HIP-HOP, RAP, URBAN
Veteran Toronto lyricist, Dan-e-o (Daniel Faraldo) won a Rap-Off Contest on the city’s “Electric Circus” dance show as a 13 year-old. Five years later, in 1996, his first single “Dear Hip Hop” was featured on Beat Factory’s Rap Essentials Volume One compilation. It is now considered a Canadian Hip-Hop classic.
As one of the 12 members of the Scarborough collective, Monolith, Dan-e-o co-founded One Rock Records in 1997 and independently released the EP, The Long Awaited… the following year. The crew is widely regarded as one of Canada’s greatest crews of emcees, as was acknowledged at the 2023 Juno Awards by Kardinal Offishall.
Dan-e-o’s debut album, The Book of Daniel in 2000 and follow-up LP, See No Evil, Hear No Evil in 2004 cemented his reputation as an elite bar-spitting lyricist. His 2009 mixtape, Dilla Pickles (a tribute to J Dilla), the 2012 album, Series Premiere (as one-half of the duo, Perfeck Strangers with fellow rap veteran, Promise) and his long overdue third solo LP, Inevitable in 2013 all highlighted his growth as a songwriter, vocalist and potent wordsmith.
As an actor, Dan-e-o has appeared in the A&E series, “Breakout Kings” and the feature-length films Anything Goes, Tapped Out, Lifechanger and the Disney + feature, World’s Best. In 2014, Dan-e-o went back to his roots by releasing the seminal album, Dear Hip Hop, exclusively on vinyl through France’s Sergent Records. Comprised of tracks written and recorded during the “boom bap” heyday of the 90’s, the project was re-released by URBNET as a 20 th Anniversary deluxe edition album entitled Dear Hip Hop: 20 Years Later in 2017. In spite of all his accolades and achievements, Dan-e-o’s greatest accomplishment took place on April 23, 2014, when he welcomed his wonderful daughter, Melina to the world. His fifth solo album, The Day It All Changed is a soulful and bouncy ode to his new fatherhood journey. Dan-e-o’s hard-hitting 6th solo album, Vigilante is equal parts lyricism clinic and seething social commentary. The LP harshly critiques social media misuse, gun violence, anti-black racism, self-hatred, jealousy and self-doubt. He also finds time to address a past toxic relationship while not missing a beat tearing into talentless rappers.
The soundscape of “Vigilante” can best be described as “heavy neck-snapping boom bap”. The head-nodders are supplied by Toronto’s Big Sproxx (Freedom Writers) and frequent collaborator Charisma a.k.a. Skizzz (Monolith) as well as Japan’s S-KY THE COOKINJAX. In addition to an impressive list of featured guests which includes such legendary artists as Masta Ace, Saukrates and even comedy superstar, Russell Peters, Dan-e-o has created a recipe for hip-hop perfection. “These are the best 12 songs in the history of my catalogue,” insists Dan-e-o, “Period.” Vigilante dropped on May 10, 2024 on vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming via URBNET.
