This article was originally published via Afros in tha City.
Cadence Weapon is the project alias of Canadian rapper Rollie Pemberton, who is soon to be a published author with his new book, a memoir, titled ‘Bedroom Rapper.’ Bedroom Rapper comes out through McClelland & Stewart of Penguin Random House Canada on May 31st. Coinciding with a new deluxe version of the last Cadence Weapon album, Parallel Worlds – coming out on March 25th – the book was written at the same time as the album. Though the book is a much longer piece of work, both pieces took Pemberton around 2 years to complete.
“There Is a connection between the two of them, because I felt like when I was working on the album, I was also writing a book that is a memoir of my career up to that date,”
– Rollie Pemberton
Cadence Weapon performing at Block Heater 2022, Photo by David Kenney
“So I got this experience of having to reflect on how I made all my old albums. And I think that really informed my process when I was making Parallel Worlds.”
The deluxe version of Parallel Worlds features remixes by several acclaimed producers, some from Canada and a few, like Lorraine James, from the UK. All producers, however, possess a sound that has spoken to Pemberton. There is also a remix featuring grime rapper Logan.
Although this past Block Heater was Cadence Weapon’s first performance at the festival, Pemberton has fond memories of sharing the stage at Calgary Folk Festival with a musician that’s part of a band that his family holds very dear.
“Many years ago now, I think it was maybe 2012, I got to do a workshop,” says Pemberton. “I did that with Bernie Worrell (from Parliament Funkadelic). Wow, that was really cool. I mean, it would have been anyway, but the thing is, my family was really into Parliament Funkadelic, we used to follow them from town to town.”
Revisit our Black History Month Panel with Cadence Weapon, hosted by Afros in tha City.