It’s been 5 months since the devastating casualty of Toronto rapper Smoke Dawg. His loss was felt by many across the Toronto hip-hop community. With lots of unreleased music in the bank, Smoke Dawg’s camp felt it was only right to share it through the debut album he was putting together. On Friday November 30th, “Struggle Before Glory” was released, giving us one last listen to new music.
The album features some UK artists with Bricks (ft Giggs), Three Of A Kind (ft Fredo, Jay Critch) & No Discussion (ft AJ Tracey). Smoke is no stranger to the UK as he’s made a few trips over there and linked up with Skepta back in 2016 for Overseas.
He keeps it Toronto based with a few of the tracks. Local features include Jay Whise, Jimmy Prime and Halal Gang homies SAFE & Puffy L’z. It was no surprise to see Murda Beatz make an appearance on the album as him and Smoke go way back. Murda produced almost half the album, contributing to 5 songs on it.
His signature flow and street rap makes up most of the songs on the album. SB4G Interlude is not a track, but a voice memo of Smoke Dawg. He talks about the days before the music when he would hang out at Dundas-Square, to eventually seeing himself on a billboard there. He humbly speaks on the turn his life took for the better.
Smoke Dawg is going to be remembered from many across the city. It was sad to see the him go at a young age with lots of potential. Smoke Dawg may not be with us anymore, but his music will live on.
Rest in Power, Smoke.
