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Beat Factory is a historic Canadian music brand that operated during the 1980s and 1990s under the leadership of Ivan Berry.[1][2] As a small talent management firm and functional music production house,[3] the rap music outfit filled a notorious void in Canadian music due to the lane of representation it fostered in support of a generation of then-underdog hip hop artists including its debut line up of Krush And Skad, Dream Warriors, HDV and Michie Mee & L.A. Luv.[4][5] Today, the Beat Factory brand remains a nationally-acclaimed founding force of rap music and hip hop culture in Canada.[6][7]
Founded by a budding entertainment entrepreneurial 19-year-old Ivan Berry, alongside his songwriter partner Rupert Gayle, the Beat Factory brand was born in 1982.[8] Young, fresh, innovative and revolutionary in its small but mighty Pickering production house of rap music, Beat Factory represented a historically Black Canadian roster of talent spanning two-generations of Canadian urban hip hop music in Canada—from Michie Mee to Keisha Chanté, and Dream Warriors to Kardinal Offishall.[9]
The first of milestones for the brand, the release of the 1987 Break'n Out compilation, A Beat Factory Production featuring the production of Scott La Rock and KRS-One, Rumble & Strong, Street Beat and Michie Mee & L.A. Luv.[10] The "Made In Canada" production featured the KRS-One "Elements of Style" opening rhyme, "Boogie Down Productions is proud to introduce Canada's greatest, musically-inclined, intellectual representative for the rap industry on a whole, a major breakthrough for female emcees everywhere ... her name, Michie Mee ... this is BDP reporting live from Canada.[10]
In 1988, under Beat Factory management, Michie Mee became the first Canadian rapper signed to an American record label, First Priority Music, distributed by Atlantic Records.[11] Then came the success of Dream Warriors, who sold 800,000 copies of their debut album And Now the Legacy Begins, released in 1991.[12]
In 1996, Berry founded Beat Factory Music Inc., an independent record label branch of Beat Factory, distributed by EMI Music Canada and BMG Music Canada.[13] The label released a series of compilation albums, known as RapEssentials and GroovEssentials.[14] These albums included the first singles by Kardinal Offishall and Glenn Lewis, who both became prominent artists in the 2000s.
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