Artist of the Week: Shad

Shad is a rapper hailing from London, Ontario, just a short 2 hours away from Toronto. I first heard him on his second album entitled "The Old Prince". I had never heard of him before, nor was I too interested in hearing the album. Nonetheless, the fact that it was a Canadian artist who grew up close by kind of had me wanting to take a quick listen.

I'll never forget that first moment of listening to the album. I just thought "..wow". That's not even a joke, I literally said that. He had me hooked from line one - "Brother please, no more Pamela lee's let's set it straight/I'm the biggest thing out of Canada til Quebec separate". Whether or not it was his plan, I could relate immediately; and maybe that's why I decided to keep listening. A day later I would go and buy his album and begin a month long repeat-session of the album.

I then went ahead and checked out his debut "When This Is Over" which is just as good. If there's a future of hip-hop, it's Shad. He's the best artist you've never heard and the most intellectual hip-hop artist I've listened to in a long time. He doesn't deal with conspiracy theories, he deals with real-life, day-to-day issues in our lives. It doesn't matter if you're from Canada, the US, or even Russia - you can relate to Shad.

"The Old Prince" was released in USA on June 30th, about two years after the Canadian release. If you're in the US, don't sleep my dude here. Check his stuff out and give him his props. Here's a week to you Shad. You've been an inspiration to many Canadian hip-hop artists just like me and I hope you'll continue on your Quest for Glory. We're all rooting for you 110%!

Here's some Shad-related sites to check out. On the right sidebar you can find a playlist of his music. That will remain for the week, but if you want to see the playlist later on, you can jump to this post and find it here!

Website/Blog: http://www.shadk.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/shad
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shadk?ref=ts



Would you like to be featured as Artist of the Week? Get at me! -- beatwize@gmail.com