How Cadence Weapon got musically 'freaky' to find his sound
The award-winning rapper opens up about his deluxe album and his involvement in the docuseries Paid in Full
For Polaris-winning rapper Cadence Weapon, geography is foundational to his sound.
"I think growing up in Edmonton, being kind of isolated and being in a place that didn't really have hip-hop infrastructure the way that they do in Toronto, it really influenced me to just be able to do what I wanted to do," the Edmonton-born, Hamilton-based artist tells Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe on The Block.
Cadence Weapon has lived in a few different cities across Canada, and each one has shaped how he creates music.
In a new interview, the rapper opens up about being rooted in different spaces, the deluxe version of his 2024 album, Rollercoaster, his involvement in the docuseries Paid in Full, and his new music residency series.
You can hear the full interview above and read an excerpt below.
I wanted just to talk about why you think "My Computer" is the centrepiece of your album Rollercoaster.
Yeah, I feel like it is almost the thesis of the whole album, this song that's about conspicuous consumption. And it's about how the internet has progressively become more of a place to sell products than it is about forming connections. And so, you know, it's electro-rap, too. And I feel like musically, it really represents the album.
I think it definitely stays within your wheelhouse, though. So that's the Cadence Weapon beat for sure that you vibe with.
I love that. I love that I'm identifiable by a sound like that.
Yeah, definitely. You definitely stuck with the stuff that you definitely vibe with. Sometimes I believe, though, that it's a product of Edmonton. If people who are listening don't know, I also grew up in Edmonton. The rave scene was kind of where we would get our fix for hip-hop, really. But then by virtue of that, of course, everything else [such as] the techno, the trance, the drum and bass, the jungle album things, I feel like a lot of that electronic influence bleeds into the music. Maybe that is a product of geography. Maybe that's what we can talk about, [sound] versus geography. Because you went from Edmonton, then you went to Montreal, correct?
Yes, that's right.
And then did you ever stop in Toronto? Did you go straight to Hamilton?
No, I lived in Toronto for like seven years.
And then Hamilton. OK, so maybe you can talk about how those different locales have influenced your sound or if they have it all.
They definitely have, yeah. I think growing up in Edmonton, being kind of isolated and being in a place that didn't really have hip-hop infrastructure the way that they do in Toronto, it really influenced me to just be able to do what I wanted to do. You know, there wasn't this thing where it's like, "We all rap like this in Edmonton." There was never really that.
[That] sort of allows you to be you, without outside influence.
Yeah.
Which is awesome.
Yeah, which is great, but it was also kind of lonely, 'cause I felt like, "I'm the only person really doing the kind of thing I'm doing." But then I moved to Montreal and I had some friends from Edmonton who moved there already, and I knew all these artists there. And that's when I got really freaky, musically.
Really? A lot of your [stuff] was already out there to begin with, so the fact that you think you got freakier is interesting to me.
Yeah, but I mean, Montreal's that kind of place. It's got that joie de vivre. I think there's so many people who have either gone to school there or lived there for a while, and they feel like that was when they really found themselves. You know, I've heard that from a lot of other people, and that's how I felt. I feel like musically, I really got out of my comfort zone and I would be collaborating with noise musicians and all these electronic artists and rap artists in a way that I had never done before. And it really just made me think differently about my own music as well. I have a very fond space in my heart for Montreal still.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. To hear the full interview, listen to The Block on CBC Music.