Reporter: On November 11th, 2024, a shootout broke out just off of Queen Street West, right behind me in this alleyway. What started off as a late night jam session in a music studio ended up with nearly 100 shots fired. Amazingly, no one was injured. Now, surveillance video later showed a group of young men inside the studio prior to the shooting, holding an even dancing with the guns. Police say three people then arrived in a stolen vehicle and opened fire outside the studio. They were met by return fire. People scattered, tossed guns into nearby laneways and garbage bins. By the end of it, police seized at least 16 guns, including handguns and assault style weapons.

Analyst: >> The gathering was supposed to be a party. Who brings a gun to a party, but we know that it was live streamed, that the group that was there down on Queen Street in the studio, came from the northwest of Toronto. There is a group in central Toronto that claims that area of the studio as their turf, and were offended because this was all live streamed. And this is one of the things the Ace talks about in terms of what we call digital violence accelerants. Explicit or implicit threats that evolve to a situation where there's going to be gun violence.

Analyst: >> In a matter of minutes.

Analyst: >> My understanding in terms of the research that we've done, because we're trying to mitigate this as a clear and present threat to what we call get back killings and reciprocal violence. So the party started at about 10 to 11, and by 20 after 11, three of the individuals from central Toronto had come down and 100 rounds were fired. Then eventually, you know, thank God nobody was hurt. And there are still people outstanding from that matter.

Reporter: Some people can look at this, probably with your background and say, this is perhaps some form of organised crime in some sense.

Analyst: >> 100%, because those firearms aren't free, right? And so if we want to begin then to look at Organised weapons trafficking, definitely there's a connection to.

Reporter: It. Over the past decade. Firearm related homicides have gone up by nearly 90% across Canada over the last three years. Toronto police have reported on average 350 shooting incidents per year. The result? About 150 people either injured or killed in the city every year. Experts are saying gun violence is now a public health crisis. The Queen West shootout could easily have been much worse for the neighbourhood and for Toronto's music community. However, this one hit close to home for a lot of young artists. In Ontario's capital city, a music studio is supposed to be a creative space, some would say even a safe space. So what happens now?

Reporter: Hey, is the track. Yes, sir. How's it going? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Studio Owner: >> It's a recording studio, so, like, anybody can come here and make music. I kind of just, like, created a space for just, like, people to be able to make music without, like, breaking their pockets. You might see some of your friends here, or you might see a famous rapper here. It's more of like, also like a meeting grounds for people.

Reporter: >> Let's go.

Studio Owner: >> The shooting that happened, obviously, even just pulling up, you can still kind of see remnants of it. Was this studio operating at the time that that happened?

Studio Owner: >> I literally just moved in maybe like a month before. It was horrible. I thought it was done. I was like, this is terrible. I spent so much money, like trying to renovate and do whatever, whatever and like shooting happens. I wasn't here, I was in Los Angeles, but some of my engineers were here, and they ended up just like locking themselves in the bathroom.

Reporter: >> So let's let's help clarify it. Was there a there's a studio upstairs that's separate from.

Studio Owner: >> Yeah, there was, yeah, there was a studio upstairs two floors upstairs.

Reporter: >> Okay. And that's where.

Studio Owner: >> The that's where. It happened. The shooting happened. Yeah.

Reporter: What were those messages like? I'm just curious, like, what were the messages from your engineers to you being like, what's happening?

Studio Owner: >> Yeah. They were frightened as like, they were scared. Rightfully so. But they were safe. Like, yeah, but it's just. Yeah, not something that anybody should like kind of go through.

Analyst: >> Do you think the music reflects the violence or is it driving it?

Studio Owner: >> When there's violence behind music or whatever? When it gets like tied together, it's like it's the real life stuff first, like the music is after the real life stuff is already happening.

Analyst: >> What do you mean by real life stuff?

Studio Owner: >> It's not like someone's making a song and then violence is happening. After that. They're making songs about stuff that's happening in real life.

Analyst: >> Do you find there's an unfair connection between sort of hip hop and violence, that when people see hip hop videos, music, they automatically are like, okay, well, there is a connection. These shootings, for example, that shooting is not an anomaly. It's not a one off.

Studio Owner: >> I don't know, I guess a little bit, but it's understandable. Music should just be entertainment, like it's an entertainment business. At the end of the day, I can tell when the music is secondary to someone and the real life is first. And I can tell when some people are just like, yeah, I'm just making some cool music for some people. Yeah, I'm saying certain things, but I don't live like that.

Analyst: >> There is this stereotype that there is a sort of a connection to violence and hip hop. Does hip hop and music have a violence problem?

Studio Owner: >> I don't think so. I think what the issue is because if you look at the lyrics, right, so are those lyrics provocative or in other ways conveying threats or insults that then is going to raise the stakes? So that's where it is, not necessarily the genre itself, it's what you choose to use it for in terms of conveying things that could cause a problem.

Analyst: >> As someone who works directly with youth, how much of this conversation and the problems here is really about a lack of opportunity for youth?

Studio Owner: >> This is all about a lack of opportunity. I teach part time in a police, foundations and public safety course at one of the local colleges. One of my students, 18-19 years old, came to me and said, sir, I just put out 40 resumes looking for a job and I can't land a part time job.

Analyst: >> Youth unemployment.

Studio Owner: >> Youth unemployment, 100%. And the point with him is he's in college, he's exercising the right decisions and options, and he can't. And what he said to me is that I understand why these kids carry guns or sell drugs. It's the only job. You don't need a resume. You don't have to subject yourself to an interview. And you're always the successful candidate. That, to me, was profound.

Analyst: >> But how do you turn that negativity into positivity?

Studio Owner: >> That's just me, naturally. I'm just like naturally a positive person. I like to help people and I want the entire economy of our Toronto music scene to go up.

Analyst: >> Obviously, there's a lot of young people who are eager and hungry. They're in this space working on music. What could this scene potentially look like?

Studio Owner: >> Unlike 2016, we must have had at least like 15 artists that were touring around the world and doing a bunch of crazy stuff, and they're all like upcoming people. It's like, I feel like that's about to happen again right now. Toronto hip hop was looked at a certain way before, just like how everybody else knows it. And now it's like, it's a real, like positive group of people that all mess with each other. And it's just like, it's the new Toronto. It's a bunch of young kids that are like making some noise and they're all performing at these big shows and like meeting big artists and like, yeah, it's a bunch of kids doing cool stuff. And if you've got some type of pull in the music industry and you want to get involved in something really cool before it kind of takes off and you just got to watch like, come see what's going on in the city. I love my city, man. I love this city to death.