WHERE MY RUDIES AT?

Where My Rudies At? At an attempt to break the mold and experiment with Toronto's bland recipe for night life, I developed a concept with an ally in the fight against 'the same', and labeled it Hey Rudie! What exactly is a rudeboy you might ask. Well, in the traditional sense a rudeboy, rudie, rudi or rudy were common terms for juvenile delinquents and criminals in 1960s Jamaica. The first rude boys in the 1960s were associated with the poorer sections of Kingston, Jamaica, where ska, then rocksteady were the most popular forms of music. They dressed in the latest fashions at dancehalls and on the streets. Many of these rude boys started wearing sharp suits, thin ties, and pork pie or Trilby hats; inspired by United States gangster movies, jazz musicians and soul music artists. In that time period, disaffected unemployed Jamaican youths sometimes found temporary employment from sound system operators to disrupt competitors' dances (leading to the term dancehall crasher).

In a nut shell, a rudie is an outsider that creates a sub-culture in order to satisfy an unfulfilled need, at the same time disrupting the comforts of those blind-to-the-facts. We are fashionista zapatistas, with a flare for the finer things in life. We are sound system controllers, addicted to bass and the grimier forms of sound. We are the trends before they happen, the visionaries amongst those unaware of the preeminant change. We are societies rudeboys and girls.

So, what is a Hey Rudie! event? We at Hey Rudie! celebrate that which is international, exotic and diverse. Paying homage to Jamaican ska and all that it has influenced...from Baile Funk, born in the favelas of Rio, to Kudoro, Angolan influenced electronic crack, London’s UK Funky to Diplo's Major Lazer style mashups. We take the sounds of the streets, the melodies of the poor and blend them into one massive sound. If you're mind is too fixed on the comforts of what you know, and you are unable to open your mind to the sights and sounds of the international dance, then I warn you against attending. However, if you feel you might belong to the rudie diaspora at large...I strongly urge you to attend.

That being said...WHERE MY RUDIES AT???