#26: Let Your Backbone Slide by Maestro Fresh Wes
Peak Month: March 1990
Peak Position #1
16 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube.com: “Let Your Backbone Slide”
Lyrics: “Let Your Backbone Slide”
Wesley Williams was born in 1968 in Toronto. He grew up in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. His parents were Guyanese immigrants. From the moment he entered public school, young Wes Williams was very conscious of how exotic he was as the only black child in his classroom. This was, after all, the 1970s. At the age of six, a little girl who was a next door neighbor asked him, “Wes, when are you going to turn white?” Wes Williams was curious about the question. He noticed he was growing taller. So, considering his skin might change, he asked his dad the question. Williams remembers, “My dad just said, ‘I’m still waiting, boy!'” When he was twelve years old, young Wes Williams heard “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang in 1979. From that day forward Williams had a sense of purpose and vision for himself. Even though there was no such thing at that time as a black rapper in Canada.
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#808: Private Symphony by Maestro Fresh Wes
Peak Month: October 1990
11 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube.com: “Private Symphony”
Lyrics: “Private Symphony”
Maestro Fresh Wes is a Canadian rap artist who had a hit in 1989 called “Let Your Backbone Slide.” It was the first single from his debut album, Symphony in Effect. His second single was “Drop the Needle“. Another tracks from this album was “Private Symphony,” produced by Maximum 60. The album peaked at #4 on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart. Symphony in Effect won a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 1991. “Private Symphony” was a local hit on the Vancouver pop charts peaking at #9. It did not chart on the Canadian RPM singles chart. A remixed version of the song was also a track on his second album, The Black Tie Affair, was released in 1991.
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#1203: Drop the Needle by Maestro Fresh Wes
Peak Month: June 1990
3 weeks on CKLG chart
Peak Position #15
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~did not chart
YouTube.com: “Drop The Needle”
Lyrics: “Drop The Needle”
Wes Williams was born in Toronto in 1968. In the mid-80s he attended Carleton University in Ottawa and studied Political Science and Law. Deciding to focus on music, Maestro Fresh Wes released the first Canadian hip-hop single to break into the Top 40 in Canada and the USA with “Let Your Backbone Slide”. Williams’ first show in Ottawa affirmed his decision to pursue music full time. About 2,000 people showed up to watch him open for Public Enemy at Astralite, a now-defunct club on St. Laurent Boulevard. For a hip-hop show, it was a huge crowd by Ottawa standards in the late 80s.
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