By Roman Wolfe
A number of rappers and executives turned out to support Justo's 11th Annual Mixtape Awards last night (April 29) in New York.
Comedian and actor Donnell Rawlings hosted the event, which drew hundreds of supporters to Symphony Space, where various DJ's were honored for their contributions to the music business.
Rappers and celebrities like DMC, Grandmaster Caz, Dru Ha, Buck Shot, Easy Mo Bee, Teyana Taylor, Maino, Mister Cee, Big Kap, Mysonne and numerous others attended the show.
Miami's DJ Khaled took home Best Mixtape Personality, while Styles P. took home Best East Coast Artist.
Fans were treated to a medley of songs by Duck Down's Black Moon, who were the headlining performers during the evening.
For Duck Down CEO, Dru Ha, the evening was special for many different reasons. "It was a pleasure to have worked with Just-O in both of our early years in the game some 13 years ago at Nervous Records," Dru Ha told AllHipHop.com. "We worked together promoting Black Moon, Smif N Wessun, Funkmaster Flex & 9MM, Mad Lion and others. It was an honor to be able to have Buckshot (Black Moon) perform at his annual award show and a blessing that it also happened to be the day we were celebrating the release of Buckshot's new Formula album."
Other winners during the evening included the Cocaine City, DVD, which earned DVD of the Year award, while Best DVD Mixtape went to Smack DVD.
Clinton Sparks won Best Mash Up Award, while Best Hip Hop Mixtape Award went to The Phantom to the crowd's dismay, who opted for Joe Budden's Mood Muzik.
AllHipHop.com's Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekmur and Grouchy Greg Watkins were recipients of The Life time Achievement Award, which was presented by Hip-Hop pioneer DMC of Run-DMC fame.
Each award recipient was given a statue/plaque designed by Justo himself, shortly before he was killed in a car accident on May 14, 2005 outside of Richmond, Virginia.
"Just-O showed us all that by giving back to the DJ in the form of honoring and recognizing them with an award show, you can achieve more meaningful results in building relationships with these vital DJ's, than anything you could ever ask for from them."