Cadence Weapon Recent News

Video Premiere: Cadence Weapon "Unsuccessful Club Nights"

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:05:00 -0700

Check out Cadence Weapon 's new video for "Unsuccessful Club Nights" off his latest album, Afterparty Babies, out now!

CADENCE WEAPON: Afterparty Babies - out today!

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:03:00 -0800

Cadence Weapon's Anti- debut album, Afterparty Babies, is out today! Cadence Weapon (born Rollie Pemberton) burst on the scene with his acclaimed debut Breaking Kayfabe, which was awarded "Best Rap Album of 2006" at the Plug Awards and garnered critical praise from both the urban and indie music scenes alike. Mixing electro-tones and clever cultural references and a mad flow, Cadence Weapon steps it up on Afterparty Babies. At just 21, he has played with Jurassic 5, Spank Rock and the Go! Team, remixed Lady Sovereign and challenged the standard notions of what goes into constructing an important hip hop artist. Afterparty Babies is a 14 track, 58 minute dance rap party epic, dedicated to "all the accidents out there". Head over to AMAZON.COM now to buy it!

Watch Cadence Weapon on MTV Canada

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:02:00 -0800

Head over to Mtv.ca and click play on the video player to check out Cadence killer performance on Mtv Canada today.

Click here now!

Afterparty Babies, in stores March 4th!

Premiere: Cadence Weapon: "In Search of the Youth Crew" [MP3/Stream]

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:11:00 -0800

By Marc Hogan
Pitchforkmedia.com

Rollie Pemberton's first proper album as Cadence Weapon, 2005's Breaking Kayfabe, stood out for its jarring electro clatter and tangled, detail-rich rhymes. Two years later, the mainstream of hip-hop has moved in the Edmonton-based MC's direction, at least production-wise. Consider: Pemberton (full disclosure: a former Pitchfork writer) mashed up Rick Ross's "Hustlin'" and Simian Mobile Disco's "Hustler" before A-Trak released his own combination of same. That was before A-Trak inspired Kanye West to issue a single sampling Daft Punk, before the juke-house of Dude 'N Em's "Watch My Feet" and house-thwacked r&b of Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music". In short, Cadence Weapon's beats anticipated above-ground hip-hop producers' current fetish for sleek, European-style dance music.

The fragmented electronic loops of "In Search of the Youth Group" remain harsher and busier than what the Top 40 typically has to offer, though a simple, steady thud underlies the synth shimmer and chopped-up backing vocals. Pemberton's dense wordplay and rapidfire flow, meanwhile, are still too nerdily labyrinthine to be mistaken for anything but indie rap. He quotes Dylan, pokes Adam's rib, and juggles the word "drop" en route to disavowing the epithet "hip-hop hipsters": "Cover the phrase and keep it in your locket." OK, deal. It'll take a lyric sheet (or better headphones, maybe?) to decode all of Pemberton's hard-charging verses, but "In Search of the Youth Group"-- the first studio track we've heard from Cadence Weapon's forthcoming sophomore album (and Anti-/Epitaph debut) Afterparty Babies-- finds the underground rapper in good position to attract still greater attention.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: Pemberton's mother wouldn't let him play with Barbies.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PITCHFORK AND LISTEN TO THE TRACK.

Porter Wagoner, 1927-2007

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:10:00 -0700

Country Star Porter Wagoner Dies

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Porter Wagoner was known for a string of country hits in the '60s, perennial appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in his trademark rhinestone suits, and for launching the career of Dolly Parton.

Like many older performers, his star had faded in recent years. But his death from lung cancer Sunday, at 80, came only after a remarkable late-career revival that won him a new generation of fans.

The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957, "the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music," he said in 1997. His showmanship, suits and pompadoured hair made him famous.

He had his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," for 21 years, beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville and set a pattern for many others.

"Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick," he said in 1982.

Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were "Carroll County Accident," "A Satisfied Mind," "Company's Comin'," "Skid Row Joe," "Misery Loves Company" and "Green Green Grass of Home."

The songs often told stories of tragedy or despair. In "Carroll County Accident," a married man having an affair is killed in a car crash; "Skid Row Joe" deals with a once-famous singer who's lost everything.

In 2002, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In May, after years without a recording contract, he signed with ANTI- records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case.

Wagoner's final album, "Wagonmaster," was released in June and earned him some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he was the opening act for the influential rock duo White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me," Porter said with tears in his eyes the day after the New York show. "If only they knew how that made me feel — like a new breath of fresh air."

To many music fans, Wagoner was best known as the man who boosted Parton's career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as "Dumb Blonde."

They were the Country Music Association's duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets including "The Last Thing on My Mind."

Parton's solo country records, such as her autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors," also began climbing the charts in the early 1970s. She wrote the pop standard "I Will Always Love You" in 1973 after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs.

The two quit singing duets in 1974 and she went on to wide stardom with pop hits and movies such as "9 to 5," whose theme song was also a hit for her.

Wagoner sued her for $3 million in assets, but they settled out of court in 1980. He said later they were always friendly, "but it's a fact that when you're involved with attorneys and companies that have them on retainer, it makes a different story."

At a charity roast for Wagoner in 1995, she explained the breakup this way: "We split over creative differences. I was creative, and Porter was different."

He said in a 1982 Associated Press interview that his show "was a training ground for her; she learned a great deal and I exposed her to very important people and the country music fans."

She was present at the ceremony in May 2007 honoring Wagoner on his silver anniversary with the Opry. At the time, he called Parton "one of my best friends today." She also visited him in the hospital as he battled cancer.
Wagoner, who had survived an abdominal aneurysm in 2006, was hospitalized again this month and his publicist disclosed he had lung cancer. He died at 8:25 p.m. CDT Sunday in a Nashville hospice, said Darlene Bieber, a spokeswoman for the Opry.

Country singer and Opry member Dierks Bentley visited Wagoner in the hospice over the weekend and said Wagoner led them in prayer, thanking God for his friends, his family and the Grand Ole Opry.

"The loss of Porter is a great loss for the Grand Ole Opry and for country music, and personally it is a great loss of a friend I was really just getting to know," Bentley said. "I feel blessed for the time I had with him."

Pete Fisher, vice president and general manager of the Opry, said the Opry family of musicians and performers was deeply saddened by the news. "His passion for the Opry and all of country music was truly immeasurable," Fisher said.

Wagoner was born in West Plains, Mo., and became known as "The Thin Man From West Plains" because of his lanky frame. He recalled that he spent hours as a child pretending to be an Opry performer, using a tree stump as a stage.

He started in radio, then became a regular on the "Ozark Jubilee," one of the first televised national country music shows. On the Opry since 1957, he joined Roy Acuff and other onetime idols.

At one point his wardrobe included more than 60 handmade rhinestone suits.

"Rhinestone suits are just beautiful under the lights," he said. "They've become a big part of my career. I get more compliments on my outfits than any other entertainer — except for Liberace."

While he continued with the Opry, and even had a small part in the 1982 movie "Honky Tonk Man" starring Clint Eastwood, his recording career dried up in the 1980s — until his return this year.

"I stopped making records because I didn't like the way they were wanting me to record," he said. "When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn't really care about making records for another label because I didn't have any say in what they would release and how they would make the records and so forth."

By AP/John Gerome
www.time.com