00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:11:18 What's up, yo!
00:00:13:02 This is I.E. This Cypher is going to feature
00:00:14:23 London, Ontario's Shad.
00:00:16:28 I never even wrote anything until,
00:00:18:28 you know, I was like 19 or 20,
00:00:21:00 before that in high school, it was just freestyling.
00:00:23:28 Plus, we're going to pay a visit with Kally's own
00:00:26:16 Eagle Nebula.
00:00:28:02 My own girl sent me some dope bad beats,
00:00:30:09 and said rap on that shit.
00:00:31:29 So we're going to wrap it all up with
00:00:33:20 live freestyle Cypher in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
00:00:36:18 ♪ Got to do a New York site to put my fresh pics.
00:00:39:08 ♪ After this I might check out the Nicks.
00:00:41:15 ♪ [Repping]
00:00:57:12 Welcome to the Big Apple, yo!
00:00:58:18 You've come to the right place if you're looking for some nice
00:01:01:12 hip-hop that represents from the streets.
00:01:03:11 We're here with Shad.
00:01:04:23 ♪ [Repping]
00:01:11:22 What goes on?
00:01:13:08 Ya, doing nothing man, you know,
00:01:15:00 what's bring you to NY today man?
00:01:17:16 CMJ Music Festival,
00:01:19:04 so we're playing right now across the street,
00:01:21:06 Arlene's Grocery. So we're hyped to do it man.
00:01:24:01 Take me back to the point where you
00:01:27:14 really started to see it starting out to bubble over man.
00:01:29:11 Okay.
00:01:30:13 First thing, I won this radio contest in Kitchener-Waterloo
00:01:34:02 that allowed me to record my first album.
00:01:36:13 Now, I heard your sister was the one that actually
00:01:39:01 applied for you.
00:01:40:28 You didn't even want to be in the contest.
00:01:43:00 I let her apply for me for my birthday,
00:01:45:08 because I was like I'm not going to remember to do it
00:01:47:08 and I'm going to be too lazy, whatever.
00:01:48:28 So she put it in, fortunately things worked out,
00:01:51:18 and so that was the point where I was able to make an album,
00:01:54:18 because that for me was like what I wanted to do.
00:01:56:27 So then we started playing some shows.
00:01:58:28 Mainly shows in London or...
00:01:59:28 Ya, mainly in like Ontario, kind of thing.
00:02:02:10 Got signed and put out the second album
00:02:04:23 with a little bit more support.
00:02:06:06 So that helped things to progress.
00:02:08:22 ♪ [Repping]
00:02:14:26 How important do you think London was
00:02:16:22 to get you on the map?
00:02:17:24 It's a smaller town,
00:02:18:20 so those people they support their own, right?
00:02:20:11 Even when I started doing some shows in Toronto,
00:02:23:08 be like London,
00:02:25:00 a lot of London people that are in Toronto would be there,
00:02:27:04 because they heard about me through their boy
00:02:29:05 or whatever in London, you know,
00:02:31:06 and they're proud of their own.
00:02:33:10 So let's talk about The Old Prince now.
00:02:35:02 I think it's dope by the way, dope, dope,
00:02:37:03 like enough respect.
00:02:38:22 It's a really good album, well put together. Thank you.
00:02:41:01 One thing I noticed, there was no collaborations.
00:02:43:02 I said to myself, okay, he's got to have a reason for this.
00:02:46:08 Ya, you know what, like, I think it comes down to
00:02:48:18 like my process, a lot of it is like
00:02:51:12 takes place inside of my head.
00:02:52:18 You know what I mean?
00:02:53:24 So like the songs tend to be very specific and very tailored
00:02:57:05 in a certain direction.
00:02:58:21 So there's artists that I love and I love what they do.
00:03:02:18 But it's like I see my songs laid out and I'm just like,
00:03:06:02 I don't know if I can fit them into any of these songs,
00:03:08:12 because they're so specific, you know.
00:03:10:18 I feel like if I was going to do a collaboration,
00:03:12:28 it would have to be like clean slate, you know.
00:03:14:28 Brand new. Brand new thing,
00:03:16:28 let's just come to it, both of us fresh.
00:03:19:23 ♪ [Repping]
00:03:33:04 Yo, I heard your own mother is a poet as well.
00:03:35:07 My mother writes poetry, yeah, just kind of in her spare time,
00:03:37:27 yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:03:40:02 And what... did I hear her in the album?
00:03:42:14 Yeah, she does a little narration, yeah.
00:03:47:22 I hope that my kids would be very responsible.
00:03:51:29 It's interesting, you know, like...
00:03:53:22 because it's not like a huge part of my mom's life,
00:03:55:23 but it's in her, you know.
00:03:57:27 And even the fact that English is like her third language
00:04:00:21 or whatever, fourth language, but she still...
00:04:03:03 she can create in that language.
00:04:05:02 I was born in Kenya.
00:04:06:22 My family is from Rwanda originally.
00:04:08:13 I grew up in London, Ontario.
00:04:10:18 Yeah, so my upbringing is a real kind of mash of cultures.
00:04:15:02 I mean to me, I knew nothing different growing up,
00:04:17:06 it's just how I grew up.
00:04:18:14 But that's the Canadian experience, you know.
00:04:21:10 You grow up with a lot of different cultural influences.
00:04:25:00 ♪ [Repping]
00:04:39:05 What about finding the actual music,
00:04:42:00 the beats behind your lyrics?
00:04:44:14 As a new artist coming up,
00:04:46:13 I find that's usually a roadblock,
00:04:48:28 how did you overcome that?
00:04:50:03 When beat maker see that you're serious, you know what I mean,
00:04:53:04 that helps, that breaks down a lot of...
00:04:54:28 all of a sudden you have too many people,
00:04:56:18 you know, talking to you.
00:04:58:04 Because there's few people out there that are really
00:05:00:28 working on something that's going to be out there
00:05:02:22 and it's going, you know what I mean?
00:05:04:02 So for me, like on the first album,
00:05:06:10 it was very, very difficult.
00:05:07:18 I mean, I had never put anything out,
00:05:09:22 but even producers that had never put anything out
00:05:11:28 either were reluctant to work with me, right?
00:05:14:02 So it was a lot easier the second time around.
00:05:17:02 So off The Old Prince, what's the track that
00:05:21:07 to this day you've got a press rewind on it,
00:05:24:22 what does it for you, man?
00:05:25:24 Probably like some of the deeper cuts probably,
00:05:27:28 because those ones probably took
00:05:29:12 a little bit more time and thought.
00:05:30:20 There's a track called,
00:05:31:28 I Heard You Had a Voice Like an Angel,
00:05:33:07 that took me like about a year to really nail down,
00:05:36:10 nail it down lyrically.
00:05:38:00 So that one is like, its special to me,
00:05:42:00 but, yeah, they all have kind of their place.
00:05:46:17 Up next on the Cypher.
00:05:48:10 [Music]
00:06:07:10 Yo, what up, what up, what up, this M1 right here,
00:06:10:22 information age out there, deadprez.com,
00:06:13:02 big M1 right here.
00:06:14:03 Already, sticky-icky, and you're watching Cypher.
00:06:16:02 And you're watching Cypher baby.
00:06:16:28 That's a complete circle, what are you doing?
00:06:20:12 [Music]


00:00:00:22 [Music]
00:00:04:10 Hey, I like all different types of styles of music,
00:00:06:02 but I really love hip-hop.
00:00:07:23 You guys love hip-hop.
00:00:11:10 ♪ [Music]
00:00:26:23 They told me that you taught yourself how to play the guitar.
00:00:29:16 Yeah, that is true, that is true.
00:00:30:18 How many years that take?
00:00:32:03 Honestly man, like it wasn't even like
00:00:34:10 I was teaching myself.
00:00:35:20 It was more of like there was a guitar in the house
00:00:38:08 and I'd be sitting watching TV.
00:00:40:10 And I just have it on me and I've just been messing around.
00:00:43:18 That's it.
00:00:44:23 ♪ [Music]
00:00:49:14 Next thing I knew, a year or two later,
00:00:52:08 you can play a couple of tunes, you know,
00:00:54:01 and you just keep playing.
00:00:55:18 I just love being able to make
00:00:58:10 my own musical ideas to respond.
00:01:00:18 Yeah.
00:01:01:20 ♪ [Repping]
00:01:17:10 Freestyling man, is that part of your live show
00:01:19:28 or is it something that you like to do?
00:01:21:22 Yeah, it used to be a big part of the live show.
00:01:24:20 Now it is a little bit less,
00:01:27:20 because I try not to freestyle
00:01:30:06 unless I'm really feeling that energy and that vibe.
00:01:33:14 Yeah, no need to press it.
00:01:35:06 But man, for me, like I never even wrote anything
00:01:37:25 until I was like 19 or 20.
00:01:40:07 Before that, in high school, it was just freestyling.
00:01:44:10 That was the only time that I really felt like
00:01:46:21 doing anything musical was just in that environment
00:01:49:23 where it was live and it was just,
00:01:51:26 let's just do it, yeah.
00:01:53:28 So, is it fair to say that MCing was the first element
00:01:57:10 of hip-hop that touched you or maybe BBoying or...?
00:01:59:18 Yeah, it was definitely Mcing.
00:02:01:04 It was the only thing I could do.
00:02:03:19 ♪ [Music]
00:02:14:02 Talk about the Polaris Prize.
00:02:18:03 You made the short list for that.
00:02:19:19 putting some spotlight on the artists who were shortlisted.
00:02:24:00 It's really good that way.
00:02:25:22 So, it's also good too, because it's like
00:02:27:25 an international thing to some extent.
00:02:29:14 Also it's a nice opportunity to meet some people.
00:02:31:15 Some artists I respect, as well as some people
00:02:34:00 that work in music that are some good people.
00:02:38:27 Yeah, it's been cool.
00:02:39:28 Okay, let's talk about some of the artists that you respect.
00:02:42:13 When you're listening to whatever you do,
00:02:45:09 who you vibe into, man?
00:02:47:00 Okay, I've got a shadow of Shaun Boothe.
00:02:48:28 Shaun Boothe is insane.
00:02:52:00 THEO3
00:02:54:10 Kamau
00:02:57:24 Adam Bomb, he is crazy.
00:03:00:28 Tell me something that nobody probably
00:03:03:21 has heard yet about Shad.
00:03:04:28 It could be like a Cypher exclusive.
00:03:07:13 Okay, one thing people probably wouldn't know about me is like,
00:03:11:13 there's not a lot of things that I do.
00:03:14:28 Just music.
00:03:15:28 Yeah, like I work at this community center with kids.
00:03:18:26 They're always like, oh, do you want to do this,
00:03:20:00 you want to take kids to this.
00:03:21:04 I'm like, I don't know how to do that, I've never done that.
00:03:24:13 Like anything related to winter, I've never done.
00:03:27:00 I got my driver's license a year ago.
00:03:30:01 Yeah, if I am not rapping, I'm sitting like this, doing not.
00:03:35:01 ♪ [Repping]
00:03:40:04 Any place from the world that you're hoping
00:03:41:08 hip hop would take you?
00:03:44:06 I'd love to go to Japan, yeah, yeah.
00:03:47:00 The album is out there and we hope to be able to tour
00:03:48:28 there at some point and see something completely different,
00:03:51:24 like I've never seen before.
00:03:53:22 Okay, so all of those watching in Japan,
00:03:55:24 you know Shad wants to come down.
00:03:58:01 So, just let him know.
00:03:59:12 Let him know what's up.
00:04:00:28 Yeah, yeah, hit me up on MySpace,
00:04:02:02 whatever you want to do, man.
00:04:03:15 I get back to people on my MySpace.
00:04:05:14 Cool man! Well yo, thanks for taking the time.
00:04:08:25 Yo! This is I.E.
00:04:10:03 This is Shad.
00:04:11:08 You're watching the Cypher.
00:04:15:17 Coming up
00:04:16:27 It's Eagle Nebs.
00:04:18:10 ♪ [Repping]
00:04:22:21 Protius Indigenous
00:04:24:01 I am Shad
00:04:25:03 What's up? I am Eagle Nebula
00:04:26:07 I am a bad guy.
00:04:28:06 [Music]


00:00:00:24 [Music]
00:00:11:23 We you all are lucky because we're here with Eagle Nebula.
00:00:15:01 ♪ [Repping]
00:00:23:16 You know, I've been dying to meet you for a long time,
00:00:25:24 finally, for respects, respects.
00:00:28:18 Alright, let's talk about you and the name for once.
00:00:31:12 When I heard the Eagle Nebula,
00:00:32:13 I was just like, wow, blown away.
00:00:33:18 I want to hear what's the significance?
00:00:36:00 Well, I always say to people, first of all, like
00:00:38:03 I come from a family of science-fiction nerds.
00:00:41:02 My father was really into Stanley Kubrick films.
00:00:45:10 And as a young child, I was very obsessed with the star.
00:00:49:04 ♪ [Repping]
00:00:58:08 And the name Eagle Nebula just seemed to fit because,
00:01:01:14 number one, people did normally know that I'm very free.
00:01:03:28 I'm not into oppression of any sort within myself,
00:01:07:24 within countries, states, universities.
00:01:10:09 And then the Nebula is just kind of talking about the creation.
00:01:15:02 The process of creation.
00:01:16:14 The Nebula being that which creates the stars
00:01:19:05 in our universe that help to govern our lives
00:01:21:18 here on the planet earth.
00:01:22:21 So, that's where the name comes from.
00:01:24:11 I love it. I love it.
00:01:26:07 Let's talk about the sound.
00:01:27:24 Yo man, my home girl send me some dope ass beats
00:01:30:00 and say, rap on that shit.
00:01:32:14 ♪ [Repping]
00:01:40:11 Georgia Anne did the production on my album.
00:01:44:04 We are from LA.
00:01:46:03 And basically, may be like the last eight or nine years,
00:01:50:12 it's been like, I'm making this be, say some.
00:01:52:27 Raise the... say some.
00:01:54:10 You know and they just got to be evolved from that.
00:01:56:09 Always going to be with Georgia Anne
00:01:57:24 or you're planning to venture out?
00:01:59:03 Number one in my opinion Georgia Anne Muldrow
00:02:01:24 is the greatest artist of our time.
00:02:03:16 And I'm sure I always work with her,
00:02:04:23 because it's fun to work with her.
00:02:06:20 It's exciting to work with her.
00:02:07:18 It's always new.
00:02:09:10 You know, you never know what to expect.
00:02:11:08 As an artist, I'm always, I find myself always growing
00:02:14:20 working with her.
00:02:15:28 So, as far as I'm concerned, I'll always,
00:02:18:04 always, always, work with my sister, absolutely.
00:02:21:03 ♪ [Repping]
00:02:28:21 Let's move aside from the music
00:02:29:28 and talk about the industry on a whole.
00:02:32:20 There is a lack of women in hip-hop, do you agree?
00:02:35:28 You know what, people say that, but I disagree.
00:02:39:22 I think there are a lot of women out there that rap.
00:02:42:03 Alright.
00:02:43:07 I think that people just don't look at them.
00:02:45:03 I think people say, oh, that's a woman rapping, bah.
00:02:49:21 I think that happens all the time.
00:02:51:13 That's all. I think people need to recognize,
00:02:53:09 they are like everything else in the world,
00:02:56:08 like building houses, making cakes, mowing a lawn.
00:03:02:29 It's not just men that do it.
00:03:04:10 Women do it too.
00:03:05:13 So it's like, it's a matter of...
00:03:06:28 I mean in terms of the mainstream industry,
00:03:09:28 I mean they do the women rap so wrong.
00:03:11:21 You know, it's like
00:03:12:23 if you don't come out there in some pum-pum shorts,
00:03:15:01 and talking about the pum-pum
00:03:17:06 or like the pum-pum beat.
00:03:18:16 You know what I am saying?
00:03:19:12 If you would not pum-pum out,
00:03:20:03 then they don't like hear you.
00:03:22:04 But in my experience like, there's a lot of women who rap.
00:03:25:20 Right.
00:03:26:10 There's always been women who rap.
00:03:28:00 ♪ [Repping]
00:03:32:05 This whole idea of women not rapping is like bullshit.
00:03:34:28 Just recognize the women who rap.
00:03:36:20 You know what I'm saying, I respect them the same way
00:03:38:12 you respect the men who raps.
00:03:40:07 And even actually, give them more respect
00:03:42:19 because everybody is asking them and telling them,
00:03:44:17 oh, you are a woman who rap.
00:03:45:28 Women don't rap.
00:03:46:28 Girl, get in there, shake your ass.
00:03:48:17 For those who don't do it, you don't have respect for them
00:03:51:06 because they hear that shit everyday.
00:03:54:18 That is the truth, man, no doubt.
00:03:57:10 I'm going to leave this. This is now your section.
00:03:59:12 If there's something I missed, let the world know.
00:04:02:00 I want to let Canada wanted to know about my album,
00:04:06:05 Cosmic Headphones.
00:04:08:18 Cosmic Headphones, you want to cut that.
00:04:11:11 It's a way out sound.
00:04:12:22 It's a sound that is fused and inspired by black music
00:04:17:01 of all genres that has come before us,
00:04:19:09 and the truth that lives in all of our hearts as well.
00:04:23:12 So you'll enjoy.
00:04:24:26 ♪ [Music]
00:04:36:28 I know that it's an album of love,
00:04:38:10 know it's an album of peace and joy.
00:04:40:03 I'm into freedom and happy news, and that's what I'm about.
00:04:43:05 If you're about that too, then that's the shit.
00:04:46:14 Right. Well, you heard it. Yo!
00:04:48:10 Okay, I got to say no more.
00:04:50:11 This is I.E.
00:04:52:05 It's Eagle Nebs.
00:04:53:29 Your watching the Cypher.
00:04:55:21 [Repping]
00:05:00:28 You know we've got to rap it up
00:05:02:00 with a live freestyle cypher over in Brooklyn.
00:05:07:07 From the poorest and blackest of people,
00:05:09:22 To survive in the street of Mogadishu,
00:05:11:27 It's K'naan on the Cypher piece.
00:05:14:09 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:04:03 ♪ [Rapping]
00:06:13:28 [Music]