Dalton Higgins is a music programmer, pop culture critic, author, broadcaster, filmmaker and award-winning journalist. He is also considered Canada’s foremost expert on hip hop culture.
Author of the forthcoming Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake (ECW Press), Higgins has written four other books that examine the place where the worlds of technology, race, hip hop, and hipster culture intersect.
His last book Fatherhood 4.0 features a collection of essays that mark out a new cool diverse dads movement! The book contains candid interviews with: Broken Social Scene's Charles Spearin, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, K'naan's manager & social entrepreneur Sol Guy, Argos' Michael "Pinball" Clemons, Major League Soccer All-Star Dwayne De Rosario, critic Hal Niedzvicki, author Lawrence Hill (Book of Negroes) among many others.
His critically-acclaimed Hip Hop World book (House of Anansi / Groundwood) which articulates the impact of globalization on hip hop culture is used in classrooms throughout Canada and the United States
Higgins is also the co-author of two other books, Hip Hop (Thomson Nelson) and Much Master T: A VJ’s Journey (ECW Press). His work has been referenced in many popular culture essays and has been cited in influential books such as Erykah Badu: The First Lady of Neo Soul (Sanctuary Publishing), Close To The Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation (Verso) and many others.
As a print journalist, Dalton is a Canadian National Magazine Award recipient, and his articles have appeared in esteemed print and online mediums in the United States (Vibe, the Source, Urb, Amazon.com) and Canada (Saturday Night, Now Magazine, Toronto Star, Quill & Quire and many others).
As a broadcaster, Dalton is a former TV host and writer of BPM TV’s Urban Groove, who has appeared as a regular pundit and / or guest on every major Canadian TV network of note: from CTV’s Canada AM, City TV's Breakfast TV, MTV News, CBC’s The National, Much Music’s News, The New Music, Rap City and MuchMoreMusic’s Listed, SUN TV’s “Canoe Live”, Rogers “Daytime”, CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning, CTV Newsnet’s The Verdict, TVO's Your Voice, TSN’s Off the Record, 680 News, and many more.
Behind the camera, Dalton has produced documentaries about barbershop culture (More Than a Haircut premiered at the 2009 Reelworld Film Festival) and human beatboxers (CBC Radio One’s Outfront), and has worked on CBC and SUN TV broadcasts of the Canadian Urban Music Award shows as a scriptwriter for Russell Peters, Master T and Jully Black.
In the global entertainment industry, Dalton is a respected online content provider, having worked as the Content Manager for CBC's Hip Hop Summit, Manager of NYC-based youth web organization Shine and shine.com, Curator for NY-based, urban multi-media company UBO (indieplanet.com), Consultant for Northside Hip Hop, an online resource that catalogues Canadian Hip Hop history and culture, and has been a Blogger-In-Residence at Open Book Toronto since 2009.
Dalton is a music programmer at the Harbourfront Centre, Canada’s Centre of Contemporary Culture, and has sat on a long list of juries that run the gamut from the Juno Awards (Canada’s equivalent to the Grammys) and the Echo Prize (presented by SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, to identify what’s best in current independent music) to Honey Jam (Canada’s all-female talent showcase).
Dalton holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature/Mass Communications from York University, a Book & Magazine Publishing diploma from Centennial College, and he spent a summer doing graduate research on reggae music at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica). He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
interests
Mindbending, like Addi...