MEDIA COVERAGE SUMMARY REPORT www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Drop The Needle: Stylus Awards Last week the annual 'Stylus Awards' hit Toronto and we chatted with a handful of the Break Through DJ of the Year nominees: DJ Rich-A, Dames Nellas, K So, James Redi, 4th QTR, DJ Ohh, DJ Darsh & DJ Snook. They chose the one album that they'd bring with them if they were stranded on a barren island up north and revealed some of their guilty musical pleasures. And if you missed it, we had the nominees drop a few of their mixes on the Strombo Show a few weeks back. Published: June 4, 2013 www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Published: June, 2012 www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Michie Mee Talks Her Stylus Awards Hall of Fame Honour: "I Was Overwhelmed" By Del F. CowieEven though Michie Mee is widely recognized as a pioneer in the Canadian hip-hop scene, the rapper was still surprised when she found out that she had been selected to receive the Hall of Fame Award at the 2012 Stylus Awards. "I was like, you're kidding, because I just like to support the Stylus Awards," Mee tells Exclaim! "I saw them induct Maestro and I was happy that they were having MCs involved. This looks like it's going to be the biggest awards show we have celebrating urban music in Canada, as we've tried many awards before. When they said I was next, I dropped a tear, I was overwhelmed." The Stylus Awards recognizes DJs across Canada for their work behind the turntables. As recently reported, this year the awards will be held at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto tonight (May 28), capping off a weekend of events bring DJs across the country together through networking, panels and conference events. Mee's links to DJs goes back to the very beginning of her career. As a teenager, she performed with Toronto soundsystem crew Sunshine Sound Crew before she committed anything to wax. Mee's style of meshing hip-hop with dancehall earmarked her as a pioneer in Canadian hip-hop and has also proved to be influential to both her peers and artists who have followed in her footsteps. While www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Maestro Fresh Wes, who also received a Stylus Hall of Fame Award last year, is often thought of as one of the most important historical figures in Canadian hip-hop, he has said that Michie's success was an inspiration to him. Similarly, her influence can be traced in the work of Canadian artists such as Kardinal Offishall. "It's really cool hearing that from Maestro 'cause he was older than me," she says. "I truly respect it, I appreciate it, because you just never know how other artists think. [You think] they are focused on their own career. To hear it was humbling. Big time. To have that influence on two totally different right and left MCs, that's big. It makes me feel good." Past Hall of Fame winners have included Toronto hip-hop radio pioneer Ron Nelson and the late Edmonton DJ Teddy P, father of Cadence Weapon. The awards ceremony will also feature a tribute to Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who passed away earlier this month. That tribute will be produced by Saskatoon's DJ Anchor, who is nominated for four Stylus Awards this year. Other DJs and producers nominated include 4 Korners, Wristpect, T-Minus, Boi 1da, and Noah "40" Shebib. Also among the 2012 Stylus Awards nominees are Kardinal Offishall, Melanie Fiona, the Weeknd and Drake" Published: May 28, 2012 www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Drake, Weeknd, Kardinal Offishall, deadmau5 Nominated for 2012 Stylus Awards By Gregory Adams Ready to toast some homegrown talent, the 2012 instalment of the Stylus Awards has rolled out its list of nominees. The festivities, now in their seventh year, will take place throughout the weekend of May 26 to 28 in Toronto through SpinFest, a three-day event celebrating DJ and club culture via concerts and speakers (which have yet to be revealed). The weekend's activities will culminate in the awards show, which takes place May 28 at the city's Danforth Music Hall. Heavyweights like Drake and the Weeknd raked up a couple noms each, with both being pre-approved for Fan Choice Artist of the Year award. Drake also earned a nom for Canadian Hip Hop Single of the Year ("The Motto"), while his buddy the Weeknd grabbed a nomination for Canadian R&B Single of the Year ("High for This"). Nominated as well this year are Noah "40" Shebib (Canadian Producer of the Year), Slakah the Beatchild (Video of the Year), Rich Kidd (Artist Mixtape of the Year), deadmau5 (Electro DJ of the Year), Kardinal Offishall (Canadian Hip Hop Single of the Year, Fan Choice Artist of the Year), A-Trak (Electro DJ of the Year) and Classified (Canadian Hip Hop Single of the Year). Also scoring some noms are Saskatoon's DJ Anchor, Toronto's 4 Korners, Charlie Brown, Lissa Monet and Dames Nellas, as well as Mike Tomas and Keith Dean. Plus, Hall of Fame awards will be given to iconic Canadian rapper Michie Mee and DJ Bunny. Published: April 11, 2012 www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 Stylus Awards 2012 featuring Michie Mee, Maestro Fresh Wes, Kreesha Turner, the Airplane Boys Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON May 28 By Kevin Jones Canada's annual celebration of urban and club culture, the Stylus Awards, received a bit of a slimming down this year, stepping away from its usual home at Toronto's flashy Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex and choosing instead to take up residence in the newly renovated Danforth Music Hall. This slight scaling-back had no effect on the show's historically smooth production, however, and perennial show host Trixx was back in the driver's seat, keeping the generally well-paced presentation on the rails with his deep belly-chuckle-inducing comic relief. Helping kick things off was a series of well-produced video cyphers (see below), which would return with various heat-dropping lineups throughout the night, with such notables as Rich Kidd, SonReal, Shi Wisdom and a baby-sporting Blake Carrington each blessing the mic. That initial video was closely followed by an animated performance by the Airplane Boys, who rode their backing band's boisterous bounce out into the crowd as their music video flickered across the stage's multiple screens in the background. Things really picked up when Trixx finally enter the scene, who, taking cues from other award-show- conducting greats, immediately began snapping on everything and everyone who caught his eye. The Weeknd was promptly called out as the new depressing face of R&B (and one that should more aptly be calling himself "Monday"), the show's attendees were each given licks by area code, and the white people up front earned their lumps for being, well, the white people up front. www.hcconsultingonline.com 647. 348. 3468 The ongoing comedy routine that would inevitably help to carry much of the night's proceedings continued on in a special edition of MTV's popular Jackass-style Silent Library competitions, featuring local DJs Starting from Scratch, Ritz (who bore the brunt of the abuse) and few other music industry mainstays. The unusually lengthy vids started out funny, but the laughs only lasted for as long as you could stomach frat-boy humour, which, dishearteningly, seemed to be the entire night for most in the venue. Musical performances, most of which served as a showcase for artists up against the likes of Drake, the Weeknd and other global stars in their respective categories, ran hot and cold. Most performers, including singer Kreesha Turner and the aforementioned Airplane Boys, held their own given the circumstances. However, low marks go to A-Game, not for the poor audio mix that left everything but the cussing nearly indecipherable, but for not so much performing their songs as screaming them while flying around the stage flashing the finger to every camera pointed in their direction (in a show of rebellion against photography, you might presume). For the most part, the night moved along at a decent clip, with top prizes handed out to Drake (Canadian Hip Hop Single), the Weeknd (Fan Choice Artist of the Year, R&B Single), Charlie Brown (Breakthrough DJ) and, among others, Tasha Rozez, who earned one of the night's biggest applause for her Top Female DJ win. Honoured Hall of Fame inductee Michie Mee helped wind things down with a gracious acceptance speech following a praise-filled video introduction, after which she took to the stage for her own showcase of classics, a Jamaican flag waving proudly in the background by contemporary Lindo P. Of course, the show wouldn't be complete without Canuck hip-hop godfather Maestro Fresh Wes taking some time to drop a little history of his own, as the MC legend took the crowd on a memory-lane trip back to the birth of the term "T. Dot," and to his memories of fallen Beastie Boy MCA stage diving back in '84, in reference to a tribute earlier in the show. As awards shows go, this year's event played as an entertaining lmoment of self-congratulations for a industry teeming with folks doing big things, in spite of the notable absence of some of the night's biggest winners and nominees. With its high production values and professionalism, joke-man Trixx at the helm, and, perhaps most importantly, no real drama, 2012 should go down as yet another successful year in the minds of organizers and attendees alike.