Awesome Tapes From Africa DJ event cancelled amidst racist posts, false advertising

Racial tensions and music are already high enough in the music world. A report from Billboard from the beginning of the year pointed out, uncomfortably, that none of last year's Hot 100 no. 1 singles were performed by black musicians. Now, some of the more cynical critics of mainstream music are already alleging that Macklemore's conquest of the rap categories at Sunday's Grammy Awards was based more on being comfortable to whites than being appreciated by all. One genre that hasn't seen as much ethnic dispute is EDM, but a cancelled event in Toronto may have turned that table.

Double Double Land, a club in Toronto, was scheduled to host DJ Night with Awesome Tapes From Africa on Friday night. Awesome Tapes is a Los Angeles-based blog that acquires recordings of lesser-known African performers and posts them online for its followers. That in itself is a positive: It encourages American audiences to listen to and search out African musicians. The issue arose when one fan noticed that none of the actual performers for DJ Night was African. And, as far as reports make it seem, none of them were even black.

Naturally, this inspired a back-and-forth on the event's Facebook page (visible here), which quickly escalated into racist diatribes. Daniel Vila, the event's organizer, opted to cancel the event rather than "imply any complicity with the repulsive comments that have been made." Bryan Shimkovitz, the founder of Awesome Tapes and a scheduled performer at the event, echoed the anti-racist sentiment.

For now, a forum for discussion of racism within electronic music is scheduled in the next few weeks. That's nice in theory, but it covers up the fact that no one has gone out looking for black DJ's in a city that features one of the highest African immigrant populations on the continent. An element that hasn't received enough flack is how organizers billed the event as an Awesome Tapes From Africa gig. Even if performing DJ's used African recordings for their mixes that night. That's just less than ethical sales practices. Paul Oakenfold may have been at the fore of Goa Trance, but we highly doubt he'd title his concerts as "Indian DJ Night."

As for racism in electronic music...if you need us to explain why that's wrong, please read a different music news site from now on. Thanks.