Drake discusses Toronto gun violence in new doc from Mustafa the Poet
Many up-and-coming rappers from Toronto feature in the 11-minute documentary scored by Noah “40” Shebib.
Toronto-based artist and activist Mustafa The Poet has shared Remember Me, Toronto, a short documentary on gun violence in Toronto featuring interviews with some of the city's top rap talent, including Drake. Watch it above via Complex.
In his interview, Drake offered his thoughts on how focussing on street cred can prevent a community from growing. "It's a daunting path to try and be the biggest and baddest from your ends," he said. "It's just way more impactful if you put all that energy into a grind that people remember you and say... 'I remember that guy came around and gave us all a chance...' Those are the people who get the glory story."
The film's YouTube description contains a statement on the motivation, tragedies, and systemic inequalities behind the film:
Remember Me, Toronto is a project created for artists in this video & everyone in our communities. Gun violence and homicide rates in Toronto have been on a steady increase for the past decade. To realize that the greater issue is not between us, there is a larger beast and systemic structure working against us. The city’s 'priority neighbourhoods' are tucked away. They tuck away our truth and our humanity. We wanted to give these artists the opportunity to rewrite their memories and the memories of those they lost.
We hope to spark larger conversations, that address these issues at their core.
The film is scored by Drake's longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib. Shebib shared an open letter on Instagram last year shortly after the shooting death of Toronto's Smoke Dawg, a rapper who briefly toured with Drake. He wrote: "Gun violence has been and continues to be a problem in our city. The longer this lingers without us intervening in meaningful, sustainable, and non-colonial ways, the greater the jeopardy for Toronto's youth."