Get Loose Crew

The Get Loose Crew is a hip-hop group that became the first Canadian rap group to independently finance, produce and secure distribution of an authentic Hip Hop mini-LP to sell outside Canada claimed by the Hart House at the University of Toronto. The group did not release a follow-up project and disbanded in 1990. One of the group members, Carl Badwa, MC B became the first Canadian emcee to win a Juno Award in 1990 for the category R&B/Soul Recording of the Year.

1983: A Starting Point
The group was originally formed in Toronto, Canada stated by Chris Jackson which included Kory Neely, and Len Grant-Stuart as a DJ group called "Def Force III” Neely is described as having written catalogs of songs, performed at the lunch table and dances at their Junior High School and became the group's vocalist as MC Shadow after a performance at an underground impromptu rap battle.

1986: The Group – Get Loose Crew
During Breaking Wreckords Radio interview with Jackson, he stated the groups name “morphed from Def Force 3 to Get Loose Crew with 2 DJ’s and 1 MC. Kinda like Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew.” In 1986, the group changed their name to Get Loose Crew recorded their first demo tape, "Licence to Slice," on August 15, 1986, and was featured on Ryerson University Radio Station CKLN 88.1 published by the Museum of Canadian Music.

1987: East Park Productions
The group created their own independent hip-hop label, East Park Productions, after signing a distribution deal with Electric Distribution brought about the first Canadian rap group to record and release an authentic Hip-Hop mini-album distributed and sold internationally.

1988: Chart Success
The Get Loose Crew ranked 5th position in May 1988 on the CHEER Backfield in Motion music chart with the song "Wannabe"

2004: DJ Shadow: Pushing Buttons
DJ Shadow played the Get Loose Crew song WANNABE at his "Pushing Buttons" concert Live! In Tune and on Time, opening. The performative opening utilized the lyrics as wordplay between performers DJ Shadow, DJs Chemist and Numark, and was recorded and included in his June 2004 DVD.

Nardwuar 2008-2017
Music journalist and interviewer Nardwuar, has sought validation of the groups musical accomplishment by other established hip-hop artists during interviews. In a 2008 broadcast with Maestro Fresh Wes, Nardwuar asked if the GLC record was the first one to come out of Canada, and if it was released before he made his own debut. Wes confirmed that the claim was true and acknowledged the accomplishment. Kardinal Offishall also avowed the Get Loose Crew's status in Canadian hip-hop during an interview in 2005 where Nardwuar highlighted their achievements with him. In 2017, featured in NOW Magazine a captioned photograph appears of Nardwuar holding a copy of the album, proclaiming it as “the first Canadian rap record, produced by The Get Loose Crew in 1988.”

2010: Toronto Hip-Hop Pioneers
The Toronto Free Gallery T-Dot Pioneers exhibition in March 2010 explored the history and culture of Toronto Hip-Hop with a display featuring the Get Loose Crew album and the Juno award won by Badwa under solo moniker, B-Kool with Simply Majestic.

2011: CBC – Hip-Hop Summit
In 2011, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) held a Hip-Hop Summit  as a follow-up to the T-Dot Pioneers Exhibit and displayed the groups album during the event with a brief tribute to the group by summit host and artist Buck 65 during the closing show.

2014: BlogTO
BlogTo’s article "10 most collectible Toronto albums of all time" included the Get Loose Crew's album with an honorable mention reporting that it was the first Canadian independent rap release to achieve international sales and featured MC Shadow, the first Canadian white rapper to be recorded, making him second only to the Beastie Boys internationally.

2020: University of Toronto
The Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto conducted the first-ever academic study in Canada on the history of Toronto Hip-Hop in 2020. The research project focused on tracing the development of Toronto Hip-Hop and the challenges faced by practitioners and culture industry professionals from 1985 to 2020. A credit course of study called 'Hip-Hop Culture' explores both historical and modern contexts. Dr. Francesca D'Amico-Cuthbert, a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, documented the historical relevance of Hip-Hop in Canada and proclaimed the Get Loose Crew as "prominent members of Toronto's Hip Hop history and the history of Canada's culture industries."

2021: Museum of Canadian Music
In 2021, the Get Loose Crew was inducted into the Museum of Canadian Music, their contribution to hip-hop as Canadian music artists documented by author Adam P. Cray and published by the MOMC.

2023: The First 50: Toronto’s Hip Hop Architects
September 2023, the University of Toronto's, Hart House exhibited "The First 50 - Toronto's Hip Hop Architects." recognizing 50 influential figures who built Toronto's Hip Hop scene documenting and including the Get Loose Crew on "The First 50 - Toronto's Hip Hop Artists" exhibition poster.