PHEMPHAT – 13 years strong

Necessity is the mother of invention, and after recognizing the need to do something about the lack of exposure and promotion given to local female performers, as well as the lack of female representation on the business side of Canadian urban music, we decided against just kickin' sad raps about "too bad it's like that" and came up with ideas on how to give exposure to and encourage more women to step up and over the existing biases and sexist attitudes.

PhemPhat was formed in May 1995 to foster the growth, education and promotion of women in all aspects of the urban entertainment scene, to break through and establish a presence in areas which have traditionally been "boyz clubs", not only as artists, but also dj's, producers, engineers, managers, label owners, and promoters... all up in da mix!

Over the last 10 years, PhemPhat has produced the successful all-female talent showcase called "Honey Jam". Hosted by Canada's First Lady of Hip Hop, Mz. Michie Mee, and featuring a wide variety of local dj's and performers representing hip hop, jazz, gospel, reggae, blues, r&b, dance and spoken word. The Honey Jams are stellar showcases of homegrown talent. Over 70 artists have played to hyped and capacity crowds including Nelly Furtado, Jully Black, Tara Chase, Jemeni, Graph Nobel, Melanie Durrant, Motion and many more.

PhemPhat believes in giving back to the community and has made donations from their past events to Big Sisters of Toronto, Each One, Teach One's Sista 2 Sista mentoring group, the Immigrant Women's Job Placement Centre, At the Crossroads Women's Art Journal, the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention, Breast Cancer Research, the Canadian Artists Network, Black Artists in Action, Sistering, and Voices of Positive Women.

Here’s a rundown of the last 10 years:

1995 – we did 3 Honey Jams that year, with the last one at Lee’s Palace as part of Jonathan Ramos’ Hip Hop Sundays. It was sold out, and we were on our way.

1996 - PhemPhat expanded in the business of music and fulfilled its educational mandate by successfully launching an annual urban music seminar at the Harris Institute, the first ever seminar of its kind in Canada catering to the interests of women who wish to pursue careers in the urban music industry.

1997 - we branched out to film promotion, coordinating CD release parties, artist promotion and theme parties.

1998 - we started the Women on Wax dj showcases featured internationally on Ooh La La, a line of t-shirts and a dance agency.

1999 – highlights included having Honey Jam sponsored by New York's Honey Magazine, we were pleased to welcome male panellists to our seminar, and our dance agency, now independently run under the name Blaze, was reviewed in the National Post as bringing the artform to a new level.

2000 - we were proud to host the Canadian premiere of Rachel Raimist's documentary on women in hip hop, Nobody Knows My Name and to premiere our spoken word focused event, Brown Girls In Da Ring. PhemPhat was also honoured in 2000 with a special Achievement Award by the Urban Music Association of Canada.

2001 - saw the meteoric rise of Honey Jam alumni Nelly Furtado and many other power moves in the PhemPhat Phamily in front of and behind the scenes in the industry, including the publishing of HoneyJam Magazine and receiving a nomination for Best Promoter in Canada at the UMAC Awards. Honey Jam 2001 broke attendance records necessitating a move to a larger venue for 2002.

2002 - Universal Music came on board as our major sponsor, which made it possible for us to produce a promotional compilation cd of Honey Jam alummi entitled "Honey Drops." Over 200 hopefuls turned out at our June auditions, arriving 3 hours before start time with lineups a couple blocks long! Tickets began selling for Honey Jam 2 months prior to the event. We saw more of our artists making power career moves, getting signed, releasing cd's and videos.

2003 - the largest blackout in North American history decided to happen the night of the show, but we were too powerful to be stopped by a power failure, and rescheduled a few days later, delivering another amazing showcase of awe-inspiring talent. We were also nominated for 3 awards at the Canadian Urban Music Awards, including Best Compilation for the Honey Drops CD.

2004 - we welcomed back Jully Black to a powerhouse performance - her first time back on the Honey Jam stage since 1995. Another first was the performance by an all-female rock band, Surface, from Saskatchewan, who won the coveted Honey Jam Hookup Prize Pak.

2005 - PhemPhat CEO Ebonnie Rowe was honoured with a YWCA Women of Distinction Award, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary and participated for the first time in the Toronto Street Festival.

Flow 93.5 sponsored a major production prize worth over $7500. One lucky artist, Lori Nuic, was chosen by acclaimed producer Saukrates who will produce a track for her to be released by the end of the year. Renee Wynter walked away with the Honey Jam Hookup Prize Pak which included a gorgeous electric blue Yamaha guitar worth over $1,500!

2006 – Another amazing year showcasing stellar talent.  One of the featured artists, Cali goes on to get a role in the film Hairspray co-starring Queen Latifah.

2007 – we partnered with Universal Music to produce the HONEY JAMS cd featuring local and international female artists.

2008 – PhemPhat Entertainment Group celebrates 13 years of Honey Jam and welcomes Vivian Barclay and Aisha Wickham Thomas as Board Members.  Several members of PhemPhat are chosen to participate in the Luminato Mille Femmes photo exhibit featuring portraits of a thousand women from all artistic fields including art, architecture, dance, theatre, fashion, design, film, literature and journalism. Co-produced by Luminato and Lancôme, Toronto's Mille Femmes captures inspirational women who embody the passion, heritage and inspiration behind Toronto 's artistic community.

What's next? Stay tuned.