Cadence Weapon

Infobox musical artist
Name = Cadence Weapon


Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Rollie Pemberton
Born =
Origin = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Genre = Canadian hip hop
Alternative hip hop
Years_active = 2005–present
Label = Upper Class Recordings
Epitaph Records
Big Dada
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/ cadenceweaponmusic.com]

Cadence Weapon is the stage name of Rollie Pemberton, a Canadian rapper.cite news |first=Tara |last=Henley |title=Candence Weapon:It's All About The After Party |pages=33 |work=Ur magazine |publisher=Rogers|accessdate=2008-08-01]

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, his father was Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering hip hop DJ on CJSR-FM and his grandfather was Edmonton Eskimos great Rollie Miles. He began rapping at 13, and following high school he briefly attended journalism school, dropping out soon afterward to concentrate on music. He released the underground mix tape "Cadence Weapon is the Black Hand" in 2005, and his full-length debut "Breaking Kayfabe" at the end of the year. "Breaking Kayfabe" has garnered strong reviews in Canadian, American and British media, and Cadence has toured extensively to support the disc, including concerts across Canada and three shows in Austin, Texas at the 2006 South by Southwest festival.

"Chart" magazine named Cadence Weapon one of the 15 Canadian artists to watch in 2006. In addition, composite review site Metacritic lists "Breaking Kayfabe" as one of the best albums of 2006.

In addition to his own recordings, Cadence Weapon has also remixed tracks for Lady Sovereign and Ciara, and has written hiphop reviews for "Stylus" and "Pitchfork".

Cadence Weapon was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize which awards $20,000 for the Canadian album of the year. However, he lost to Final Fantasy's "He Poos Clouds". Coincidentally, the Toronto alternative newspaper "Eye weekly"'s cover photograph the Thursday before the award was presented featured both Cadence Weapon and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett adopting a mock confrontational pose. The accompanying article, in fact, revealed that Cadence and Pallett had become friends and both really admired each other's records. Cadence and Pallett also performed together on the CBC Radio concert series "Fuse" in April 2007.

On February 21, 2007, Pemberton announced that he signed an American record deal with Epitaph Records, a move that will give him greater exposure in the United States. As a part of his new deal, "Breaking Kayfabe" was released in the US on March 13, 2007. In the fall of 2007, Big Dada became Cadence Weapon's representative label in Europe.

He also accompanied Final Fantasy on part of his 2007 tour.

Cadence Weapon's second LP, "Afterparty Babies" was released by Anti-/Epitaph on March 4, 2008.

Discography

* "Cadence Weapon is the Black Hand" (2005)
* "Breaking Kayfabe" (2005)
* "Afterparty Babies" (2008)

References

External links

* [http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/ Official Site]
* [http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=778&csid1=4836 "Edmonton Hip hop Champion Charges in From Leftfield"] , "Exclaim!", February 2, 2006
* [http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=3044 "Weapons ready"] , "Vue Weekly", December 2005
* [http://music.aol.ca/article/cadence-weapon-interview/515/ Cadence Weapon on AOL Music Canada]
* [http://www.britishhiphop.co.uk/features/interviews/cadence_weapon.html Interview at britishhiphop.co.uk, May 2008]