Dutty Artz has been planning a little takeover of Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre for awhile now. We were asked months ago to showcase how it is that we curate this thing called “global bass” – and tonight, we’re doing that and teaming up with some friends and partners for Harbourfront Centre’s Party on the Block. While Chief Boima was supposed to join me, some unexpected hiccups unfortunately led to him being unable to come. HOWEVER – we quickly called on our extended Dutty Artz family and are pleased that tonight’s line-up is a all-brown women, bad gyal line-up spanning origins from Sri Lanka, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, and Pakistan. How better to experience a sense of connectivity and politics through migrant music if not in the hands of women?

So if you are in Toronto, make your way to Harbourfront Centre’s Brigantine Ballroom; 10:30pm – 1:30pm; 235 Queens Quay West.

More on the line-up:

Dutty Artz
Dutty Artz is a crew of multi-disciplinary producers, who are changing their corners of the world through various forms of digital expression. Founded in 2008 by Matt Shadetek and DJ /rupture, over the years Dutty Artz has evolved from a record label to a blog to its current form as a crew of multi-disciplinary producers. Unified through music, they experiment in the creation of cultural value through collaboration in a hyper-connected world, aiming to fairly present cultural output from eclectic localized communities, to challenge creative industry standards and dominant social norms. As community organizers, DA is directly involved in community engagement through the arts, showcasing their musical discoveries from local scenes around the world to events that bring global block parties together. As part of Party on the Block, Dutty Artz and its collaborators will showcase where the global and the local meet in the (im)migrant metropolis. Dutty Artz DJ Ushka is joined by Toronto’s Lido Pimienta (DJ GlitClit) and Aneela Q (DJ Nino Brown) on a line-up of powerful immigrant women shifting the norms of global electronic music.
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DJ Ushka
Ushka is a Sri Lankan-born, Thailand-raised, Brooklyn-living migrant and an activist, cultural organizer and deejay re-defining the boundaries between global bass music, culture, and organizing. Having grown up in several parts of the world, her musical influences are as transnational as she is. She deejays from the perspective of a dancer, blending a wide range of music from soca to cumbia, hip hop to south-Asian rhythms, kuduro to samba and much more. She does so with the philosophy that global genre-blending connects cross-cultural struggles and tells important stories between communities, but most importantly, she translates this to the dancefloor. One half of iBomba, one of NYC’s premiere destinations for global bass every second Thursday of the month at Brooklyn’s Bembe, her debut mixtape, Foreign Brown, was well received, reaching over 10,000 listens in a few months. Ushka has deejayed throughout New York City and in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, Miami, and internationally in Toronto and Mexico City. She has also deejayed at the prestigious Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Museum First Saturday, and Toronto Music Gallery’s X Avant IX Festival.
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Lido Pimienta (DJ Glitclit) 

Known as “Colombian darling” and “Soundsister”, Lido Pimienta jumps back and forth from electronic beats, analog synths and Afro-Colombian rhythms to out-of-this-world chanting. The release of her first album Color LP opened the gate for several collaborations with artists in Canada and around the world, making her one of the most prolific song-writer, lyricist and an improv virtuoso of her generation. She will showcase her many talents through her DJ project, “Glitclit”. Learn more.

Aneela Q (DJ Nino Brown)

Aneela Q, better known in the streets as Nino Brown, is a leading DJ in Canada. She is no stranger to making dancefloors across North America sweat, grind, slow whine, head nod, flash a lighter, bounce, or just plain old two-step. Nino is the founder of Canada’s premier inclusive hip hop and dancehall party Yes Yes Y’all (Toronto) which has been voted one of the city’s top jams since its birth in 2009. The YYY crew is known for their emphasis on diversity and inclusivity, and their event has become a Toronto institution, attracting both local and international talent. In 2012, Nino co-founded YYY’s sister event in Montreal, the monthly Cousins Party. In addition, Nino provides resident DJ/promoter duties all over some of Toronto’s hottest parties and spearheaded an underground urban music scene in the city that links music, style, politics and a proper lime.
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