Sonos Song Series celebrates 20th anniversary of seminal 'Northern Touch' hip-hop track

Rascalz, Thurst, Kardinal Offishall and Choclair celebrate 'Northern Touch' at the Sonos Song Stories event in Toronto

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto - Sonos has sponsored various Song Stories events across the world and in downtown Toronto yesterday, it celebrated 'Northern Touch', a collaborative hip-hop track by artists Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, Checkmate and Thrust, which put the Canadian hip-hop scene on the map even if it got very little airplay or support at home.

The song, which represented various locales in Canada, blew up on American and International radio stations and its video was one of the first works by Little X, who is now known as Director X and is one of the most sought after musiv video directors as well as a feature film director working on a Superfly reboot this year. The Northern Touch video also launched the career of model Melyssa Ford.

Sonos set up a stage with a Sonos One with Alexa smart speaker on the stage of the Drake Hotel's lounge and invited the originators to discuss the making of the song as well as the state of music in Canada at the time.

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Alexa was used to play various tracks while the artists discussed how that single and subsequent releases that showed of Canadian artists on a global stage.