What do Rollie Pemberton, a.k.a. the rapper
, and Gord Downie have in common? On the surface, not much. But when I was writing The Never-Ending Present in 2017, I wanted to talk to Pemberton for several reasons.But first, an introduction:
There is a new Cadence Weapon album out this week, Rollercoaster, the follow-up to his Polaris-winning 2021 record Parallel World. He’s the author of the widely acclaimed 2022 memoir Bedroom Rapper, which is, among many other things, the first book put out by a major publisher to talk about the history of rap from the Canadian Prairies (shout out to Peanuts and Corn!). He then won an Atkinson Fellowship, becoming the foundation’s first artist-in-residence. He’s now one of the rare Canadian rappers to be hitting their stride in their mid-30s.
Pemberton has been busy. He Substacks here. He also just launched a vintage clothing store. And he’s a new dad.
Here’s his new video, co-directed by Colin Medley (who’s made all your favourite Toronto indie videos) and Jared Raab (BlackBerry, Nirvanna the Band):
Cadence Weapon plays the TD Music Hall, a.k.a. Allied Music Centre, located in Massey Hall, this Saturday, April 20, with DijahSB opening. Tickets here (and there’s a promotional deal on).
But all that acclaim and higher profile was yet to come when we talked about the Tragically Hip. In 2017, Pemberton was restarting his career after several years in limbo due to a label and business dispute.
The main reason I wanted to include him in The Never-Ending Present was because of his stint at Edmonton’s poet laureate from 2009-11. He was the first rapper in Canada (or anywhere?) to be appointed to such a position, which naturally came with controversy. Not only was he a lyricist, which is subject to snobby scorn from literary circles, but he was a rapper — which of course comes with its own baggage, which is sometimes (often?) racist but most definitely generational.
There’s a chapter in my book about Downie’s first solo album, Coke Machine Glow, which was accompanied by a book of poetry by the same name. The book became the biggest-selling book of Canadian poetry since Michael Ondaatje. Naturally, all the crabs in the bucket got cranky. Who did this carpet-bagging rock star think he was? Was this a freak event or would it actually stimulate interest in poetry?
I wrote an early draft of that chapter for Maclean’s — but just discovered now that all my Downie stories except the obituary have been wiped from the site. Good thing I wrote a book.
One thing I do know is that when I went on a book tour, several booksellers remembered Downie fondly for his decision to make the book/CD bundle available exclusively at book stores before the album was available in record stores. Downie wanted music fans to enter a book store.
While I was writing The Never-Ending Present, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, a controversial decision that reminded me of the Coke Machine Glow kerfuffle. For those two reasons alone, I wanted to talk to the rapper who was once Edmonton’s poet laureate. And also because I just really like this guy.
For paid subscribers only, here’s my conversation with Cadence Weapon, about Gord Downie, Bob Dylan’s Tarantula, the Cleaners from Venus, Kendrick Lamar, Steely Dan, Neil Young, battle rapping, why some may have felt excluded from white Canada’s “national celebration,” and where he watched the final Hip show.
Rollie Pemberton
Sept 6, 2017
Loveless Café, Dundas and Gladstone
I wanted to talk to you about Gord Downie because you’re a wordsmith from an entirely different genre of music, and one who has also published written poetry and faced public heat for it. But first: What’s your relationship to the Tragically Hip’s music, if anything?
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