Back Alley Interview with Classified
As he pushed himself out of the heavy doors at Velvet Underground, I approached Classified about doing our interview before the show.
He said something along the lines of : “I don’t mean to be a dick, but I need to nap before the show. We can do it after, just come back stage,” he said nonchalantly. We shook on it and I had his word.
He hailed down a cab on a busy Queen Street with an MPC in hand, still true to his backpack rapper form.
I must’ve waited 8 hours to get a 11 minute interview, but it’s not as if I waited that patiently — I got to enjoy the show with my Maritimer buddy, and got to drink backstage with local legend, Choclair, while waiting for Class to be free.
By the time he was free, the bar was closing, so we couldn’t get a quiet place to do the interview. I followed Class out to the alleyway, propped up my phone on the trunk of a random car, and we shot the interview there. Even though he was on CP24 and Entertainment Tonight earlier that day, he was cool chatting with me in an alleyway, on a camera phone at 2 a.m. in the morning.
This was a dream come true. I got to talk about the parallels between Canadian hoops & hip hop, the gradual growth of his career, and his “weirdly normal” life. Here’s the abbreviated and edited interview:
Teru: I wanted to talk about basketball because Lindell Wigginton (from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) is going to The League next year. There’s something Kardi (Kardinal Offishall) mentioned that I want to talk about: he said that there’s a parallel between basketball culture and hip hop in Canada. There’s a league called NPA, North Pole Hoops, which is…
Classified: What’s that?
Teru: So it’s based in Toronto, but they’ve expanded throughout the country. It’s a basketball, a high school basketball league that’s insulating talent in Canada, so that the Lindell Wiggintons don’t go to the States and they can stay here…
Classified: In high school…yeah, yeah.
Teru: There’s Halifax Prep out in Spryfield, so that’s part of NPA as well. And I’m just wondering, like, on that same tip…if there’s an artist that’s coming up in Canada, what kind of incentives are there for hip-hop artists to stay here rather than going to L.A. or New York?
….*Shakes head while answering question* I don’t know if there is a bonus to staying *then a light bulb goes off*. We give grants! That’s a fucking bonus….Our government supports our arts….Like all my American friends that I know that do music and they find out about the grant shit you can get…
They’ll be like ‘Yeah, I’m coming up here.’
Straight up! That’s a big bonus for Canada. That’s the biggest thing. That’s your answer, right there.
Yeah, grants.
Canadian government supports our shit.
I’ve written features on the precarity that a lot of pro basketball players experience. And I know that’s the same for a lot of artists. You said you’re turning 41 this year?
I just turned 40, yeah.
My bad…
Nah, It’s all good….I ain’t that old man! Just 40 [laughs].
You’re 15 studio albums in, have a wife and (three) daughters. Through your records, you’ve spoken about the fear of rap not working out for you…
Totally.
I’m just wondering what kept you going? What made you not quit?
*Long pause* Um…cause it kept elevating. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t like I put out a record and all of a sudden, that shit blew up….My first tour of Canada, we flew to Vancouver, took a Greyhound from Vancouver to Calgary….That shit was gradual. (The next time) we got a van. That meant we could get the DLs (reference to DL Incognito) with us….And then the next tour, we’re on a tour bus.
…The gradual growth is what always kept me like ‘Hey, we’re doing this,’ you know what I mean, which was a blessing….If you ask me now, I’m so fucking lucky [success] didn’t happen quickly cause I learned the game, I learned the lifestyle and what not, and I survived this shit…
….What keeps your creative juices going? How do you never run out of content?
…I just think I do it a lot. I enjoy it. I still enjoy, like, going to the studio and making beats…I do my thing, it’s not like a job for me. That’s one main thing….I’m at the point where I don’t have to worry about ‘Am I going to be able to put this record out?’ or ‘Is this going to cost me a lot?’ or ‘Am I going to have to worry about the mortgage next year?’ I’ve been very smart and safe. Safe with my money, just being smart. I don’t go and buy a bunch of fancy shit…I’m at the point where I can kinda chill.
….I hang out with the same people I grew up with. I have a weird life. A weird life, but very straight…
Weirdly normal.
Yeah, *points finger of acknowledgement* weirdly normal.
If hip hop never worked out for you, would you still be that 40 year old rapper still trying to blow up?
No *shakes head*. No like if this wasn’t my thing after a couple of years…just cause rap is like a young person’s thing. I get all that shit. But, the fact that I’ve done this for so much and seeing shows like this where people are coming out, singing songs from 15 years ago, 12 years ago, that’s like rock and roll shit. This is way different than when I was coming up…
Classified’s new album Tomorrow Could Be is out now.
