Hundreds of people recently gathered at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa for an end of year artist showcase but this wasn’t your typical showcase. Called Ashes to Rubies, the event blended music and inspiration as the performers all had something in common―they’ve all overcome addiction or struggle and have lived to tell the world about it. While there are many artist showcases happening in cities all over North America, what was unique about this show was the theme―hope. That’s why founder Jon Ruby launched the movement; to “give hope a platform”. “Ashes to Rubies is a movement that shares hope…
Author: Kevin Bourne
Kevin Bourne
Kevin Bourne, also known as "KB The Boss" or simply "KB", is a Toronto-based host/on-air personality, arts & entertainment journalist, TV/film producer, and communications and content strategist. As a commentator and freelancer, he has appeared nationally as a correspondent on CBC News Network and host on CBC Music. He has also appeared locally on CTV, CBC Radio, CityNews, Newstalk 1010, and ByBlacks.com, and in the United States on Fox’s Black digital TV network, Fox Soul. He has covered some of Canada’s top red-carpet events, from the Toronto International Film Festival to the Canadian Screen Awards, and has interviewed everyone from Kevin Hart and "Fast and the Furious" star Tyrese Gibson to Ziggy Marley, Ava DuVernay, Dascha Polanco, Lilly Singh, and Howie Mandel. His years of work as an entertainment journalist led to him being named a Golden Globe® Awards voter and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-Approved critic and being quoted as a critic in national ad campaigns for Black films and TV shows, both in Canada and the United States. Pivoting into the world of film and television, Kevin co-founded the film, TV, digital content, and live experiences company, SHIFTER Entertainment, alongside his wife and business partner, Koliah. Through SHIFTER he has produced a number of projects, including the Bell Fibe TV1 unscripted reality series A Date In The Life, serving as showrunner, executive producer, writer and co-director. Now, with a number of pilot and feature film scripts written and projects in development, KB is poised to continue to be a champion for Black entertainment and culture alongside his wife and business partner, Koliah.
Reppin’ Ottawa hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do, especially musically, leading to a bunch of people reppin’ places they’re not from. There are a lot of pretenders in hip-hop today but as the saying goes, real recognize real. Soon after first pressing play on Thirst Trap, you know you’re in for a great mixtape. Cheko Salaam navigates flows with ease, ranging from the ubiquitous ATL triplet flow to something as complex and uniquely structured as King Kendrick on Real Haters. He also has an incredible knack for coming up with a hook, although some of his singing might…
November was a slow month for music videos in the capital but we did get some from the likes of Josh Clarke, Tapas and Prosper & GPM. Here’s our Ottawa music video roundup for November according to release date. Once again, let us know in the comments if there are any videos from any genre we forgot. Josh Clarke One Night Release date: November 16, 2018 Directed by: Camilleon Prod. Produced by: Technikolormedia and Weggon Allen Josh Clarke is a Toronto R&B artist currently based in Ottawa. His video for his latest single One Night has already garnered 24,ooo views on YouTube and counting.…
Last night, Victoria’s Secret’s Angels, including Kendall Jenner, the Hadid sisters, and Adriana Lima took to the runway for the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Holiday Special, featuring performances by the likes of The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, and Halsey. Considered by many as “the world’s biggest fashion event”, the show returned to New York after recent productions in London, Paris and Shanghai. Although the big story was Adriana Lima’s final walk down the Victoria’s Secret runway, for Canadians the people to watch were Toronto’s Shawn Mendes and Winnie Harlow, and Ottawa’s Herieth Paul. When asked what it meant for her to take part in…
On November 1st, after a game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres, social media was buzzing. Why? The Senators had introduced a new in-game DJ and hype man and fans were scrambling to find out who this man was and where he came from? So much so he was apparently trending locally on Twitter. Well, that man is none other than long time rapper turned DJ, Prosper Laguerre, co-founder of the hip-hop group GPM. If you found it a bit hard to get some information on the guy it’s because he’s not really interested in being famous, but there’s…
For the second year in a row the capital’s fashion community gathered on the showroom floor at Audi Ottawa to celebrate one of their own as KANIA founder, Stacey Bafi-Yeboa, and technical fashion designer, Arfie Lalani, hosted what has become a highly anticipated annual event on the fashion calendar. This year’s edition was more than just a runway show―it was a look into the 13-plus year journey of KANIA. The show opened with Bafi-Yeboa and Lalani entering in a yellow Audi R8 convertible before addressing the hundreds of onlookers, including fashion designers, bloggers and the general public. Dancers performed on…
Ottawa group Wotts recently hosted a live show at Live On Elgin, bringing some notable local acts along for the ride, including Hevve, Eddie Quotez, and Toronto-native Vibebymelo. Eddie Quotez The show started with rapper Eddie Quotez who performed tracks from his 2017 album Otaku as well as some of his older material. He came right out the gate with the upbeat break up song All Night, before moving on to one of his more popular songs, Kush and Anime. He struggled a bit with his flow and delivery on this one, but rebounded well, going into the archives to perform Sleep, a…
Toronto R&B artist Josh Clarke recently released a music video for his latest single “One Night”. Directed by Camilleon Productions and produced by Technikolormedia and Weggon Allen, the video stars Josh Clarke and Suzette Haywood. The video for One Night is based around a sexy sophisticated “boss lady” who prides herself on being self-sufficient. She’s an entrepreneur and exudes a certain energy and presence about herself when she walks into a room. She is not easily impressed by men, especially those who seek her attention by showing off or flaunting lavish gifts as she can attain all of the above by…
This past weekend, Canadian rapper Jazz Cartier, aka Jacuzzi Lafleur, returned to Canada’s capital for a show presented by Smallworld LIVE at the legendary Barrymore’s Music Hall. Over the past few years, Ottawa has been good to Cartier. It was at the 2017 Juno Awards in Ottawa that he beat out Drake, Belly, Tory Lanez and Tasha the Amazon to win Rap Recording of the Year for his EP Hotel Paranoia. Since then Cartier went on to release his debut studio album Fleurever, his first under his new deal with Universal Music, garnering him positive reviews and a growing fanbase. First…
On the morning of November 9th at 12:00am, SVLM released a surprise EP titled Restless and SHIFTER has the exclusive. After releasing the lead single 405 last week, SVLM treated fans to a follow up project to Haven Nights released earlier this year. To learn more about the making of the project, watch Part One of our exclusive interview with SVLM. Check out SVLM’s new EP Restless below. https://open.spotify.com/album/5AQ0hr3q0a9sCoWC4P8XXn By SHIFTER Staff
A few Ottawa artists released new music videos in October, including Sammy Keys, Belly, A.M x Chafic, City Fidelia, Timal Garnier, Gutta Rock x KB Westwood and NayBarr. Here’s our Ottawa music video roundup for October according to release date. Let us know in the comments if there are any videos from any genre we forgot. Sammy Keys Keys Release date: October 4, 2018 Directed by: Rohit (@kid.roh) and RJ (@instarj) Sammy Key’s video for Keys already has 13,000 views and climbing in less than a month and it’s easy to see why. The song is fire. It has a laid…
Ottawa artist SVLM has released an unexpected new single 405 tackling the subject of anxiety. SVLM says of the track: “The song is about people who face sleeping problems on a regular basis due to anxiety and over thinking. The fear of living in a vicious cycle can really keep people up at night, and that’s what it did for me. Carde and I really wanted to put an unbeat spin and energetic beat on a song with a deeper message and this was the outcome. People out there need to know they aren’t alone, and that many of us suffer…
