@cadenceweapon
If you’re not already, it’s time to get familiar with Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, who’s anything but your average rapper. For one, he’s Canadian, like Toronto’s Shad K. Another thing that sets him apart: He’s had two Polaris Prize-nominated albums and last year finished a two-year stint as Edmonton, Alberta’s Poet Laureate.
You might say that music’s in his blood. His father, Teddy Pemberton, was a pioneering college DJ who is credited with introducing hip hop to Edmonton via his show “The Black Experience In Sound on CJSR-FM.” In 2010, his father was inducted into the Stylus Awards Hall of Fame, Canada’s National DJ Awards.
As Cadence Weapon, Pemberton is gaining notoriety as much for his approach to production as for his mic skills. He uses samples as a foundation for writing the album, then works with live instrumentalists to reconfigure his original compositions. Pemberton then turned the band-recorded tracks into samples for the album to “achieve a listenable, honest approach to integrating a live band into his setup”. “I wanted to have a live feel, but I didn’t want to sound like the Arsenio Hall band,” Pemberton told Paste. “I wanted to make it ambiguous between where the sample ends and the live band begins.” Referencing his album’s first single “Conditioning” Pemberton goes on to say, “Originally it was a drum machine demo, I wanted it to be a Bo Diddley song. I basically have a band play it as a rock song, then when I took it home, I switched it into half time and turned it into a hybrid-blues track.”
What you’ll hear on his latest, Hope In Dirt City, is his own brew of psychedelic soul, old school rap, IDM (intelligent dance music) and mutant disco, and it injects freshness into the copycat hip hop landscape.
TOUR DATES
09/15/12 – Ottawa, ON – Arboretum Music and Arts Festival
09/21/12 – Montreal, QC – Club Soda
10/12/12 – Toronto, ON – Wrongbar [tickets]
10/13/12 – London, ON – APK Live [tickets]
10/14/12 – Windsor, ON – Phog Lounge
10/15/12 – Detroit, MI – Magic Stick Lounge [tickets]
10/17/12 – Chicago, IL – Schubas [tickets]
10/18/12 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry [tickets]
10/19/12 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre [tickets]
10/20/12 – Saskatoon, SK – Amigos
10/22/12 – Calgary, AB – Commonwealth Bar & Stage [tickets]
10/23/12 – Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room [tickets]
10/25/12 – Vancouver, BC – Fortune Sound Club [tickets]
10/26/12 – Seattle, WA – Barboza
10/27/12 – Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown [tickets]
10/28/12 – Portland, OR – Holocene [tickets]
10/29/12 – San Francisco, CA – Brick & Mortar Music Hall [tickets]
10/30/12 – Los Angeles, CA – Satellite Club [tickets]
11/03/12 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
11/04/12 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
11/06/12 – Washington, DC – DC9
11/07/12 – Philadelphia, PA – Kungfu Necktie [tickets]
11/08/12 – Boston, MA – TT The Bear’s [tickets]
11/09/12 – Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands [tickets]
11/11/12 – Buffalo, NY – Big Orbit’s Soundlab
11/17/12 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore
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