Kevin Shaw

Build. Lead. Inspire.

DJ

How Toronto Spawned the Best Mix DJs in the World

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I absolutely love a great DJ mix, especially one that seamlessly blends disparate genres into a cohesive mix the creates a vibe. Growing up in Toronto and hearing DJs spin at events and on the radio, it’s my opinion that Toronto DJs are the best in the world when it comes to mixing with diversity and skill—driving a party vibe in the club, at events and on the air.

Toronto’s global status as a DJ powerhouse didn’t happen by chance. The city, a vibrant mix of cultures and histories, mirrors both New York and England in its eclecticism and influence from colonial and cultural tides. Like New York, Toronto has long embraced diversity in music; like England, it has remained a cultural melting pot, with a sound shaped by Caribbean, European, African, and South Asian roots. This mix gave birth to an exceptional set of DJs who could blend genres in a way that transcends typical radio format boundaries and resonates across communities.

Defining the Best: Juggling and Selecting

What sets Toronto’s DJs apart from others is a balanced mastery of both juggling and selecting.

Juggling is the technical prowess—the skill of effortlessly cutting, scratching, beat matching, and transitioning from song to song. Today, this is accomplished with sophisticated DJ software running on a laptop holding thousands of songs. Back in the day however, DJs built their skills with two variable speed record turntables, a DJ mixer and hundreds of records carried around in milk crates..

Selecting is the artistic side of knowing exactly which song to play to get the crowd to feel and respond, whether that’s filling a dance floor or lighting up radio station phone lines. A stellar DJ was skilled at both.

Graph titled 'Ideal DJ Skillset' showing a 2x2 grid with labeled axes. The X-axis is labeled 'Juggling' with a positive sign (+) on the right and a negative sign (-) on the left. The Y-axis is labeled 'Selecting' with a positive sign (+) at the top and a negative sign (-) at the bottom. A green checkmark is placed in the upper right quadrant, representing DJs who excel in both juggling and selecting. The graph has a slight 3D effect with soft shadows, thin black grid lines, and a subtle gradient background.

In a city that values a great party vibe over technical wizardry alone, Toronto leans towards DJs who can mix as well as they can cut.

In this context, mixing is when a DJ beat matches two songs and creates a flowing, smooth transition between them. This is often done over 4 or 8 bars where both songs are playing simultaneously until the crossfade is complete. Sometimes, this overlap can create a remix where the vocals of one song are heard over the instrumental of another.

Cutting is when a DJ will sometimes beat match two songs and rapidly transition from one to the other without an overlap.

While global DJ icons like DJ Jazzy Jeff represent the “cut” style of DJing, Toronto’s party DJs have long emphasized a mixing style that flows from song to song, creating a show that’s inventive, cohesive and immersive.  Unlike pure scratch DJs, who focus on the intricacies of sound manipulation, Toronto DJs blend various genres and beats to keep crowds moving.

The Spirit of Toronto Radio

Toronto’s radio scene in the 80s and 90s played a pivotal role in creating the fertile ground for its DJ scene to emerge. The city’s AM and FM dials were among the most diverse in North America, offering top 100 hits, jazz, dance, community, rock, country, oldies and easy-listening stations. Community radio stations like CHRY, CKLN and CIUT were essential in amplifying styles like hip-hop, reggae, soca, bhangra, Bollywood, jungle, and other genres not heard on their commercial counterparts. Ethnic stations like CHIN FM and CIAO broadened musical and cultural awareness to the average Torontonian in the home of a friend or getting into a cab. The music from these radio shows became cultural threads that wove through neighbourhoods, parties, and public spaces, connecting the city’s diverse groups and building recognition.

The influence of radio brought Toronto’s culturally diverse neighbourhoods together in a way that was rare in North America. Areas like Jane-Finch, North Scarborough, Flemingdon, Malvern, Brampton, Mississauga and Eglinton West became vibrant communities where cultures and music mixed freely at school dances, house parties, family weddings, and festivals. This is where many DJs began their craft, often using home equipment—sometimes building their own speaker boxes. This gave rise to the first mobile sound systems. Basement and rent parties for extended families in various diasporas also allowed DJs to hone their craft. The children of first generation immigrants would often sleep in the coat room as adults played and mixed music in the basement or backyard late into the night.

These children grew up, learning DJ skills at home. This new generation of young DJs pooled their record collections, often made of rare records bought out of town in US cities like Detroit, NYC and Buffalo. This established the first “sound crews” and cross-cultural playlists that shaped Toronto’s unique DJ sound.

Experimentation and Innovation

Club DJs provided the hits and high-energy rhythms that defined nights out. Radio stations often broadcasted these DJ sets live from the clubs, exposing the listener to these club bangers. During the day however, Toronto radio became a playground for innovation. Daytime radio DJs mixed genres that weren’t heard in clubs or mixed together on radio. A lunch time radio set might include genres as disparate as Motown, disco, funk, yacht rock, AM classics, Bollywood, reggae, hip-hop, and soca. DJs like DJ Starting from Scratch, The Juiceman Jonathan Shaw, Jester and DJ Clymaxxx emerged, spinning genre-crossing sets that defined the unique sound of Toronto mix DJs—placing many of them in high esteem among others in their craft.

New Formats, New Audiences

Toronto’s DJ culture went beyond being heard in clubs and on-air. It evolved into a DJ community marked by innovation, with new outlets for new business models and methods of engagement.

This included Scratch Lab—one of Canada’s first DJ schools, Raina Music—an environmental music service providing mixed music for the hospitality sector and Xtendamix—a video remixing service for DJs.

Toronto DJs developed unique business models, and the profession became a mainstay in Toronto’s entertainment sector, branching out into streaming on platforms like Twitch and performing in new spaces. As Toronto DJ culture continues to evolve, the DJs are connecting audiences in fresh and inventive ways. One example is Grocery Store Hits, a Saturday morning mix show on Twitch featuring DJ Jay Online, who dons a Walmart vest to mix and remix soft rock and pop classics that are the staple in grocery stores. Another is Mista Jiggz who has crafted unique remixes for charity fundraisers and other events in the city.

Toronto remains a DJ powerhouse, giving rise to talent who can both juggle and select with remarkable skill, capturing the city’s unique pulse and channeling it into a blend that’s as rich and diverse as the city itself. With each performance, Toronto DJs continue to set a high standard, representing the unique power of music to bring people together across backgrounds, preferences, and generations.

GR

Career Trek – The Mobile DJ Years

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This is the first post in a series that will take you on a journey through the highlights of my working life. I have essentially worked my entire career without sight. A lot of that work was work I chose to do when no other companies would hire me after I graduated what was then called Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Radio & Television Arts. Throughout my journey as an entrepreneur and as an employee with sight loss, I’ve had to solve problems in order to get the job done. I’ll explain how I did it as best I can.

Jump In and Figure it Out

I’ve always loved listening to the artful skill of a mix DJ at work. Listening to radio in Toronto while growing up, I was transfixed by DJs who could beat match, cut and scratch music from a wide variety of musical genres. I had a desire to learn, but figured the startup costs were too prohibitive for me to own turntables, a mixer, speakers and then amass a collection of vinyl LPs.

 

While attending university, my friend Rebecca introduced me to a popular night club DJ—DJ Thomas—who spun music for a Saturday night retro broadcast on a popular Toronto radio station. He used the denon unit week after week and pulled off flawless mixes from a giant case of CDs he traveled with for his DJ gigs. While in conversation with DJ Thomas and Rebecca, I mentioned that DJing was something I wanted to learn.

At the time, there were no courses or schools where you could go to learn to be a DJ. Everyone just “figured it out” on their own.

Rebecca told me to just jump right in and teach myself. I did just that. Thanks Rebecca!

DJ Thomas showed me his rig which held one of the first Denon twin CD decks built for DJs. The unit let DJS play CDs at variable speeds and precisely cue songs using CD frames. This made tempo synchronization and cuing as easy as it was on vinyl.

 

After finishing my first year of university, I rented one of the  Denon decks without a mixer. I learned to mix by connecting each CD player in the Denon to separate stereo systems and working the volume controls independently. My crude bedroom set-up was clunky and awkward, but I had enough to teach myself how to work the unit and get familiar with the controls as well as the tiny collection of CDs I owned. In under a month, I was spinning at my best friend’s 21st birthday party—my very first gig.

 

Kevin stands in front of a mixer and rack of DJ equipment at a party.

 

How I Adapted

Learning the controls on the Denon decks was not that difficult. There were few buttons and each one was sized and positioned in a way where I could memorize what each key did and where it was, so no need for braille labels.

One of the most challenging parts of being a DJ with no sight was selecting CDs. I had a standing rack of 200 CDs, plus 3 or 4 road cases holding many more. Labeling each one with braille was impractical, so I began memorizing the layout of each rack and case using cues from the spines of each case to guide me on which CDs were where. For example, an album in a cardboard digipack would break up the column of CDs and give me an anchor to chunk the order of CDs above and below.

Every so often, I’d grab the wrong CD during a gig, but have enough time to put it back and grab the correct one before the playing track ended.

After several gigs and some saving, I purchased an upgraded Denon deck with jog and shuttle controls along with a very simple DJ mixer. Friends would accompany me to gigs with a cash incentive. I saved money in the long term by renting the PA and lighting gear I needed for each gig. This allowed me to customize each event with the right gear so I wasn’t keeping massive speakers in my inventory if I was playing a small wedding for 50 people.

I spun weddings, first communions, fundraisers and a couple of night club gigs. Over the 7 years I worked as a DJ, the biggest gig I did was for 300 people for my best friend’s parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. I had also amassed a large collection of music and learned a few lessons along the way. 

Lessons Learned

  • Be prepared for everything. Have a backup for your main DJ rig and be prepared to switch immediately to keep the party going.
  • Know your music. Be familiar with your bar counts, in and out points and be prepared to mix disparate genres such as cultural music, rock and reggae. This is what sets you apart and develops your versatility.
  • Know your tools. You should be an expert on how to set up and operate your gear and know every button and function. On the flip side, keep your tech load simple. Sometimes beat matching from song to song is more than adequate without adding a sampler, stutter effects and scratching.
  • Practice and make your mistakes at home. When you’re driving a party at a wedding or night club, there are no redos for a poor mix, so be sure you know what you’re doing when the dance floor is open.
  • Know your audience. Scratching and cutting means nothing if you can’t choose the right song to play. A fundraiser for executives in their 50s is going to be a very different mix than a high school dance, so play to your audience. Your personal tastes come second. 
  • Carry yourself professionally. Use business and rate cards. Be clear with your contracts. Arrive on time for set-up. leave on time after strike. Clean up after yourself. Return calls and e-mails promptly.
  • Perceptions matter. As a DJ with sight loss, walking into a venue with a cane can elicit non-confidence in people who don’t know you can do the work. Your job is to prove them wrong by exceeding their expectations. Use correct spelling and grammar in your correspondence. Make eye contact, shake hands firmly, be agreeable, apologize when necessary and take the high road if you’re dealing with a jerk. Address people by name and say please and thank you. These little things go a long way in building your reputation when you’re starting out.
  • Build a great team. I succeeded as a DJ because I had great friends around me who were willing to drive me to gigs, set up speakers and tell me when people were leaving the dance floor. No one succeeds alone, so surround yourself with great people who are invested in your success.

I left the DJ world in 2005 after selling my DJ rig. If I do get back into it, it will be an expensive hobby.

Today, a DJ with sight loss can easily get set up with a Mac running VoiceOver, accessible DJ software from Algoriddim and accessible DJ controllers such as the Pioneer DDJ SX3. These tools can put you on par with your sighted counterparts.

If you’re going to venture into the world of being a mobile DJ, have a plan and set goals for performing a certain number of gigs in the first 30, 60 and 90 days. Build good habits for practice and be prepared to make sacrifices with your time. The DJ world can be fun, but it is hard work.

 

My Old School Mix

Here is a set of 80s and 90s old school hip hop and R&B that was fun to mix. The Denon DM2500 had a crude sampler which I used for parts of this mix. Enjoy!