The hip hop community is mourning the loss of Toronto rapper Bishop Brigante, 46, who died from colorectal cancer on Sunday.
A longtime recording artist, Brigante had several hit songs — including a 2007 collaboration with Nate Dogg “Its Fo Twenty,” and the 2018 single “Trust Nobody” — and is widely considered a cornerstone of Canadian battle rap. Brigante was also an actor: he appeared in the sci-fi television series “Orphan Black” and in the 2002 crime thriller “Narc” alongside Ray Liotta.
“The words ‘local legend’ are often overused, but he is the textbook definition,” Dalton Higgins, a Toronto music writer and publicist, told the Star. “Bishop had a special kind of swagger, charisma and zest for life that you rarely find in local area performers.”
The news of Brigante’s passing was shared on Instagram in a post shared by his 19-year-old son, Lito.
“I am so grateful my father passed at peace while being surrounded by nothing but love and care,” the post read. “Not only was my father a light to others, but had his own light from his love, Melanie.”
Brigante was open about his health struggles. Last year, he told CBC that his colon cancer symptoms were originally misdiagnosed as hemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). After his cancer was properly diagnosed in 2023, Brigante organized a campaign urging the Ontario government to lower the minimum age for colonoscopy screening from 50 to 30.
“My father was many things, but at most he was a fighter,” Lito said in the post. “He overcame so many obstacles in his lifetime and not once said something was ‘impossible’ … Not only did he fight for himself, but he fought just as hard to make sure others wouldn’t go through the same trials.”
The news sparked an outpouring of emotion from artists across North America, including tributes from Maestro Fresh Wes, Choclair and Royce da 5′9”, and The Alchemist.
“Bishop Brigante is the first Canadian battle rap legend there ever was,” American battle rapper The Saurus posted on X. “Don’t forget it.”
Brigante was born and raised in Toronto. In the 1990s, he started battle rapping, “going neighbourhood to neighbourhood,” as he described it in a 2017 interview. “By the time ‘8 Mile’ dropped, I was like, ‘I did that. I already been through those trenches.’”
By the early 2000s, Brigante had become an important figure in the city’s burgeoning rap scene. (An early video from that era shows Brigante winning Drake’s watch following a game of dice.) But it was his appearance on “BET’s 106 and Park,” that put him on the map.
He was the first Canadian to appear on the popular American freestyle segment, Friday Ricky Dred, a rapper, podcaster and long-time friend of Brigante, told the Star. “For us over here, we were like, ‘holy sh—’! He made it!’ Anytime you see somebody on American TV, that’s a big deal.”
Brigante eventually released a number of songs that made a splash in both Canada and the U.S., and toured with major acts like Busta Rhymes and G-Unit. “As a rapper he was just very lyrical, raw and he really represented his area — Section 6 over there in Scarborough. He was just hip hop,” Dred said with a laugh. “He was a beast.”
But it was the battle rap scene where Brigante really flourished. He eventually became vice president of King of the Dot Entertainment (KOTD), an influential Toronto rap battle league founded by rapper Travis “Organik” Fleetwood in 2008. KOTD, which started out in an alleyway near the Eaton Centre, became a Toronto institution, and featured appearances from Drake, Method Man, Raekwon, MC Hammer and other hip hop royalty.
In 2002, Brigante was cast in “Narc.” Over the next 15 years, he’d appear in several other movies and TV shows.
Brigante spent his final months raising awareness about colorectal cancer the importance of colonoscopy access. When he was finally able to receive a colonoscopy and other tests in his early 40s, his cancer had spread to other places like his liver and lungs. In January of 2024, he launched a petition to change the age criteria that doctors use to determine when patients should undergo diagnostic screening. As of writing, the petition had over 38,000 signatures.
On Sunday, Organik shared tribute on Instagram, referring to Brigante as “the Godfather of Toronto Hip Hop.”
“I can brag about his musical accomplishments but truth be told, his life had way more substance to it than what he showed the world in his music,” he wrote. “Bishop wore his heart on his sleeve shamelessly. He would ride or die for anyone he loved.”
Dred described him “a people person,” saying that he was an integral part of multiple scenes and circles in the city. “People liked to have Bishop around, and he liked to be around people,” he said. “He’ll be remembered as a connector, somebody in this hip hop game that brings people together.”
“Bishop was in it to be an ambassador for the unique art of freestyling and battle rapping and for the culture,” Higgins said. “What other Toronto rapper would have the gaul, confidence or cojones to go battle America’s finest battle rappers in-person on prime time American TV … go toe-to-toe with them, and actually win repeatedly? That was viewed as a next to near impossible thing to do back in the ‘90s. Americans largely ignored Canadian talents back then, and then here comes this cocky kid from Scarborough ridiculing and defeating American rappers on the mic.”
“He wasn’t just in it to make great rap tracks,” Higgins added. “He was driven by something bigger.”
