Shad Wins over the Hip Hop Haters

There's a lyric in Shad's recent single, "Stylin," that always makes me a feel a little self-conscious. It comes about halfway through the track, when he raps, “I got fans that say, 'Oh hey Shad, I hate rap but I like you' / Well I hate that."

It's not that I don't like rap -- I've been a fan ever since I heard 2Pac's 1996 opus All Eyez on Me as an impressionable 11-year-old. But my interest in the genre waned over the years, and it took Shad's 2007 album The Old Prince to recapture my attention.

That record earned widespread acclaim, winning a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award, earning a Juno nomination and receiving a short-list nod for the Polaris Music Prize. As a diehard indie rock lover, not much rap crossed over into my world. Shad was an exception, and that's why I feel a bit like he's referring to me when he discusses his popularity among those who claim to hate to rap.

It's easy to see why The Old Prince made waves outside of the hip-hop scene. Shad's witty lyrics are free of profanity, with observations that shift smoothly from thoughtful social commentary to laugh-out-loud humour. His good natured charm shines on stand-out single "The Old Prince Still Lives at Home," which is the kind of rap track that youths and parents can agree on. (Seriously -- my mom loves that song.) His 2010 album TSOL was similarly likeable; that year, the Toronto Star branded Shad the "rapper-next-door."

Having grabbed our attention with these excellent albums, the Kenya-born/Ontario-bred/Vancouver-based rhymer's latest work, Flying Colours, finds him breaking the mould and exploring more adventurous terrain. Opening cut "Intro: Lost" features a rare moment of braggadocio, as he declares "I'm killing these tracks" over a jumble of chopped up beats. The album's centrepiece, "Progress (Part 1 American Pie, Part 2 The Future Is Here)" is a two-part art-rap epic that swells from "American Pie"-alluding morbidity to a prog-tinged fuzz jam. Closer "Epilogue: Long Jawn" is similarly sprawling, containing almost seven minutes of non-stop rhymes without a proper hook.

Flying Colours is by no means a complete departure, however. The aforementioned "Stylin" is anchored by an infectious rock groove and features a dynamite chorus sung by Saukrates, while "Fam Jam (Fe Sum Immigrins)" is a bubbly anthem about immigrant issues. These tracks are politically charged, autobiographically honest, and brightly uplifting.

This means that even the rap-haters that Shad so genially mocks in "Stylin" are bound to like Flying Colours. And with any luck, Shad might inspire a few of them to pursue a broader interest in hip-hop. As I can attest, it wouldn't be the first time.