The 3rd Annual Global Spin Awards took place this week at The New World Stages in New York City, celebrating the achievements of the turntablists and beatsmiths that drive hip-hop artistically. Hosted by LaLa Anthony, the awards recognized luminaries such as DJ Khaled (who won for DJ Album of the Year), DJ Premier and Diplo.
“Run D.M.C. was probably the group that, just their incorporation of deejaying and rapping at the same time was always something that blew my mind,” shared Jermaine Dupri.
With stars like Ne-Yo and Busta Rhymes on hand, superstar DJs and producers like Swizz Beatz and DJ Mustard shared their thoughts on what the Global Spin Awards mean for the art form.
We’ve got our own award shows, we’re doing festivals, we’re getting nominated at other award shows. We’re getting there,” explained Mustard. The legendary DJ Red Alert shared his belief that deejays have always gotten their due, relatively-speaking. “I feel that they’ve been getting it all along,” he said. “It just was never raised to high-profile. I’m happy that this is in the third year. I wanna see it three times more. Let’s keep it going.”
AraabMuzik and Rakim were among the night’s performances, with Busta Rhymes hitting the stage alongside OT Genasis to perform their new track “Coco.” Revolt founder Sean “Diddy” Combs presented an award and praised the legendary Kool DJ Red Alert, considered by many the father of hip-hop.
And the deejays on-hand all served to remind the hip-hop industry and pop culture at large that the deejay is not an accessory.
“The game started with the deejay, and somehow the emcee managed to make a way and make more money, but we still go hand-in-hand and this event tonight is a beautiful thing,” said Kay Slay.
Kid Capri shared his belief that the Global Spin Awards prove what he’s been trying to communicate since his early days.
“That’s always been my argument for my entire career is [for] deejays to be looked at as artists and not just somebody playing records,” Capri stated. “Something like this should’ve happened a long time ago.”
