With all genres of Canadian music rightfully rising to the top of the charts and gaining worldwide exposure, you knew that it was only a matter of time before we jumped into the mainstream world of hip-hop as well. Not content with the underground, the Canadian hip-hop scene has been slowly pushing its way up for some time now. Choclair helped further the entire scene considerably when his major label debut, Ice Cold, was certified gold 35 days after its release. Challenging the notion that hip-hop artists sell records and not concert tickets, Choclair headed to The Wave on January 20 with a couple of his Toronto friends in order to show London what Canadian hip-hop was all about.

The evening's festivities were kicked off with a strong set by Mathematik. The crowd reaction to this MC was quite good although many had no idea who he was. He even managed to get a few people grooving as he performed selections from his recently released LP, Ecology. No small feat considering the amount of apathy in the Western student body. Based upon the strength of his set, it should only be a short while before Mathematik becomes a household name.

Up next was Kardinal Offishall with Solitair. Kardinall got off to a slow start but managed to turn things around via his and Solitair's great interaction with the crowd. After a little bit of call-and-response the crowd began to get excited, which seemed to pump Kardinal up. By the time he performed his newest single, "Hustlin'," he had the crowd at his mercy.

Just when Kardinal got the crowd really going Canada's golden boy took the stage. Opening with "Ice Cold," Choclair wasted no time showing Western what all of the hype was about. Accompanied by Kardinal and Solitair, Choclair had the near-capacity crowd dancing and yelling as he busted out his silky smooth rhymes over catchy beats. Choclair connected with the crowd right from the get-go and his cries of "Does everybody love hip-hop music?" were met with enthusiastic cheers. Just when things were about to peak, Choclair had the crowd countdown from 10 to 0 before breaking into his number one single "Lets Ride." To which the crowd gleefully jumped, danced, and sang along to.

After watching this showcase of some of Canada's finest talent only one thing can be said. Look out world, here we come.