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Maestro Fresh Wes, Skinny Puppy Win Polaris Heritage Prize

The following is another Billboard Canada story penned by Rosie Long Decter.

Maestro Fresh Wes, Skinny Puppy Win Polaris Heritage Prize

By External Source

The following is another Billboard Canada story penned by Rosie Long Decter.


Two influential '80s albums have won this year’s Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prizes. Skinny Puppy’s Bites and Maestro Fresh Wes’ Symphony in Effect both helped bring their respective genres — industrial-electronic and hip-hop — to broader attention in Canada. The Heritage Prize designation honours their contributions to Canadian music culture.

Each year, a jury of experts selects one album for the Heritage award, while the second honouree is decided by a public vote. Like the annual Polaris Prize, the albums are selected with regard for their artistic merit, not their commercial success. Previous winners include Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, And Now The Legacy Begins by Dream Warriors, and Feist’s Let It Die.

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Maestro Fresh Wes' Hip-Hop Breakthrough Symphony in Effect

Symphony in Effect, the 1989 debut by Scarborough’s Maestro Fresh Wes, is this year’s jury selection. Released on Attic/LMR Records, the album went platinum in Canada and helped Toronto’s rising hip-hop scene get international attention. The album’s high-energy lead single, Let Your Backbone Slide, was the first Canadian Top 4 hip-hop hit and won the first Juno Award for Best Rap Recording. It was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.

While the Polaris Music Prize awards the best Canadian album of the year (this year's went to Debby Friday), the Polaris Heritage Prizes serve as a kind of critic’s hall-of-fame for albums released before the Polaris Prize was created in 2006. It's awarded annually to two classic Canadian albums. – Continue reading here.

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Carly Rae Jepsen
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Carly Rae Jepsen

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604 Records Co-Founder Jonathan Simkin Says Carly Rae Jepsen Recorded a Whole Unreleased Album Around 'Call Me Maybe'

The British Columbia-native was signed to Interscope Records, but was reportedly tasked to make a brand new record with all new producers.

An unreleased Carly Rae Jepsen project exists out in the music ether, according to Jonathan Simkin.

In a recent podcast episode of I Hate Simkin, the 604 Records co-founder reveals that prior to the No. 1 success of Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” an entire project had been made — but it didn’t make it to the masses.

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