Maestro: The Early Years

TORONTO‹Maestro's career breakthrough came about after the rapper was spotted on a local TV show by executives from the New York-based independent dance label LMR Records in 1989.
"Canadian labels weren't trying to check for me when I was shopping my demo then," says Maestro. "They said they wanted to hear a better version of "Let Your Backbone Slide.' LMR Records [executives] and Stevie B. saw me perform and knew the song had hit potential. They didn't ask me for any big-time master version."
Despite his early successes in Canada, Maestro eventually decided he needed to concentrate on breaking stateside. Moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1992, he recorded "Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be From Canada?!!," released by LMR. However, the album failed to catch fire on either side of the border. When Maestro's contract with LMR expired in 1996, he returned to Toronto to work on another album.
LMR ceased operating as a label in 1996 and has since been folded into Saja Records. Distributed by Atlantic Records in the U.S., Saja has released catalog product by Ike & Tina Turner, Jim Croce, Duke Ellington, and Stevie B. Attic continues to license Maestro's LMR catalog for Canada.
"Maestro had huge Canadian success, but the bottom line was that he wasn't a homeboy in the United States," says Larry Moelis, VP of operations at Saja. "Between his more sophisticated style and his lack of connections, it was impossible to break him in the U.S. He wasn't accepted by the rap community here."
Shopping a seven-song cassette demo last year in Canada, Maestro says he unexpectedly found closed doors at several major Canadian labels. "I couldn't even get a meeting with a couple of labels," he says. "That was a shock after what I'd done."
Attic, however, was interested in working directly with Maestro and signed him. "I recognized that his music was still fresh and very cutting-edge," says Brian Allen, VP of Attic Music Group. "Also he was back doing the rhymes and hooks that had established him in the first place."