Artist · chart history
K-OS
Solo artist Toronto Canada Canadian rapper
K-OS is an artist from Toronto. K-OS has 19 chart appearances on 12 radio countdowns from 3 stations on RockLists, spanning 2005–2012. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Crabbuckit”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #19. The station that charted K-OS most often is CFNY 102.1 The Edge (Toronto, ON), with 17 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2005.
K-OS, born Kevin Brereton in Toronto in 1972, never wanted to sound like a tough guy. Even the name, spelled in lower case to seem less aggressive than rappers with all-caps handles, stands for "Knowledge of Self" (though he later said it first meant "Kevin's Original Sound"), and his music says the same thing: rap that swerves into funk, rock and reggae, with lyrics that push a positive message and take shots at hip-hop's obsession with money, fame and violence.
He started with the single "Musical Essence" in 1995, then walked away from the business after "Rise Like the Sun" in 1996, unhappy with how he sounded. He came back with the debut album Exit in 2002, and Joyful Rebellion in 2004 went platinum in Canada on the strength of "Crabbuckit", "Crucial" and "Man I Used to Be". In 2005 he took home 3 Juno Awards: Rap Recording, Single and Video of the Year.
He writes and produces most of his records himself, plays guitar and keyboards, and performs with a live band, a rarity in hip-hop. Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, with "Sunday Morning", arrived in 2006 and went platinum too, Yes! went gold in 2009, and BLack on BLonde followed in 2013. Between 1996 and 2016, only Drake and Swollen Members sold more records in Canada among the country's hip-hop artists.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by K-OS on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crabbuckit | 4 | #19 | – | – | |
| 2 | Sunday Morning | 4 | #16 | – | 2006 | |
| 3 | Crucial | 5 | #26 | – | 2005 | |
| 4 | Man I Used to Be | 2 | #52 | – | – | |
| 5 | Holy Cow | 1 | #47 | – | 2011 | |
| 6 | Burning Bridges | 1 | #84 | – | 2009 | |
| 7 | Dirty Water | 1 | #84 | – | 2005 | |
| 8 | The Dog Is Mine | 1 | #46 | – | 2012 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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