Shad

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Shad is one of Canada’s most revered rappers, a peerless wordsmith who embodies hip-hop’s power to entertain and educate. Since releasing his DIY debut in 2005, the Toronto-based MC has pushed his style of socially conscious yet infectiously playful hip-hop across five increasingly ambitious albums that have received widespread critical acclaim and coverage in outlets like Rolling Stone, Complex, The Ringer, Fader, NPR, and more. To date, Shad has racked up over 30 million streams, a Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year (for 2010’s TSOL), and four placements on Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize shortlist, most recently for his 2018 concept-album opus, A Short Story About a War. His mission to inspire and inform goes beyond his own music: a former host of CBC Radio’s flagship arts and culture program q, Shad can currently be seen talking shop with the legends of rap on the Emmy/Peabody Award-winning Netflix Original docuseries, Hip-Hop Evolution. His most recent album, TAO, was released in October 2021 on Secret City Records. 

Why is it important for you, as an artist, to support climate action?

“One of the things I've always aimed to do in my music is look at and name some hard things--hard realities, difficult feelings--in a way that hopefully helps people do the same. I think that's a key social function of artists in general. One of those hard realities that's been on my radar lately is our climate crisis so I'm just trying to look at that in my music and hopefully help us approach that reality rather than hide from it.”

How does sustainability factor into your work as an artist? 

“I have lots of thoughts about sustainability in my work as far as my own personal energy, creativity, physical health, mental health, etc. But in terms of how my work affects the sustainability of our shared home, I have fewer ideas sadly and really no special insights. I'm grateful for organizations like Music Declares Emergency for leading that conversation in our industry about how we can be more environmentally sustainable. We need it.”

-Shad