New National Music Centre exhibition celebrates 'Godfather of Canadian Hip-Hop', Maestro Fresh Wes

The National Music Centre is featuring a new exhibition celebrating the career of Canadian hip-hop legend Maestro Fresh Wes starting May 15 (Photo: NMC/WesWilliams)

The career of the Godfather of Canadian Hip-Hop, aka Maestro Fresh Wes, is getting its close-up in a new exhibition that opens May 15 at the National Music Centre.

Toronto’s Wes Williams changed Canadian music in 1989 when he released “Let Your Backbone Slide” on his debut album Symphony in Effect.

There were hip hop scenes in cities like Toronto, Halifax and Montreal, but in 1989, hip hop was a musical genre that flew way under the radar of Canadian media, until Scarborough resident Williams named himself Maestro Fresh Wes and released Symphony in Effect, according to a 2019 National Music Centre feature by rock journalist Juliette Jagger.

“I came along in an era and time when there was little mainstream musical representation for the first generation of Black Canadians,” Williams told Jagger. “Up to that point, there really wasn’t a relationship with the industry, from our perspective.

“Back then (in 1989), we as a hip-hop community didn’t have our business hats on yet, and we were discouraged thinking nothing would come out of Canada anyway, so we weren’t really focused on all that.”

Maestro Fresh Wes went on to become the first Canadian rapper whose records achieved gold and platinum status, the first to break into the Billboard Top 40 – and the man who paved the way for a new generation of global Canadian music superstars.

Williams has been elected to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 2024 officially joined the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, making him the first hip-hop artist to be inducted into both.

The new exhibition will celebrate Maestro Fresh Wes’s four-decade-long career with an immersive video experience as well as the stage outfits he wore at the 2024 Junos in Halifax a few months ago.

“Canadian hip-hop artists like Drake dominate the global charts today, but it all started with Maestro Fresh Wes and the impact he made in Canada,” said Andrew Mosker, president and CEO of NMC in a media release.

“Having just celebrated the 50^th anniversary of hip-hop," Mosker added, "we’re proud to share the story of one of Canada’s most important figures in the genre with this latest exhibition.”

“It's an honour to see my journey celebrated at the National Music Centre,” said Maestro Fresh Wes. “I hope this exhibition inspires future generations to not just make records but make history.”

Entry into Milestone: Maestro Fresh Wes is included with admission to the National Music Centre. The exhibition runs from May 15, 2024 to February, 2025.