LTtheMonk

London-born and now Hamilton-based Hip-Hop act LTtheMonk was hard to miss in his usual colourful button up shirt, with his massive hair flying around, and whether by look or sound drew in quite a large crowd to the Mohawk College side stage. Playing a mix of tunes written back home in London and new ones written since moving to Canada, LT kept the momentum going forward his whole set. Playing just shy of an hour LT and his band stopped only to energize the crowd, and for the most part had a consistent stream of tunes going, with his band providing a selection of up-beat bangers, and chill RnB backing tracks for LT to rap over. It’s always refreshing to see a rapper opt to use a band, instead of a DJ especially a smaller artist looking to make a name. It shows an ability to network, manage and lead a band that only comes from a talented and dedicated musician, which it’s apparent that LT is. Speaking of the band, it was comprised of a synth player with a trigger for the occasional sample, a bass player with his own synth and an incredibly solid drummer who filled every second with exactly what rhythm needed to be played. I would recommend seeing LT and his band to anyone into Hip-Hop, RnB, soul or a reason to dance, and you can see him at The Rivoli in Toronto on the 18th, or back in Hamilton at Sous Bas on October 4th. Lts 2019 album “Kinks, Drinks and Hip Hop” is available online anywhere you can listen to music, and its well worth giving a listen. - Hamilton Rising

I want to hear local artists bringing something new to the table, and this year LTtheMonk delivered just that. I had such a great feeling about London, UK-born LT from the first time I met him back in September 2018 on 93.3 CFMU. From there, it was a pleasure to book the band for one of my shows at The Mule Spinner in Fall 2018. It has been awesome watching this artist fully make Hamilton his home. He and the band – the equally stellar Santiago Rozo-Paz, Lucas Hibbs, Cam Watson – keep getting better with every show. Together they achieved huge local milestones this year: a packed album release show at Mills Hardware, playing the City of Hamilton Arts Awards, playing Supercrawl, coming full circle with a farewell show for Artwork Artbar (where they first performed as a band after connecting at Mohawk College), to signing to Sonic Unyon Records’ management roster. LT’s second full length album Kinks, Drinks & Hip Hop is such a fun ride from start to finish and makes an easy choice to take the top spot when I look back on local releases in 2019. - ihearthamilton.ca

Having celebrated a quarter-century of incredible indie-rock releases in 2019, Hamilton’s iconic independent record label Sonic Unyon Records looks to the future with new signings who will become part of the label's ongoing evolution.

Originally from London, UK, LTtheMonk first fell in love with hip-hop when he was just eight years old. After hearing classic hip-hop albums from the era such as The College Dropout, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and The Documentary, LTtheMonk knew that he had to find out properly what this music was. Combining this with an interest in reggae (shown to him at an early age by his Jamaican mother) and rock (via his Irish father), LT’s adventurous love of music and performing onstage grew throughout the years, culminating in the release of his first EP at age 17.

He has since grown into a vibrant and compelling talent. LTtheMonk's 2015 debut album, Monk in London, described his career, relationship with his home city and journey to adulthood. His 2017 release The Dark Side of the Monk was an introspective and wide-ranging session rooted in California production aesthetics and informed by contemporary race politics.

Having moved from the UK megacity to Hamilton, Ontario in 2017, listeners might expect LT's latest outing Kinks, Drinks & Hip-Hop to reflect another leap in personal and artistic evolution. And they would not be disappointed. The album is as questioning as its predecessors, serving up an in-depth exploration of his romantic relationships, place in hip-hop and the music industry, and more discoveries of his persona. The album's title nods to Diamond D’s 1992 classic Stunts, Blunts & Hip-Hop, but the album is of-the-moment and crisply defined by local players — the sounds of Hamilton producer Judah Jump, as well as Hamilton hip-hop and R&B artists Hoss Bowman and Viktoria Csik respectively — as well as collaborations with New York’s YoHanMadeTheBeat, Canadian musicians such as Aisha Barrow, Lucas Hibbs and Owen Gow, and (in a call-back to his roots) longtime friend, rapper and producer ROYOS from South London. London-made and East-Coast trained, paying homage to his home city as well as the New York MCs who were his inspiration to begin rapping after his first discovery of hip-hop.

With a new release on the horizon for 2020, you can catch LTtheMonk (emcee-vocalist LT, backed by keyboardist Santiago Rozo-Paz, bassist Cam Watson and drummer Lucas Hibbs) live on stages across Ontario.

LTtheMonk's album Kinks, Drinks & Hip-Hop is available now on all streaming platforms. His upcoming, as-yet-untitled full-length album will be released on Sonic Unyon Records in late 2020 - Sonic Unyon