This induction was really big for me, I felt like after all these decades, I finally got some flowers, literally, and I am so proud to receive them alive vs dead…Here are the highlights from my acceptance speech…

Thank you for this great honour.  Thank you for the flowers. This moment means so much to me, to be up here with all these great movers and shakers is an amazing feeling, and I’m sure everyone of our inductees feel the same way, and I say thank you to the organizers an presenters, those who nominated us…Thank you for getting our foot in the door, congratulations to you all. 

When I Think of Scarborough, I think high school and what Scarborough bluffs meant to me, and the iconic Scarborough Roller Palace for my old school heads. It was after I drove for Uber and driving downtown that I realized how downtown people stigmatize Scarborough. Many who’ve never been here and see it as a foreign place and have no appetite to visit. Like…Scarborough? No, I’ve never been there, I don’t wanna go there. But we have our own pride here, we love ourselves and our Scarborough people, it’s where a lot of us grew up, we’re loyal to this area.

I called my boys King Turbo a minute ago and said I had to make a speech They said…Big up Markham & Eglinton. Big up Palmer Court. Big up Malvern. Big up Cataraqui. Big up Galloway. Big up Glendower. Big up Chester Lee. Big up Mornelle. Big up Tuxedo Crt. Big up Pitfield. Bog up Wayside. Big up Bay Mills. Big up Danzig. Big up Orton Park. Big up Cliffside… 

And for some of you who are unfamiliar, I stand here because of my trailblazing work as a CKLN radio broadcaster, then a hip hop DJ and concert promoter.  I’ve brought a lot of groups here and put on some historic battles and sound clashes. Heavy D., Salt N’ Peppa, Ice Cube, Ice T, Public Enemy, Biz Mark, Roxanne Shante, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B & Rakim, the list goes on. 

In 1983 as a first day student at Ryerson, I applied for a job there at CKLN and the rest became history with the eventual launch of the Fantastic Voyage Program Hip-hop-funk radio show and then later, Friday Night ReggaeMania on the same CKLN. There wasn’t a lot of Black people playing music on the radio at that time. Sunshine Crew and and others were out there on the streets but because I got into University I was able to put all that beauty from the streets onto the radio . Little did I know that it would become the framework and blueprint for what was to become a vibrant Canadian urban scene.

In 1983, my parents bought a house at Brimley and Steeles. For three years of Ryerson it took 90-mins to bus and subway downtown to school with big rented portable reel-to-reel recorder in hand which I used for music splicing and editing before many of us learned the tricks of editing with a razor and tape.

There was no hip hop scene here once upon a time, until CKLN became a place to gather. My role was to popularize all of the talent that I saw and to showcase the great music I was playing. While doing these radio shows, I also started to bring to Toronto and Canada, some of the most popular artists from the USA to perform here and then later showcased our best crop of Canadian artists to battle the best from the USA. And then there were the monster jams and Love Jams and such. Little did I know that these things would be our Canadian blueprint for s scene that today has become a multi billion dollar industry. 

And my people credit me now, 40 years later, for having the imagination and the will to help Canada play our part and helping to create the blueprint, but there was a lot of hate back then. Big up 2-Rude who tells me without this blueprint there would be no Kardinal, no Drake, because this history is where the foundation was built. 

Most of the concerts and shows were brought to this city first, while the rest of Canada stayed in their hip hop drought. So yeah, you’ll have to read my book that I’ll write one day to hear the full story, but these were the golden years. People have grown up now I get stopped constantly by fans and former listeners who tell me how much they now appreciate those special times. I say thank you to all who played a part. 

DJ X, he’s here, thank you for all your great work. Rob thanks for protecting me – security from the front lines. Lisa West – Thanks for all your great work co-hosting Friday Night ReggaeMania. Big up King Turbo like I said, they’re part of the whole Scarborough feeling to me. They taught me a lot about Scarborough and understanding all of the semantics that come with Scarborough. 

Thank you Lorraine and Gordon for your personal empowerment. Denna, thank you very much for the love, and for being there for me over the years. Jamaie my son is in the house too, I’m trying to teach him everything I know. Big up Jamaie, I love you very much, 

Thank you to my mom and dad, for believing in me and allowing me to persue my dreams. Thanks for standing behind me and helping me finance some of my greatest productions, I couldn’t have done it without you. 

Thank you to Ray Williams for my professorship at York University where I taught Canada’s first Hip-hop University course, and to the doctor-professor Mark Campbell for rebranding me and making me recognize the value of my contribution to Canada. There are so many people I feel I should share this award with, I’m sorry I can’t name them all. But the work that we all did has touched a lot of peoples lives. 

And thanks to Marg and Larry and the Scarborough Walk of Fame for inducting me and giving me this star. I, or I should say we, appreciate the recognition because when we were making history a lot of us were just doing what we loved and what came naturally and intuitively. 

So again than you for this great honour. 

And big up all my Scarborough people.  We’ve got our own distinct vibe and flavour here, we move different than the rest of the GTA, we often get stigmatized by the media but guess what, we’ve got a lot of great talent that come from here, and I say congratulations to you, because without you I would not be standing here hitting this award. 

And thank you God for life. Next year hip hop turns 50 but on Sunday I’ll be turning 60.  This is another milestone for me because everyone of us here to some capacity have lost people we loved because of COVID, because of cancer, disease, because of misfortune, maybe even gun violence we hear about everyday in the news – it’s good to be a survivor, and to still be on this earth living and making a contribution. 

With that I’ll like to tell everyone that I’ll be releasing my first album, 40 YEARS TOO LATE, in early October, DJ Ron Nelson is the artist name on Spotify and Apple Music, and you can purchase it on iTunes.  The album is being released to commemorate my 60th birthday. At age 60, I believe I’ll be Canada’s oldest active rapper as I’m rapping on this album. 

I hope you check it out because if you know me then you know I’m outspoken, I get in trouble. And I stay in my lane, not looking for fame fame, I can’t rap fast like Busta or Big Daddy Kane…… There still history to be made. Keep up to date ..@djronnelson on IG.

Again, congratulations to everyone here receiving their stars because they are ALL STARS, and to the people, I love you and thanks, and SCARBOROUGH WALK OF FAME, thank you for the star, thank you for my flowers, it’s better to receive them when alive not dead so thank you. Hopefully seeing us receiving these awards will be an inspiration to you all including all my Scarborough people, and every person of colour, every minority,  every person who has faced obstacles, that if you work hard you can make your dreams come true.