Getting respect as a female hip hop DJ is tough. Try being a female DJ, doing mixtapes and hailing from the international city of Toronto. It’s unprecedented. Found out why DJ Lissa Monet’s mixtapes are breaking the mold and moving mountains for her sex and city alike.

…on how she started DJing

I started DJing because I loved music and saw a void. There weren’t a lot of female DJs in the urban scene when I began.  It was the suggestion of a DJ friend. I just took his advise and started spinning. It was a natural progression because I eat, breath and sleep music.  I went to a high school for the arts where I studied classical music and played the drums. I read liner notes on the way home from the mall after buying CDs. I analyzed songs without reason. I used to read Word Up magazine.. I couldn’t go to bed without music playing. Music has just an integral part of my life since day one.

…on the difficulty of promoting digital mixtapes

Promoting digital mixtapes is probably the best way to get my mixes out to large amounts of people at the same time. As I made more mixtapes, I started to get more requests to make physical copies. I also realized that people aren’t as web savvy as myself. They don’t scour the internet everyday to download new music by cool artists. In order for music to reach the right people, I’ve just made it a point to do both digital and physical mixtapes (when the budget allows). But digital is the future, so I’m always down to teaching someone how to unzip a .rar file.

…on the progression of the Toronto music scene

The music scene in Toronto has changed drastically in the last 5 years. I got involved in the music industry at a really young age, so I feel like I’ve witnessed the shift. I’m seeing it as its happening. I’m really fortunate to be apart of it. About 5 years ago, or maybe even longer than that, the Toronto hopefuls were Saukrates and Kardinal Offishall. [Kardinal] had just got signed to MCA Records and released an album. This was big for Toronto and was our opportunity to get put on the map. It also gave our city an identity and somewhat of a ’sound’. MCA folded and Kardinal was shelved. Saukrates kinda went through the same thing signing with Warner, getting dropped and then signing Redman’s label Gilla House; then getting shelved again. It was with the disappointment of these Toronto hopefuls, the city went through a ‘musical depression’. Kardi kind of laid low to find his next opportunity which would eventually come with Konvict Music [years later]. Soon the shift in lifestyle went from the allure of having Toronto artists in the clubs to having Toronto basketball players in the clubs.
We continued to have amazing artists get signed and shelved (i.e. Keisha Chante). We were only given bare essentials from the labels. If the Canadian branches of major labels didn’t fully believe in artists and put money into them like the American labels did, how were people in their own city supposed to believe in them? Fast forward to 2008 and the spectrum has changed drastically. The Toronto urban music industry is truly fed up of only being known for their great rock bands (i.e. Billy Talent, Nickelback). Tired of being compared to other cities (”the mini NY”) and having to constantly re-identify our sound and who we are as a city. We saw the large amounts of money that the US artists were making and wondering why Canadian artists cant make the same kind of money without having to leave their hometown? We know we have the talent, but it’s just not being taken seriously. So right now in the Toronto music industry there are artists, go getters, entrepreneurs and people who are doing things with intention of putting our city’s culture on the map. Letting people know the amazing people, places and things Toronto has to offer.

…on Drake’s success

Drake’s success was much needed and well deserved. He was kind of like Kanye. No one really took his aspiring rap career seriously and thought of him as an actor. I always tell him I’m proud of him for pursuing his vision despite the people who doubted him. The haters definitely did not hold their tongue and I knew that that shit got to him. I remember the conversations we used to have discussing the way the industry was back in the day. Seeing the flaws in the way some of the artists would go about looking for their break. The talks were something like siblings talking about parents that they never wanted to be when they grew up. It got pretty deep. Aubrey saw the flaws, learned from Kardinal and Saukrates missteps and used that as a blueprint for his success.

…on new artists she feels everyone should look out for

The only artist I personally believe has the best shot of blowing up from Toronto right now is a singer named Trish. Everyone else has the talent but they just need to work on their team. If there’s anything the artists in this city have learned from Drake’s situation, it’s behind every great artist is an amazing team.

…on the progression of female DJ’s

Female DJs have to work just as hard if not harder to move up in the ranks. We have to find something other than our femininity to set us apart form the guys.

Go to lissamonet.com/blog to download  mixes and learn more of DJ Lissa Monet