*Bishop is Canadian hip hop's most battle-hardened soldier.
Earning his stripes as a fierce emcee in Scarborough's Notorious Section 6 neighbourhood during the mid 1990s, Bishop's first break came in 1998 on DJ X's seminal Toronto CKLN radio show, the Power Move. Unleashing his freestyle skills on the show's weekly phone-in competition, Eat The Beat, Bishop took his rightful place among local champions. But this wasn't just a one-time win. Week after week he defeated caller after caller to hold the crown for an entire summer, no mean feat in a city that boasts the nation's highest per capita rate of cut-throat emcees.
After defending his title at live battles across the city, Bishop then went into the studio to record "Kipling 2 Kennedy" and "Strange To The Eye" for the 1999 Rap Essentials compilation. Both tracks received regular play on FLOW and the same community radio station where he first graced the airwaves. They also grabbed the ear of Choclair who recruited Bishop for a series of guest appearances on his Memoirs of Blake Savage album, including the collabo "When I'm High." Joining Choclair alongside the Baby Blue Soundcrew and Harpoon Missile, Bishop then took off on his first national tour.
With a thug-next-door charisma that translates on and off the mic, Bishop was quickly recruited from the stage to the screen. To date, he's played a cameo role in the CBC urban drama series Drop The Beat, a lead role in the UPN hip hop industry series Platinum, and ten minutes where, as an infamous local drug dealer, he gets beat down and shot dead by Ray Liotta and Jason Patric in the critically-acclaimed feature film NARC.
On the small screen, Bishop grabbed his place in Canadian hip hop history when he took New York to the mat as the first Canadian emcee to battle on Freestyle Fridays, BET's weekly showdown on 106 and Park. Winning the clash three weeks in a row, he returned home a local hero and dropped The Best of Bishop Freestyles, a mixed CD showcasing previously unreleased tracks and Freestyles. The CD boasts over 2000 sales to date.
In the past year, Bishop has stepped up his game with a series of prolific releases that began with the 2003 single "That's The Way" produced by Scam of Time Bandits Music. After pulling local radio play and eight months on Much Music and Much Vibe, veteran rappers Sticky Fingaz and MC Lyte signed on for the remix of "That's The Way," one of four Bishop tracks from the Awesome Collective compilation CD distributed by EMI Canada.
The release of his first 2004 single, "About 2 Change," finds Bishop joined by Mikey G and Big Zeeks, two artists from his Section 6 label roster, directing their words to the youth, and encouraging them to stick to their dreams. The video was shot in his hometown neighbourhood and also received heavy rotation on Much Music and MTV alike. “About 2 Change “ also won the Urban World Film Festival award, for “Best Video of the Year” in New York City.
With all the momentum of an infectious club hit and an issue close to his heart, "About 2 Change" is Bishop's first sign of what's to come with the release of his debut album, The Value of a Hustle.