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 within Hip-Hop, all artists, writers, poets, and genres are welcome.
Session Overview
Each session will be split into two halves:
The first half will be structured. It will be supported by either a presentation or a workshop. These are intended to be interactive shared learning sessions 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
Schedule
Focus: What Makes for a Well-Written Song?
The idea for the first session is to familiarize the audience with the way the program would run. The first session would go over what people consider to be the components of a well-written song. Like all Lyricists’ Lounge sessions, the first half will be structured programming with Dylan and I listening to what people have to say and providing our own insights to it. The second half will be a more free-flowing session with applications of what we have learnt on to the craft.
Location: Hart House Burwash Room, 2nd floor
Focus: Flow & Lyrical Content
This session will look at how to create multiple flows without sacrificing the lyricism. Some components include cadence vs. melody and realism vs. sensationalism. The idea is to understand how flows work and how does one use the lyrics to their advantage when crafting flows.
Location: Hart House Burwash Room, 2nd floor
Focus: Old School vs New School
We understand that not everyone attending Lyricists Lounge would subscribe to the same tenets of rap. Therefore, it is important to understand where everyone is coming from and what conformations do they bring to these sessions. This session will compare the OG classics of Hip-Hop(broadly up until the early 2000s) against the New School of Hip-Hop(Early 2000s – Present Day). The idea is to explore the development of lyrical content through the years and how Hip-Hophas evolved lyrically to include so much more than was being done in the past, while also going over controversial aspects like today’s “mumble rap” and how that fits into rap and finds an audience for itself.
Location: Hart House South Sitting Room, 3rd floor
Focus: Sub-Genres of Rap
We understand that not everyone attending Lyricists Lounge would subscribe to the same tenets of rap. Therefore, it is important to understand where everyone is coming from and what conformations do they bring to these sessions. This session will compare the OG classics of Hip-Hop(broadly up until the early 2000s) against the New School of Hip-Hop(Early 2000s – Present Day). The idea is to explore the development of lyrical content through the years and how Hip-Hophas evolved lyrically to include so much more than was being done in the past, while also going over controversial aspects like today’s “mumble rap” and how that fits into rap and finds an audience for itself.
Location: Hart House Burwash Room, 2nd floor
Focus: The Process of Song Writing
The idea behind the last session is to absorb all the stuff we learn throughout Lyricists Lounge and revisit the first question of what makes for a well written song? We would sit down and aim to craft the idea and/or the outline of a song with participants. This session flows into the idea for a collaboration tape between producers from the producers’ circle and rappers from the Lyricists Lounge and is to be taken as the genesis for that tape.
Location: Hart House Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
Guests (TBD)
Facilitators
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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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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.
In Partnership With:
Toronto2.0 is a movement for Hip Hop culture in our city. In 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.
