Category Archives: News

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!

Backburner Remix Contest

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The Backburner crew has announced a remix contest for their debut single. Producers have until February 29, 2012 to submit their updates of “Heatwave.” The submissions will be judged by a representative of Hand’Solo Records and the participating members of Backburner. The winning remix will be announced via HandSoloRecords.com and Backburner.ca and will be included on the upcoming collector’s edition vinyl EP of Heatwave. The winner receives five copies of the vinyl release. The four runners up will also be featured on their websites.

For more rules and information on the contest go to: handsolorecords.com/brainonsunrays/.

The Rhyming Chef’s Don’t Sweat The Techniques II

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Toronto’s Philman George, aka The Rhyming Chef, has been busy uploading his new series of videos, Don’t Sweat The Techniques II. It is a how-to cooking series designed to “fine tune your kitchen suave.”

Each installment delivers insightful tips from knowing when your steak should come off the grill, to understanding which kitchen gadgets that are worth the price tag.

The Rhyming Chef has teamed up with beatboxer Scott Jackson to produce the video clips, with a new one uploaded every Wednesday at 1 pm. Every video will also include a step by step

Videos and step-by-step recipes are also available on The Rhyming Chef’s official website.

Time For Another Mixtape

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It’s been a while since we last put out our last mixtape, but since the site has been redesigned now, why not do another one.

The plan right now would be to release it as a free download like our last two and release it later this winter (February or March). It will be distributed through our mailing list, Facebook, Twitter and, of course, through our website.

This will be open to any artist in the GTA. It doesn’t matter what your style is; the track just needs to sound good. Anyone interested in sending in a track can do so by sending them to Matt at megacityhiphop@gmail.com with “Mixtape Submission” in the subject line. Please include your name or group’s name, any features and the producer’s name.

[Edit: Artists can submit more than one track if they want, however only one, at most, will make the final cut.]

A few rules:

1 – Must be from the GTA
2 – No freestyles or dubs
3 – Send either as 320 MP3 or WAV file
4 – Please send via Mediafire, Hulkshare or a similar site

The deadline for submissions will be February 15th. We will then go through the submissions and select around 15-20 tracks for the final mix.

The goal would be to release a few mixtapes throughout the year, so if your track’s not selected this time around, just submit again the next time.

Also, if there are any graphic designers out there that might be interested in designing the cover art, let me know.

If there are any questions, just ask.