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With a growing reputation as the nation's best rapper, London's Shad is making a name for himself across Canada.
By James Reaney
Source: lfpress.ca
Thanks to The Old Prince, London hip-hopper Shad is getting the royal rapper treatment.
"I think the title of The Old Prince created a lot more of those headlines than I expected," Shad says from the road as the tour approaches Calgary.
Now attending university in B.C., the Londoner comes home on Wednesday night to play the Salt Lounge. Halifax hip-hopper Classified tops the bill.
Shad's terrific CD, The Old Prince (Black Box/Fontana North), has been getting princely, kingly play and headlines across Canada.
"I still don't think that it is going to be something that I could feel comfortable with -- but it is flattering," Shad says of the buzz about being the new hip-hop prince.
It helps that The Old Prince is a terrific CD, a recording born to rule.
Shad's spiritual quest is fast enough that he can compare himself to the Raptors and a host of NBA stars and serious enough that he can invoke psalms, God and the Shad generation. It is funny enough that Shad can be heard complaining about the high cost of renting beats and throwing in rhymes and word play that speed along like an NBA fast break.
Prince Shad raps freely about not liking to start lines with "I," the high cost of beats and children needing Jesus. Politics. NBA stars. Free speech. Love, peace and soul. The Old Prince has it all -- and over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sharp, sweet words, Shad never runs out of breath.
Tellingly, the quest ends with a quiet recitation over string accompaniment.
"Love" is the last word in the story of The Old Prince, who began his spiritual odyssey feeling awkward because princes are not supposed to be old.
"The story about the Old Prince is about me (obviously), but as I see it, it's also about my generation," he writes on the CD jacket.
The Old Prince won a spot in Exclaim magazine's hip-hop Top 10, earned five stars in Now Magazine and has its own presence on hip-hop blog Okayplayer.com.
"It was great to be able to do a lot of it here," he says of The Old Prince. Here means London in the Shadverse -- even if other locations played a part in its recording. Among the Londoners with a place in the credits are recording aces Michael Tompkins and Andy Magoffin.
Born in Kenya to Rwandan parents, Shad, 25, grew up in London. The family moved here in 1983.
Like other Canadian hip-hoppers, such as Somalia-born, Toronto-based K'Naan, Shad's music reflects his roots. Some songs and his activism show how much Africa there still is in Shad's life and art in Canada.
He has performed at benefits at the John Labatt Centre to help battle Africa's AIDS pandemic.
His first CD, When This is Over, includes I'll Never Understand. It features Shad's mother, the Rwandan poet Bernadette Kabango, who depicts the effect of the Rwandan genocide on the Kabango family.
Now, his parents have returned to Rwanda to help their country recover from its horrors. "It feels right for all of us. We just (understand) they can contribute there," Shad says.
His parents' idealism flowed into his music, making Shad determined to speak up, attacking stereotypes and other evils.
He wants to call for a better, more loving world without falling into "didactic rants," he says.
The Old Prince has no rants -- just Shad's raps about love, anger and peace.
As the young Shad took inspiration from his parents, other allegiances also came calling.
The teenage Shadrach Kabango was a guard on some fine Central secondary basketball teams. He still follows the NBA, more for individual players than one team.
A nickname found him and stayed with him. "Everybody has just been calling me Shad for the last 12 years," he says.
He became a fan of Toronto singer-songwriter Hayden. Shad took up guitar.
It still surprises some fans to see him grab the guitar during shows and shift away from his brilliant freestyling at the mic to sing ballads and melodies.
He did that at the Jack Richardson Music Awards gala in 2006, wowing a crowd of London music scene fans and fellow musicians. Then, he showed his class being quick to praise the fellow London hip-hopper who won the category who was announced as the crowd was still buzzing about Shad.
Gigs at the Embassy, Call the Office and elsewhere in London have helped keep Shad close to his friends even has lived away from London. His studies had taken him to Waterloo's Laurier university, where he won a major talent competition and made career connections.
Among the allies he found is Toronto's DJ T-Lo, a Canadian turntablist champion who will be on stage with him on Wednesday at the Salt Lounge.
Now, Shad has moved on to Vancouver as a part-time master's student in liberal studies at SFU.
This week, he's been reading Darwin's Origin of the Species while touring with Classified and other MCs.
It's a heady mix of hip-hop and heavy reading out there on the road back to London. Enough to puzzle most hi-hop royalty, already too preoccupied with being lords of the bling.
That's not a problem for Shad.
He's more concerned about the kings and queens in exile he sees around the not-so-old prince.
"When I look at my friends, I see royalty, people born to reign, born to lead, born to give up our lives for something noble," he writes on The Old Prince.
"But it so rarely ever ends up that way," he warns.
Regal words. From a true prince.
James Reaney can be reached at 519-667-4607 or from outside London, 1-800-265-4105, ext. 4607. E-mail jreaney@lfpress.com
Email: jreaney@lfpress.com
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