Breaking Kayfabe

This is my debut album, I was 19 when it came out. I decided to call it Breaking Kayfabe, a term I’d learned as a professional wrestling fan. It means to break character, to cut through the façade of who you presented yourself to be to the audience. If you were a heel and you decided to hug the good guy in the ring, you were breaking kayfabe. Rap reminded me a lot of wrestling. On the cover is a drawing by Ashley Andel based on a photo of me making a snarling face. It was the face I would make when I made a particularly nasty track. I taught myself how to produce and made these twisted electro beats that didn't really sound like anything else at the time. My raps were underground with a sociopolitical edge, I was coming from a different perspective than other emcees. This album is unvarnished raw me, totally uncompromising. It was shortlisted for the inaugural Polaris Prize.

Rising Canadian hip-hop artist offers underground-leaning lyrics over gargantuan synth riffs and decidedly non-boom bappy beats.

Not known much for its hip-hop scene, or even its rock scene (unlike other Canadian cities Toronto and Montreal), Edmonton is where rapper Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, calls home.