Canada’s foremost hip-hop talent, Nelly Furtado, has been nominated for best hip-hop/rap recording at tonight’s 2002 Urban X-Posure Awards, Canada’s urban music showcase, for her track Turn Off The Lights. When I’m Like A Bird hit the airwaves, I was, like, “Man, this is a dope track. Check out that bassline.” It pleases me to see such a fine, fly rapper like Nelly get her respects.

Ahem.

As I heard on CBC this morning, the Urban X-Posure Awards is a people’s choice awards. Nelly Furtado’s name was among 26 others, most of them actual rap and hip-hop artists. How the public decided to choose her over 25 other artists who, undoubtedly, have contributed more to Canadian hip-hop is beyond me. Do they even listen to music? Do they even know what the genres “hip-hop” or “rap” even mean? Folks, the music has only been around for just over 20 years, which is more than I can say for Furtado’s fans.