Category Archives: News

2012 Stylus Award Nominations Announced

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The nominations for the 7th annual Stylus Awards presented by Pioneer DJ have been announced. The event will take place on May 26th and will be hosted by comedian TRIXX. Tickets for the event can be purchased at ticketmaster.ca beginning on Monday. A few of the award nominations are listed below. Click here for full listing.

Fan Choice Club DJ of the Year presented by Pioneer DJ
4 Korners (Toronto)
Charlie Brown (Toronto)
Hedspin (Vancouver)
Lissa Monet (Toronto)
Wristpect (Toronto)
Keith Dean (Montreal)

Fan Choice Artist of the Year presented by Pioneer DJ
Anjulie
Drake
Kardinal Offishall
Karl Wolf
Melanie Fiona
The Weeknd

Canadian Hip Hop Single of the Year
A-Game – Oh My!
Classified – That Ain’t Classy
Drake ft. Tyga, Lil’ Wayne – The Motto
JD Era ft. Lokz – Change
Kardinal Offishall – Ignorant
P Reign – I Need It All
Reema Major – I’m The One
Rock Da House – For My City Remix

Canadian Producer of the Year
Arthur McArthur (Tyga – “Kings & Queens”)
Boi-1da (Drake – “Headlines”)
Cirkut (Rihanna – “You The One”)
Illangelo (Drake – “Crew Love”)
Noah “40″ Shebib (DJ Khaled ft. Drake, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne – “I’m The One”)
T-Minus (Lil Wayne ft. Drake – “She Will”)

Toronto DJ of the Year
4 Korners
Charlie Brown
Jester
Lissa Monet
Ritz
Wristpect

Artist Mixtape of the Year
Ayah & DJ Jazzy Jeff – Back For More
Belly – The Greatest Dream I Never Had
Magnum – I’m G.O.O.D
Raz Fresco – MCMXCV
Reema Major – I Am Legend
Rich Kidd – We On Some Rich Kidd Sh*t Vol 5: Born To Win
Shaun Boothe – Waiting Room
Son Real – Where’s Waldo?
The Airplane Boys – Where’ve You Been
The Weeknd – House of Balloons

Underground Hip Hop DJ of the Year
Big Jacks (Toronto)
Dames Nellas (Toronto)
DJ Fase (Toronto)
DJ Law (Toronto)
DJ Sage (Vancouver)
Marvel (Vancouver)

Hall of Fame Inductees
Michie Mee (Artist)
DJ Bunny (Calgary) (DJ)

Young Jeezy Concerts Shut Down After Shootings

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Two shootings within 24 hours have shut down Young Jeezy concerts in Toronto and London and canceled a third, which was to take place tonight in Montreal. On Wednesday night (April 4th), Young Jeezy was scheduled to perform at Sound Academy in Toronto, but shots rang out at around 12:30 AM after the opening acts had finished performing, but before Young Jeezy took the stage. The shooting sent a 26-year-old man to hospital after he took three bullets to the torso.

Then last night in London a similar event took place with shots fired at about 11:30 PM even with a reported increase in security and police presence due to the previous nights events in Toronto. Three people have been treated for wounds from the London shooting, with one in serious, but stable, condition.

Young Jeezy was scheduled to perform tonight at Montreal’s L’Olympia as part of the inaugural Festival Hip Hop de Montreal, but the show has been canceled due to the organizer’s concern of further violence.

The Toronto show has since been rescheduled for Sunday, April 8th, but no word yet on whether the London show will move to another date.

(Information from CTV and CBC)

Rock-U Live Auditions

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Thought I would share this info for anyone who might be interested. More information can be found on their website.

Uni-Community is a unique Music Industry high school assembly designed to educate students on working towards a career within the music/entertainment industry. Uni-Community brings music industry professionals and domestic Universal Music Canada artists to high school assemblies, encouraging the importance of education and inspiring students to pursue their dreams, no matter how unattainable they may seem. Uni-Community promotes ‘Make Education Make Sense For You,’ teaching students to customize their schooling into the perfect outlet to obtain their ultimate career goal. After launching last year Uni-Community has visited over 50 schools throughout Ontario offering free assemblies to eager students.

Now, Uni-Community, alongside our proud sponsors Hard Rock Cafe, would like to give aspiring artists a platform to be heard through our Rock-U talent search! On April 4th from 5:00pm—9:00pm and April 7th from 11:00am—6:00pm we will be holding auditions at the Hard Rock Cafe, open exclusively to high school students who have registered through www.uni-community.com/rocku. 5 lucky acts will then be chosen to perform at the famous Hard Rock Café in the heart of downtown Toronto to showcase their talents to their peers, a panel of music industry professionals and Universal Music Canada artists.

Voting for 2012 Stylus Awards now open

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Voting for the 2012 Stylus Awards presented by Pioneer DJ has begun. The voting period kicked off at noon today and continues until March 21st at 11:59 pm.

The 2012 Spinfest and Stylus Awards presented by Pioneer DJ will begin in Toronto on Saturday, May 26th followed by a complete weekend of festivities leading up to the red carpet awards show on Monday, May 28th. Spinfest is a conference showcasing leading industry talents, speakers and education for tomorrow’s next big artists. Tickets for the Stylus Awards will be available via Ticketmaster in April for $40 CND+HST. Be sure to purchase your tickets early to avoid disappointment, the show has sold out every year! The awards show will take place at a new venue this year, the Danforth Music Hall located at 147 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON, M4K 1N2. For a complete list of rules and regulations visit the Stylus Group website.

Nominees for the 2012 SiriusXM Indie Awards

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The 12th Annual Independent Music Awards will be presented on Saturday, March 24th in the Canadian Ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The nominees for the awards were released a couple days ago and while there isn’t a lot of hip hop representation, there is one local rapper who found himself nominated as D-Sisive was listed in the Urban Artist/Group or Duo of the Year category. He is up against Swollen Members and singers Danny Fernandes, JRDN and The Weeknd.

Tickets to the awards are $39.50 and can be purchased via the Canadian Music Fest website.

A Letter From D-Sisive – Juno Nomination, New Songs, Video

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The following letter was sent out from D-Sisive via URBNET Records. In it D-Sisive writes about his recent Juno nomination, presents a couple new songs and his new video.

I’m the happiest boy in the world!

Tuesday morning I was given a wonderful present. The Juno Award Nominations were announced and I was fortunate to get my third. Best Rap Recording for Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye.

I spent the day in celebration mode. Congratulation texts/e-mails. Sneaky Dees. Heroin. Disco dancing. Bar room brawling. Giving my self stitches, fixing up my gash courtesy of Bruce Cockburn’s butterfly knife…

*advice. never pronounce his surname the way it’s spelt. he doesn’t find it funny. ask my scar.*

…and that was the day. The night was spent with the posse in the studio, creating a few presents for my faithful supporters. Presents in the form of song. Wonderful song. Glorious song. Two song. Songs. Whatever. Victory Parade and Ghetto Bastard [NaughtyByNature:Hijacked], both produced by Muneshine, were written, recorded and mixed in one night. Well, I didn’t write Ghetto Bastard. Treach did. You get what I’m talking about!

Victory Parade is straight monster. As the kids say…I went in! And maybe there’s a little clue in the last line. Clue for what? Find out!

Ghetto Bastard is one of my favourite songs of all time. Naughty By Nature is one of my favourite groups. They’re also the reason I wear my pants the way I do. “Hey! Derek pooped his pants!” Or… “You should buy a belt!” Idiot. I’m wearing a belt. How else would they sag so perfectly, goof? All pants aside, recording this song brought me back to my bedroom mirror. Hat on backwards, rapping into my brush. I couldn’t keep up. Twenty years later, I still can’t. Hence the slower beat. Treach…This one’s for you!! Why stop there? Why get two gifts when you can have three? I’m proud to present my newest rap music video for The Invisible Man, featured on my newest album, Run With The Creeps. The video was directed by Alex Colthart for Raw Footage. It’s D-Sisive in raw, performance mode. I even sweat a little. It was warm in the boiler room!

And if you’ve go nothing to do, head over to http://www.derekchristoff.com and check out my new Podcast, The Unknown.

Listen. Watch. Love. Hopefully in April I’ll have a new trophy for my china cabinet. Of course I have a china cabinet. Where else would I put my china?

Kisses,
D

2012 Juno Award Nominees Announced

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The Juno Award nominees for 2012 were announced today and, of course, there’s some Toronto hip hop artists up for awards, including Drake, who is up for 4 awards.

The nominees for Rap Recording of the Year are:

    Classified – Handshakes and Middle Fingers (Half Life/Sony Music)
    D-Sisive – Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye (URBNET/Fontana North)
    Drake – Take Care (Cash Money/Universal)
    Kardinal Offishall – Anywhere (Ol’ Time Killin’ Part 2) (Black Stone Colleagues/Universal)
    Swollen Members – Daggermouth (Battle Axe/Suburban Noize/eOne)

Drake is also nominated for Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and the Juno Fan Choice Award, while Kardinal Offishall finds himself nominated twice in the R&B/Soul Recording of the Year category for collaborations with Jully Black and Karl Wolf.

For the Juno Fan Choice Award, Drake is up against Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, City and Colour, Deadmau5, Ginette Reno, Hedley, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé and Nickelback.

Drake’s Take Care is up for Album of the Year against the new albums from Avril Lavigne and Nickelback and a couple of Christmas albums from Justin Bieber and Michael Bublé.

City and Colour, Deadmau5, Feist and Michael Bublé are Drake’s competition for Artist of the Year.

Noah “40” Shebib was nominated for Producer of the Year for the songs “Marvins Room” and “Take Care” from Drake’s album.

K’naan not happy with Mitt Romney’s campaign song [from Toronto.com]

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After emerging victorious from yesterday’s Florida primary, Mitt Romney unveiled is new victory song, “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan, as tweeted by the Huffington Post’s Jon Ward.

A few hours later, K’naan sent out his own tweet: “Yo @mittromney I am K’naan Warsame and I do not endorse this message.”

ARTICLE: Toronto.com

Drake to perform at NHL All Star Game

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Drake will be performing this Sunday during the second intermission of the NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa. The game begins at 4 PM and, as always, can be seen on CBC. Also performing will be Outasight, while Javier Colon will sing the American anthem and the Senators’ long-time anthem singer Lyndon Slewidge will handle the Canadian anthem.

K’Naan announces new EP, first single with Nas

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K’Naan announced the release of his upcoming EP, More Beautiful Than Silence. The EP will be released via iTunes on January 24th and features tracks with Nelly Furtado and Nas.

He also premiered the first song from the EP, “Nothing To Lose,” which features Nas, stating:

just know that this is a gigantic moment for your boy, cause Nas is one of the reasons why I’m so slick with this English language right here!