Ron Nelson (born 1962) is a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based DJ, broadcaster, music promoter, producer and educator best known for his role in popularizing both hip hop music and later

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

music in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He helped promote and develop early Canadian hip hop acts such as

Maestro Fresh Wes Wesley "Wes" Williams (born March 31, 1968) is a Canadians, Canadian rapper, record producer, actor, and author. He is known professionally by his stage names Maestro Fresh Wes (formerly Maestro Fresh-Wes) or Maestro as a musician, and is cred ...

Michie Mee Michelle McCullock (born November 1, 1970), better known by her stage name Michie Mee, is a Canadian rapper and actress. Canada's first notable female MC, she is considered a national hip-hop pioneer. Early life and career McCullock was born i ...

Rumble & Strong Rumble & Strong was a Canadian hip hop band from Toronto, active in the late 1980s. They were one of the first Canadian hip hop acts to be signed to a record label, when they signed to Gee Street Records in 1987, although they released only one EP, ...

and the Dream Warriors. Nelson was born in

Pembroke Hall Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and emigrated to Canada in 1972. Known as the "godfather of Toronto hip hop", Nelson created Canada's first hip hop radio show, ''Fantastic Voyage'', on

CKLN-FM CKLN-FM was a community radio station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1983 to 2011, CKLN Radio Inc. was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as a campus-community FM radio station affiliated with R ...

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 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 Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history ...

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

and

EPMD EPMD is an American hip hop duo from Brentwood, New York. The duo's name is a concatenation of the members' names "E" and "PMD" or an acronym for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referring to its members: emcees Erick Sermon ("E" a.k.a. ...

performed at

Varsity Arena Varsity Arena, located at 299 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontarioretrieved from http://rrs.osm.utoronto.ca 2007-10-22 is an indoor arena that opened on December 17, 1926, and is primarily home to the ice hockey teams of the University of Toronto, ...

. 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 Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

home. The studio, shared with

Beat Factory Beat Factory was a Canadian urban music management and production company, and later, an independent record label, based in Toronto, Ontario. In 1982, Beat Factory was founded by Ivan Berry and songwriter Rupert Gayle. Throughout the 1980s and ' ...

was where Dream Warriors recorded their first album, ''

And Now the Legacy Begins ''And Now the Legacy Begins'' is the debut album of Canadian hip hop duo Dream Warriors, released April 23, 1991. It was released worldwide on Island Records and in the United States on sub-label 4th & B'way Records (although it was not a hit in ...

'', 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

Boogie Down Productions Boogie Down Productions (BDP) was an American hip hop group originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, five months after the release of BDP's debut album, '' Criminal Minde ...

Roxanne Shanté Lolita Shante Gooden (born March 8, 1970), better known by her stage name Roxanne Shante, is an American rapper. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of Queens, New York City, Shante first gained attention through the Roxanne Wars and w ...

Salt-N-Pepa Salt-N-Pepa (also stylized as Salt 'N' Pepa or Salt 'N Pepa) is an American hip-hop group formed in New York City in 1985, that comprised Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper). Their debut album, ''Hot, C ...

, Eric B. & Rakim,

Ice Cube An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produc ...

and

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album ''All Hail the Que ...

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. He moved to

and

, deejaying around the city and promoting shows before returning to CKLN in 1993 to launch what became ''ReggaeMania'', a Friday night radio show that continued on CKLN until the radio station went off the air in 2011, and was then revived on

CHIN-FM CHIN-FM (100.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It broadcasts a Multilingual radio format and is owned by CHIN Radio/TV International. It is co-owned with CHIN 1540 AM and CHIN-1-FM at 91.9 MHz. All three ...

where it aired on Saturday nights from 2012 until 2014. Nelson owns and operates Reggaemania.com, an online hub which offers 24 hour internet radio station called ReggaeMania Radio, podcasts, downloads as well as news and concert listings as well as a ReggaeMania app. Nelson attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

) from 1983 to 1985 earning a degree in Radio and Television Arts. He taught the course "Contemporary Black Urban Music" at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

from 2005 until 2017.

References

External links

ReggaeMania.comHe's one of Toronto's first great hip hop radio stars — and also one of its last: Ron Nelson shares tales from his pioneering past and reveals why Drake keeps his faith in radio alive
CBC Arts
Canadian Hip-Hop Heads Owe A Lot To Ron Nelson And His Fantastic Voyage
*Northside Hip Hop Archive: http://www.nshharchive.ca/collection/ron-nelson/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Ron Living people Canadian DJs Canadian hip hop DJs Canadian hip hop record producers Music promoters Musicians from Toronto Canadian radio hosts People from Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica Jamaican emigrants to Canada People from Scarborough, Toronto 1960s births Black Canadian broadcasters Toronto Metropolitan University alumni York University faculty