Ron Nelson on his legacy as the godfather of hip-hop radio in Toronto — and what's next

Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, KRS-One — these are just some of the artists who've worked with DJ Ron Nelson, the godfather of hip-hop radio in Toronto. Now, at age 60, Ron is releasing his first rap album, 40 Years Too Late.

He joins Tom Power to look back at his career journey, from starting out in student radio at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) to becoming a pioneering hip-hop radio host and concert promoter in Toronto. Plus, he tells us why now was the right time to put out his first rap album.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to their full conversation on our podcast, Q with Tom Power wherever you get your podcasts. 

Tom: What was your experience of listening to the radio in Canada?

Ron: When I got here, it was like 1972, '73. As a Jamaican who loves music, I was like a kid in a candy store. Canada represented a melting pot of all different kinds of music. I'd look forward to the top 100 countdowns at the end of the year, and it would be mostly rock and pop — white people's music. One song, maybe, out of the top 100 would be black artists. It represented the market for consumption at the time. But as years went by, the Jamaican, West Indian, black population in the whole metropolis kept growing, and with that came a greater demand.

Tom: You started a DIY radio station when you were in high school. 

Ron: Victoria Park High School. We had this spot called the JetFac, where I took theatre. To me, it seemed like a great opportunity to put a mock radio station in. All it took was moving in a pair of turntables, an amplifier and lots of speaker wires running all the way down, from one end of the school to the other…and pipe the music into the cafeteria. It's probably what got me into Ryerson. I think they were very impressed that I had the ambition to do that. 

Tom: How does Fantastic Voyage start?

Ron: When I first went to Ryerson, the station was not interested in black music. One day the program director and the station manager called me and said: "Ron, you can have a show now, and you can play the music you want." I gave it a title: the Fantastic Voyage program. That was late 1983. It later became the hip hop show that it was — maybe Canada's first hip hop radio show.

Tom: How do you describe that era of Toronto's independent rap scene?

Ron: Innocence. We did not know ourselves. We were giving more love to American rappers in American culture, not because we didn't love our own culture, but we didn't understand what our culture was.

Tom: There's this legendary battle I wanted to ask you about between a young Michie Mee, and Sugar Love from New York.

Ron: I remember that Michie Mee had a little secret weapon. When you look at the demographics of the audience, they're not just black people. There's West Indian people, and the Americans don't have that West Indian twang. When it was Michie Mee's turn, she would draw back for that Jamaican patois. That's what took her to victory that night.

Tom: Do you think that enough space is being made in hip-hop catering to an older audience?

Ron: No. It's really young people's music. But guess what? The audience that has grown up with rap — now they are older. One of the things that I realize is that no one has tried to cater to that. I can't find another Canadian rapper who's 60 years old and still trying to put out music. Hip hop has given me this youthfulness where I've got a lot of energy in me.

Tom: Can you tell me about Culture Pirates?

Ron: Black people started rock and roll. Because of the racist institutions that existed back then, when you were a black artist making great music, you weren't able to benefit from it. People like Elvis were legally able to come along, watch you perform, and then go and recreate that music and then put it out themselves. There's a whole history of that that people don't now. In this song here, I've named a lot of popular song titles. We're taking a little bit back from everyone who was culture pirated in the history of music.

Tom: Can you tell me about Roach on the Wall?

Ron: It's an analogy, to say that the roach is also a survivor through time. I'm here, whether you like it or not, and I'm going to bring my own style. No one can say Ronnie shouldn't make an album, because I've earned the right to make it. I don't know if there's going to be a future for me as an artist, but I'll tell you, I'm enjoying doing this and it's been a lot of fun and hopefully, I'll be able to put out more albums.

For more stories about the 50th anniversary of hip-hop — including Tom Power's conversations with some of the artists who witnessed and shaped the genre — check out Hip-Hop at 50 here.