Maestro Fresh Wes Celebrates 25 Years of “Symphony In Effect”

The godfather of Canadian hip-hop #MaestroFreshWes and friends celebrated the 25th anniversary of his groundbreaking career on Saturday September 21st at Massey Hall in Toronto as part of the 7th annual Manifesto Festival. The landmark concert included performance from his JUNO Award winning debut album "Symphony In Effect" as well tracks off his 2013 collaborative album "Orchestrated Noise". Maestro celebrated with special guests including Kardinal Offishall, K-OS, Classified, Divine Brown, and more...

Read more and watch performance from the celebration and a throwback video...


Wes Williams (a.k.a Maestro Fresh Wes) the multi-talented rapper, actor, and author is listed as the greatest Canadian rapper of all-time by CBC - Maestro's "Symphony In Effect' went platinum when it was released in 1989 and remains one of the best selling Canadian hip hop albums of all-time. The hit single "Let Your Backbone Slide" was the jam back in the day, as it peaked at #14 on Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart and #1 on The Record chart. The music video for the single was financed by Wes, his partner Farley Flex and Flex's mother took out a loan to fund the project which was shot in his hometown of Scarborough, Ontario and filmed at Wes's former high school L'Amoreaux C.I. (also my former school - I was in grade 9 and was there for filming, it was a very big deal at the time), and most footage was filmed at the legendary The Concert Hall - Masonic Temple in downtown Toronto; with current CBC News anchor Dwight Drummond playing role of cameraman in the upbeat music video (funny how thing turn out, ha ha). Also Maestro father was the photographer for the album cover and single cover...this is what you call hustle!

Maestro has a few things in common with current Canadian rap star Drake, having shared dressing rooms as actors, and still beating out Drake in record sales. Maestro is honored by his success and says "if this record came out today it's sill the best selling hip-hop record of all time in Canada. Even the Drake's albums haven't exceeded Symphony In Effect, which is crazy to me. That's monumental to me." he tells Exclaim and talks about some fun facts here.

Maestro show no signs of slowing down with his latest release 'Orchestrated Noise' produced by Gamboy, Lord Quest, Vanguards, Classified, Saukrates, Rich Kidd, and more.

Watch video from Maestro's 25th anniversary celebration here....





THROWBACK: Maestro Fresh Wes - "Let Your Backbone Slide" (1989)