As a follow-up to yesterday’s entry, Nelly Furtado did not win for best hip-hop/rap recording. Instead, K-OS won for his track Heaven Only Knows. I’ve had a listen to Exit, K-OS’ last, and first, album, and it’s pretty tight, containing a lot of energy and positivity. Check it out when you can.

Speaking of the Urban X-Posure Awards, why is “urban” synonymous with “black”? I mean, check out this flyer for UMAC 2002. Not a pale face among them even though the winner in the gospel category is a white boy from Winnipeg. Whitey just can’t get no marketing representation, yo.

Actually, this whole idea of a Canadian urban music awards is seriously flawed. Is gospel really urban? How come there are R&B/soul and hip-hop/rap categories but only one “electronic” category which lumps house, techno, jungle, etc. under one banner? Let’s look at that DJ category: all hip-hop/R&B with Baba Kahn, Baby Blue Sound Crew, and Starting From Scratch pretty much the only nominees for the past three years. While these guys might be good DJs in their own right, they’re nothing against the likes of Richie Hawtin, Kid Koala, A-Trak (1997 DMC champ) and many more who are internationally known as some of the world’s top DJ talent. And a “best promoter” category? What the fuck is with that?

If a music awards show is just a bunch of friends and record execs patting themselves on the back, then UMAC succeeded. That’s too bad, because it could be so much better.