UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
 from Toronto Life’slong-form archives

Dear Reader,

Toronto’s independent rap scene is lively, collaborative and creative. It’s also rife with resentment, posturing and clout-chasing. Decades of neighbourhood rivalries and turf wars can boil over into conflict between the city’s rappers, and one artist’s success can stoke jealousy and violence. In 2020, those dynamics led to the murder of 21-year-old Dimarjio Jenkins, who was experiencing a meteoric rise to stardom under the stage name Houdini. Last week, Jenkins’s friends testified about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death at a trial related to a gunfight at his memorial. But, three years after Jenkins was shot, his killer has yet to be convicted. As the case remains unsolved, we’re revisiting Toronto Life deputy editor Lauren McKeon’s 2021 feature about how Houdini’s sudden fame put a target on his back.

The short life and tragic death of Houdini

Dimarjio Jenkins was going to be Toronto’s next superstar—until a ruthless act of violence ended it all. A story of talent, jealousy and deadly social media rivalries

BY LAUREN MCKEON | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

Dimarjio Jenkins grew up in Driftwood, the dense, diverse and vibrant neighbourhood at Jane and Finch. From childhood, he had big plans for his life. He was smart, determined and charismatic. He was going to have lots of money, and he was going to be noticed. By his late teens, Jenkins had dropped out of high school to pursue a rap career in Toronto’s underground scene, rebranding himself as Houdini. Within a few years, he was poised to become one of the city’s biggest superstars. Then, as Lauren McKeon wrote in this haunting feature, an unidentified shooter took it all away.

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