Classified Enlists Buds Like Joe Budden on 'Handshakes and Middle Fingers'

Rising Nova Scotia rapper Classified was tired of artists buying guest verses from artists they'd never spoken to. That's why Luke Boyd -- his legal name -- decided to limit the number of cameos on his first major label album, 2009's 'Self Explanatory' (nominated for Rap Recording of the Year at the Junos and Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards), as well as on his upcoming record, 'Handshakes and Middle Fingers,' to people he at least somewhat knows.

"Five, ten years ago, it was a whole different thing," Classified tells Spinner. "But I really wanted to try to get away from getting people that you don't have any relationship with and paying them a couple of grand to get them to rap on a song."

The Enfield, NS resident goes in on several of rap's other indulgences with his towering new single 'That Ain't Classy, (currently streaming on his website) rolling his eyes at celebrities' award show buffoonery and club antics with lyrics like "I relate to real people/Not these self-centred weirdos."

So wait, does that mean he knows the underground hip-hop legends and Slaughterhouse members Royce Da 5'9" (from 'Self Explanatory''s 'They Call This') and Joe Budden (who appears on the new album)?

Damn right he does. Though he might seem on the surface to have more in common with other MCs from Canada's Atlantic provinces like Buck 65 than with a couple of American ruffnecks, when Classified found himself opening for Budden and Royce, he ended up hanging out with them offstage as well as on.

Not that he didn't have to break the ice at first. "The first show we did in Montreal, they were just getting over the border. They didn't even see us. So, you know, Joe and all of them were like, 'Who the f--- is this guy coming on the tour bus?' But we played Ottawa the next night, and as they saw the live show and then we got back stage, every one of them came back and gave us mad props."

Watch This Classified Retrospective
After that, Classified says, it was all good between the camps. "You gotta prove yourself, and it makes you feel good -- I'm a fan of all of these guys, and after we did the show and just the love they gave us, it felt great. I think that's one thing Joe really liked about me, I wasn't trying to front like I'm someone else. So you know, we'd hang out; we'd go bowling."

While he's looking forward to getting the word out on 'Handshakes and Middle Fingers' (due March 22 in Canada and March 29 elsewhere), starting with the release of its new single, 'That Ain't Classy,' Classified is also working towards bringing his beefy, hard-hitting production style to other artists' albums so that he can spend time at home with his family, as well as in his studio.

"I'd like to get it to a point where labels and whoever can call me and say, 'We've got this artist we want you to work with, we're going to fly them out to Nova Scotia to work in the studio for two or three days and basically make music.

"I want to produce something on the Slaughterhouse record, that's my plan. I want to get a beat on that. I'm slowly starting to send Joe stuff and bug the s--- out of him."