HIS father was a well-respected DJ, his grandfather was a football legend, and now hip-hop artist Cadence Weapon is quickly making a name for himself.
Rollie Pemberton, better known as Cadence Weapon, returnsed to Vancouver last night to perform at the Fortune Sound Club.
"I am really excited to come back to Vancouver and do my own show," he says.
"Being from Edmonton I have so many friends in Vancouver because that's usually where people move."
In May, Cadence Weapon released the 11-track Hope In Dirt City, which was shortlisted for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize as best Canadian album (eventually won by Feist for Metals). His debut full-length effort, Breaking Kayfabe, was also nominated for the Polaris prize back in 2006.
Pemberton's father, Teddy Pemberton, was a college DJ at CJSR-FM in Edmonton and he raised his son on a wide range of music with Kurt Cobain, Nas, Organized Konfusion and Freestyle Fellowship all part of his musical education growing up.
"With my dad being a DJ, I kind of grew up in a library full of music," he says.
Pemberton's grandfather, Rollie Miles played in the CFL for 10 seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos. The three-time Grey Cup winner (who played on offence, defence and special teams back in the day) is a member of both the CFL Hall of Fame and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. In 2006 he was also voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
"A lot of people might not know but my grandfather is a CFL Hall of Famer," Pemberton says. "It's cool that I am named after him."
Working on Hope in Dirt City, Pemberton wanted to create a set of tracks unique in their own way.
"I wanted to do something more organic and have more of a natural feel to it. Everything I had done had been highly electronic up until then," he says. "I was very influenced by a mix of '60s and '70's classic pop music. Particularly the early '80s, and late '70s disco music I would say - anything from Grace Jones to the Talking Heads. I wanted to have a mix of all these ideas and influences. It's a mix of all the kinds of music I am into."
Cadence Weapon is currently in the middle of a month-long North American tour including shows in Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Peg, Rapskatoon and Edmo.
"I am excited to be touring the album now," he says. "I am really looking forward to sharing my music with people," he adds.
Throughout the tour Pemberton and his DJ continually evaluate each performance.
"From show to show the transitions between songs will change and the structure will change," he says. "It's a very free flowing organic thing. It keeps it fresh for us."
Pemberton says there are downsides to doing so many cities in such a short period of time.
"The tough thing is travelling for so long. It can becoming numbing in a way," he says. "The positives way outweigh the negatives though."
Some people drive for hours to see him perform live. Armed with his songs Cadence Weapon's job is to make sure they see a show.
For more information visit www. cadenceweaponmusic.com. Follow him on twitter @CadenceWeapon.
