What to know
- Canada Post unveiled its first-ever hip hop stamps during Black History Month, honouring pioneers Maestro Fresh Wes, Michie Mee, and Montreal trio Muzion.
- The stamps place hip hop artists alongside legendary Canadian music figures, acknowledging the genre’s intergenerational influence and role in Black Canadian history.
- Maestro and Michie both shared plans to mail letters using their stamps, underscoring the emotional and historic significance of the honour.
- Industry figures including Farley Flex, Ivan Berry, and Ron Nelson praised the move as a validation of Canadian hip hop’s origins, legacy, and ongoing influence.
In celebration of Black History Month, Canada Post will unveil three stamps tonight at a private event featuring hip hop pioneers Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee and innovative hip hop group Muzion.
While there have been over two-dozen Canadian music icons honoured with their own stamps over the decades — including Leonard Cohen, The Tragically Hip, Rush, Blue Rodeo, k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan, Salome Bey, Elisapie, and Oscar Peterson — this is the first time anyone from the hip hop genre has been selected.
Maestro, a Toronto native who now lives in Saint John, New Brunswick, tells Now Toronto he plans on sending a self-stamped letter to American hip hop icon Chuck D, while Michie Mee, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Toronto, is going to send one to her mom, grandson, and herself.
The rapper, whose birth name is Wes Williams, has received the biggest of lifetime achievement awards in this country; the stamp is just one more coup.
For decades, he held the record for the biggest-selling Canadian hip hop album, Symphony in Effect (1988), just shy of double platinum, on Attic/LMR Records, which featured the classic “Let Your Backbone Slide,” and won the first-ever Juno Award for Rap Recording in 1991.
“The way I look at this stamp, I feel that it’s an honour to be honoured,” he told Now Toronto. “Comparing it to the Governor General Lifetime Achievement Award or to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame Award, I look at it as continuity, just reinforcing that I must have done something that caused intergenerational impact. Period.”
He added that he also thinks of American hip hop legend Public Enemy’s powerful “Fight The Power” anthem, which contains the line: Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps. Public Enemy was one of the early groups he opened for.
“[Public Enemy’s] Chuck D’s definitely one of my heroes,” Maestro said. “So, I want to write him a letter. And Chuck also wrote the forward for my first book, Stick to Your Vision, and that line really resonated with me. A lot of people have let me know that I’ve done some heroic things, and Chuck D’s one of my heroes, so he’s one of the first people I want to hand write a letter to, to say ‘Thank you.’ — a stamp for the hip hop champ.”
Michie, born Michelle McCullock in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Toronto from an early age, was the first female MC to sign a U.S. record deal (First Priority/Atlantic), as part of a duo with DJ L.A. Luv (Phillip Gayle) in 1988. The Juno-nominated album Jamaican Funk—Canadian Style was exactly as its name implied, injected with her dancehall reggae roots.
“I’m gonna buy all the stamps from my three favourite Shoppers Drug Mart, and I’m gonna mail a letter to my mom and to myself, and put my entire immediate family’s name on these letters,” Michie told Now Toronto.
“This is the biggest accolade ever, obviously. Oh my goodness. I can’t believe it. I’m glad that I’m alive and well, and seeing this with my own eyes, and I get to tell my grandson all this really cool stuff, and why I’m so cool; he has no idea,” she laughed. “So, yeah, he’ll probably get the second letter.”
Michie’s original manager Ivan Berry, who created Toronto-based artist development company Beat Factory in 1981 and began working with her in 1984, talked to Now Toronto from his home in Anguilla. “I will definitely be asking a friend to send me a postcard with Michie’s lovely stamp on it. What a collector’s item for me personally.
“It has been my honour to manage Michie Mee’s career from her early development at just 14 years old and through many years that followed,” he reflected. “Spanning nearly four decades, her career establishes her as a true pioneer of Canadian hip hop — a trailblazer for female MCs, a cultural bridge between reggae, dancehall, and hip hop, and a generous mentor to younger artists.
“Her contributions to Canada’s performing arts are profound and enduring. I can confidently say Michie Mee is an icon, and seeing her honoured on a Canadian stamp fills me with immense pride. I proudly salute and congratulate her.”
Toronto’s Farley Flex, who managed Maestro from 1989 to 2002, is equally proud. “Stamps are for history—and history has a sound. Canada Post didn’t just choose names, it chose lineage.
“Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee are proof that Black history is Canadian history, especially in a moment when identity gets questioned, instead of honored. Vintage isn’t old—it’s origin,” Flex said. “It’s the echo that keeps culture alive long after the noise fades. I watched Wes build this brick by brick for 13 years, and I’ve watched he and Michie keep breaking ground without asking permission. This is legacy made official. Salute to Maestro Fresh Wes and Michie Mee—still setting the pace, still writing Canada.”
Montreal’s Muzion, a mid-90s trio comprised of J.Kyll, Imposs and Dramatik, emerged a decade after Maestro and Michie, in 1996 and added flavours of French, English and Haitian Creole into their hip hop style. Messages to Dramatik were not received in time for publication.
The invite-only stamp unveiling will include a speech from Ron Nelson, a legend himself in Toronto, a DJ, broadcaster and show promoter. “I’m so happy for Michie and Maestro,” he told Now Toronto. “They fully deserve this honour. I’m glad for our Canadian hip hop community; we are all stakeholders in these stamps.
“Bottom line: we made hip hop history, and nobody can take away the fact that Michie and Maestro were key players on the frontlines who helped pioneer it. Thank you Canada Post for putting a stamp on that.”
All three stamps will be available in one booklet from any Canada Post outlet.
