The Godfather may be known for making offers people can’t refuse, but The Towfather, a.k.a. Joe Borg, is known for towing cars like no one else.
Borg has been in the business since 1991, so if you’re doing the math, well, don’t — because that would make him 15 when he started out, in “Flemo,” a.k.a. the Flemingdon Park area of Toronto.
Decades later, he’s still the man for the GTA’s towing needs — and put out a rap video/story, which can be seen on his website, showing he means business.
“I wanted to write a song for the longest time, then I wanted to do a video because if you see my Instagram, I’m always making videos,” he told The Toronto Sun.
Borg gets help from his daughter, a YouTuber, to make the videos for him, and while he admits it’s not “Hollywood quality,” the reception he gets is positive.
“They’re recorded on my cell phone, it’s raw, real footage, me being me — people love them, they love the sense of humour, everything,” he said.
So Borg decided to go a step further with a more professionally shot video.
The concept is simple: A man who appears to be a mob boss runs into car trouble and gets help from none other than The Towfather.
He initially tried recording it himself, but he didn’t like the way his voice sounded. He gave it to his friend, Joel Legall, who sent back a tweaked version with some notes and advice.
In the end, Borg asked Legall to record it himself — and people are loving it.
“The reaction’s been amazing. It’s a real story, it’s not autotuned,” Borg said, but wanted to make clear that it’s not him singing the song.
“If they watch the whole video, they’ll realize I’m not. At the end, that’s my voice. I’m talking, I’m not singing.”
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Borg continued: “I would never lie and say that’s me singing. I want my friend and his brother to get credit for his beautiful work. They helped put this video together, they came up with the whole scheme.”