Juqan Brown is twenty-two and from Scarborough, which is the part of Toronto most rap fans skip when they list the city's exports. He records as WishGxd. The sound is moody, melodic, and shot through with a strange patience for a young artist working in trap. He is in no rush to tell you what the song is about. He'd rather build the room first.
The 2024 single "BADLANDS" was the first time most listeners noticed. It opens with a synth pad that sounds like the inside of a hotel room at four in the morning and then refuses to escalate the way trap usually does. The 2025 debut EP IN LIVING COLOR built on that approach. "Limelight" became the most-streamed cut and it earns it: the hook is barely sung, the production is doing the heavy emotional lifting, and the writing trusts you to lean in.
The slow burn
His recent single "ambition weighs heavy" is the most exposed thing he has put out. It is a young man's song about wanting things and the cost of that wanting, sung over a beat that won't let you forget it. There is a thread that connects this track to early Frank Ocean, to PARTYNEXTDOOR's first mixtape, to that small group of artists who realised R&B and trap could share a room without arguing.
Why now
Toronto rap has been famous for one mood for over a decade. WishGxd is part of a small generation pulling at the edges of that mood and finding more there than the city's biggest exports admitted to. "Limelight," "BADLANDS," and "ambition weighs heavy" form a small early canon. Listen in that order. The sound is patient. So is he.
Allastair Voss
