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Fanshawe music graduate Haviah Mighty wins $50,000 Polaris prize

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Fanshawe College graduate Haviah Mighty has snagged one of the music industry’s most prestigious honours for her breakthrough album, 13th Floor.

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The rapper, 26, was awarded the 2019 Polaris Music Prize on Monday in Toronto, after being shortlisted for the first time earlier this year and being chosen over nine other contenders.

The prize is awarded to the best full-length Canadian album of the year based on artistic merit, without consideration of genre, sales or label.

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Mighty, who performed at the London Junos in March, received a prize that included $50,000 in cash.

Mighty attended the music industry program at Fanshawe from 2011 to 2013, and has returned to lecture several times.

“We’re over the top (about her win). She is one of the hardest working artists that I’ve ever seen and she has done a fantastic job. The rest of Canada is finally seeing what we were seeing eight years ago,” said Mike Roth, Mighty’s former professor, who describes her as a female Kendrick Lamar.

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“She’s really pushing the borders for female rappers, in the way he did for male rappers. She’s just a natural.”

Mighty’s win was determined by a jury of 11 music media professionals from across the country.

Raised in Brampton, Mighty started singing at the age of four. By 11 she was rapping and by 15 producing her own music, according to her website.

“Ever since I heard her first song put out years ago called Pop Pills, I was like, ‘Wow, this girl is a star. She has got it,’ ” Roth said.

“She done really well. It’s an indication of what it takes to stay in the game. Fanshawe was one step on her way. She met a lot of people who she has collaborated with, and she got a lot of confidence at Fanshawe and that gave her the confidence to keep at it.”

In 2018, Mighty’s track Vámonos appeared on HBO’s hit series Insecure. Named one of XXL’s 15 Toronto Rappers You Should Know in 2019, Mighty is also one of four women rappers who make up the hip-hop group The Sorority.

HRivers@postmedia.com

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