[URBAN NOTE] "How Drake's nickname "the 6" made Toronto cool"

[rfmcdonald]

Writing at blogTO, Luke Corrado argues that Drake's nickname for Toronto has helped make the city of Toronto that much cooler.

What's in a name? A lot if you're one of the biggest cities in the world. Even more if you're a place that's tended to struggle when it comes to a coherent identity that residents can get behind en masse. Toronto has never been short on diminutives -- from TO to the Tdot to YYZ -- but it wasn't until everyone took notice of Drake's "the 6" (or the 6ix, if you will) that the city finally had a cool nickname.

Don't get me wrong. When Kardinal Offishall belted out the "T dot comin much hotta" and "I'm from the T dot Oh / Rep it everywhere I go," there was loads of civic pride at work, but the reach of these songs and the nickname had no international. And, right or wrong, the best nicknames need to span beyond the borders of a place.

Toronto's nicknames have never been all that inspiring. "Hogtown?" No one wants to be named for the pork trade. "The Big Smoke?" Maybe in the Canadian context, but when it comes to North America, Toronto doesn't qualify for the title. "YYZ?" I always thought we could be more imaginative than an airport code.

Since "the 6" gained popularity, there's been plenty of discussion as to its origin. Does it refer to the common number in Toronto's two main area codes? As people are so quick to point out, the "4" is also common to 416 and 647. Here's the thing: it doesn't matter one bit what the nuanced etymology of the term is.

It only matters that Drake bequeathed the name to the city. Jimmy Prime was the first to use the nickname, but Drizzy made it famous.