[FEATURED POST] News: Canadian Artists & Musicians, Enter CBC Music’s 2018 Searchlight

We hear and post so much amazing sounding new Canadian-based R&B, soul, electronic, pop and hip-hop right here on my blog nowadays but, as I’m doing the A&R screening for this year’s CBC Music Searchlight, a talent discovery contest sponsored by Canada’s leading national, public broadcaster, as we speak, virtually none of that kind of music is being submitted for consideration.

If you’re a Canadian artist focused on any of those genres and you read this blog; or have been submitting your music to me for the blog (with or without success); or you know of anyone working in one of these genres that could benefit from exposure on CBC’s media platforms and; for the grand prize winner, being a part of a JUNO Masterclass, networking and performing during the Juno Awards week celebrations, doing a songwriting camp at the National Music Centre and a performance slot on the CBC Music Fest in May; and you want to guarantee the music gets a fair hearing for Searchlight? Tell them to HEAD HERE to submit their best CLEAN original song for consideration by next Tuesday (Feb. 6) at 2:59 p.m. ET.

Wanna help spread the word about Searchlight 2018? Social share this blog post or any of these posts: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

[Contest] Win a J. Dilla ‘The Diary’ Vinyl LP & T-Shirt Prize Pack

The much-rumored, long-awaited album by the legendary, late, great hip-hop producer & rapper, J. Dilla was finally released by Mass Appeal records on April 15 (Tax Day in the US). If you haven’t heard it, you can check out a couple tracks below or listen to it in full HERE on the DK Tumblr.

But why just stream it when you can own your beautiful copy on wax courtesy of The Kitchen? Want to learn how. Just retweet this tweet for a chance to win. Contest will end 12 noon EST on Friday May 13. Note: You must be a resident of Canada to be eligible to win.

[CONTEST] Win FREE Tickets to See Rapper Stalley Live in Toronto TOMORROW (Feb. 1)

Stalley is one of our favorites here at The Kitchen. His O.H.I.O. album was one of the under-appreciated classics of 2014, but not around these parts. His brand of streetwise-but-thoughtful, classic-meets-contemporary hip-hop is right up our alley so we were super psyched to learn that he was coming to Toronto this week (TOMORROW in fact) as part of his current From Me To You tour. Thanks to the good people at The Academy Presents, we are able to offer one free pair of tickets. Wanna win them? Here’s the drill:

1. Follow me on twitter at @Stellaskid (necessary so I can DM you in the event that you win)

2. Tweet the following message exactly: “Hey @Stellaskid: I wanna win tickets to see @Stalley at @RevivalBarTO in Toronto on Feb. 1” (note: no quotation marks needed, just the message inside the quotation marks is fine)

Simply RT-ing any tweets I do promoting this contest does NOT enter you to win (unless there no entrants!). The contest will close at 12 noon EST tomorrow (Monday Feb. 1). The winner will be notified via twitter DM. Winner will also be responsible for their own transportation to the show.

For more info on the show, CLICK HERE: Facebook | tickets

Not up on Stalley? Then peep these tracks from his brand new, just released (last night) new mixtape album Saving Yusuf. Like what you hear? Listen the album in its entirety HERE.

[CONTEST] Win Tickets to See Absolutely Free & Keita Juma at X Avant X in Toronto Oct. 18

If your read the Kitchen regularly, you already know who Keita Juma is. If you’re not familiar with Toronto’s experimental pop trio, Absolutely Free though, think a slightly darker, more leftfield take on Toro Y Moi‘s music and that’ll give you somewhat of a sense of their sound.

The bottom line though, we are giving away one pair of tickets to see both live at the Music Gallery this Sunday (Oct. 18) as part of the X Avant X festival so you’d be out of your mind not to try and win them. We’ll make this pretty simple:

1. Follow me on twitter at @Stellaskid (necessary so I can DM you in the event that you win)

2. Tweet the following message exactly: “Hey @Stellaskid: I wanna win tickets to see @FreeAbsolutely & @kjforshort at @musicgalleryTO in Toronto on Oct. 18” (note: no quotation marks needed, just the message inside the quotation marks is fine)

Simply RT-ing any tweets I do promoting this contest does NOT enter you to win. The contest will close at 6PM EST on Saturday (Oct. 17). The winner will be notified via twitter DM. Winner will also be responsible for their own transportation to the show.

For more info on the show, CLICK HERE: website | Facebook

(Thank you to David Dacks and the Music Gallery for helping to facilitate this contest with free tickets.)

[CONTEST] Win Tickets to See Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels Live in Toronto, Sept. 26

Yes, win a pair of FREE tickets to the Gentlemen’s Expo this Saturday (Sept. 26) which will get you access all day to the Expo and the best in gadgets, food, sports, fashion, alcohol and cars, (hopefully not in that order!) plus you will be able to see Darryl McDaniels aka ‘DMC‘ from the legendary hip-hop group, Run DMC performing live as well as doing a Q&A. How do you get them? We’re gonna make it easy. To enter to win, do one of the following:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post stating your favorite Run-DMC song (make sure to fill in your email address so I can contact you in the event you win)

2. Leave a comment on Facebook (HERE, HERE or HERE) stating your favorite Run-DMC song.

3. Or tweet to @Stellaskid: “I wanna win the tix to see @THEKINGDMC at @GentlemensExpo on 9/26.”

[note: make sure to follow me on twitter so I can DM you in case you win]

For more info on DMC’s appearance at Gentlemen’s Expo on Saturday (Sept. 26), CLICK HERE. And for you youngun’s not up on DMC and his group, Run-DMC, click the Combat Jack player above to learn the history (start at the 45:00 mark).