I love basketball. Some time in my pre-teens, it overtook baseball as my favorite sport and was a big part of my youth. #14 PG for Charles P. Allen High School 1998-2000. Opting my music career over a shot at the NBA, I’ve always kept it close: pick-up games wherever I can find them and I get riled up over just about any close match I watch.

Today I will be playing in a charity basketball game with a handful of other Canadian athletes and music-types. Some info from the official Juno Website…

Juno Hoops 2011 is the first-ever celebrity basketball game in support of MusiCounts – Canada’s national music education charity associated with CARAS. Featuring three-time World champion and Olympic double gold medalist sprinter, Donovan Bailey; Max Kerman, lead singer of The Arkells; J.E. Skeets & Tas Melas, co-hosts of The Basketball Jones Show on The Score; DJ Future the Prince (Drake’s official tour DJ); and Skratch Bastid, first-ever DJ to be nominated for a Juno Award (Producer of the Year, 2008).

Tanya Kim, etalk Anchor, is one of two honourary guest coaches for Juno Hoops, and she’ll be paired with either Roy Rana or Charles Kissi, head coaches of the Ryerson Rams men’s and women’s varsity basketball teams.

Other celebrities on board include Toronto Raptors game-day host and hype man, Mark Strong, and renowned urban music producer/promoter Kid Kut. DJ Garrick Estwick (Roots Canada) will provide the game-day beats throughout the event.

Other participants: R&B star Ray Robinson; former professional player and UMAC president, Will Strickland; 2007 Juno Reggae Award nominee, Trinity Chris; award-winning spoken word poet, Dwayne Morgan; DJ D.O.C.; media personality Devo Brown; Michael Grange, and mas band leader Dwayne Pitt.

Twenty players on two teams will compete for the inaugural Juno Hoops Trophy, with an MVP award given out to one player on each team. More participants will be announced prior to tipoff.

Right after the game, a special exhibition contest between two of Ontario’s top midget boy’s teams takes place between Toronto Triple Threat and the Mississauga Monarchs.

It’s today at 7pm at the Kerr Hall Gymnasium on Ryerson University Campus. If you’re looking for something to do on a Monday night, come on out and support a great cause! I’ll follow up with some pictures later this week.

After 9 shows in 10 days, it will be at least good exercise to burn off a few road calories. Wish me luck!

It’s official. I’m an actor. SAG card is in the mail.

Coors Light Silver Bullet Express Contest Promo from Maciej Henryk on Vimeo.

Earlier this year, I was contacted by CBC and was asked to be a part of an event that would bring together a few generations of Canadian hip-hop artists on the same stage on the same night. Sounded like a no-brainer to me.

Announced yesterday, I think this line-up looks incredible. K-os, Kardinal Offishall, Shad, Saukrates, Classified, Maestro, Michie Mee, Red1 of The Rascalz, Choclair, Ghetto Concept, Reema Major, Cadence Weapon, myself and many more are on the bill. The event is sure to bring some great surprises and unique moments, so if you’re near Toronto come and check it! If you can’t be there in person, CBC will have television, radio and print coverage of the event. Read on for the full press release and how you can be a part of the event.

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Continuing in the trend of practice sessions with other DJs, I linked up with DJ Bonics (Wiz Khalifa’s DJ) when he came to Toronto a few weeks ago. He came through the laboratory with DJ Wristpect and we had chopped it up about different approaches to DJing, our influences, and got in some practice. Here’s some footage:

Bonics has all sorts of awesome posts and footage from his travels over at his website. Make sure you hop over there and show some love. He’s also a new member of the Philly-based crew Skratch Mekaniks – a crew with a lot of dope DJs. Check out their page for a run down.

George Stroumboulopoulos is a great man. He has always done an excellent job of representing lesser-known art on a mainstream level, from his start as a MuchMusic host to his current duties at Canada’s national media outlet CBC. I enjoy listening to his diverse radio show and it was a pleasure to do a featured mix for it in a segment called “The Blend”. Check it out on his website here or in the player below as featured on my Soundcloud page:

Valentine’s Day themed mix for The Strombo Show by Skratch Bastid

Read on for a list of tracks. Enjoy, loved ones.

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