The Philly Hip Hop Awards continues virtually with Co-Executive Producer Markee “Plex” Djordan

Rest in Peace Prince Markie Dee
I can’t talk about hip hop without first saying Rest in Peace to Fat Boys member, and radio host Prince Markie Dee. He died at 52, one day before his 53rd birthday. Please keep his family and friends in prayer. Pray for Kangol Kid as well. He announced on February 19th that he will have surgery on February 23rd to remove a tumor as a result of Colon Cancer. I’m believing God for Kangol’s full and total recovery.
The Philly Hip Hop Awards
The Next Generation steps up to produce the 9th Annual Virtual Philly Hip Hop Awards! The Philly Hip Hop Awards founded by Jimmy Da Saint have been celebrating the achievements of the phenomenal talent hailing from Philadelphia for 9 years. As we all know, we are experiencing a lot of changes due to COVID-19 and The Philly Hip Hop Awards had to pivot to a virtual format, under the leadership of Co-Executive Producer Markee “Plex” Djordan. Plex’s prior role in the PHHA was more of a support role in the 2011 award show debut; working heavily behind the scenes but his emergence from there was rapid and Plex is now the producer of the virtual format for PHHA.
Shelly Shell: Many of us wondered if Philly Hip Hop Awards would continue due to the 2019 Hiatus; if we weren’t faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, would it have been a live awards show ?
Plex: We would have definitely had a live award show if we didn’t have COVID. Sometimes you find positives out of obstacles which in this case was doing a virtual Philly Hip Hop Awards show and ultimately making Philly music history. I think we might have done too good of a job, (laughing) a lot of people suggested that we keep the virtual theme for future award shows.
Shelly Shell: What was the Inspiration for moving forward for 2020?
Plex: The inspiration for moving with this year’s awards show was that we felt as though the city needed us to come back. There have been increasing senseless murders in the city of Philadelphia over the past year. We know that we cannot cure the overall problem but we can give the urban music scene which is filled with a lot of younger people, something to talk about and look forward too.
Shelly Shell: This was the PHHA where you took lead? How did you feel?
Plex: As for me on a personal note this event was a extra challenge for me, because we usually had like four people that were heavily involved in putting the award show together. This year was solely put on my shoulders. My partner and Founder of The PHHA Jimmy Dasaint was swamped with his multiple movie productions and some personal issues.
Shelly Shell: How difficult was it to pivot to virtual?
Plex: Putting a virtual award show together was a challenge because it was uncharted waters for The PHHA’s and we only had 30 days to make it happen. I have produced many live shows of different varieties through my entertainment company, Monster House Entertainment, so the performance part of the virtual award show was very familiar to me.
To offset the unfamiliar areas of doing a virtual award show I had to look at this project as if I was the director on a movie set. I found local industry professionals who specialized in every area that was needed for the overall production. With that being said, I have to say this year’s award show was not about me it was about the many music professionals from Philadelphia that all played a part in helping us make history. I was a fan and spectator on Sunday January 31st as we went live on The Philly Hip Hop Awards TV on our YouTube channel. One of my favorite parts of the whole project was seeing us go live and witness the number of people that were tuned in and commenting on our feed.
There was alot of support, love and good energy coming from all over Philadelphia and beyond that day. We also had a great time putting the show together behind the scenes because we had to pre-record most of the show and that’s where a lot of our Philadelphia music professionals shined. We turned the main PHHA venue, 1122 MMG Studio into a TV production set. We also had local media outlets on hand to interview all of the participating artists.
In typical Philly Hip Hop Awards fashion, the set turned into a small party with COVID restrictions in mind of course. I want to shout out The PHHA’s, Founder Jimmy Dasaint, Virtual producer Phant Productions, Kevin Sutton of 1122 Studios, Treion Films, Joelle, Staten and DJ Wayne Stackz from my Monster House Entertainment staff, our great hosts for the 2020 PHHA, Roc Star P and Stormy Pea, The City of Dreams Coalition and every other person and organization who contributed to this year’s history making award show. Make sure that you go check it out on The Philly Hip Hop Awards TV Channel on YouTube and it’s also available on I Fame TV and Who Mag Distribution apps.
Here is a look at my calendar of events @shellyshellwilliams:
#motivationmonday Business Networking event every 3rd Monday 7:30 pm on zoom
Every 4th Saturday, 2 pm- 4pm the zoom taping of Single on A Saturday Night, relationship talk show and 9 Year Anniversary.
Catch you next week with the “Word on the Street.”