Dalton Higgins

Dalton Higgins is a PR strategist & publicist, author of six books, festival producer, National Magazine Award-winning journalist, TV/radio broadcaster & blogger. Higgins is a leading Toronto-based publicist whose active roster includes clients that have won a wide range of Awards and accolades including: BET Awards (USA), Mercury Prize (UK), Emmy Awards (USA), Juno Awards (Canada), in addition to Grammy Award (USA) and Polaris Prize (Canada) nominees.

His best-selling book Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake – carried in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum collection in Cleveland – sheds light on the cultural conditions in Toronto and the United States that helped create the Drake phenomenon. Likewise, Higgins’ Hip Hop World book which is carried in Harvard University’s hip hop archive, led to a 2010 Hip Hop Scholar of the Year award nomination courtesy of Washington DC’s WBLINC. His sixth book Rap N’ Roll: Pop Culture, Darkly Stated (2016) which argues that rap music is the new rock n’ roll is a new media publishing collaboration with a disruptive technology company based in San Francisco. Having sold over 50,000 + books in North America, Higgins also continues to contribute chapters and essays to a wide range of anthologies and textbooks focused on pop culture and technology, including iSkills: From Txt To Talk, Rhymes to Re-Education, and the anthology In This Together about indigeneity and blackness in hip hop culture.

Higgins pioneering work in the area of festival and concert production has taken him across the United States, Denmark, France, Australia, Germany, Colombia, England, Curacao, Spain and Cuba among other destinations. After producing a laundry list of mega concerts and festivals for Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre – when it was considered one of the top music destinations in North America (2004-2012) – and for NYC-based SHINE – a leading North American youth non-profit who’s list of supporters included the late Muhammad Ali, Beyoncé and former US President Bill Clinton – Higgins has leveraged the production credits he has on over 500+ “live” concerts into a blooming Rap N’ Roll music & multi-media operative that tours artists across North America, produces live music showcases, and executes branded content and PR campaigns for both major multinational entertainment conglomerates and worthwhile indie upstarts.

A former long-time news reporter for Toronto’s Now Magazine and leading US youth culture magazines The Source and Vibe Magazine, Higgins was handpicked as one of 30 Torontonians by the Toronto Star – Canada’s largest daily newspaper – to blog about ways to make the city more livable. Higgins has contributed his unique brand of writing and pop culture commentary to many major North American news media across TV, radio, print and web media including NPR, Billboard Magazine, VICE, CTV’s The Social, MTV, TSN, Much Music, CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, CBC Radio’s q, CBC TV’s The National, CTV’s Canada AM/Your Morning, City-TV’s Breakfast TV, CP24, Global TV, Sportsnet 590, Vibe.com and has been profiled in everything from The Globe & Mail, Toronto Life and Toronto Star to TVO, 680 News and SUN TV.

Higgins has worked with and/or consulted on a vast number of web-based initiatives throughout the USA and Canada including Urban Box Office (NYC) and Shine.com (NYC/Toronto) and has developed a strong interest in promoting diversity (e.g. as a member of the Canada Council for the Arts Racial Equity Advisory Committee) and in supporting literacy initiatives having conducted workshops with everyone from the NBA’s Toronto Raptors to the Toronto Public Library. His most fun gig might have been working as an award show scriptwriter for Gemini Award winning comedian Russell Peters, and you can probably understand why.

Higgins is a lead facilitator with the groundbreaking fatherhood advocacy program More Than A Haircut which influenced his Fatherhood 4.0 book that examines the place where parenthood intersects with the world’s of technology, hip hop and hipster culture and includes candid interviews with author Lawrence Hill (Book of Negroes), Broken Social Scene musician Charles Spearin, pro sports icons Michael “Pinball” Clemons and Dwayne De Rosario, and Damian Abraham (VICE Media, &#$%& Up) among many others.