Nino Brown takes us through the evolving diversity, drug culture and individuality in Toronto’s Party scene.
Dj Nino Brown (@yesyesninobrown) is a leader in Toronto’s culture. Starting 'YesYesY’all,' Toronto’s 'Biggest, Bashiest, and Sweatiest Queer Hip-Hop/RnB/Dancehall Jam' with Yes Yes Jill, in 2009, she has become an icon in Toronto. We have been friends for a year now. Since she had previously expressed interest in swimming in my apartment complex’s pool, I was able to entice her into what ended up being more of a 3-hour-long conversation than an interview at my humble abode. As someone who has been DJing and partying long enough to experience firsthand multiple eras of Toronto, I entered the conversation curious about the ways in which the evolving social and gender norms, fashion, and drug cultures have affected Toronto’s culture, and how these changes have influenced her views on DJing, partying, and the world.
We started the conversation at her starting point in the scene. I asked Nino about the age at which she started going to parties and if she was scared, as my anxiety was through the roof when I began going out. “I was 15 when I went to my first parties. They were mostly house parties because that’s all I could get into at that age. However, I would have the rare night when one of my cousins would get me into a rave. I was definitely not nervous. Growing up in a restrictive household, my eyes were wide open when I went out. I was excited to see different people and their extremes, and I could find similarities within myself through their differences.” I inquired about the scene at that time. “It was very, very white.” This comment somewhat surprised me. With gentrification being apparent in the city,
my dad, who at the time was throwing bashments, speaks to me as if Toronto, year by year, is eliminating culture and becoming whiter. Mentioning this to Nino, she reminded me of the sheer size of Toronto and how there can be many different cliques of parties for different diasporas. She specified that she was mainly talking about the queer scene, as that was her area. Nino believes that most party scenes have only become more diverse each year.
YesYesY’all, now in its fourteenth year, is truly a spectacle. Watching old videos on my phone from the event, there are 560 people dancing hard and getting as sweaty as possible. There are Caribbeans and Jamaicans in full carnival getups, queer extravagance, models in next to nothing, and an MC shouting madness over dancehall, hip-hop, baile funk, and club remixes. I wanted to know everything about the event, from its inception to the present. “It started as simply, 'Let’s throw a party.'
I didn’t know if anyone would come, but it ended up being busy. Then, each time we threw the event, it seemed like the crowd would double. I think we got a little lucky.” I asked her how, through the years of throwing YesYesY’all and DJing, she thinks the culture has evolved. “There were times when the culture made me lose passion for DJing. I remember when Xanax was really prevalent from around 2014 to 2018; I found it really hard to find enjoyment in going out and throwing events. People weren’t really dancing. You had to play a certain type of music, mainly rap, for people who would just want to be” she motions a dance of zombified bouncing. “When Xanax started to phase out, I started to notice my enjoyment coming back as people began to dance again.”
As I started going out at 16 in 2016, I remember the Xanax craze. Some of my high school friends experienced it as their first addiction. Never being much of a hard drug person myself, I have memories of walking into basements full of zombies and sitting there, bored and uncomfortable. Then, having the same kids claim that their night was ‘crazy’ and ‘a movie’ the next day. We ended up going off-topic from 'YesYesY’all' to talking about drug culture. Over my seven years of partying, I've seen drug culture
shift from Xanax and lean to weed as it became legalized, and now ketamine is the drug of choice. I asked her how her feelings on drugs were in DJing. “I always tell my peers, you need to be a good DJ while sober. I see so often someone saying, 'Oh, I'm nervous,' or 'Oh, I'm tired, I need a drink,' or 'I need a bump.' It can be a dangerous path and an easy one to fall into.” We started to discuss our experiences in seeing the extremes of it. For me, it was at 21, seeing someone nod off and being unable to get up in the back room of the club Wiggle Room due to fentanyl. For her, it was “this one vivid memory of my friend, who was a grown man, struggling to get up the stairs. I remember thinking, is this fun?”
As the conversation took a dark turn, we steered it back toward her favorite aspects of throwing events and DJing. “I really love curating a room. Seeing people who wouldn't usually interact and have fun together brings me a lot of joy.” I mentioned how a lot of people around her are characters and have crazy fashion. “I am really attracted to extravagant people. Maybe even more so, extravagant dressers.
It can be interesting to see how someone can dress loudly and yet be timid.” We closed off the conversation by discussing fashion in the scene. “It has only become more individualistic and extreme. I think it's in a really fun place with themed parties like PepRally, where we have clubbers putting a lot of effort into cool, extravagant outfits, just for one night, for the culture.” As Lil Uzi Vert's music played on my TV, we finished by talking about how the fashion scene is so awesome, that stars are able to implant an 11-carat pink diamond into their head. Sadly, we never made it to the pool.
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