Wake-up call

>> No rest for wicked Nova Scotia
rapper Classified

EASTERN, PROMISING: Classified

by SCOTT C

Classified is no stranger to the road. This Nova Scotian hip hop machine has released a staggering 12 albums since 1995, and has recently hit the bricks once again to support his latest, While You Were Sleeping, a CD/DVD of unreleased tracks new and old. While not the first Maritimer to pick up a microphone, this MC/producer has been able to build on every release, with a constant touring presence and fans from coast to coast. The Mirror reached Classified by phone in a Taco Bell parking lot.

Mirror: You’re the seasoned road warrior, if I remember correctly.

Classified: This is my fifth time going across Canada, and to tell you the truth, it’s the touring that has allowed me to make a career out of this. It started out on Greyhounds, takin’ buses and payin’ out of our own pockets to be able to go do shows, to promoters givin’ us a hotel room, some actual money, and then promoters giving us a lot of money. It builds every time we go out, with the crowds getting bigger and bigger.

M: I guess the idea of stepping away from the East Coast is inevitable for a lot of Maritime artists, but do you find you get more respect at home now than you might have a few years back?

C: Well, my last album kind of hit the industry a little bit more, and since Trial and Error, I’ve been making a mark on the Canadian hip hop underground. Whether it be media or major labels, it’s been a growing process that seems to have been embraced by the industry side a little bit more than it has in the past. We’re talking to a couple of labels right now, so hopefully we can come up with something that makes sense for both of us, and I can focus on the music and not so much the business, as I’ve had to over the years.

M: Some people I know have no mind for the business side at all, even though they’re making great music and developing their style, so how have you managed to balance it out?

C: When I came in, I never knew anything about the business, and I didn’t want to start my own label, but I couldn’t get no one to sign me so I kind of had to. Started with 100 CDs, and we put them out, started to hook up distribution and figure out how the whole marketing thing worked. It just came to a point where we had figured it all out, to the point where I could make a living out of it. I was just rapping, so I had a hard time paying my bills and stuff, but when you’re doing your own label, production and the whole nine, it’s something you have to do because you can’t afford to pay someone else to do it.

With Shad K, J-Bru, Chad Hatcher & M.I.G.,
Mike Boyd, DJ IV and Blaster at Saints
Showbar on Monday, Feb. 4, 8 p.m., $15