CADENCE WEAPON with SAUL WILLIAMS, SPOEK MATHAMBO and the BATTLE OF SANTIAGO at the Great Hall (1087 Queen West) as part of CMW, Friday (March 23), doors 8 pm. $24.50 or festival pass $35-$150. RT, SS, TM. cmw.net. See listing.
Cadence Weapon knows that the best part of CMW usually takes place off-schedule.
For years, the Edmonton-bred, Montreal-based rapper (real name Rollie Pemberton) has been the resident DJ at the !059 party, a rogue after-hours gathering that usually rivals anything under the official festival banner.
This will be the first year without the legendary shindig, but Pemberton hasn’t forgotten its influence. A few weeks ago he leaked a new song, Loft Party – a flip of Meek Mill’s banger House Party – that pays homage to the unofficial music venues across Canada where he cut his teeth. (Now 25, he’s been performing since his teens).
“That’s my background in a lot of ways,” he says over the phone from somewhere in Alabama, on his way to SXSW. “There’s this profound spirit of freedom at these mysterious after-hours-type venues. There isn’t the same hanging cloud of rules, so the potential of the night is unlimited.”
Loft Party is one in a series of free Cadence Weapon tracks purposely leaked over Twitter to give fans some fresh material. Though the rapper’s been working on his long-awaited third LP, till now he hasn’t released anything new since 2010’s Tron Legacy mixtape, and nothing “official” since 2008’s Afterparty Babies.
News surfaced last year that his next album would be called Roquentin and that it would eschew samples for live instrumentation. Since then, plans have changed.
For starters, he’s renamed the album Hope In Dirt City, a reference to a poem he wrote while acting as Edmonton’s poet laureate, and announced a release date of May 29. Since recording the demos with a live band in Toronto, he’s chopped them up and sampled them, turning them into more conventional hip-hop beats.
“I like the idea of ambiguity in sound,” he says. “That’s what I’m trying to do – make listeners unsure of whether they’re listening to a live instrument or a sample that’s been manipulated.”
Fans used to his dense, heady style may also be surprised by the immediacy of the album, which Pemberton says is heavily influenced by radio rap (though imbued with a bit more depth). The new material will be on display at his official CMW gig, but he’s also still waiting for an opportunity to fill the !059 void.
“Definitely put this in NOW: if anyone wants me to DJ their after-party, come find me and talk to me about it.”
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