by SCOTT C

Edmonton MC/producer Cadence Weapon likes piña coladas, walking in the rain and foldback distortion. You may recognize this young lion, also known as Rollie Pemberton, from collabs with Ghislain Poirier and opening spots on Lady Sovereign’s North American tour last year, but he’s clearly coming up on his own. The Mirror spoke to Pemberton over the phone from Toronto, where he was performing at CMW.

Mirror: So what do you make of Canadian Music Week, your first time out?

Cadence Weapon: Well, I have one show tonight at the Silver Dollar at like 11 o’clock, and then I have another joint tomorrow in the Canadian Room at the Fairmount Royal Hotel, but I’m only doing one song for some reason over there.

M: What? Why?

CW: Yeah, it’s some kind of weird radio hook-up. The radio station back home in Edmonton really likes this song that I do about Edmonton called “Oliver Square,” and they flew me out here to perform that one song for a bunch of suits. Other than that, I haven’t really got into any of the party shit because yesterday I had a gig in Kingston, but it feels like it could be a pretty productive thing. I’m curious to see how many people are going to show up to the shows, really.

M: So you’re getting a little bit of attention right now, and that’s nice to see, considering you’re coming at this hip hop thing from yet another point of view, at least in terms of the Canadian urban-music climate.

CW: I feel like, I’m on an independent label, I’m grindin’ just like anybody else, and just happen to be gettin’ a lil’ hype right now, gettin’ a lil’ run, y’know? I’ve been rapping since I was 12, and I’ve been making beats since I was 15, and I’ve actually been trying to put out this album since 2003. It’s not really representative of what I’m doing now, and you’ll see me doing a lot of new songs at the live shows. I just turned 20 last week.

M: Happy belated.

CW: Thanks, man.

M: Do people compare your style to that of Beans from Anti-Pop Consortium?

CW: I’m not a big Beans fan. I’m a huge Anti-Pop fan, but I have never liked Beans. I get that comparison all the time. I don’t listen to his solo stuff and when I do, it just makes me mad.

M: I don’t know what pops up when I think of hip hop coming out of Edmonton, but I was surprised at how removed from traditional hip hop your stuff is.

CW: Well, my favourite producers are Prince Paul and the RZA for sample-based stuff, but I’m also influenced by Aphex Twin and Squarepusher and shit like that. I’ve always listened to really weird fringe shit my whole life, so those are probably my major influences. I grew up on hip hop too. A lot of heads aren’t really feeling what I’m doing right now because it’s not really traditional hip hop, and they’re not used to it—yet.

With Hot Chip at Club Lambi on Tuesday, March 14, 9 p.m., $12

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