2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Cadence Weapon teams with Born Ruffians at Iron Horse
Ian Nelson, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Arts & Living
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Cadence Weapon, stage name of former Stylus and Pitchfork Media writer Rollie Pemberton, is a 22-year old, critically-acclaimed, self-produced MC from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A natural-born emcee, Pemberton has been rapping since the age of 13. At age 19, after abandoning his journalism career for one in music, he released his underground mix tape "Cadence Weapon is the Black Hand" in 2005. The record included remixes of the Beastie Boys, M.I.A., Death From Above 1979 and even a sample of Falco's 1986 smash "Rock Me Amadeus," receiving overall positive press.
On Nov. 28 of the same year, he released his first proper LP, "Breaking Kayfabe," on Upper Class Recordings in Canada, which included selections from the aforementioned mix tape. The record stood out from 2005's mainstream hip hop due to the clear, conversational delivery and larger than life synth tones. Music review Web site Coke Machine Glow calls "Breaking Kayfabe" an "impossibly accomplished hip hop album," defined by a "dense, paranoid party of seedy beats and shocking cohesion."
Since its release, mainstream hip hop has moved in Cadence's synth-driven direction, though few emcees create such thick atmospherics and couple them up with such memorable hooks. His lyricism is constantly interesting as he recalls detail after detail of his hometown on "Breaking Kayfabe" opener, "Oliver Square." He drops references to drugs, bars and shoes, evidence of his young male status, yet he comes off seasoned, witty and intelligent.
The record earned Cadence a nomination for the first Polaris Music Prize, an award of $20,000 for the Canadian album of the year, though he was runner up to violinist Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy outlet. No hard feelings were felt, and the odd couple even showed interest in each others' work, prompting Cadence to join Pallett on some of his 2007 tour.
Most recently, a couple songs from Cadence Weapon's new record "Afterparty Babies" have been made available through his Myspace page, including the MP3 download of "In Search of the Youth Crew" and the digital single "House Music" The latter possesses an aggressive, club-ready squall of synth squelches and high-frequency scratches, in which Cadence calmly boasts "the club scene loves me," and includes a humorous DJ horror story at the end of the track. His 2008 dates are in support of the March 4 drop of "Afterparty Babies," released in the U.S. on Epitaph records.
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