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PREVIEW | The Hamilton Philharmonic Teams Up With LTtheMonk For Orchestral Hip-Hop Mash Up

Hip-hop artist LTtheMonk will be joining the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (Photo courtesy of the artist)
Hip-hop artist LTtheMonk will be joining the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (Photo courtesy of the artist)

The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra has announced an addition to their season lineup. On October 9, hip-hop artist LttheMonk will join the HPO for an evening of orchestral fusion co-presented by Sonic Unyon.

The concert takes place at The Cotton Factory as a part of FRESHUP Fest. The HPO and LttheMonk last performed together at Supercrawl 2023.

LTtheMonk moved from London, UK to North America in 2017, driven by a dual love of hip-hop and dance music. After a stint in Hamilton, Ontario, where he perfected his sound and took on the moniker LTtheMonk, he’s now based in Toronto. His New Monk Swing takes its inspiration from a variety of sources, including new jack swing, and fuses dance, RnB, and hip-hop.

In a statement, he notes, “In our culture, hip-hop has often been considered ‘low art’, while other forms of music such as classical have been regarded as high art. Hip-hop’s impact on society has been oversimplified to one of violence and negativity, leaving out the massively positive societal impacts hip-hop culture has had, and the artistic brilliance that the poets and producers who create rap music have put on record.”

He continues, “that hip-hop still has something to say, and that there is space for different genres to collide and create something beautiful.”

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