Beat Factory
Beat Factory is a historic Canadian music brand that operated during the 1980s and 1990s under the leadership of Ivan Berry. Founded by a budding entertainment entrepreneurial 19-year-old Ivan Berry, alongside his songwriter partner Rupert Gayle, the Beat Factory brand was born in 1982. Young, fresh, innovative and revolutionary in its small but mighty Pickering production house of rap music, Beat Factory represented a historically Black Canadian roster of talent spanning two-generations of Canadian urban hip hop music in Canada—from Michie Mee to Keisha Chanté, and Dream Warriors to Kardinal Offishall.
Also recorded as Beatfactory
Beat Factory
- Name
- Beat Factory
- Founded
- 1982
- Headquarters
- Canada
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Beat Factory is a historic Canadian music brand that operated during the 1980s and 1990s under the leadership of Ivan Berry. Founded by a budding entertainment entrepreneurial 19-year-old Ivan Berry, alongside his songwriter partner Rupert Gayle, the Beat Factory brand was born in 1982. Young, fresh, innovative and revolutionary in its small but mighty Pickering production house of rap music, Beat Factory represented a historically Black Canadian roster of talent spanning two-generations of Canadian urban hip hop music in Canada—from Michie Mee to Keisha Chanté, and Dream Warriors to Kardinal Offishall.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Beat Factory. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4876930 · wikipedia · Beat Factory
In this article
Overview
Overview
The first of milestones for the brand, the release of the 1987 Break'n Out compilation, A Beat Factory Production featuring the production of Scott La Rock and KRS-One, Rumble & Strong, Street Beat and Michie Mee & L.A. The "Made In Canada" production featured the KRS-One "Elements of Style" opening rhyme, "Boogie Down Productions is proud to introduce Canada's greatest, musically-inclined, intellectual representative for the rap industry on a whole, a major breakthrough for female emcees everywhere.. Her name, Michie Mee.. This is BDP reporting live from Canada. In 1988, under Beat Factory management, Michie Mee became the first Canadian rapper signed to an American record label, First Priority Music, distributed by Atlantic Records. Then came the success of Dream Warriors, who sold 800,000 copies of their debut album And Now the Legacy Begins, released in 1991. In 1996, Berry founded Beat Factory Music Inc., an independent record label branch of Beat Factory, distributed by EMI Music Canada and BMG Music Canada. The label released a series of compilation albums, known as RapEssentials and GroovEssentials. These albums included the first singles by Kardinal Offishall and Glenn Lewis, who both became prominent artists in the 2000s.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Beat Factory • Founded — 1982 • Founder — Ivan Berry Rupert Gayle • Status — Defunct • Genre — Hip hop, R&B, reggae • Country — Canada • Location — Toronto, Ontario
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Canada
Named but not plotted · 1
Beat Factory is associated with Canada.
Country
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hip-hop legend Michie Mee talks Toronto rap scene and 25th anniversary of debut. CBC News. January 30, 2016.
- 2.Ivan Berry. Discogs.
- 3.Beat Factory (firm). Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada. 2016-11-25.
- 4.Cowie, Del. Rap Essentials at 20: the album that put '90s Canadian hip-hop on the map. CBC News. March 13, 2019.
- 5.Andyman187. BEAT FACTORY PRODUCTIONS RECORD RELEASE PARTY - MUCH MUSIC RAP CITY 1991/92?. 2019-11-27.
- 6.Dream Warriors. Canada Black Music Archives.
- 7.Interview with Canadian music visionary Ivan Berry. PlayItLoudMusic. 2010-11-06.
- 8.Hip-Hop 50: 10 Early Trailblazers Who Helped Shape Canadi. Complex.
- 9.King Lou talks the genesis and legacy of Dream Warriors' "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style". Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. 2024-02-22.
- 10.Compilation - Break'n Out. Museum of Canadian Music.
- 11.Cooks, Kramos of The. #30thAnniversary – Michie Mee And L.A. Luv ”Jamaican Funk – Canadian Style”. Brooklyn Radio. 2021-05-13.
- 12.Canadian Music Week 2004
- 13.Hart House. harthouse.ca.
- 14.About Ivan Berry.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,934 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Bear McCrearyPerson
- BeardymanPerson
- Bearsville RecordsOrganisation
- Beat ButchersOrganisation
- Beat FurrerPerson
- Beat RaaflaubPerson
- Beat RecordsOrganisation
- Beat RichnerPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Beat Factory?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.