{"title":"Shad","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"tao","title":"Tao","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver the course of five records to date, JUNO Award-winning Toronto rapper Shad has used an array of old-school tools to tackle modern problems, addressing the indignities and absurdities of our world through a shapeshfiting melange of boom-bap breaks, dusty soul samples, jazzy improvisation, and 10 dollar words rolled into thousand-dollar rhymes. But after weaving his myriad musical and philosophical interests into a narrative socio-political song cycle—2018’s \u003ci\u003eA Short Story About a War\u003c\/i\u003e—Shad began building his sixth record, Tao, from a much simpler concept: an image of a circle. Though, in true Shad fashion, he saw something much more profound within its basic round boundaries. “The thing that inspired this record was this image in my mind of a circle, but it’s getting fragmented, and then the pieces start floating away from each other,” he explains. “And that felt to me like a picture of ourselves as individuals. If you think of our humanity as one whole, there’s all these different aspects of that, whether that’s work, or our relationship to the land, or our relationship to the transcendent, or our relationship to our bodies, or to our inner child?”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secret City","offers":[{"title":"LP - Blue","offer_id":50478876459339,"sku":"1125639","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50478876229963,"sku":"1125641","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e4b0887b-89a1-4f72-bec7-04ceae7d9b9b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727493683"},{"product_id":"start-anew","title":"Start Anew","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e has built a career as one of Canada’s most consistent and versatile hip-hop artists. Since 2005, he’s been racking up critical and commercial acclaim, winning the Juno Award for Best Rap Recording for his 2010 album \u003cem\u003eTSOL\u003c\/em\u003e and being shortlisted for the Polaris Prize five times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut he’s not done yet. With his seventh full-length release \u003cem\u003eStart Anew\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e thematically tackles our collective reluctance to break out of our comfort zones armed with his trademark wit and thought-provoking bars. “The new start, that positive fresh new life is right there,” he says. “But it's often just on the other side of risk or even loss of some kind.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a storied career that has seen \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e branch out as a radio show host (CBC’s q), TV host (the Peabody and Emmy award-winning Netflix docuseries Hip Hop Evolution), new wave singer alter ego (Your Boy Tony Braxton) and now academic professor at the University of Toronto and Laurier, \u003cem\u003eStart Anew\u003c\/em\u003e’s central premise is one that \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e has wholeheartedly embraced himself, completing a socially conscious trilogy that began with 2018’s \u003cem\u003eA Story About A War\u003c\/em\u003e and 2021’s \u003cem\u003eTAO\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing collaborations with Toronto’s Jon Kabongo, Raz Fresco and Phoenix Pagliacci as well as Atlanta’s Chantae Cann and Queens, NY underground stalwart Homeboy Sandman, \u003cem\u003eStart Anew\u003c\/em\u003e addresses social inequality and the inner strength to succeed as well as \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e’s trademark witty and perspective lyrical bars on key tracks such as “Happiness,” “K.I.S.S.” and “Bars and BBQs.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Musically, I felt like I want to make something this time that is kind of simple and easy on the ears and very listenable,” says \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e. Embracing a musical approach that evokes the playful soulfulness of his early releases, \u003cem\u003eStart Anew\u003c\/em\u003e is refreshingly and unapologetically direct, aligning with \u003cstrong\u003eShad\u003c\/strong\u003e’s ongoing mission to spread love, wisdom and hope in an effort to inspire personal and societal change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secret City","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":52829296951627,"sku":"R7822-5713","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ShadStartAnew_d8c53389-d3df-45cd-80c3-ad9fae51bcb6.jpg?v=1752293966"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/shad.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}