Rickey D on making hip hop happen, then and now... by Scott C
Ricardo Daley, aka Rickey D, aka the Mayor of Burgundy, has been a fixture in Montreal's club and party promotion scene since the early '80s, making sure Montreal had hip hop and R&B shows to go to for years. Although most of his attention these days goes into catering to Montreal's “mature clientele” (take note of the new Reflections parties, Saturdays at Diva, that he's doing with Alan Cross), this family man is every bit the hustler that he's always been. He took time to speak to the Mirror about his early days of throwing parties and shows in MTL.
Mirror: How did you get into the whole throwing-parties-and- promoting-shows game in Montreal?
Rickey D: I fell in love with hip hop in 1979. I was 12 years old. We used to listen to Butcher T on Club 980 on CKGM, and he did a show with Mike Williams who eventually went on to MuchMusic fame.
M: Not dirty ol' Michael Williams?
RD: Yep! Back then, things were a lot more simple and exciting. People were broke, like they are now, but the white kids and the black kids were jammin' in the same room. Maybe around '84, my friend Fabian Ash started DJing. I couldn't DJ, but I was a skinny, light-skinned boy from Burgundy who wanted to meet people. I started handing out flyers for Fabian and his partner Fitz. I was making $50 a party, working for someone else.
M: What was the first party you threw on your own?
RD: That would have been Cybil at Metropolis. (singing) “Don't make me over...” After that Gary T called me, and he was the one that put me on to the whole hip hop show thing. We did Public Enemy for the first time in Montreal. Then we did Chubb Rock, Big Daddy Kane, Ice Cube, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, KRS One, Kool Moe Dee, Kool G Rap, the Roots, so many. We fell in love with it, even though we were making no money, and we were throwing parties in order to finance these shows. Back then, we didn't know anything about immigration, and had shows cancelling left and right. Nobody was interested in bringing hip hop shows in, but there were people who wanted to see these shows.
M: What's the worst thing that happened to you as a promoter?
RD: I remember going down to the border to try and persuade them to let Biggie Smalls through. He had been travelling with a live band, and his guitarist was about to be deported right from the border. I drove to a Super 8 Motel in Plattsburgh, only to have the Notorious B.I.G. tell me “Fuck Canada” and slam the door in my face. Then I had to call Gary and tell him he wasn't coming. There was a riot that night at the club. I think it was the World. That was the closest Biggie ever got to Montreal.
M: What do you think of the state of hip hop shows in Montreal now?
RD: Well, there are a lot of people who have bastardized and raped the music scene to the point where it's the tattered remains of a scene. There's nobody out there that's taking it to the next level. People in clubs are going back to older music because there's good vibes, memories and real energy that today's music doesn't provide, and some people have sold out to big business, which really doesn't help our scene to grow. Companies like Phat Farm are making millions every year, and are sponsoring shows and events with a few T-shirts. You can't build a scene like that.
We're proud to have carried Alife here for quite a few years now. I've seen some future product, quite promising indeed.
We got a shipping alert for Alife Spring 2010 collection. First off, we're getting the Everybody Low in a canvas material. Burgundy below, and All White as well. So in it's way.
La marque Australienne INSIGHT est la nouvelle venue chez Off The Hook. Nous avons reçu notre première collection, celle de Printemps 2010.
Les petites robes et les jupes ainsi que les jeans bleachés apportent un vibe vraiment estival à la boutique, pour s'échapper du temps de chien qu'il fait dehors!
Voici mes morceaux préférés:
On vient de recevoir les lunettes soleil issus de la collaboration entre Super et Chocolate.
Le reste de la famille m'a désigné pour vous en parler parce que je connais assez bien l'histoire derriere Chocolate.
Une compagnie fondé en 1994, qui ne fais que des planches 'pro model'. Une idée à la base venant de Rick Howard et Spike Jonze. Chocolate devient en quelque sorte la petite soeur de Girl skateboarding, fesant toute les deux partie de Girl Distribution et Crailtap. Même si ce sont deux compagnies bien distincte, chacun de leur film contient toujours une sequence de leur confrères et leurs 'tours' sont souvent conjoints. Le Chocolate team réunis : Kenny Anderson, Chico Brenes, Devine Calloway, Daniel Castillo, Justin Elridge, Marc Johnson, Anthony Pappalardo, ( le préféré d'Angelo ) Gino Iannucci et quelque autres.
Here's a sneak peak of LRG Spring 2nd Delivery. The approximate release date at OTH is the 1st week of March coming up.
Lot's of dudes that supported the brand since the early days will be satisfied with the collection... and the selection of course. Lot's of earth tone colors, good mix of new styles and throwbacks.
The LRG skate team is mainly on the look book. I can respect that since LRG has kept the same team for ever, and those dudes represent well. It's also been a good look for the Canadian market. The LRG team has visited Canada before, they skipped Quebec however.
Think it would be a good idea to have the team scope our city, give some love to the kids out here in Montreal? Hit us up with a comment.
This dude here is not a skater. Woody is the brand manager for LRG. He's on point and definitely runs that ship.
