NEW ALBUM PARALLEL WORLD OUT APRIL 30

EYE TO EYE FOLLOWS FIRST SINGLE SENNA
FEATURING JACQUES GREENE 

Toronto, ON – March 26, 2021 – Today, Cadence Weapon, the moniker of Edmonton-born, Toronto-based rapper, producer, writer and poet, Rollie Pemberton, shares Eye To Eye, the second single from his new LP, Parallel World, out April 30 via eOne Music. The album seeks to unearth the alternate reality that lies beneath the surface of our society, functioning as a mirror that exposes the distortions and inequalities that are typically ignored. Produced by Toronto’s AudioOpera, Eye To Eye is Cadence’s examination of racial profiling in prose. Listen to the song here and watch the video directed by Scott Pilgrim here. 

“I wrote Eye To Eye in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and D’Andre Campbell, the assault of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother, and the Amy Cooper / Chris Cooper incident in Central Park,” Cadence says. “I was inspired by the writing of Desmond Cole as well as W. E. B. Du Bois's concept of double consciousness - how I perceive myself and how I'm seen by others as a black man and the conflict between those two perceptions.” 

On collaborating with Scott Pilgrim, he adds: "Moving through any space as a black man wearing a hoodie is something that has become loaded with certain connotations and preconceptions. Scott and I wanted to make something raw that played with those expectations and navigated the gap between perception and reality."

Last month, the album’s first single, SENNA, resonated with self-determination and taking the road less travelled, and marks a reunion collaboration between Cadence and JUNO-nominated artist, Jacques Greene. Cadence and Jacques revisited a creative process to make a song that exists between the margins of genre. Their previous collaborations include Cadence’s feature on Jacques’ 2019 album, Dawn Chorus (Night Service) and Jacques at the production helm for Cadence’s songs, High Rise, and The Host, from his 2018 self-titled project. Watch the video here. 

Cadence’s most politically charged album to date, the songs on Parallel World touch on themes of systemic racism, structural inequality, police profiling, gentrification, the internet’s pervasive effects on our lives and the surveillance state that disproportionately punishes Black people. Using elements of trap, drill, grime and acid house, Parallel World is the soundtrack for the dystopian future the world is facing, as society deals with their own realities relating to these issues. The new album is Cadence distilling these experiences for us all. Pre-order the album here.

In addition to Greene, production personnel on Parallel World includes Jimmy Edgar, Martyn Bootyspoon, Casey MQ, Korea Town Acid, DNNY PHNTM, Strict Face, AudioOpera, and Little Snake. Guests include Fat Tony, 2020 Polaris Music Prize-winner, Backxwash, Skratch Bastid, and Manga Saint Hilare. It was mixed and engineered by Calvin Hartwick at Dream House Studios and mastered by Phil Demetro at Lacquer Channel in Toronto.

Cadence has released four albums, all of which have been nominated for the Polaris Prize, with Breaking Kayfabe (2006) and Hope In Dirt City (2012) being shortlist nominees. His music is known for pairing groundbreaking production with incisive, socially conscious lyricism and has been praised by the likes of NPR, The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Zane Lowe Beats 1, Complex, Dazed, and many more.

He served as Poet Laureate of Edmonton from 2009 to 2011. His poem “The Garden” was incorporated into a bronze sculpture at the Alberta Legislature Grounds in Edmonton in 2018. He has hosted lectures and conducted live interviews for CBC q and Red Bull Music Academy. A book he is writing about his career called Bedroom Rapper will be published by McClelland & Stewart in Spring 2022.

Listen/Watch EYE TO EYE: ffm.to/eye-to-eye

Pre-order Parallel World on Bandcamp

DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Press Photo | DOWNLOAD – Hi Res EYE TO EYE Art
DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Album Art

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