Zeds Dead

Dylan Mamid (DC) and Zach Rapp-Rovan (Hooks) began their musical collaboration as Mass Productions, a project which championed the hip-hop tradition of crate-digging for samples, culminating in their first and only album release, "Fresh Beetz" in 2007, a hip-hop influenced record produced by the pair.

In 2009, they begun their next musical project, under the name of Zeds Dead, which looked towards drum & bass, dubstep and electro house for inspiration. Their name references a scene in Quentin Tarantino's film, "Pulp Fiction." They established a weekly night at Toronto's '751' venue, called Bassmentality, which went on to host some of the biggest names in bass music, including Borgore, Plastician, Netsky and Nero.

Following their success as promoters, Zeds Dead have gained the respect of artists worldwide through their own music, which manages to successfully blend many disparate genres into their own, unique sound. Their first single, "Rudeboy" was realised on Kissy Sell Out's label San City High in 2010, featuring vocals from regular collaborator, Omar LinX, a rapper from Toronto.Since this first release, Zeds Dead have gone to achieve significant success, with many of their releases topping the charts on Beatport and gaining the support of many top DJs.

Through offering free downloads of much of their early tracks, they managed to develop a growing popularity and support of many fans, who were eager to snap up these free releases.

Zeds Dead signed to Mad Decent, Diplo's record label, releasing "Rumble in the Jungle" which reached number one on the breakbeat chart on Beatport. They have gone on to release several EPs on Mad Decent, achieving moderate success in the US charts, with "Hot Sauce" peaking at number 13 in the US Dance Chart and number six in the US Heat chart.

McCann had never originally set his sights on breaking into the music world, instead aiming to follow his talent for basketball; that was curtailed, though, when he sustained a career-ending shoulder injury. Instead, he chose to pursue his love of jungle and hip hop music to carve out a career in music, which saw him adopt the dubstep movement years before it became popular in the mainstream. His early singles enjoyed airplay on urban station BBC Radio 1Xtra, exposing him to a wide audience for the first time in the mid-noughties. Around the same time, he formed his own label, Storming Productions, and got his own show on revered underground station Rinse FM. He went onto form a second, dubstep-specific label, Dub Police.

As dubstep became more commercially viable, McCann secured appearances at major music festivals, including Global Gathering and Glastonbury, as well as Lollapalooza in the United States. He finally released his first record in his own right, ‘Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening’ in May 2009 - reggae legend David Rodigan made a cameo appearance. His track ‘War’ gained international exposure in 2013, when it was featured in the trailer for the blockbuster Kick-Ass 2. He relocated to Denver, Colorado in 2014, on account of the friendliness of the local music scene.