If you thought Drake was the only good thing to come from Canada, think again! Make way for your new favorite DJ: Ekali. Not only has he appeared on BBC Radio’s Diplo and Friends, but he’s also been able to perform at well-known music festivals alongside major producers like RL Grime and ODESZA. Honestly, if Diplo can trust this guy on his radio show, I think we all can. Also, you’ve probably listened to Ekali without even knowing it. According to an article on Hypebeast, his third upload and one of his own original songs, “Unfaith,” got sampled by Drake and PartyNextDoor for the songs “Preach” and “Wednesday Night Interlude” on Drake’s chart-topping album, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
The Vancouverite, real name Nathan Shaw, was scheduled to perform for Top Tier’s Annual Sunday Funday Concert Series at TENN for Martin Luther King weekend, but sadly had to cancel. An email from Top Tier the day of the event went out to hundreds of fans who bought tickets and were hyped for the show, including myself, announcing a last-minute cancellation. The email read, “We got notified this morning that Ekali became very ill after playing a festival and was physically not cleared to fly due to health. He is very sorry and so are we. We wanted to reach out to you and let you know that we are working with his management and agents and will be announcing a new rescheduled date ASAP.” The DJ himself then took to Twitter and shared, “Hey Tallahassee Florida I’m so sorry I won’t be able to make my show today because of a personal emergency be back very soon I promise.”
To make up for the inconvenience, Top Tier gave fans three refund options: you could keep your ticket and have it honored at the rescheduled show, have it honored for the next event at TENN on February 21, QUIX and Nitti Gritti, or get your money back entirely. Luckily for us, the rescheduled date was out sooner than we thought, and I can’t help but think that I had a little bit to do with it.
On Tuesday, January 23, Ekali posted this photo to Instagram, captioned “Questions?” After waiting for two weeks and wanting solid answers on when (and if) Ekali was ever going to make it to Tallahassee, I commented asking when he was actually coming to Tally. Of course, I wasn’t expecting an answer because things like that just never happen to me, but within 20 minutes, I was told by one of my friends to check Facebook about a post announcing the rescheduled date and venue of Saturday, February 10, at Pots.
Now, I’m not going to say that I pushed Ekali to post the new date, but I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that not long after my comment, a new date was announced. Ekali made his move and now we can’t wait to make ours at Pots. See you soon, Ekali, the rest of Tally and I can’t wait to hear your wubz.
All images courtesy of Michelle Abraira.