Remembering the Notorious B.I.G.’s only Toronto concert
On Jan. 31, 1995, the famed rapper played a truncated show in a basement venue on Yonge St.
Toronto has welcomed many of the world’s biggest musical acts over the years, and some of the shows they played have reached legend status.
One such concert was the Notorious B.I.G. at a mysterious venue called The Appollo on Jan. 31, 1995. Part of the Ready to Die tour in support of his breakthrough album of the same name, it was the first and only show the famed rapper ever played in Canada.
Born Christopher Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G. died little more than two years after the show, and never got the chance to return for an encore at what surely would have been a larger venue.
Despite the event’s obvious importance, however, it’s flown under the radar over the years — partly due to a lack of publicly available documentation of its existence. But that thankfully changed a little in 2018.
Let there be video
Roughly 23 years after the event, fans who weren’t in the building that January night finally got an inside look into the apocryphal concert.
As Richard Trapunski wrote in NOW in March 2018, “video footage of the sweaty, energetic rap show has surfaced on Instagram.” The footage came from @inneramusic, and was released in four different videos.
While there’s no full concert set list to be found on the internet, the clips show Biggie performing Ready to Die tracks “Juicy” (see video above), “Gimme the Loot,” and “Unbelievable.”
(At the time of the show, the album was sitting 54th on the Billboard top 200, celebrating its 19th week on the chart after peaking at No. 15.)
Also clear in the footage is how packed the venue is. At one point, Biggie steps down to rap amongst the swaying, excited audience — possibly because he’d been crowded off of his own stage.
Ultimately, though, the concert lasted only about 15 minutes.
“Things just got too rowdy,” says Daniel Tate of Toronto music history project The Flyer Vault, who unearthed the original poster for the show in 2018 and shared it on Instagram. “If you look at the video, [Biggie is] just surrounded by people, whether it’s on the stage or in the crowd.”
According to multiple first-hand accounts shared on Flyer Vault posts, the venue’s turntables may have even been stolen mid-show — which certainly would account for the abrupt stoppage.
Wait, what’s “The Appollo”, again?
Great question.
There’s very little info out there on the former concert venue. Here’s what we know: For at least one night, The Appollo was located at 389 Yonge St., near Gerrard, in the basement underneath the Big Slice takeout spot.
It’s unclear when it opened and closed, and there’s no evidence it hosted any performer other than Notorious B.I.G.
The fact that the venue didn’t last long — and that the show itself was cut short — means fans can’t pore over framed ticket stubs or photos the way they would if Biggie had played the Horseshoe or El Mocambo.
But at least we now have the video to revisit and remember the time this legendary performer played the city.
Further Viewing
The final readily available historical artefact from Notorious B.I.G.’s 1995 Toronto tour stop comes from the MuchMusic archives.
During the trip, Biggie did a long interview with Rap City host Oliver Walters at a local pool hall. You can check out their full conversation below.
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