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MEDIA COVERAGE SUMMARY REPORT


Drake big winner at Stylus Awards

Toronto hip hop star takes three major prizes at annual DJ gala.

Drake, Deadmau5 and Shawn

Desman were among the prize

winners in the 2011 Stylus

Awards, a celebration of DJ

talent in Canada staged Monday

night at Toronto’s Queen

Elizabeth Theatre.

Toronto’s Witrespect and Drake

won the Fan Choice categories

for Club DJ and Artist of the

Year, respectively, while Drake’s

“Miss Me”, featuring Lil’ Wayne,

was named Canadian Hip Hop

Single of the Year.

Canadian R&B Single of the Year, “You Can Have it All”, went to JRDN, while Desman took out Canadian Dance/Pop Single of the Year for “Night Like This.”

Other winners:

House DJ of the Year: JoJo Flores (Montreal); Electro DJ of the Year: Deadmau5 (Toronto); Dance DJ of the Year: 4 Korners (Toronto); DJ Remix of the Year: Kap n Kirk & Joe Ghost Stromae for “Te Quiero” (Kap n Kirk, Joe Ghost remix); Drake for “Boi -1 da Over”; Female DJ of the Year: Lissa Monet (Toronto).

This year’s Stylus Hall of Fame inductees were DJ/rromoter Ron Nelson, and singer/songwriter Maestro

Fresh Wes.

Published: May 31, 2011

http://stylusgroup.ca/

http://stylusgroup.ca/

http://www.queenelizabeththeatre.ca/

http://www.queenelizabeththeatre.ca/


Nominees for the 2011 Stylus Awards announced

The Stylus Awards is an annual event that recognizes DJs and the most influential players in

urban and club culture from across the country. Presented by Pioneer this year, the awards will

take place at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 30th.

Among the nominees are some of Canadian music’s biggest names, including Drake, Deadmau5,

Kardinal Offishall, Shad, A-Trak and Classified, as well as the leading DJs across the country.

And seeing as he is the host of RapCity, we’ve got to give props out to our host, Canada’s party

animal T-RexXx, who is up for Club MC of the Year.

Check out the full list of nominees below.

Fan Choice Club DJ of the Yearpresented by Pioneer DJ 4 Korners – Toronto

A Trak – Montreal

Deadmau5 – Toronto

Hedspin – Vancouver

Ill Kidz – Toronto

Payce – Montreal

Team Canada – Montreal

Wristpect – Toronto


Fan Choice Artist of the Year Classified

Danny Fernandes

Drake

JRDN

Keshia Chante

Melanie Fiona

Shad

Shawn Desman

Canadian Hip Hop Single of the Year A Game – What Chu Saying

Charlie Brown – Reality ft. P Reign, JRDN, Belly, Big Lean

Drake – Miss Me ft Lil’ Wayne

JD Era – Fame and Fortune ft. Lokz

Kardinal Offishall – The Anthem

Rich Kidd – Take It Slow

Shad – Rose Garden

Son Real – Already There ft. Rich Kidd

Canadian R&B Single of the Year Andreena Mill – La La La

Glenn Lewis - Good One

JRDN – You Can Have it All

Kim Davis – I Don’t Need A Hero

Melanie Fiona – Ay Yo

Ray Robinson – Just For The Night ft. Kid Kut

Tanika Charles – Silly Happy Wild

Untitled – Island Girl ft Kardinal Offishall

Canadian Dance/Pop Single of the Year Aleesia – Not That Girl

BoomBox Saints – She Got It

Danny Fernandes – Automatic

Divine Brown – Sunglasses, (Cajjmere Wray Tribal Luv Remix)

Keshia Chante – Table Dancer

Melanie Fiona – It Kills Me Remix (The Headbanga Remix)

Mia Martina – Stereo Love

Shawn Desman – Night Like This

Excerpt from a full list.

Published: April 4, 2011


Canadian Hip Hop Artists, DJs (And Russell Peters) Share Their Favourite Summertime Songs The 2011 Stylus Awards went down at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Monday, May 30th. The high-energy event was packed with the best hip hop artists and DJs Canada has to offer. George was there and presented an award for Electro DJ of the Year. That award went to Deadmau5, an artist we feature on The Strombo Show all the time. We had a chance to catch up with many of the biggest names at the show (Russell Peters, Jully Black, Reema Major, Michie Mee, Maestro Fresh Wes Williams, Lissa Monet, etc.), and asked them to share their favourite Summertime songs, best new releases, last albums purchased, and best tweeters out there... Published: June 2, 2011


Culture_music

Stylus gives good spin Annual DJ-awards gala gets bigger each year, with a full weekend of parties and panels leading up to

Monday’s ceremony.

BY: The Grid AND Denise Benson

Nicki Minaj's go-to girl, Diamond Kuts, appears at a live Q&A this Saturday as part of Stylus SpinFest.

Much like the culture itself, the annual Stylus SpinFest celebrating DJs and diverse club music

grows larger and more extensive with each year. The sixth annual edition runs today (May 27)

through Monday (May 30), and includes panel discussions, parties, the anchoring Stylus Awards

and more.


Things kick off tonight at Wrongbar (1279 Queen W.), when veteran NYC DJ Tony Touch

headlines Can I Kick It? alongside T.O.’s DJ Agile and Sweet Touch Foundation for an eve of

hip-hop, old school, reggae, house and Latin vibes. Cover is $20 before midnight.

A mixtape and compilation king who’s sold more than a million albums internationally, Touch

returns Saturday as a keynote speaker at It Starts With the DJ 4.0, a day-long conference to be

held at Ryerson’s Eaton Lecture Theatre (80 Gould, second floor). He’ll speak from 12:30-1:45

p.m., followed by panel discussions on topics including marketing and creating relationships

within the industry. Also exciting is a 3 p.m. keynote interview with Diamond Kuts, Philly

DJ/producer and host of BET show The Deal. Diamond Kuts is also the official DJ for Nicki

Minaj, so no doubt she’ll have much to say. $5 gets you in for a full day of listening and

learning.

Sunday eve brings with it the 2011 Stylus Pre-Award Show Nominee Party at The Mod Club

(722 College). On the decks this night are three 2011 Stylus nominees, DJ Law, Spoonz and DJ

Tilt, with live performances courtesy of Glenn Lewis, JD Era, A Game and Tanika Charles a.k.a.

Mz.Chawls with her band The Wonderfuls. $10 before 10pm, $15 after.

Monday, it’s the main event as the sixth annual Stylus Awards move to the large, beautiful

Queen Elizabeth Theatre at Exhibition Place (190 Princes’ Blvd.). With almost 30 awards to be

handed out—including for Female DJ of the Year, College Radio Show, genre and city/region

specific scenes and more—a whole lot of people will be celebrated. Check the Stylus Awards

site for a full list of categories, performers and to vote in the Fan Choice Artist of the Year and

Club DJ of the Year award. Advance tickets are $40, available at Ticketbreak.com. The official

afterparty follows at Maro Supper Club (135 Liberty), with nominated DJs Clymaxxx, Ritz, P

Plus and Dirty Dale. $20, or free before midnight with a ticket from the Awards show.



Published: April 23, 2011


Stylus Awards Line Up Performances by Rich Kidd, JRDN for 2011

Toronto Ceremony

By Alex HudsonLast year, beloved Canadian rapper Drake came out on top at the 2010 instalment of the

Stylus Awards. This year, the Stylus Group will honour another batch of our country's best DJs and MCs

during a ceremony at Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 30.

This will be the main event of SpinFest, a four-day event that celebrates Canada's DJs and club culture.

The sixth instalment of the annual award show will feature performances from Reema Major, Canadian

Idol contestant JRDN, Rich Kidd, and a mashup featuring Danny Fernandes and Aleesia.

Tickets to the event cost $40, and $5 from each ticket sold will go to help the people of Japan in the

wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country back in March. Buy tickets from

Ticketbreak.

You can check out the award categories over at the Stylus Group's website. You can also vote for the Fan

Choice Artist of the Year and the Fan Choice Club DJ of the Year. Nominees for the former category

include Drake, Shad and Classified, while Deadmau5 is up for the latter.



Network with the pros at It Starts With the DJ

Fortune Sound Club (147 East Pender Street) hosts It Starts With the DJ, an industry

conference with an urban spin, on Saturday (May 7).

“The conference is really geared towards anybody who’s interested in the music industry,”

organizer David “Click” Cox told the Straight. “It’s an avenue to network at a very affordable

cost.”

For a mere 10 bucks, attendees get a forum on marketing with Kyle Kraft of Battle Axe Music,

among others; a one-on-one session with luminaries like DJ Marvel—“Like speed dating,” said

Cox, “where you can sit down with somebody who’s been in the industry for a while, and pick

their brains”—and a keynote speech from no less than Fugees, Busta Rhymes, and Wu-Tang

Clan producer and MC Diamond D. “Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop came out in ”˜92,” said Cox of

D’s debut, “and that is one of the biggest, classic albums of all time.”

Doors open at 12 noon.



STYLUS AWARDS FOUNDER OFFERS AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT

THIS YEAR'S UPCOMING SHOW

Recognizing and celebrating DJ talent is the reason Mike Zafiris launched the Stylus Awards six years ago. This year the festival, conference and awards show combined will span four days and stretch between Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. It will also feature new categories and a renewed focus on recognizing local artists alongside DJs. Amidst his hectic day-to-day getting ready for the festival just over a month away, Zafiris checked in with Urbanology Magazine to provide a behind the scenes look at Stylus. WHAT CAN HIP-HOP FANS LOOK FORWARD TO FROM THE AWARDS THIS YEAR?

We keep getting bigger which is really exciting. The bar keeps getting higher and higher and the pressure kicks in, right? We're going back to the same venue because we have such a good relationship there and we feel like that's kinda our home now. This will be our third year in a row there. And the cool thing that we've tried to do this year is expand that urban market and that DJ culture and try to incorporate all the genres of music that are really having a huge impact now in urban music and just in music in general and right now kinda seems like the faster club, electro style beat has kicked in and started to penetrate itself into all genres of music including hip-hop and R&B. So we're trying to pay homage to that side of things as well. We've got new categories that kind of encompass that. The other mandate that we tried to do for this year is we'vevreally tried to bring in the artist side of things... what we want to do is make sure that we don't leave our local or independent artists behind and really shed some light on those guys. We have tried to incorporate a lot more artist categories and one that we're really excited about this year, we separated the mixtape categories, so now, we got the DJ mixtape and we've got the artist mixtape, we got a fan choice artist of the year, and pop/dance record is a new category. WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE MAJOR SUCCESSES OF STYLUS OVER THE YEARS?

We're in our sixth year, so now you can actually look back and start to be like remember when. Not to say that we're old by any means and this thing has been around forever. In the last five years we've had some amazing DJs and


artists bless us by performing, presenting, appearing, accepting an award or being nominated. We look back at our first year pictures and sure enough, we got Drake presenting an award to Starting From Scratch. At that time people knew Drake as a young actor on "Degrassi High". You know we had Team Canada perform their mash-up and at that time the mash-up thing really wasn't a huge part of the DJ kind of musical sound, it was just on the come up. Artists like Jahvon, artists like A-Game have all come through our stage and performed and now are really starting to get some major recognition. Melanie Fiona been there, Sean Desman been there, Danny Fernandes -- I mean most of today's biggest artists... Even Boi-1Da, T-Minus -- a lot of those beats you used to hear in the first couple of years when we had the categories, just like the instrumental background music that was being played was from these producers. Rich Kidd -- there's so many, the list goes on and on and on. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAJOR CHALLENGES IN PRODUCING SUCH A WIDE-SCALE FESTIVAL?

When you get into this level of producing an awards show, you can't do it obviously without the support of the community and... without the support of companies who want to sponsor. The biggest struggle has always been to kind of find that line where you're not really offending either side... The other struggle is the categories. It's such a huge pool of talent -- artist wise, DJ wise, producers -- but you can't have 15 and 20 nominees... So, that's the other difficult part that only six people get nominated when you know there's more than six incredible DJs. APART FROM THE AWARDS AND THE CONFERENCE WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM SPINFEST?

Well we try every year to shed light outside of this country so people can see what we're doing inside this country because you know outside of Canada there's always this skepticism or this perception that you know Canada doesn't really have this incredible club scene or this DJ scene or this artist scene... This year we just locked in Mark Ronson, who is a super DJ/producer. He's coming to kick-off the whole SpinFest weekend on the Friday night. He will be speaking at the conference on the Saturday, so that brings in that international flavour to the awards show. Then just a bunch of parties that we do -- the barbecue for all the DJs across the country where they get to come just lay back and mingle, it's just a really laid back kind of hang-out kind of session. The Sunday night pre-awards show and concert -- we're doing that at The MOD Club again this year -- [it's] really another opportunity for the nominees to come out and perform the singles that they are nominated for and [for people] to see some DJs who are nominated in different categories. THE VOTING POLLS OPENED TO THE PUBLIC AWHILE BACK. WHY DOES STYLUS CHOOSE TO ENGAGE THE PUBLIC IN THE VOTING PROCESS?

Well what we like to do is we like to have the fans be a part of not necessarily who wins but who should be nominated. We need to start that early because every year our numbers grow. This year we hit 13,500 voters which by far has been our biggest number ever. It takes about four to five minutes. The fact that they're willing to sit there, go through the categories... makes us feel good. The cool thing is, we get votes from literally all over the world because a DJ, and the artists now, have such a strong fan base that when they travel it's easy to pick up a name... Come voting times, the campaigns are crazy and you know we get surprised every year when we see votes from Germany coming in... Italy, South Africa, like they just come from everywhere. WITH THE FESTIVAL A MONTH AND A HALF AWAY, WHAT DOES YOUR TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE?

There's a lot of damage control right now that happens. It's funny because in the business world you have these meetings specificaly to figure out how everything is going to fall into place and then you spend the next three months fixing what can't be done and why that can't work and now trying to redo everything again. Every day is different and there will always be surprises that come up. Thank goodness we're in our sixth year so we kind of expect the unexpected but every year there's something that just drops on your lap that we didn't even plan for. Two years ago, four weeks before the awards show the venue where we were going to do it couldn't house it and here we are with a sold out awards show and nowhere to go. You get things like that, artists who you're constantly waiting for confirmation for performances. They can do it and then decline or decline and then say they're available. STYLUS IS KNOWN TO BE THE ONLY INSTITUTION RECOGNIZING DJ TALENT IN CANADA. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

I DJ'd college radio on CHRY for about seven to eight years and then I worked at a record company for a few years. I started a record pool back in 1993 which was called Flavor Pool. It was kind of the same idea, a record pool is kind of like a book club where you would go and work with all of the record companies and get brand new hip-hop and R&B music and then you would get that music out to all the clubs and radio DJs... We just figured we gotta do something and we gotta get the record companies involved because they've got all these artists and they didn't know what to do with them so that's what started Flavor Pool. That's kind of been my mentality throughout everything. With the awards show it's the same idea, you got all these great DJs and artists -- these DJs


were able to travel all over Canada and play for over 2 to 3,000 people and we're not recognizing them which was kind of weird. We have radio awards shows; we have rock and roll awards shows that take care of all those kind of genres so why not have something for the DJs? That's really where it all kind of started from. FINALLY, AS FOUNDER OF STYLUS, HAVING WATCHED THE FESTIVAL GROW OVER THE LAST SIX YEARS, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

Honestly I think it was last year, it was last year looking out and seeing 1,200 people. We've always been sold out but it was our second year there. It was that, combined with Drake being able to accept an award and be there two weeks before the album dropped. I mean at that moment Drake was the biggest artist in the world and there was no doubt about it. So the timing was just phenomenal. When we got word that he was going to be coming down and then when you got to see him accepting an award and making a speech and just mentioning Stylus Awards in the speech... it just felt like wow -- this is a big moment for us, a really, really big moment for us and that kind of felt good, it felt really good. Published: April 24, 2011


Photos of the 2011 Stylus Awards

Flying a bit under the radar despite some A-list (at least by Canadian standards) guests was the 2011 Stylus Awards, held earlier this week at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Founded in 2006 to celebrate and reward DJ talent in Canada, the event has steadily increased in scale. Here's a list of the 2011 winners:

Fan Choice Award: Drake Artist of the Year: Drake Club DJ: Wristpect Canadian R&B single of the year: "You Can Have It All" by JRDN Canadian Dance/Pop Single: "Night Like This" by Shawn Desman


Published: June 2, 2011

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