Northern Dial Artist Profile

Da Grassroots

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto production trio Da Grassroots, made up of Mr. Attic, Mr. Murray and Swiff, became one of the key behind-the-scenes forces in the city's 1990s hip-hop development. Working together from the turn of the decade, they supplied sample-rich, jazz-informed production for an independent scene that had little major-label support. Their work with Ghetto Concept was especially important: the group's "Certified" and "E-Z on Tha Motion" won consecutive JUNO Awards for Best Rap Recording in 1995 and 1996, helping prove that Toronto's independently released rap could earn national recognition on its own terms.

Da Grassroots also helped build infrastructure around the music. Mr. Attic and Swiff launched B.E. Records and released their own material, while the trio's relationships with artists including Choclair, Saukrates, Thrust, Ghetto Concept and others created a network in which producers were not simply supplying beats but helping define a shared Toronto sound. Their 1999 album Passage Through Time brought that network into one project, pairing the trio's understated production with a broad cross-section of local MCs. Tracks such as "Thematics" and "Postal Work" showed how comfortably their style could move from stripped-down jazz loops to dub and harder rhythmic textures without losing its identity.

That role makes Da Grassroots historically significant even though the group never became a household name. They were part of the connective tissue between the first nationally visible wave of Canadian rap and the deeper independent ecosystem that produced Choclair, Saukrates, Kardinal Offishall and the artists around them. After the group period, its members continued with production and label work, extending that influence beyond a single album. In Toronto hip-hop history, Da Grassroots matter because they helped make a scene sound coherent before the wider industry had decided that scene was commercially important.