Sound of T.O.

Jazmine Sullivan headlines Manifesto festival Friday

Last May, Toronto artist Charmaine, alongside Haviah Mighty, made history as the first women to bring home Juno Awards in the rap categories — Charmaine’s “Bold” won Rap Single of the Year, while Haviah Mighty won Rap Album/ EP of the Year for “Stock Exchange.”

The moment felt long overdue — not a single woman in hip hop had been recognized by Canada’s biggest award show in more than three decades — but also felt indicative of a larger shift in the once male-dominated culture of hip hop.

“I definitely think women are having a moment right now,” Charmaine told the Star. “We’re dominating. We see so many women out there who are so talented and they’re on top of their game. So I’m not surprised that we’re slowly taking over.”

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Nashville, Tenn., before moving to Toronto, Charmaine’s brash charisma and airtight bars have elevated her to the top of the Canadian hiphop scene, where she’s often referred to as the “Queen of the North.”

But she had never performed in front of a live audience before last summer, when she was invited to take part in the 15th anniversary of Manifesto, an annual music festival in Toronto that acts as a platform for emerging artists from the city’s burgeoning hip-hop and R&B scene.

“(Manifesto) took a chance on me, and it led to a lot more show offers because they really loved what they saw. It gave me a really good boost,” Charmaine said. “I will forever be grateful for them.”

In a city jam-packed with festivals and live events, Manifesto stands alone in its commitment to creating diverse and inclusive programming that reflect the ever-changing dynamics of Toronto’s youth culture and music scene.

On Friday, Charmaine will return as a co-host of the festival’s “Sweet Sixteen” celebration at the Budweiser Stage. This year’s event is headlined by the Grammy-winning R&B icon Jazmine Sullivan, and features an impressive mix of talent from the GTA and beyond, including Amaal, Dylan Sinclair, Zeina and more.

Tems, the rapidly rising Nigerian Afrobeats singer, was originally slated to co-headline the festival, but was forced to pull out due to “ongoing visa issues,” according to a post on her Instagram. Toronto R&B duo dvsn was added as a coheadliner.

Jazmine Sullivan and Tems would have made a hell of a one-two punch, but even without her presence, Manifesto’s lineup strikes a gender balance that most major hip-hop festivals struggle to attain.

Take, for example, Rolling Loud, the mega-sized hip-hop festival making its debut in Toronto in September. The three-day event boasts more than 100 artists, but only 17 of them are women.

The Manifesto lineup, which is made up of 50 per cent women artists, is intentionally designed to push back against the male-dominated culture of mainstream hiphop spaces.

“We were very purposeful in choosing a lineup that was 50/50 or majority women, because women normally don’t typically get this kind of platform,” Tinesha Richards, managing director of Manifesto, told the Star. “Traditionally in hip-hop and R&B culture, there’s always one woman at the top. We are trying to erase that and create space for multiple women to occupy that space.”

And while the festival typically pulls in an international artist or two, its main goal is to introduce music fans to those local artists that shape Toronto’s youth culture.

“Manifesto encapsulates the Toronto experience,” Toronto-based rapper and singer TOBi, who will also perform Friday, told the Star.

“You got kids from Scarborough, Brampton, Etobicoke, Markham, Vaughan … and each of these areas just outside of Toronto has its own unique identities. I think Manifesto is a beautiful blend of that, you know?”

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Brampton, TOBi moves seamlessly between genres and styles. His latest album, “Elements Vol. 1,” earned a Juno and spot on the Polaris shortlist in 2021.

“Toronto is such a multicultural melting pot,” he said. “It’s kids of immigrants, first-generation Canadians, all influencing each other. And I think that’s reflected in our art as well. I’m definitely influenced by my Nigerian heritage and my culture and my upbringing and just mixing that with contemporary hip hop and R&B, plus there are elements of dancehall and grime.”

“We’re kids of the world, you know?”

And though TOBi’s thrilled to see Jazmine Sullivan perform, he’s also promising something special of his own.

“The set I’m preparing for this is going to be unlike anything that people have seen before,” he said. “I’m really taking the time to create something special, you know. I want to leave a culturally impactful performance and experience for Toronto that people are going to be talking about until next year.”

Founded in 2007 by Che Kothari and Ryan Patterson, Manifesto was originally created to address a lack of space for hip-hop culture and performance opportunities in Toronto. Beyond the annual summer festival, Manifesto also curates skill development programs and other showcase opportunities for emerging artists.

Dalton Higgins, a music writer and a publicist for Manifesto, told the Star that, despite its sprawling and diverse talent pool, Toronto still lacks the structures to support a vibrant music scene.

“There is no commercial radio in Toronto to support an artist like Amaal or Tobi or Dylan Sinclair, right now,” he explained. “In America there is a whole ecosystem. If Amaal has a great song, it’s going to end up on commercial radio and get played ad nauseam across the nation. But we just don’t have any kind of infrastructure to support our urban music talents.” Manifesto exists to fill that gap. Over the past decade and a half, artists like Daniel Caesar, Charlotte Day Wilson and Jesse Reyez have all graced the Manifesto stage before breaking into the mainstream.

Last winter, Mustafa, a poet and folk singer from Regent Park, performed, for the first time publicly, his groundbreaking debut album “When Smoke Rises” at an intimate event presented by Manifesto at the historic Massey Hall in downtown Toronto.

Toronto rapper DijahSB told the Star that Manifesto offers a kind of stepping stone for artists trying to level up their game.

“What makes the festival unique is the dedication to featuring and highlighting local artists while also incorporating international ones,” they told the Star. “It serves to bridge the gap between our industries, which is a much-needed connection.”

“It’s also at the Budweiser Stage (this year) which is huge. That kind of experience can really set the bar for an artist.”

As Toronto’s scene evolves, so has Manifesto.

In recent years, the organization has shifted its programming to focus particularly on Black youth.

“They are the ones who originated hip hop and continue to sustain it in our culture,” Richards, who joined Manifesto as the interim executive director during the pandemic, explained. “So we’ve kind of shifted to a place where we’re prioritizing them while still allowing others to still join and also celebrate with us.”

Richards also emphasized Manifesto’s dedication to creating spaces that are safe, inclusive and financially accessible — all of the organization’s events are all ages, while a ticket to Friday’s show costs as little as $42.

“Manifesto is in a unique position right now because we are primarily led by women of colour,” Richards told the Star. “We are nurturers by nature, and our priority is always the safety of not just women, but everyone. Our focus is to serve the disenfranchised.”

But what seems to matter most to organizers is that the festival remains a progressive and forwardlooking event — one that keeps its fingers on the pulse of new music and youth culture.

“Manifesto holds a mirror up to contemporary realities of hip hop culture,” Higgins said. “It’s the real Toronto.”

What makes the festival unique is the dedication to featuring and highlighting local artists while also incorporating international ones. It serves to bridge the gap between our industries, which is a much-needed connection.

DIJAHSB TORONTO RAPPER