Interview: Toronto Rap Artist GTech Discusses His New Single "I Met Her At Caribana"
Congratulations on the release of your new single "I Met Her At Caribana"; for those of us who have never attended the event, how did it inspire you to write the song and is it based on a true story?
The inspiration behind “I Met Her At Caribana” derives from my love to the Caribbean culture while celebrating different events during Caribana. I am actually not from the Caribbean, but I’ve always enjoyed going to Caribana every year. And it is not actually based on a true story haha. It was just a song I wanted to create based on all the memories I had during all the Caribana events.
With Caribana kicking off later this month on the 28th, can we expect a music video for this track to be released?
I definitely wanted to shoot music video for it, but my timeline right now is not aligning for this plan. Hopefully in the near future!
Since the spotlight has been on Toronto for a long time now due to artists like Drake and the Weekend, would you say that artists in your hometown are very competitive and cutthroat or are generally open to work together to achieve the goal of success?
Toronto is filled with a plethora of talented artists with many big names that have opened doors for upcoming artists. So yes, the competition is immensely competitive. This naturally has created wedges between many artists not wanting to work with each other, which is a common reputation for Toronto. However, all the Toronto artists I know personally have been down to earth, and willing to support my music with the willingness to work together.
I honestly want to eliminate this dark cloud of Toronto’s negative reputations, and furthermore push a more positive narrative, because Toronto is filled with endless talent that is untapped.
What can you tell us about Foxpack, the hip hop group you're a part of? Who are the members and how did you all connect?
Foxpack is a music group that originally formed back in 2012. We broke down doors with our debut single “House Party.” We shot the music video at an actual house party and it accumulated to 11,000 views on YouTube. Back in the day, that was a lot. We subsequently released a few music videos that would hit thousands of views as well. We created a decent buzz in the city for us.
Foxpack consists of myself, Epic, D-Sciple, and Pablo Tha Don. As a collective, we are a super lyrical group. Individually we are emcees, but together we are a mythical creature when it comes to hip-hop lyricism. I’ve always compared us to Slaughterhouse. Myself and D-Sciple are actually old high-school friends, and the same with Epic and Pablo. We ended up connecting through mutual friends, and then we joined forces to form Foxpack.
With "I Met Her At Caribana" now released, what are some of your goals musically for the rest of 2022?
I plan to promote “I Met Her At Caribana” until the end of the summer. After that, my next single, “Euphoria” will release in the Fall.
I plan to create a website and release merch some time this year. My plan is monetize and brand my music. Even though I have been making music for 20 years, I feel like I have just started.