Born in Mississauga, Ontario, in 1985, Joseph “JD Era” Dako developed a passion for music at an early age. JD Era began rapping and participating in local shows at age 14, winning his first freestyle competition at 16 and quickly earning a reputation as one of the top freestyle lyricists in Toronto. In 2005, JD Era won the freestyle competition at the Marc Ecko: Getting Up Festival against fifteen other emcees. In the same year he was featured on Nike Battleground’s Coat of Arms compilation, followed by performing at the Nike Battleground’s Tournament alongside Kardinall Offishall. 2005 continued to be a big year for JD Era, he released two singles, “Ride Clean” and “Take Me Home”, both receiving airtime on Toronto’s Flow 93.5 and 91.5 The Beat.

“Take Me Home” was played in heavy rotation on Flow 93.5 and earned a place in the Countdown at #4. JD Era won Best Rap at the Toronto Independent Music Awards in 2008 in addition to winning TAG Records’ Survival of the Freshest competition and two nominations for DJ Stylus awards. Around this time, JD Era co-founded Black Market Music group which has been his source of distributing his music since 2014. JD Era’s work continued to impress, with his track 25th Hour getting featured on Stricklee Hip Hop’s Dame Hustle: The Hip Hop Experiment in 2009. He was a member of the group ‘Wise Guys’ which featured other Canadian hip-hop artists like Young Tony and Drake in 2010 and released his mixtape I’m Coming to America on Black Market in the same year. This album resulted in an increase of exposure for JD Era in the United States and gained a nomination for Best Mixtape at Flow 93.5’s Real Frequency Awards.

Maintaining momentum, JD Era released his mixtape Th1rt3en-Black Tape in 2011 through Black Market from which the music vidoes for tracks “You Know This” and “Fame & Fortune” were featured on music video countdown channels like Much Music. Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan picked JD Era to join his new label ICEH20 Records in 2012, the same year JD Era released his first mixtape No Hands through Black Market. This album was nominated for Rap Recording of the Year at the 2013 Juno Awards. He toured with Raekwon and Ghostface Killah on a 40-date Canada/United States Tour which included the North by Northeast Festival mainstage at Yonge and Dundas square.

JD Era self-released his 2014 Barz mixtape for free online before taking a hiatus to re-evaluate and consider how his personal and music goals could align. A key element in this process involved pivoting his talents from freestyling to writing full songs and albums. He returned to the scene with his first full length project Back from the Dead in 2019 which featured his 2018 single “Bankroll”. JD Era is a fundamental artist in Toronto’s musical landscape, known for his unmatchable freestyle ability and applauded for his flow and lyricism.

Awards

• Best Rap, Toronto Independent Music Awards, 2008
• TAG Records’ Survival of the Freshest Winner
• Best Mixtape, Flow 93.5 Real Frequency Awards