Toronto the Cool; A Story of Drake, Cultural Capital, and Internet Importance

The energy in Toronto has become palpable in 2015. Even with the Pan Am Games’ summer of disruption, the city has had a buzz that it can’t seem to shake, even as the weather dips into single-digit temperatures. You can’t walk around the downtown core without spotting a twenty-something in a Toronto vs. Everybody logo emblazoned on their crewneck sweater, and scrolling through a Torontonian’s Instagram isn’t completed without a “#6ix” in the caption. So, what’s changed in the formerly jaded atmosphere to give Torontonians this kind of pride? You could risk saying that the cultural stars have finally aligned, and we have become…cool.

Seeing Toronto mentioned in the mainstream media always causes a sense of excitement, the feeling like you’re a front-row concert attendee and your favourite artist may have pointed in your direction. You’ve made it!  While Toronto has had its minor moments in the public eye in the past politically and pop culturally, it’s finally becoming the Instagram-famous person your favourite pop star pulled up on stage once. Toronto is on track to becoming the influential heavyweight that everyone has been hoping for, but how did we suddenly pull it all together?

Toronto’s always been an easy punch line. Our defining monument is a very tall communications tower; a piece of architecture that, while very tall, is not the sort of icon you’d want see on a kitschy pillow or poster at Bed, Bath and Beyond. You can bet that a teen somewhere in Small Town, America has a London, England-themed room—but a Toronto one is probably hard to find. There’s never been the sensational magnetism in Toronto that other huge cities have; we’ve been lying in a strange purgatory between eclectic and corny. The Leafs have an intense cult-like following despite having not won a Stanley Cup since 1967.  We’ve produced talented and alternative bands like Broken Social Scene, who ruled Toronto in the mid-2000s, while churning out “the most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the nineties”, the Barenaked Ladies. Our television programming rarely survives Canadian ratings, but the Home & Garden Network has been our greatest televised export to the United States. Toronto is always somewhere in the middle of cool, rarely finding a solid ground to proclaim itself king. That is, until, a former Degrassi High graduate took his stand on the world stage and brought the city with him.

Drake has taken the reins and altered Toronto’s presence on the world stage while changing the world’s perspective on him. Toronto has received a fresh rebranding as “The Six”—after the six boroughs Toronto is divided into—when Drake released the title of his album View from the Six.  Drake later reinforced this title with If You’re Reading This You’re Too Late’s iconic line in the song “Know Yourself”: “I was running through the six with my woes.” His videos often include night shots of Toronto’s skylines and streets; he has managed to name drop subway stations, restaurants, and clubs into his rhymes, and recently reintroduced the Torontonian patois from his days spent as a youth in Scarborough. Drake has suddenly made many comfortable to shout that they do, in fact, love Toronto, and almost everyone is clamouring to declare their allegiances to the city.

Having someone as influential and visible as Drake call Toronto home has indeed helped our street cred, but he’s also blazed the trail for others who are stepping up to represent the city. A former Drake associate and current Billboard-Number-One artist, The Weeknd has become not just a celebrity of Toronto, but a worldwide artist who is a unique representation of this enigmatic Toronto cool. Up-and-coming music artists are emerging and pulling Toronto from its lukewarm mainstream music landscape. The current Toronto music scene has developed enough and allowed for certain players to step up to the major pop cultural leagues; this has played a huge role in producing and influencing a great shift in public opinion.

Toronto has unique components to its culture as a city that many people are now realizing exist. Opportunities to attend yearly and noteworthy events like the Toronto International Film Festival or the Hot Docs Festival are unique to Toronto. Our art scene has massive galleries and museums, as well as small galleries with specialities in textiles or pottery. Any world-renowned musician is sure to stop by Toronto when announcing their tour dates; with a wide variety of venues from the intimate Massey Hall to booming Rogers Centre, Toronto has the capability to host important musical talent. Many New York restaurants have Toronto installations, yet the city is also host to multicultural dining spots unique to Toronto’s population. Even Drake has branched into our dynamic food culture by opening a restaurant with the notable Susur Lee in Toronto called Fring’s. While these places and events with massive cultural capital have existed for a while, many of the city’s citizens are finally engaging during this time of noteworthy cool.

Our public figures are becoming signifncant, and not just for uncomfortable antics like Rob Ford’s headline-blazing mishaps. Norm Kelly, more commonly known as @Norm or less comfortably known as #6ixDad, has made huge waves in news headlines and in online discussions. People outside of Canada are intrigued by the Drake-loving granddad at City Hall, whether for his love of Hip Hop or for his ambitions to call out Meek Mill on Twitter. Toronto has had Internet culture create a boom in attention, and it has brought credibility to Toronto as a viable cultural hub. Blue Jays fever was undeniably strong as we fought our way through a slow season to an intense close before the World Series. Being courtside at the Raptors has become a symbol of the Toronto elite, and it does help that the basketball team has a good playoff run under its belt. All of this excitement over Toronto sports is due in part to the community Toronto has fostered online in support. Finally, Toronto’s youth (and, in the case of Norm, even elderly Toronto City Councillors) have found artists, politicians, and sports to be proud of—and share with the world.

We’re witnessing Toronto become a regional voice with worldwide influence, and many are embracing it. Though it’s slightly comical the way Torontonians and GTA-affiliates have flocked to support the beloved Six, the sense of community that has been fostered in the city has created an atmosphere with unheard-of vibrancy. People are genuinely invested in the debate about what to nickname the city and what artist represents us best on an international stage. While these (manily) online arguments seem trivial, it’s this unique sense of pride that’s getting residents to genuinely care about how the city is represented. A large city like Toronto is always going to be busy visually, whether it’s traffic jams or back-to-back events, but the most important factor in the past year has become the cacophony of voices online speaking about the city in a prideful way. Who knew that all Toronto needed was a couple of hypemen to finally make it the cool cultural centre it’s always wanted to be?