Spinner

Shad: Rapper Talks 'Survivor'-Style Canada Reads and 'Siberia' Collab With Lights

shadBlack Box Recordings

This week Canadian rapper Shad got a taste of what Polaris Prize jurors went through when debating the merits of his Juno Award-winning album when 'TSOL' went head-to-head with 10 other Canadian albums back in 2010.

"It does give a little bit of insight as to what happens in the Polaris backroom," Shad tells Spinner following his judging gig on Canada Reads 2012, CBC's annual book competition which crowned his pick, Carmen Aguirre's memoir 'Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter,' the winning title earlier Thursday.

"I've just never understood the game of strategy -- I wasn't in cahoots with anyone," he says of the roundtable discussion that pitted him against "experts" such as supermodel Stacey McKenzie and actor Alan Thicke. "It's fun to discuss the merits of books so that part of it I really like, but I don't understand the 'Survivor'-style voting. I'm the most anti-'Survivor' person."

With a masters in liberal studies now under his belt, Shad finally has the time for things like outwitting Kirk Cameron's TV dad in front of a literature-loving live studio audience. But his schedule won't be so open when work on his hotly anticipated new record ramps up.

"I've been working on some new beats and soundscape that I can connect to and always writing lyrics -- it's still fairly preliminary but, yes, I'm working on a new album."

"I've never really had an album that's full of other people's presences in a way that you can really feel them so that's a possibility this time," he continues. "There are friends that I have worked with before so it would be cool to have them on; I've done things with Lights and Socrates and K-OS and Dallas Green."

Shad's collaboration with Lights on her latest album, 'Siberia,' raised a few eyebrows in fact. Pairing with the former pop princess for the track 'Everybody Breaks a Glass' may have thrown the rapper's fans for a loop but Shad says the fact it was so unexpected was what sold him.

"Sometimes people will throw a track at me that's more or less a song I've already done and they basically want me to write a verse I've already written. That's not as interesting, so with the Lights thing, I was like, 'OK, I know this is going to be something that's totally different and it will stretch me.' I was really interested to hear what she could throw at me.

"I really believe in Lights and what she's doing; it's hard to throw on MuchMusic and see someone like, say, Ke$ha. So, yeah, I'll give it a try. If I'm going to do my same old thing, I'll do it on my album."

Listen to Lights' 'Everybody Breaks a Glass' Ft. Shad


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