Ro Dolla Takes Pride In North Hollywood

Ro Dolla wants you to know about Toronto hip-hop.

After making music with Big Black Lincoln with good friend Saukrates and The Black Jays with Kardinal Offishall over the past few years, the MC/producer's North Hollywood solo debut album will hit stores on Oct. 9 via Needleworks/Universal.

"I named it North Hollywood because we're known as 'Hollywood North' by the entertainment industry," says Dolla. "I used the name just to signify what I'm trying to do as far as representing Toronto and basically taking everything that is Toronto — the multiculturalism, the negative and positive aspects, where I grew up in Toronto, and how I grew up in Toronto — and just meshed it all together."

Exemplifying this is the uplifting first single "It's A Good Day," which features T.O. heavyweight Saukrates and is receiving national radio play.

"I'm basically using Toronto as a plateau to show my makeup as someone from Toronto and what I gained from living here," says Dolla. "It's just my own narrative perspective on how I view the city and everything that it has to do with."

The need to represent Toronto hip-hop in a positive way comes at a time when, according to Dolla, it seems that the city is flooded with hip-hop hopefuls who've forgotten their Canadian roots and are trying to copy American rappers.

"My only concern is that there are artists out there trying to get on that are not really representing Canada the way they should. And what I mean by that is that they are too busy emulating what they hear down south and how they look down south, and basically trying to package that all up and market themselves that way.

"I don't model myself to be an American-sounding artist. I pride myself in being a Canadian artist and showcasing our environment and our sound and my background. That's what I'm about."

Songs from North Hollywood can be sampled on Dolla's MySpace page.