Toronto hip-hop artist Shad\u2019s new album, TAO, deals with themes of Taoism beliefs and social awareness (photo by Justin Broadbent).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis musical organization of Shad\u2019s thoughts allows his audience to form their own philosophical ideals. He stresses that people are responsible for the changes in our society, and says that they must take an active role in their future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can pause and actually track the changes, we can escape this trap of thinking that the way things are are the way things have always been,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is not an inevitability or a process that we don\u2019t have control over. Ultimately, it is our decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the history of hip-hop, artists have imbedded matters of sociological unease into their work. For Shad, artists such as Lauren Hill, 2Pac, and A Tribe Called Quest exemplify this, as well as having a complete personality with a range of character.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about representations of young Black people, it wasn\u2019t common and still isn\u2019t that common to get these really complete pictures of human beings,\u201d he says. \u201cThat inspired me and I hope to pass that on as well, the sense of \u2018You can be all these things, and you can be a fully complex human being, and you can show all of that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
By incorporating these influences into his work, Shad inspires and passes the metaphorical torch of hip-hop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to inject as much humour, bounce, energy, and excitement as I can into the music,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, even when it does get ruminating or contemplative I hope that\u2019s included in a way that\u2019s helpful, and uplifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shad creates a relatable and thought-provoking sense of insight with his music, and the effect of that can been seen in his live shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cClub shows are this really special mix of fun and a lot of smiles on faces, and bodies moving,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, there\u2019s a lot of depth to it, and really connecting around the art and words and ideas. It\u2019s this really special mix of those things coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his live performances and his musical content, Shad brings his audience together in celebration of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that they come away with some feeling of hope and inspiration; that\u2019s always the most important thing,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I hope that they laugh and think along the way, that their mind is expanded a little bit and that they\u2019re provoked to think differently. And that it\u2019s an enjoyable ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shad
\nWednesday, June 8
\n$22.50, Capital Ballroom
\nthecapitalballroom.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto-based rapper Shad\u2019s latest album TAO, released last year, takes listeners through the thought processes of Taoism beliefs and social awareness. C.S. Lewis\u2019 1943 book The Abolition of Man and Shoshana Zuboff\u2019s 2019 book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism are used as references by Shad to provide context to dystopian changes in society over music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-4-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22598,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22596\/revisions\/22598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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