If B-Real from Cypress Hill and Ani DiFranco ever decide to have a love child, Ko is what he’ll sound like. The Toronto singer, born Ko Kapches, has such a distinctive sound that it’s almost startling.

Ko’s 2009 debut, Let’s Blaze, pioneers a genre he calls “urban folk”. His aesthetic is defined by dystopian lyrics about selling and smoking hard drugs, sung in a rootsy, melodic voice and backed by guitar-driven, organic beats. Ko’s tunes feel remarkably carefree—until it registers that the Leonard Cohen-style singsong choruses detail the despair of life on the block.

Thing is, Let’s Blaze works. Perhaps because Ko isn’t trying to be anything other than what he is: a seriously talented recovering drug addict who came up in the wildly eclectic Hogtown hip-hop scene. His sound is honest. It reflects who he is, and where he comes from. “I give a lot of credit to Toronto,” the artist tells the Straight, on the line from a Calgary tour stop. “One day there’s a reggae show, the next punk rock. Toronto is a melting pot—it’s the melting pot of the music I make.”

Raised in a musical, middle-class Greek household, Ko tangled with trouble early on. “When I was 13, I was getting high all the time,” he explains. “By the time I was 16, I was already in rehab, spiralling out of control.”

Though he signed to Atlantic Records at 19, nothing came of the deal and disappointment fuelled Ko’s addiction, landing him on the streets in the U.S. and Canada. It wasn’t until he had a run-in with the Toronto police that he had a moment of clarity: “I just realized that I did not want to be in handcuffs. I did not want to be owned by the province. It’s nice to have options in life.”

He went on to turn his life around, releasing his debut, driven by the dark yet infectious single “Capable”. “I write about what I know,” Ko says of the decision to be frank about his battle with drugs. “Looking back, I’ve definitely come a long way from that.”

Ko has been steadily touring and promoting himself via social networking ever since. “I get a lot of people reaching out that are in addiction, or in recovery,” he says. “When they email me, I hit them back and try to give back, because I can relate.” Ko adds that his live shows are his drug now. “I breathe fire! I hop around, scream—give it my all. I don’t want anyone to say that I didn’t give it 110 percent.”

Ko plays venue on Friday (May 27).