those songs aren’t just filled with standard hip-hop braggadocio.
Rather, Lanez said, they’re as honest as they can get, even if it means dropping any kind of tough guy persona.
“On this one, I’m trying to get me, but vulnerable me,” he said. “Whether I have bad judgment or good judgment, this is my life. Take it or leave it.”
That life has been a combination of hard-scrabble survival and the revelation of a major talent.
Born in Toronto 23 years ago, Daystar Peterson took the name Tory Lanez as a nod to the Notorious B.I.G. He’s the son of a missionary who moved from city to city, taking young Daystar to Atlanta, New York and Miami. After his mother died when he was 11, Lanez returned to Toronto to live with his grandmother, who at one point kicked him out.
In 2009, Lanez put out his first mixtape and created some YouTube videos to promote it. Justin Bieber found the videos and discovered Lanez. Bieber didn’t get the then-17-year-old Lanez signed. But Sean Kingston did.
Lanez’s childhood journeys exposed him to a wide variety of music. So did living in vibrant, multicultural Toronto. All that, he said, comes together in his distinctive music.
“I try to make music, all kinds of music, whether it be singing or rapping,” he said. “Swavey, it puts more than one genre of music together. That’s the approach I have with all music I do.”
Lyrically, Lanez goes with the flow — literally.
“I just freestyle,” he said. “I don’t actually write the words on paper. It’s just whatever comes into my mind. I’ll record three, four lines at a time, get a good take and do three or four more. It may be whatever comes into my mind. But I care about my craft at lot more than a lot of other people.”
That combination of freestyled, personal lyrics and swavey sets Lanez apart from the pack in any genre — which is precisely his intent.
“The thing about it is, you have to be a trailblazer, somebody who is fresh, who comes up with something fresh,” he said. “You always have to come up with something so nobody can say you can’t come up with something new.”
Lanez is now taking “I Told You” on the road, including a visit Friday to Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit.
“No show I ever do is the same as the last one,” he said. “There may be some segments that are the same but not the whole show. My show is very interactive. It’s different from any others. …
“I’m a very social person, very down to earth,” Lanez said. “The people there, I know how to relate to them. I jump in the crowd. I’ll crowd-surf for an entire song. I’ll tell the DJ to put me down in the crowd. They think I’m crazy. But I want people to know we’re on the same level. We’re there forever.”
As he becomes better known and has more and more hits, Lanez realizes that he has to, in a way, grow up.
“Of course, responsibility comes with it,” said the performer, who considers himself a role model for youth in Toronto, where he still lives. “I’m still young at the end of the day. For me, I have to start thinking about my actions and not let certain things come out. Then there are no problems with anything.”
Throughout the interview, Lanez, who’s had a beef with Drake, another genre-smashing Toronto hitmaker, exuded confidence in his music, his performance and his drive aiming at the top of the game.
“I think people mistake my confidence sometimes,” he said. “It’s ‘Who does this kid think he is?’ It’s not like that. I’ve put in so much work I’m confident in whatever I do. I have the intention to be the best. If you don’t put that in your head, you’ll never be that person.”
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