DISTRIBUTOR // TOMMY TEE

The jury's reasoning:

The TONO award goes to an exceptional communicator in the music world. Tommy Tee started Norway's first hip hop magazine, Fat Cap, in 1989. Shortly afterwards, he took the initiative for the National Rap Show, which has been on NRK P3 continuously since 1993 and is thus Norway's longest-running radio program. And when no one else thought of bringing Ice Cube, Run DMC, The Fugees or 50 Cent to Oslo, Tommy Tee did it. And then you understand that if no one else does it, Tommy Tee does it. As a midwife for other Norwegian rappers, he is unique. Tee Productions has given us Diaz, Warlocks, Gatas Parlament and many more. He has produced Joddski, Lars Vaular, Don Martin, Son of Light, Helen Eriksen. Regardless of whether it is youth graffiti or DJing, radio, magazines, productions for others - or own releases in his own name, it is all about communication.

Tommy Tee has lifted hip hop out of subway platforms and leisure clubs, out across the cities and out to the countryside. Into our shared Norwegian cultural consciousness. He has smuggled it into us. Slowly but surely. The fat beats. The heavy bass drums. Staccato bass passages. Rhythm sections that smell of freshly laid asphalt, combined with clean and pure harmonics from the angelic realms. Rappers who have been allowed to shine and who have tagged their rhymes down on Tommy Tee-signed soundtracks. He has translated the American musical language into Norwegian in a way that makes Oslo feel a bit like the Bronx. Just as exciting. Just as urban. We recognize a heavy beat now. We recognize the rhymes. Lars Vaular speaks our language. We understand Don Martin. "I am so Oslo you can call me Nilsen". And when Tommy Tee himself releases the album "Music is Important" in 2013, rap has officially become Norwegian.
All that was missing was: Tommy Tee is Mediator of the Year.