At this job over the past few months, I’ve loved a lot of music. It surrounds us at the station. Like a score.
But thus far I haven’t found an equal in the poetry of Cadence Weapon’s art.
I hesitate to praise work as ‘genius’- words are important and that one is loaded. It’s one component of my perpetual aversion to drawing definitive lines between made and maker. As an artist, I find it impossible to separate my self from my work, though sometimes I wonder if it would be less painful that way. What a privilege it would be to draw that line, separating one’s identity from lived experience at will.
It seems a concept of the past: of salon hangings and intricate frescas and marble men.
It’s a concept that is outright rejected by this record.
Cadence Weapon is the moniker of Rollie Pemberton, an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. His fifth full-length album, Parallel World, is currently shortlisted for the 2021 Polaris Prize, his third nomination.
Recently Pemberton has spoken publicly about signing to manipulative management as a teenager, and the toll it took on his career. It involved not seeing a dime from any of his work, including as Edmonton’s poet laureate, and resulted in a 6 year hiatus from releasing music. On the topic, CBC credits research by Matt Stahl and Olufunmilayo Arewa that brings attention to the fact that since the 20th century, Black recording artists have been routinely and disproportionately underpaid by record companies, a systemic issue which is one among many addressed on the record. Others include racial discrimination coded into facial recognition technology (“On Me” ft. Manga Saint Hilaire and Strict Face), gentrification (“Skyline”) and acknowledging historically Black communities that have been excluded from Canada’s collective memory (“Africville’s* Revenge”).
The lyrics are unmatched. They weave through the album as motifs reappear in tracks down the line, they subvert themselves and deliberately trip each other. They are specific thus heart wrenching by extension, with conflict and dry humour abounding. Every syllable is wholly considered.
The post-production only furthers the point – in music about a filtered reality his voice is distorted in homage to heavily-policed genres. Even more so, the choices are rich in what was omitted: “SENNA” (ft. Jacques Greene) is on surface level a track about winning the race, while it’s namesake Ayrton Senna (Brazilian F1 driver) famously whispered his own fate of wanting to die in a car. This, on an album that repeatedly references racial profiling by police.
This record commands attention, not only in its flow but its urgency. Parallel World feels current: mournful and angry and tentative and painful and hopeful. Any uncertainty is grounded in knowing; sensitive, without being subtle.
* Africville is located nearby, close to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Click the link below to read more.
