Written by Noah Goodbaum | Photography by Philip Litevsky

As far as I understand, Toronto isn’t exactly a favourite spot for rap acts. We’re included as a stop on almost every major tour, but mostly in a  token, perfunctory kind of way, and many artists seem to treat us as an interim stop in between more exciting cities and venues. We almost never get the special guests or events. Some artists, especially those from the West Coast and the Dirty South (and even some East Coast hardcore guys), skip us entirely, while showing mad love to places like Austria or Serbia. In songs, skits, lists, and liner notes, shoutouts reveal that most rappers have much tighter links to the UK, Australia, Japan, and most of continental Europe than they do to Canada, and our city’s legendary “screwface” attitude of sullen apathy at hip-hop shows often means they prefer Montreal, where the crowds will more dependably give them the reaction they deserve. Even smaller cities like London and Hamilton have been known to give rap legends more props than Toronto does. But for a small minority of artists, Toronto seems to be a special place; these few palpably look forward to coming here, and go out of their way to show us a good time.

The DITC cats are some of them. Almost all of them have been here before multiple times and been well-received. Further, if you exempt Fat Joe, all of them have impeccable East Coast credentials, and Toronto may not be the kind of audience to do more than nod their heads a bit at an East Coast rap show, but nod they will. Last week’s show might have even snapped a few necks. But don’t tell anybody– they might think we were actually an enthusiastic crowd! And we can’t have that!

The bill was pretty crazy: four DITC dudes, plus the world famous Beatnuts, the rowdy and smutty Latino party-starters, and the great Large Professor, producer extraordinare since the ’80s, back on the grind with a new solo jawn. The Beatnuts are as trigger-happy as M.O.P, as unashamedly dirty as 2 Live Crew, plus they were prime movers in Latino hip-hop, introducing a wide audience to Big Pun on “Off The Books”, and staying close with every Hispanic cat in the biz who mattered, plus getting a Native Tongues connection through Q-Tip, rocking with the Wu every so often, and even recording a surprisingly dope club banger with Akon. Put simply, they’re deep in the game, straight up. They’re also producers with a golden touch, as can be attested to by everyone from Mos Def, whose Black On Both Sides wouldn’t be quite the same without the masterful plinking water drops Psycho Les puts on “New World Water”, to Common, whose hilarious early material got a big boost from the duo’s trademark thwack. No word on Al-Tariq, but Les and Junkyard JuJu were amazing, roaring into the microphone and knocking out an intense hour of bangers: “World’s Famous”, “Reign of the Tec”, “Do You Believe”, and more. By the time Large Professor bounded out to go berserk and nearly steal the show out from under everyone’s noses on “Originate”, we knew shit was goin’ down.

But we weren’t even close to prepared. The DITC’s set had the dopest format of any rap show I’ve ever seen; OC, AG, Lord Finesse and Diamond D stood more or less side-by-side the whole night and took turns knocking out their hits, making it impossible to get even a little bit bored, because by the time you were ready for somethin’ new, there it was, none of the rappers outstaying his welcome, all of them in top form, all the beats smacking you in the face. Lord Finesse, who laid the blueprint for smirking, self-assured, hilarious punchline rap, wowed us with an astonishing freestyle and on-point performances of memorize-every-line classics like “Bad Mutha” and “Return of the Funky Man”. AG, who put out two classics as part of a duo with Showbiz and has been known to decimate cameos to this very day (just ask Dan The Automator– or even better, peep his recent song “My Life”, produced by Dabrye), hit us with “Next Level”, “Party Groove”, and “Soul Clap”, among others, and killed it with an ending spoken-word recital. Diamond D, rocking indoor sunglasses like a don, bounced between his big-ballin’ D-Squizzy persona, as with the slammin’ “The Hiatus”, and his more earnest side, as with a (really and truly) amazing performance of “Sally Got A One Track Mind”. His self-proclaimed status as “illest producer on the mic” remains essentially impossible to challenge. But first among equals was OC. Even though he stumbled a couple times with his lyrics, his songs– “War Games”, “Starchild”, “Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers”, and others– got the crowd open somethin’ serious, his “Time’s Up”, which happens to be the crew’s all-time biggest hit and probably their slammin’est song to  boot,  caused mass hysteria. But there was no hint of rivalry; they were all in it together for massive posse cuts like “Thick” and “Day One”. The ghosts of Big Pun and Big L were present that night, surely, and they would have been hyped.

As with the ‘Nuts, the DITC’s roots run deep: Diamond, Finesse, and beat-diggers Showbiz and Buckwild were some of the main architects of the trademark NY sound we all love, and their crew love extended from the two fallen stars in their own ranks through to Gang Starr, Brand Nubian,  Freddie Foxxx, Percee-P, Cam’Ron, and beyond. But one of their tightest bonds is with Large Pro, whose resumé matches theirs step for step. The list of producers thought to have taken credit for gems of his creation is long: Eric B., Ali Shaheed Muhammad, he’s even said to have ghost-produced Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s beyond legendary song “They Reminisce Over You”. His semi-surprise appearance, accompanied by Juno-nominated producer and NY transplant Marco Polo (some call him the latter-day Primo; I just say he’s dope), was short and sweet, but just raw enough that his Polo-produced “The Radar” and new single “The Entrance”, both ridiculous, made some noise. His appearance brought home the point perfectly: the East is in the house, OH MY GOD.