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Keeping the Guelph hip hop scene alive and revived

Hip hop is here to stay and is making a revival with performances across downtown venues

Guelph has a rich history when it comes to the DJ hip hop scene and has been making a revival recently.

Back in the 80s and 90s Guelph was oriented around entertainment and hip hop was one of the biggest scenes around said Keon Beekharry, aka Docta Def.

The scene went stagnant when venues wanted to make money by selling cheap beer, and playing popular top 40 hits to bring in university students, said Beekharry.

In 2014, Beekharry was getting phone calls asking him to come back to the Guelph DJ scene because new owners took over downtown venues and were looking for a change in music, bringing hip hop, dancehall and reggae back.

“When I was in downtown Guelph during 1995, 96 I realized once again there was a huge open market for dancehall music, and dancehall is like the hip hop derivative of reggae,” said Beekharry.

One of the worlds biggest reggae groups, said Beekharry, is Stone Love, from Jamaica and he brought them to Guelph to perform at the beginning of March, the event was sold out. This April, rapper Choclair will be performing at Kings Sports Bar and Grill. Beekharry expects it to be another big event. 

“I think there needs to be a resource, a venue that can specifically cater to a crowd that really enjoys these formats of music,” said Beekharry. 

“Guelph is probably the only city that really, really helps each other out,” he said. “The cool thing about all of these DJs is that we all work together.”

Beekharry and Todd Manning run Analog Soundsystem, which caters the reggae, hip hop and R&B communities, and Diversify Entertainment runs through it and produces events for hip hop in bars in Downtown Guelph.

“I think we need more female DJs,” said Manning. He said he wants to help promote them and make connections in Guelph. “I want to make sure all the DJs get equal opportunity."

Beekharry said Guelph in the 80s and 90s was known for jungle and hip hop music because the residents wanted more of the music played at downtown venues. 

Ice-T, Rahzel and the Wu-Tang Clan were all big acts who performed in Guelph at the time and Beekharry said these performances people may not remember. 

He said he doesn’t want it to be forgotten and hopes the history of Guelph hip hop will be preserved. 


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Santana Bellantoni

About the Author: Santana Bellantoni

Santana Bellantoni was born and raised in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. As a general assignment reporter for Guelph Today she is looking to discover the communities, citizens and quirks that make Guelph a vibrant city.
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