beat Factory’s Rap Essentials Volume One compilation. In 1997, Dan-e-o established his crew, Monolith by co-founding One Rock Records and independently releasing the EP, The Long Awaited... the following year. He would go on to release a number of other albums: The Book of Daniel (2000), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (2004), Immortal(2013), Inevitable (2013), Dear Hip Hop: 20 Years Later (2017), The Day It All Changed (2020). Together fellow rap veteran Promise Dan-e-o formed the duo “Perfeck Strangers” and released their debut album Series Premiere in 2012. Dan-e-o has also worked as an actor, appearing in the series Breakout Kings as well as the feature-length films Anything Goes, Tapped Out, Lifechanger and most recently, World’s Best (streaming on Disney +).
Website -
Keysha Freshh
MC, Songwriter, and Educator
Dubbed “Hip Hops kid sister”, Keysha Freshh blends everything you love about the 90’s with everything you appreciate about Hip Hop. Born in Toronto, Keysha found a love for hip hop spending summers in NYC. She was exposed to the culture at an early age, listening to mixtapes her cousins would have. Keysha had her first song published when she was 5 years old, the song was titled “Summers coming” and she has been performing ever since. Keysha performed her first written rap, at the age of 12 while she was a member of the Toronto Children Concert Choir.
After expressing her desire to record music to hit maker and super-producer T-Minus (credits: Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj) he referred Keysha to a local studio and she recorded her first song “Pardon my swag”. In 2009, Keysha then went on to record her very first official single “Hollywood Fresh”, which received rave reviews and radio play across North America. Keysha was the youngest female Hip Hop artist to have 3 songs in rotation on 93.5FM (then Flow 93.5) which, at the time was Canadas leading urban radio station. The remix to “Hollywood Freshh” soon followed featuring Gunna (who also produced the beat) and Hip Hop artist MIMS (This is why I’m hot). MIMS along with Hip Hop legend Doug E Fresh also appear in the music video for “Hollywood Fresh”.
After the success of her first single, she has recorded 1 demo project, 3 mixtapes, 4 EP’s 1 collab album (All The Wrong Places; Pearls and bones one group album (Pledge; The Sorority) and 1 solo Album. Keysha has shared stages with artist such as; Joey Bad a$$, Miguel, Drake, Snoop Dogg, Jidenna, The Internet, DVSN, Main Source, Dan Hill, MC Lyte, Smif-N-Wessun, A TRAK, Cassidy, Ghostface and many more. Keysha has since worked with artist such as Maestro Fresh Wes, Saukrates, King Reign, Ray Robinson, MIMS, Doug E Fresh, Diamond D, Geechi Suede of Camp Lo and more.
Partners
Toronto2.0 is a movement for Hip Hop culture in our city. In the summer of 2022, Toronto2.0 began its Live Music Series: which gives featured emerging performers a platform to showcase their talent, as well as an open mic platform to hone their craft.