Righteous pays homage to 50 years of Hip Hop with a club banger! About the artists: Mr. Q – In 1979, George Lewis of Monica’s Productions (later to become Scorpio Records) hired Jay W.McGee aka Mr Q. to rap on “Ladies Delight”, a response track to The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”. Released just a few weeks after “Rapper’s Delight”, the song was based around a rerecording of the hook from Cameo’s contemporaneous single “I Just Want to Be”. He recorded a number of other rap/hip hop songs over the next few months as Mr. Q, including “DJ Style”, “Rapping Time”, “Party, Party” and “Party Rapp”; “Party Rapp” included lyrics about the 1979 Mississauga train derailment, the first explicit indication in any of the Mr. Q singles that they were actually written and performed by Canadians. “DJ Style” was included in the 2006 hip hop compilation album Big Apple Rappin’. He was also featured on Rap the Night Away, a 1981 album by Bobby Boyer and Demo Cates which has been credited as the first full-length Canadian hip hop album. Mr. Q aka Jay W. McGee died from complications of COVID-19 on January 8, 2021, at the age of 70. (RIP) DJ Ron Nelson – A Toronto-based DJ, broadcaster, music promoter, producer, educator, and performer best known for his role in popularizing both hip hop music in Canada. He helped promote and develop early Canadian hip hop acts such as Maestro Fresh Wes, Michie Mee, Rumble & Strong and the Dream Warriors. Known as the “godfather of Toronto hip hop”, Nelson created Canada’s first hip hop radio show, Fantastic Voyage, on CKLN-FM in 1983.[1] The Saturday afternoon show, which ran until 1991, became popular among Toronto youth and was the first exposure many had to the genre and was one of the few broadcast outlets for hip hop in Canada during the 1980s. Nelson soon began organizing concerts, his first event being for the Kings of Rap. He went on to bring American hip hop artists to Canada for concerts and tours including, organizing in 1987, the first major rap concert in Canada when Run DMC, Public Enemy and EPMD performed at Varsity Arena. With the revenues from the concert, Nelson built one of the first hip hop recording studios in Canada, “Apache”, in the basement of his Scarborough home.[5] The studio, shared with Beat Factory was where Dream Warriors recorded their first album, And Now the Legacy Begins, on which Nelson is credited as a producer. Nelson was the best known hip hop concert promoter in Toronto in the 1980s and early 1990s, often staging his events at the Concert Hall at Toronto’s Masonic Temple where he staged multi-artist concerts that featured acts such as Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Roxanne Shanté, Salt-N-Pepa, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube and Queen Latifah as well as giving exposure to local acts with “Monster Jams” and “rap battles” between Toronto and New York performers. As hip hop became more commercial, Nelson became disillusioned with the genre and ended Fantastic Voyage in 1991. In 1980 he appeared under the moniker Ronnie “O” for the white labelled single ” “The Breakdown” In 2023, he released his first rap album, 40 Years Too Late. Pro-Logic – a multi-talented producer and Emcee with over 25 albums under his belt . Pro has worked with the likes of Dan e o, Faith Walker, FTA, The Lyricists, Es, Chip Fu, Tough Dumplin Fraction and many more. A staple in the Tri City area (Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge) Ontario , Canada He brought attention to the region with his 1998 compilation release titled “Beatdown Invasion” credits released August 12, 2023
