About Junk
Junk started off his career writing songs, recording himself and freestyle rapping at house parties in his early teens. At the age of 14 he was hosting weekly Hip-Hop nights at bars/clubs and winning every local rap competition he entered, which ultimately made him become the undisputed freestyle rap battle champion of Vancouver.
“Music's always been in my scene, so I'd say everywhere I go it's always been music.
Divorces, separation, pain, happiness, Music.”
In 2011 JUNK won the MTV hosted “End Of The Weak” national freestyle competition in Toronto, Canada, which secured him a spot in Paris, France to represent Canada, where he took 3rd place in the world. Naturally this gave him his first taste of international appeal. In the same year he would co-create the Vancouver cult followed rap duo Northwest Division with rapper Hungry. Together they independently released 4 albums and 3 mixtapes in the span of 5 years. The albums they made and performed garnered a great deal of local and international attention and even got an article in Vice Magazine. “NWD” managed to make a song & video with Strange Music artist Rittz, tour with Tech N9ne & Krizz Kalico and open for some of raps biggest names: Method Man, Redman, Yelawolf, Machine Gun Kelly, Chef Raekwon, Action Bronson, Mobb Deep, Hopsin, Talib Kweli, Hilltop Hoods, Ghostface Killah and more.
Amidst the busy Northwest Division schedule JUNK began the weekly staple “Strictly Cypher” out of a donut shop in Vancouver, giving the cities misfits and unheard voices a playground to exert their lyrical skills.
In 2016 JUNK signed to underground rap legend Snak The Ripper’s label Stealth Bomb Records and released his first solo album “I AM NO ONE” which charted in the top 40 Canadian iTunes rap charts and then followed that album up with his 2017 “Stupid & Ugly” release which has hit over the 10M stream mark on all platforms. From that point on, touring with Snak through Canada and Europe as the main support act became the norm. Naturally this opened the door for JUNK to encroach on his own slew of successful Canada wide solo headlining tours.
The association with other well known rappers such as internet sensation Merkules and even touring with him internationally got JUNK into some uncharted territories. One of the standout shows was co headlining with iconic New York rap group Onyx a massive 10 thousand person capacity arena in Madrid ,Spain. Not not mention JUNK’s impressive track record of having played in over 40+ countries. He’s also managed to tour with Mayday of Strange Music, open for global megastar Jack Harlow, open for grammy nominated Freddie Gibbs and start his own independent Household Records label with his partner Hungry.
JUNK has songs with Grammy award winning Cyhi Da Prynce, smash hit single maker Flipp Dinero, Musab (Rhymesayers Ent. founder), battle rap legends Mickey Factz & Dizaster, coveted Atlanta producer and early Gucci Mane collaborator Dj Burn One and Shade 45’s Dj Eclipse to name a few.
In 2018 JUNK ventured off of Stealth Bomb Records and dropped his 3rd solo album “Audio Heroin” with 5 accompanying music videos, 2 nationwide tours and over 40 feature collaborations, cementing him as one of the most hard working artists in the scene.
In 2019 he remained on a tirade of releases by releasing his trilogy entitled “Together In Pieces 1, 2 and 3”. The catalogue began to grow and of course it turned into more touring and attention from onlookers. Also JUNK was nominated for Best Breakout Artist at the OWL awards.
2020 clearly was a very a difficult year for all in the industry mostly due to it putting an end to touring possibilities or any live performance for that matter. That being said JUNK saw it as an opportunity to level up creatively and make it a year of experimentation and creation. He partnered up with new likeminded individuals and started a collective called Umbrella Ink. Together they made over a 100 songs and 6 EP’s that are yet to see the light of day. JUNK was also involved in building a state of the art recording studio called The Back End Recording with his partners that is now officially open for business.
As if that weren’t enough JUNK’s insane work ethic once again garnered the attention of Snak the Ripper and ultimately had him resign with Stealth Bomb Records for his second stint. Th move was a calculated one as SBR was rebranding and relaunching the 2.0 version of themselves. JUNK and fellow SBR signee and previous JUNK collaborator Young Stitch decided to make an album under the SBR relaunch entitled “LIONS EAT GOATS”. The album went number one for a week on the Canadian iTunes rap charts bumping out Eminem for top spot. As if that wasn’t enough JUNK was also nominated for a WCMA Breakout Artist of The Year.
"Every song, I go hard as fuck. I like that parallel of good and bad, almost a ying-yang type of thing.
My name makes me have to prove myself every night.
Audio heroin, that's what I am. That musical dope for your ears. It’s why my name Junk will stick forever.”
In 2022 JUNK released his album “Wake Me Up When It’s Over” independently with no feature collaborators. He wanted to show he could carry a whole project on his own 2 legs, which he did, by charting number 2 on the Canadian iTunes rap charts and number 8 on all genres. JUNK bumped Kendrick Lamar’s long awaited new album out of 2nd place to to 3rd for 48 hours. The album was accompanied by a music video to every song on a 12 track album which he edited and co directed himself with his visual partner in crime Shot By Devan. JUNK also embarked on a successful headliner nationwide Canadian Tour to bring the new album to life. JUNK also followed up his nationwide tour with a European Tour as main support for fellow label boss Snak The Ripper. JUNK is in his prime and is showing no signs of slowing down.