CADENCE WEAPON opening for TOO MANY ZOOS at the Phoenix (410 Sherbourne), March 30, doors 7 pm, all ages. $20-$30. ticketfly.com. See listing.
The first words you hear on Cadence Weapon’s sonically adventurous and sharp-witted new self-titled album belong to his father, Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering radio DJ whose show, The Black Experience In Sound, is credited with bringing hip-hop to their hometown of Edmonton.
Twenty-five years after the show debuted, Teddy’s son, Rollie, dutifully took Edmonton’s hip-hop torch and ran with it. Since releasing his groundbreaking debut album, Breaking Kayfabe, in 2005, Cadence Weapon has held a permanent position as one of Canada’s most critically adored rappers, with each of his albums making the Polaris Music Prize long or short list.
But it’s only now, 13 years into his career, that he feels like he’s hitting his stride. Settled in Toronto with his new album about to drop January 19 on eOne, he’s feeling reflective about his early days as a young rapper in Edmonton.
“It was definitely weird at times,” the 31-year-old Pemberton says between bites of a chocolate chip cookie at Loveless Café. “I was the only person there making the kind of music I was making, and I got a lot of notoriety at a young age. I would come up to people like, ‘I’m making this track, I’m going to go on tour, etc.’ and people were like, ‘Man, that guy is really full of himself!’ I was really just excited and wanted to talk about it.”
He’s no longer an artistic outlier getting by on youthful exuberance and plucky DIY resourcefulness, which makes the new album a stark departure from his mostly self-produced first three. It features some of Canada’s most talented and buzzy producers, including breakout star Kaytranada, house producer Jacques Greene, electronic artist Harrison and frequent OVO collaborator FrancisGotHeat.
“I’ve done records before where I was totally isolated, making beats and not interacting with people in the process,” he remembers. “It was very solitary, like insane computer work. This was a more fluid, organic way to make music. It felt like an extension of my life.”
The change in process is partly a result of Pemberton’s move to Toronto three years ago, following a number of years in Montreal. It reinvigorated him, he says, providing him with new career opportunities and a new label.
“It’s allowed me to look back on my past [with new eyes],” he says. “It’s also made me more focused on the business side of things.
“Things happen here that I would have never thought I’d do, like voice acting. [Pemberton is the narrator of the Viceland show Payday.] Or just being in the room with certain people, like [TIFF’s] Cameron Bailey – that only happens because I live in Toronto.”
The inspiration provided by new experiences in a new city is evident on the album. It’s his most accessible work to date, with funk-dance grooves (Destination), glitchy minimalist space bops (My Crew) and atmospheric downbeat soundscapes (Don’t Talk To Me). The ample textures allow the erudite emcee to home in on weighty issues like alcohol dependency, the seemingly unstoppable march of gentrification/Toronto’s condo obsession, and life after death.
It’s autobiographical, reflecting his current headspace. “[Writing it] made me take inventory of different things that have happened in my life and led me to have existential thoughts,” Pemberton says. “I thought about how I’ve achieved this confidence and knowledge of self, and [how] that’s lent itself to making better music and being a more mature person. But it’s also led me to think, ‘What are we here for?’ Is there something at the end of this?’”
The album’s deep and playful closing song, The After Party, tackles these questions head on. Using nightlife as an analogy for the “big after-party upstairs,” Pemberton grapples with the day-to-day concerns of modern life and whether any of it matters.
“All my life I’ve been wondering if I’m on the list,” he says, while also admitting he doesn’t really believe in the afterlife. “But what about the final list – St. Peter’s list? The song is about that.”
He pulls out his phone to show me an image that will appear on the record insert. An illustrated Cadence Weapon ascends a celestial staircase, heavenly figures awaiting his arrival. Below him is a decidedly darker after-party, occupied by hellish, devil-looking figures who scowl up at him.
It’s hard to imagine what the wide-eyed 19-year-old would think of the refined, focused, existentially curious 31-year-old living in the big city. When asked, Pemberton laughs and says, “He’d think, ‘Finally!’
“Because I always felt like I’d get to this point where I’d know what I was doing. There’s a theme in reviews [of my albums] – which have been positive – that there’s this expectation of me scoring a greater level of achievement. And I feel like I’m finally getting there.”
music@nowtoronto.com | @jordanisjoso
