Righteous, Pro-Logic, DJ Ron Nelson & Mr. Q came equipped to celebrate 50 years of Hip Hop with a club banger! The track is appropriately titled “And When We Party…” This infectious Funk Boogie Vibe will have the most hardened wall flower tapping their feet. DJ Ron Nelson sets the mood of the track by letting the world know that he came ready to party! Righteous comes in effortlessly with such a smooth flow as he recalls the good times. He ends off the verse by quoting the 4 principles of Hip Hop. “Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun” It’s at this point you get hit with the hook. “And When We Party, We Party with a Beat! The Funky Music Gets In your Feet” The sweet melodic vocals of Mr. Q aka Jay W. McGee is guaranteed to be on repeat in one’s head after listening to this musical art.
The Smooth-Spoken Pro-Logic continues right where Righteous left off by spreading positive vibes throughout his verse. “Make you want more, the baseline is tight. Crank up the volume, pass Pro the mic.” When you think about it, what event starts without the master of ceremony? As the listener prepares for the finale, one can’t help but be fanatic about the “Uptown, Downtown” part of the hook! DJ Ron Nelson closes out the track by prestigiously sliding through “Summer time, lose your mind. Move your behind, it’s party time” He captures what it’s like to enjoy a party. Overall this is a great track! Everything Gels.
What better way to celebrate the 50th year of Hip Hop by paying homage to two Canadian trail blazers in the rap game.
In 1979 Mr. Q released “Ladies Delight”, a response track to The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”. He recorded a number of other rap/hip hop songs over the next few months 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 were actually written and performed by Canadians. “DJ Style” was included in the 2006 hip hop compilation album Big Apple Rappin’. Mr. Q 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)
Ron Nelson created Canada’s first Hip Hop radio show called “The Fantastic Voyage Program”, on CKLN 88.1 FM in 1983. 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 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 labeled single ”The Breakdown” In 1988 he released the single B-Boy Destruction. In 2023, he released his first rap album, 40 Years Too Late.
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