James Nishima, aka DJ Booda has been a fixture on the Lethbridge rap and hip hop scene for many years but he doesn’t want to be known as “that hip hop guy.” Nishima is spreading his wings and putting on several different hats.
“I enjoy all music. I’ve always enjoyed all kinds of music. My mom raised me on the Beatles and Nina Simone, but my passion lies with hip hop,” he said.
“But I want people to know we don’t just do hip hop or urban music,” said the 28-year-old Taber man.
Nishima, who started out as the house DJ at north side bar Tommy G’s, four or five years ago, dabbled in his first concert promotions by bringing in DJs from Calgary like Deezuz and Politic Live, who he met along with many other members of that scene through myspace as well as frequent visits to the city.
“I had been going up to Calgary to network and meet people and had people say ‘can you set up some shows for us in Lethbridge?’ So I thought ‘What the hell.’ They’d come and play for the door,” Nisihma recalled.
Now, he not only promotes concerts with Blarney Stone owner Chris Meilleur, ranging from classic rock (Dr. Hook) to Celtic (Shanneyganock) but also modern rock (State of Shock, Buck Cherry, Bif Naked) and of course a lot of hip hop but he has expanded his duties to include booking agent, tour manager and tour DJ among other things.
His first major show he fronted his own money for was popular rapper Classified which he fronted his own money for.
“That was my first entry into that world of contracts and artist guarantees and artist deposits,” he said adding that made him concentrate on learning more about that end of the business and less on that of being a performing MC and DJ.
“Slowly DJing went to the side and I got into promotion and the promotions kept getting bigger and bigger,” he said, noting his biggest show to date was a sold out Method Man and Red Man show at Suede two years ago.
“I just would like people to realize I wear a lot of different hats. It’s been a progression for me,” he said. This year has been a busy one for Nishima. He was tour manager for the Swollen Members which meant he booked a lot of the tour dates all over western Canada back in March. He and DJ Daemon, who was his partner in a lot of these shows before Daemon moved away to Ottawa, did double duty as tour DJs as well on that tour. He was also a tour DJ on the Art of Fresh’s tour in July. He just got off the road with DJ Jam and DJ Fresh, who are Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre’s DJs.
“I flew out to Vancouver, rented a car and we worked our way out to Saskatoon,” he said adding he was road manager for that tour, Sept. 2-28.
“That was a new side of the business for me. Because a road manager is a glorified babysitter. You handle all of the day to day business of the tour and look after all of the artists’ needs and handle all of the money. I definitely had some gray hairs when I got back, but it also opened a lot of doors,” he said.
Next year is already shaping up to be a busy one as well, beginning with a western Canadian tour with Vanilla Ice, during which he is acting as agent as well as road manager. He is also working on tour with D12— Eminem’s DJs who have a new CD out in the new year.
Many of the rock acts he has worked with including Default, State of Shock, Bedouin Soundclash, Bif Naked and Buck Cherry have arisen from a new relationship with the S.L Feldman agency in Toronto, who book some of the biggest acts in the world. The shows he has booked through Feldman including Karl Wolf, Classified and the Swollen Members have helped spawn the rock shows.
“They have been really big supporters. I book a lot of shows through them,” he said, adding he spends a lot of time answering e-mails, texts and going over spreadsheets now he is taking on bigger responsibilities and bigger risks.
“The Blarney Stone has been an integral part. They’ve been so good to me,” he said.
“Before all of the risk was on us,” he said.
“The Blarney Stone is a large venue. We give people a chance to see bigger name acts at a decent price. Twenty dollars to see a bigger band, that’s not too bad,” he said.
“Now I’m at the point where I sell shows to people. As an agent, I go to (venues in) each city and tell them I have a tour, and ask if they want to have it. I try to get as many shows in a row as possible because every open date costs money. It’s very time consuming, but it can also be very rewarding,” he said, adding it is important to offer a variety of shows from be it rock/hip hop or Celtic.
“And timing is really a big factor. We base the majority of our events during the school year. There’s lots of marketing involved,” he said.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
A version of this story appeared in the Dec. 23 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
