The owner of Play De Record chats about the iconic store's legacy and his secret to staying in business
During the 1990s, Play De Record was an essential stop for anyone closely following dance music and hip hop, either locally or internationally. Talent like local DJ crew Peter, Tyrone and Shams would crowd the record store to talk shop—what was hot, what was new, what they needed to have before anyone else. It became a hub for crate diggers of all stripes, who hung out for hours on drop days, hunting through the store’s one-of-a-kind selection.
It was the same thing at Play De Record. Anything I do, my mom and dad want to be involved. They want to help and do their part to make sure everything is working out. If it weren’t for my parents, I wouldn’t even have this store. We moved to Canada in 1981, and my dad eventually owned a building on Yonge. The front was a drugstore, and the back was empty for two years. I was 28 by then, and I pitched the idea of a music store to my parents.
I always knew I didn’t care much for commercial stuff, but I liked finding the newest R&B, reggae, soca or funk and spreading the word about it. I soon realized that, in Toronto, and in Canada in general, we have a lot of talent. But they didn’t have many avenues. Back then, bigger stores wouldn’t carry much Black music, only the popular stuff. They wanted to sell a hundred or a thousand units of something, not like ten copies.
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