Toronto’s rap scene is on the rise.
One of they biggest rappers is a dude named Pressa, who has a wild story
including opening for Drake’s tour while out on bail for kidnapping charges.
Let’s tap into the come-up and career of Pressa, Toronto’s Baby Faced Badass.
Pressa was born and raised in the Driftwood neighborhood of Jane and Finch,
a hood in Toronto known for crime and gang activity.
His mom’s Filipino and his dad’s Jamaican.
But at just 5 weeks old, his pops was sentenced to 15 years to life
for second-degree murder, after shooting a security guard.
So, he and his brother were raised by a single mom.
And while she working trying to provide, Pressa and his brother quickly got sucked into the streets.
His brother Chermar started selling crack as a teenager
and ran a gang called the Young Bucks Killers.
The gang would get caught up in a police takedown called Project Marvel
and got linked to many different crimes including shootings and drug trafficking.
The police determined Chermar was the leader of the gang
and Pressa was being trained to be the next in line.
So, cops raided their home and found multiple guns, cash, and drugs like coke and ecstasy.
Pressa plead guilty to selling drugs from his moms house and got hit with 14 months in juve.
While he was locked up, he had his brother sneak in weed for him to smoke.
The officers eventually searched his cell and found the weed
and charged him with organized crime with the intent to sell marijuana.
They ended up dropping the organized crime charge, but he was still tied in with Project Marvel,
which would follow him for a long time.
10 months after he got out, Pressa went on the run for an attempted murder charge.
He ended up getting caught and arrested after 14 months on the run and spent like 9 months in jail.
But he eventually beat the case and all charges were dropped.
While he was dealing with his own legal situation,
his father got released from prison on parole.
But he was only out for like 10 months before getting into an altercation
that violated his parole and got him sent right back.
Pressa was in jail at the time, so he never got to reunite with his dad on the outside.
But he said his pops always picked up his calls from jail
cuz he knew what it was like being on the inside.
So, he had someone he could rely on to talk to about what he was going through.
His brother Chemar eventually got convicted on multiple gun, drug, and gang charges
and given a 10-year sentence.
So, with his brother sitting down and no one else to look after him,
Pressa started making music as a way to escape the streets.
He dropped his first song Wass Gang in 2015 with Robin Banks, another Driftwood rapper.
The song was a tribute to their friend Wassi,
who recently got shot to death by police outside of a nightclub.
Wassi was one of Pressa’s day 1s and they came up together in the streets.
When he died, he was on the run for a double murder.
While he was out partying, the police caught up to him, and it lead to a shootout.
Wassi fired at them first from inside a car, so police responded by spraying bullets
and one hit him in the chest.
Wassi was well known in the neighborhood and his death was a major loss.
Seeing his close friend get killed had a major impact on Pressa
and he decided to make a change and do something more positive,
to avoid ending up in the same situation.
Wass Gang went viral and became a big hit in the area.
Robin Banks already had a growing fanbase in Toronto
while Pressa was only known around the neighborhood.
This was his first introduction as a rapper but it showed he had talent from day one.
He started dropping music more consistently in 2016.
But, his street activities eventually caught up to him and almost destroyed his whole career.
In April 2016, members of the Young Buck killers threw a party at an Airbnb in downtown Toronto.
Members from the Queens Drive Crips, who are known to beef with the Young Bucks,
tried to crash the party.
The two gangs ended up getting into it in the hallway and like 10 shots was fired.
The whole thing got captured on CCTV, which shows two Young Bucks members
ducking into an elevator while being shot at from the hallway.
No one got hit but the shootout was enough
to set off the Young Buck’s killers who wanted revenge for getting their party crashed
and almost getting killed.
So, they came up with a wild plan.
They decided to target the two 17-year-old Crips
who gave up the party location to the rest of the gang.
They somehow convinced them to meet at their spot, where they kidnapped and tortured them.
They was held hostage for like 48 hours and forced to do some real sick shit.
They got tied to a chair and beaten pretty bad.
They was also forced to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun.
At one point, they even got forced to perform sexual acts on each other,
and these was two teenage boys.
If that ain’t bad enough, they also filmed them doing it, just to embarrass them.
The torture got so intense it got the neighbors attention
and they had to move them to a different spot to avoid getting caught.
Then they contacted the victims’ families and demanded a ransom.
They eventually let the two boys go after one of their moms paid $3,000 upfront
and agreed to pay another $7,000 within a week, for a total ransom of $10,000.
The kidnappers also told her if she ain’t come up with that extra $7000,
they was going to put out the videos that showed them performing sexual acts on each other.
So, the victims were released and taken to the hospital.
At first, they said they would talk to the police but later changed their minds,
probably afraid of what could happen if they was also labeled snitches.
But it ain’t matter because police found enough evidence to start making arrests.
The most famous name caught up in the case was none other than Pressa,
who was arrested on charges of kidnapping for ransom,
unauthorized possession of a firearm, and assault with a weapon.
Even though police say he was one of the primary instigators of the violence,
his lawyer argued that he only played a small role in the kidnapping.
They don’t think he’s the one who actually planned it
but it’s not clear exactly what part he played in the crime.
The courts must have believed his lawyers
cuz they allowed Pressa to be released on bail to await trial.
By this time, his music career was already heating up
and took this as an opportunity to try to change his life for good
to avoid going down the same path as his dad and brother.
He dropped multiple singles which all racked up millions of views,
including "100 Wassi Bars" and "Lavish".
He also dropped his debut mixtape "Press Machine" in 2017.
Then, he teamed up with super-producer Murda Beatz for the song "Novacane",
which became his breakout hit and gained him more fans outside of Toronto.
The song started to attract the attention of major artists, including Drake
and Pressa was invited to open for the 6 God’s Boy Meets World tour in 2017.
Drake had posted a video of himself singing along to Novacane while in the UK.
He and Pressa ended up linking up in Europe when Drizzy was on tour.
This cosign helped Pressa’s career and after that
he started collabbing with major names in the industry like Tory Lanez
and British rapper Giggs.
But, Drake also faced a lot of backlash for bringing Pressa on tour,
while he was out on bail for being involved in a brutal kidnapping.
Even though Pressa got permission from the court to go on tour with Drake,
the Toronto police wasn’t happy about it and called several venues to shut down the shows.
But, Pressa ain’t let this stop his grind
and he continued to make the most of the opportunity he was given.
He seemed focused on putting the gang life behind him and making a change for the better,
even if his past continued to haunt him.
The courts must have noticed him trying to change cuz in December 2017,
he was cleared of all charges related to the kidnapping after being out on bail for about 18 months.
The only evidence prosecutors had
to link Pressa to the crime was one of the victims
saying he was pistol-whipped by someone
who looked like the guy who rapped under the name Pressa on YouTube.
The judge ain’t think this was sufficient evidence
to positively ID Pressa as the gunman, so he beat all charges.
But two other members of the Young Bucks killers
who was supposedly the real ringleaders of the kidnapping got convicted
and sentenced to 6 and 9 years.
After beating the case,
Pressa stayed true to his promise to leave the streets alone
and moved to LA where he could focus on music.
He dropped his debut album Prestige in 2019,
which debuted at number one on the iTunes Canada hip hop charts.
In 2020 he signed a deal with Sony Music Canada
and dropped an EP called Gardner Express.
In 2021, it was announced that Pressa was in a relationship with another up-and-coming artist,
Coi Leray, who is the daughter of Benzino, the former CEO of The Source magazine.
Even though Pressa still uses street themes in his music
and talks about the life he grew up in,
it seems like he put the past behind him and is on to bigger and better things.
Hopefully, he can stick to the music
and not fall back into the lifestyle that almost ended his career.