The Limelight: Celebrating 17 Years On Air at CJLO 1690 AM

CJLO 1690 AM’s longest-running hip-hop show, The Limelight, is now celebrating its 17-year anniversary of being on air this February. 

Hosts Amrew Weekes, aka DJ Lady Oracle, and Jason Farrell aka J-Nice created The Limelight back in 2003. “I’m not too sure at the time that we started how many other underground hip-hop shows were happening in Montreal,” said J-Nice. “So it was just like, ‘Okay, nobody’s doing this, let’s have fun with it.” 

Over the years, the show has been promoting the Montreal and Canadian music scene the best way that they can. “We want to support local hip-hop and r&b artists, getting to know all of them and really build a community and be a part of a community,” said DJ Lady Oracle. 

Being deeply entrenched in the hip-hop community allowed The Limelight to grow their show very quickly and organically. DJ Lady Oracle has made contacts both as CJLO’s Hip-Hop Director for the past 4 years and as a DJ at Kalmunity, Canada’s largest and longest-running improv collective. Lady Oracle and J-Nice are also part of Urban Science Le Cypher, Montreal’s weekly hip-hop/soul jam session, happening every Thursday at Bootlegger. 

“Montreal’s small in the sense of the hip-hop community,” said J-Nice. “So when there’s an event happening, you just want to go represent. It shows them love, they show us love. We get to meet other artists through that event that we’ve never heard before, but it turns out that they’ve got some good stuff too. Then we get their music and bring them on the show. It’s just like a big circle.”

And the impact that The Limelight has had in the Montreal hip-hop music scene is unmistakable. “I feel like, if the show wasn’t there anymore, it’s almost like there’d be like a hole in the community, or one less outlet, you know?” said Lady Oracle. 

Since this February is the anniversary month of The Limelight, DJ Lady Oracle and J-Nice are planning on doing something special for their show. They plan on having live-to-air sessions by local artists, with their performances being live-streamed on YouTube. 

The Limelight will also be hosting a special 17-year anniversary party on Saturday, February 8th at The Diving Bell Social Club. “We see [this event] as a celebration, just come celebrate with us,” said DJ Lady Oracle. “We want to have people there who’ve been a part of [the Limelight], and we can all just celebrate it, celebrate the longevity of it.”

The last anniversary show that The Limelight had was for their 5-year anniversary, 12 years ago. “And every year we’ve been saying, “We’ve got to do it again, we’ve got to do it again’,” said J-Nice. “It’s about just coming to represent, and we just want to have fun with the people who we’ve talked to for the past 17 years and who’ve loved the show.”

The Limelight is very appreciative of the support that everyone has shown them throughout the years. “We’re just super grateful and we really appreciate all the love from everybody, from the community, from CJLO. We’ve had different Station Managers, and Program Managers and Hip Hop Directors since 2003; that’s a lot, but it’s always been such an incredible experience. And we have such a great volunteer team, so we’re just really happy to still be a part of that,” said Lady Oracle.

Moving forward, The Limelight also wants to focus on finding new ways of promoting the Montreal scene and collaborating with more artists in the community. 

They want to continue having fun with their show and grow as much as they can. “I think just the continuation of the passion and the love kind of gives us that unique flavour that people enjoy and people want to be a part of,” said J-Nice. “That’s one of the things we can only really hope for is that people love it, and we give that love back, and yeah, the sky’s the limit!” 

Come enjoy The Limelight’s 17 Years & Counting Party at The Diving Bell Social Club on Saturday, February 8, from 7 PM – 11 PM. There will also be special performances by Sereni-T, Shaun Miller, Cat Fernandes, and DJ White Socks. Entry Cost: PWYC.