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Shad - Brother
My Canadian informant SweetP passed along the above video from Ontario-based emcee Shad K, off of his album The Old Prince. It's an interesting change of pace from what typically passes for "conscious" rap these days, as Shad actually has something constructive and positive to say to the audience. Contrast that to the way that many of today's rappers mask their attempts to sell more records behind a half-hearted attempt at making a real statement - whether it's by turning a generic song into a Sean Bell tribute simply by invoking his name at the end of a verse, or coyly threatening middle America with the N-Word as an album title, too often it just comes off as a gimmicky attempt to generate buzz for an artist. There's a sincerity about Shad, on the other hand, that's hard to deny.
I had never heard of Shad before, but most of the discussions that I turned up seem to compare him to the Native Tongues. It seems like every conscious rapper that comes out inevitably gets compared to the Native Tongues, but in this case it seems a fairly apt comparison (and the fact that he makes more than one reference to Tribe in his rhymes probably doesn't hurt, either). He's got a bit of a throwback vibe to him, and seems to be more concerned with his lyricism than his beats, often rapping over fairly minimal production. It works well for him, though, and I'm definitely interested in hearing more. The one brief review of the album that I've read gave it high marks, so I may have to look into picking it one up.
Here's a second video from Shad, where I think the Tribe influence is much more pronounced:
Shad - I Don't Really Like To
Want to hear more from the man? Hit up his MySpace page.
7/2/2007 08:10:01 PM posted by Fresh