Rhyming With Rollie
Featuring Rollie Pemberton, a.k.a Cadence Weapon
Musician, Writer
October 21, 2017
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
The story
Rollie Pemberton is a rapper, producer, journalist and poet. Under the artist name Cadence Weapon, he has released three albums, two of which were shortlist nominees for the Polaris Music Prize. He was Edmonton’s Poet Laureate from 2009-2011.
He says this about the topic of capability and how it motivates him:
…to create things that change not only how people see the world or rap music or consider what’s possible in music but also the way people think of Canadian identity. That’s my biggest goal in what I write and what I make and in my books and in my music, to showcase my personal, Canadian experience, which is an underground Canadian experience. The documentation of it didn’t exist when I was younger.
Check out his Edmonton Oilers anthem, Connor McDavid:
Fun facts
Rollie’s grandfather is Rollie Miles, a Canadian Football League Hall of Fame member who helped the Edmonton Eskimos win the Grey Cup in 1954, 1955 and 1956.
He was the first hip hop artist to be named poet laureate of a Canadian city .
After performing with him in Edmonton, Maestro Fresh-Wes nicknamed Rollie “Black AC/DC” for his wild stage presence.
A poem written by Rollie called “Monuments: The City in Three Parts” hangs across Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue line by line on flags attached to the city’s light posts.
Rollie is the narrator for the VICELAND TV show Payday.
He was once ordained as a minister so he could marry friends in Los Angeles. That led to him almost falling down a mountain as he took a selfie.