Thursday, April 30, 2009

urMusic Presents: Yes! Karma Tour Guaranteed Access


Attention Rogers Customer: Want to get guaranteed access to the urMusic Presents: Yes! Karma Tour through Wireless Box Office(tm)? Simply CLICK HERE for all the details on scoring guaranteed access and to get your PIN code!

The Yes! Karma Tour starts today in Vancouver!! If your a Rogers customer, get on this opportunity immediately. There are limited spots.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Shad's Interview with AfriPOP


AP: What’s it like when you go to Rwanda?

Shad: Now that my folks have a place there, it feels more like normal life cos we’re not bouncing from place to place and I’m not meeting everyone for the first time. So when I go back now, I have a bit of a relationship with some fam.

AP: How about the language thing? Can you speak Kinyarwanda?

Shad: The language thing is harder with the older generation. I only speak the basics. But I speak French and English and most people there speak one or the other.

AP: Fluent French?

Shad: Yup

AP: To rap in even?

Shad: (Laughs) I could but it wouldn’t be so good. It takes beyond just being comfortable in conversation. You gotta know the common language as well as the formal language and understand the culture, and have practice playing with them together. I’m not there!

AP: Would you say you grew up listening to a wider range of music than your average kid from the hood?

Shad: Yeah definitely. We came up listening to everything.

AP: When and how did rap come in?

Shad: I wonder about that. I grew up listening to everything but I gravitated towards Hip-hop. Maybe subconsciously I connected with it because it was what people that looked like me were doing. I also didn’t play any instruments until later in high school. So it was a way for me to have fun with music when I was 16 or so.

AP: I notice you rap clean…

Shad: Word. That’s just how I talk. The opportunity to communicate through music, or even communication period I think is a serious responsibility is a serious responsibility because words are so powerful. They affect people deeply so I try to be responsible with that.

For the rest of the interview CLICK HERE

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Undeveloped Snapshots of K-OS will be up for Auction at Upcoming DOXA Documentary Film Festival


VANCOUVER, CANADA

Join us for 10 days of great documentaries, May 22–31, 2009.

Continuing the tradition of showcasing stories that aren’t often told, DOXA 2009 brings Vancouver premieres of eye-opening and unexpected films from Canada and around the world. Featuring 75 films in an expanded 10-day festival running May 22–31, DOXA offers our most diverse and innovative programming to our widest audience yet. From the intimate to the inspirational, the humourous to the maddening, the poignant to the sublime, the films at DOXA offer you a chance to share in stories that will move you more than you expect.
Via DOXA

According to Straight.com:
Running throughout the festival, there'll also be a celebrity camera auction. Up for bid will be undeveloped snapshots from the likes of CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos; director Denys Arcand, actors Kristin Kreuk and Jennifer Beals; music stars k-os, Sarah Slean, Jann Arden, Issa, Randy Bachman, Matthew Good, and Veda Hille; and more.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Yes! Reaches No. 9 on Billboard's Top Canadian Albums List

Continue to support and grab an album or two if you haven't yet!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I'll Never Understand (Video) - Shad ft. Bernadette Kabango


"I'll Never Understand" by Shad K featuring Bernadette Kabango. A song about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Video created by Khalil Rajan and Evan Stoymenoff. Footage taken from Ghosts of Rwanda, Rwanda revisted and Rwanda: The Genocide Forgotten.
Bernadette Kabango (Mother) wrote a poem about the atrocities of the genocides of Rwanda. The poem was a reflection of the family that she lost. After hearing the poem being recited, Shad decided to add to it and make a song. He also saw it as another example to use art as a way to share something deeply personal.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Throwback: Shad on Q TV

Compromise


Now A Daze


The Old Prince Still Lives At Home


Promo


I have been going through the Q TV videos on youtube for a few days now. I love how Jian Ghomeshi goes about with his dynamic interviews. Not like any other other question and answer interviews, he is able to keep them interesting and worth watching. Some of my favourite interviews, just to name a few, are of Lupe Fiasco, Gordon Ramsey and Lily Allen.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Thanks to Chris Kelly from CBC Radio 3 for the Shout Out!


I just want to take this time to thank you for the writing about my blog on the CBC Radio 3 blog. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this.

Catch K-OS at the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival on June 27


K-OS is set to perform on Saturday, June 27 at the Subway Mainstage, Bessborough Gardens.
Tickets are $30 when bought in advance and $40 at the day of the concert.
Buy tickets HERE.

Friday, April 17, 2009

K-Os Performs "4 3 2 1" (Broken Hearted Version) on Q TV


Canadian hip-hop artist K-OS was Q's 'Friday Live' guest to coincide with the release of his new album 'Yes!'. He performed two songs and sat down for a chat. This is the first song he performed and the first single from the new album. This is a stripped down version of the original.
via Q TV

Opening Acts and Event Information of Yes! Karma Tour

Jay Malinowski

- Vancouver April 30
- Vancouver May 1

Library Voices

- Edmonton May 3
- Calgary May 4

Grand Analog

- Winnipeg May 6

Event Info
With his fourth album “Yes!” set for release April 14, hip hop visionary k-os is embarking on a 10-show, 9-city Canadian tour, hitting major cities from coast to coast. As with all of his projects before this, the Yes! Karma Tour is breaking boundaries. These shows are not ticketed, and entrance will be on a first-come first-served basis. Rogers customers will be offered guaranteed access to the shows through the Wireless Box Office. As of April 15, visit: facebook.com/urmusic for all the details. In order to gain entrance into the venue, there is no purchase necessary whatsoever. “Karma” donations can be made inside the venue at 3 separate locations, and will always be rewarded with a free CD: the k-os “fan-mixed” album, “Yes! It’s Yours.” What is a “Karma Donation”?: * In exchange for what promises to be an unforgettable concert experience with k-os, fans are being given 3 opportunities to contribute to the cause… *#1 - David Suzuki Awareness Table: 50% of payments made at this table will go to the David Suzuki Foundation, the other 50% will go towards offsetting tour costs. *#2 - Karma Table: this table will be designated for Karma donations only. *# 3 - Exit doors: Security will be set up at the exit doors of each show with cash-only drop boxes for people to pay what they felt the show was worth. Instant Karma!

Vocalist/Guitarist of Bedouin Soundclash is Opening for K-Os in Vancouver


Jay Malinowski is the vocalist and guitarist for the Canadian indie rock group Bedouin Soundclash. Jay was born in Montreal in 1982, but he grew up in Vancouver. He also has strong family ties to Toronto, as both his parents are from the Toronto area. Bedouin Soundclash will be opening for No Doubt and performing at the Regina Folk Festival this year.

peta2: K-Os Theory


For scientists, chaos theory means that sometimes, a small incident has a bigger impact than expected. In everyday life, I think we can all remember a time when we said or did something that had a much bigger effect than we thought it might or when we experienced something that changed the way we thought about things from then on.

For Toronto rapper K-OS, that moment happened when, as a kid, he decided it was strange to eat birds, because they fly. Years later, he decided to go vegetarian.

In his exclusive interview with peta2, K-OS tells us that story and others that motivated him to live a compassionate, vegetarian lifestyle and also throws out a few theories of his own, like how if you eat a bird or a pig or a fish, you might as well be eating your own dog—or how peta2 is a dynamic movement, like hip-hop. Check out these and other K-OS theories in the video below, and afterward, I bet all those little instances will have made a big impact.

By Cassandra Curbieo
via peta2

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Shad Scheduled to Perform at Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival

If you are heading up to Whistler for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, be sure to see Shad perform. Shad's show are scheduled on Friday, April 24th and Saturday, April 25th (opening for DJ Z-Trip). For more information about the festival CLICK HERE.

"The Old Prince": The Album of Random Places



"The Old Prince" (a la The Fresh Prince) stickers were just printed and are ready to be shipped. Sticker design courtesy of Justin Broadbent. The stickers will probably be distributed to stores in Canada. If you want stickers sent to your home, send your full name and full mailing address to: theoldprince@shadk.com. When you get your stickers, make sure to take photos of where you posted them and upload them on Shad's facebook page.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

"Now A Daze" Artwork


The making of Tim Lum's (Pixel Flex) first commissioned piece of artwork featured at the record release concert for Shad's Polaris Music Prize nominated album "The Old Prince" held at The Mod Club. Toronto, ON Canada

The Avenue - K-Os (Fan Made Music Video)


A nice and simple video edited from a bunch of footage taken in the streets of San Fancisco. The video was made by Esau.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

YES! OUT NOW


YES!, the new album from k-os is available now at local Canadian record stores and digital retailers. Click here to download the record on iTunes. The album features new single "4 3 2 1 " and 11 other new tracks including "Burning Bridges" and "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman." Support k-os and grab the record today!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Shad's Freestyle that Makes You Wonder Why He is Not on the Radio More Often


I am not exactly sure if this is a freestyle or if it is scripted. Regardless, he displays his phenomenal skills with his playful yet meaningful lyrics. With a beat or not, his execution is effortless.

Getting a Handle on K-Os: Rapper Says Yes! to Culture on New Album

Yes! A new album from K-os will be released April 14. But before that LP, Yes! - the genre-smashing rapper's first since 2006's Atlantis: Hymns for Disco - took shape, K-os was caught in the middle of a few things.

For one, he was stuck between labels. After nearly a decade with EMI, he decided it was time to try a new direction - one that included putting his music out on his own imprint, Crown Loyalist Recordings, which he's now doing through a new relationship with Universal.

Moreover, he was caught between cities. ``I've been dating Vancouver for 10 years,'' he says over the phone from the West Coast after our call wakes him on a post-Junos morning. (OK, the Junos wrapped up two days before, but as K-os explains, he's still resting up after a weekend spent with friends like double- winners The Stills).

Since making his breakthrough 2002 album Exit - a disc that had Billboard lauding as ``one of the finest hip-hop records Canada has ever produced'' - K- os has found himself drawn back to Vancouver. He waxes nostalgic about crashing nightly on friends' couches and floors during his Exit days. His band still hails from the city. Still, there's no denying he's a Toronto institution. It's ingrained in his lyrics: from instantly recognizable phrases like ``walking down Yonge St. on a Friday'' (from ubiquitous 2005 hit Crabbuckit) to rhyming about the TTC on the new disc. Read more.

via Canada.com

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

K-Os Yes! Karma Tour - "Free to Get In, Pay What You Want"

NO ADVANCE TICKET SALES - FREE TO GET IN, PAY WHAT YOU WANT
EVERYONE WELCOME

LIVENATION.COM, GMANandRIZK.com, SPECTRUM ENT PRESENT...

THE urMUSIC.CA K-OS YES! KARMA TOUR
Thursday, April 30 at Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville St)

Friday, May 1 at Croation Cultural Centre

K-os’ return to the Vancouver stage next month will come as part of a groundbreaking tour of Canada designed around the concept of karma. Each show on this tour is free to enter, with fans given opportunities to make “Karma” donations inside the venue in exchange for an always-incendiary live show and a bonus - the K-os “fan-mixed” album, “Yes! It’s Yours.”

K-os’ long-awaited new album, “YES!” , is set to be released on April 14 through the Nettwerk Music Group and Universal Music Canada. The bonus to this album is “Yes! It’s Yours.” - an album mixed entirely by his fans through Indaba Music, the leading collaboration tool and social network for musicians, where master stem tracks from the songs on “YES!” were made available to their international community of over 100,000 musicians to submit their remixes of a given track, with a chance to win a spot on the album “Yes! It’s Yours.”

The urMusic.ca K-OS YES! KARMA TOUR breaks boundaries by offering the shows for free on a first-come, first-served basis. “Karma” donations can be made inside the venue in three specific locations, including options to donate to the David Suzuki Foundation. Also, check out the “Karma table” or use the cash-only drop box on the way out. All karma donations will give the audience member a free CD: the k-os “fan-mixed” album, “Yes! It’s Yours.”

K-os’ uniquely subversive hip hop twist on popular music and culture is not surprising considering that over the past decade he’s regularly synthesized a stunningly progressive musical gumbo of hits. With two certified platinum-selling albums (“Joyful Rebellion”, “Atlantis”) and one gold one (“Exit”) to his credit, he’s also won multiple Juno Awards (2003, 2005), Much Music Video Awards (2004), Canadian Urban Music Awards (2003, 2004), a Source Award for Best International Hip Hop Artist (2003), and even garnered a Grammy nomination in 2005 for his collaboration with the Chemical Brothers on “Get Yourself High”.

Tickets are 1st come 1st served and it is a ‘pay as you feel’ after the show.

K-Os Says Yes! to Pop Culture


Yes! A new album from K-os will be released April 14. But before that LP, Yes! - the genre-smashing rapper's first since 2006's Atlantis: Hymns for Disco -- took shape, K-os was caught in the middle of a few things.

For one, he was stuck between labels. After nearly a decade with EMI, he decided it was time to try a new direction -- one that included putting his music out on his own imprint, Crown Loyalist Recordings, which he's now doing through a new relationship with Universal.

Moreover, he was caught between cities. "I've been dating Vancouver for 10 years," he says over the phone from the west coast after our call wakes him on a post-Junos morning. (OK, the Junos wrapped up two days before, but as K-os explains, he's still resting up after a weekend spent with friends like double-winners The Stills).

Since making his breakthrough 2002 album Exit - a disc that had Billboard proclaiming it "one of the finest hip-hop records Canada has ever produced" - K-os has found himself drawn back to Vancouver. He waxes nostalgic about crashing nightly on friends' couches and floors during his Exit days. His band still hails from the city. Still, there's no denying he's a Toronto institution. It's ingrained in his lyrics: from instantly recognizable phrases like "walking down Yonge St. on a Friday" (from ubiquitous 2005 hit "Crabbuckit") to peripherally rhyming about the TTC on the new disc. Read more...

By Leah Collins


via Dose.ca

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Additional K-Os Tour Dates Have Been Released

April 30, 2009||Commodore||Vancouver
May 1, 2009||Croatian Cultural Centre||Vancouver
May 3, 2009||Edmonton Events Centre||Edmonton
May 4, 2009||Macewan Hall||Calgary
May 6, 2009||Burton Cummings||Winnipeg
May 9, 2009||Kool Haus||Toronto
May 10, 2009||Centennial Hall||London
May 13, 2009||Lansdowne||Ottawa
May 14, 2009||Olympia||Montreal
May 16, 2009||Cunard Centre||Halifax

Make sure you RSVP to the new tour dates in the events section of his facebook page HERE.

2 Vancouver Dates Scheduled for K-Os' Upcoming Tour


I just received information from the radio station the Beat 94.5 that K-Os is scheduled for two concerts in Vancouver. The first one will be on April 30th at the Commodore Ballroom for the people who are 19 and older. He will be also doing an all ages concert on May 1st at the Croatian Cultural Centre.

Stay tuned for more tour dates.

Classified and Half Life met up with Shad during SXSW


When Classified and Half Life went down to Austin, Texas for SXSW, they decided to meet up with other Canadian artists. Here is what happened...

K-Os To Release New Album... Next Week


After three album-less years, K-OS is finally following up on his Atlantis: Hymns for Disco. Next Tuesday (April 14), the Toronto MC will release his exclamatory fourth album Yes! through his newly minted Crown Loyalist Recordings, which K-OS launched last year through Universal.

The first two Yes! singles are already out there in radioland and online: "4321" and "Uptown Girl" (no this isn’t a Billy Joel cover, but it does have a ”Love Buzz” thing going for it). You can check out both over on K-OS’s MySpace page and head over to his website if you care to partake in a little contest. In it, you can win a signed copy of the album, a meet ’n ’greet with K-OS and get two free concert ticket to his upcoming, but yet-to-be-announced, Canadian tour.

Yes! is also getting its own companion album next week, which comes from another contest that asked fans to remix the album and turn in the results. That one is dubbed Yes! It’s Yours and is out April 14 as well.

Stayed tuned for those tour dates. In the meantime...

Yes!:

1. "Zambony"
2. "Astronaut"
3. "Burning Bridges"
4. "Uptown Girl"
5. "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman"
6. "4321"
7. "Eye Know Something"
8. "The Aviator"
9. "FUN!"
10. "Mr. Telephone Man"
11. "WhipC.R.E.A.M."
12. "The Avenue"

Yes! It's Yours:

1. "Zambony"(Phil Azer Remix)
2. "Astronaut" (Tee L. Remix)
3. "Burning Bridges" (TheSoundCrate Remix)
4. "Uptown GirL" (Jalyn Remix)
5. "4321" (TheSoundCrate Remix)
6. "Eye Know Something" (Herr Kaschke Remix)
7. "The Aviator" (Len Afrosaxon Remix)
8. "FUN!" (Ric's Notes Remix)
9. "Mr. Telephone Man" (Len Afrosaxon Remix)
10. "WhipC.R.E.A.M." (Remot Remix)
11. "The Avenue" (Zack W. Remix)

By Brock Threissen from Exclaim!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Shad Performs for The Verge at SXSW Six Shooter House of Sin

"Now A Daze"


"I Don't Like To"


The Verge XM channel 87 is a music channel on XM Satellite Radio which broadcasts new and emerging Canadian artists to an audience of over 17 million people.

http://www.thevergeonline.com

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Gym Class Heroes Cover "The Rain" by K-Os


Here's a video of Gym Class Heroes doing an alright cover of "The Rain" from K-Os' Atlantis Hymns for Disco. It was performed at University of Southern California on December 4, 2008.

Shad and K-Os on 'Negro' and the 'N-Word'


Hannah Sung, the host of Canada Reads Book Club, asked K-os and Shad of their opinions on these two words, used in the book Lawrence Hill's Book of Negros.

So like I said yesterday, I really wanted to have rap artists weigh in on the discussion on the word “Negro,” and a more offensive “n-word” that sometimes seems ubiquitous in hip hop.

I called Shad while he was on a quick lunch break at Simon Fraser University, where he’s doing a Masters in philosophy and literature.

I asked him what he thinks of when he hears the word “Negro.”

“It’s a word from another era,” he said. “I wouldn’t use it now, not because I think it’s offensive, but because it describes something else. To me, it describes a different time, people with less rights. Not lesser people, of course, but people with less rights,” he says. “I wouldn’t use it alternatingly with ‘black people,’ or ‘African-Americans.’ It means something different.”

What about the “n-word”?

“It’s complicated,” he said, “Especially with hip-hop music and with hip-hop culture being everywhere. It’s something that makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. It still has that tone and meaning that most of us associate with it, for me, anyway. Personally, I don’t use it.”

“There are no hard and fast rules,” he continued. “It’s one of those things where it kind of feels wrong coming from some people and doesn’t feel wrong coming from other people. For me, it’s never been a word that I use commonly so it never made sense for me to use it in music. It didn’t feel genuine.”

K-Os had thoughts on the “n-word,” too, and its onomatopoeic nature. I got his thoughts in a late-night e-mail while he was putting the final touches on his upcoming album.

“The ‘n-word’ is a swear word like f---,” he wrote. “No one really knows what it means or even really cares.” He continued to compare the two words by saying, “They just use it to make a point and because of its harsh onomatopoeic tone, f--- like the ‘n-word’ has survived through the ages.”

“That being said, linking any one word to any one group of people is a form of subjugation and propaganda created to box a people in, and the fact that the ‘n-word’ still exists today, fresh in its form, is just a sullen reminder that sticks and stones break bones and…,” K-Os left it with a dot-dot-dot. I think we all know the rest of the saying.

“Words can be powerful tools of truth and illusion – I use them for a living. When I investigate the use of the ‘n-word,’ which at its birth was primarily the Portuguese/Spanish way of saying black or ‘negro,’ it becomes a complex scuba dive to understand why this word still has so much power today!”

Exactly, K-Os — it is complex!

Keep watching this spot to see what K’Naan thinks on this topic. He’s one of my fave rap artists and he not only uses the “n-word,” he and his friends have an interesting usage of the word “Negro.”

Hannah

Click Here for the article and comments.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

New Hey Ocean! - Terribly Stable Music Video


The band members of Hey Ocean! are good friends of Shad and they have done shows and tracks together in the past. The most recent performance was at SXSW in Austin, Texas. They were at University of British Columbia Pit Pub last night. I was not able to be there because i'm still 18 years old. I'm sure that they had a great show and if anyone has videos, feel free to send them to me.

http://www.myspace.com/heyocean
http://www.youtube.com/user/heyocean

Check Out the Remixes on the Companion Album to Yes!

Check out the winners and runner-ups of each song:
The Avenue (killing time remix) - Zach W.
Eye Know Something (Herr Kaschke Remix) - Herr Kaschke
Mr. Telephone Man (telephonic phunkinstein mix) - len afrosaxon
Fun (Ric Notes Remix) - Ric Notes
The Aviator (Remix) - len afrosaxon
4321 (Remix) - The SoundCrate
Uptown Girl (Stay Up When Youre Down) - JALYN >
Zambony (Sonic Set Stringy Remix) - Phil Azer
Astronaut (Remix) - Tee L.
Whip C.R.E.A.M. (Remix) - Remot

http://www.indabamusic.com/studio_access/kos

Friday, April 3, 2009

Shad Official Store - "I want a Claire Huxtable" T-Shirts




The shirt has already been sported by Common, Lupe Fiasco, and Del tha Funkee Homosapien.
Get your "I want a Claire Huxtable" T-shirt and others HERE.

K-OS Charity T-Shirt for Yellow Bird Project


Fads fade, people age, but true beauty remains the same. Only K-OS could have delivered a design that speaks to the foundations and at the same time the innovations in arts and music. A goddess preserved in stone, but forever alive on your YBP tee. Be inspired and help inspire future generations through OneXOne the foundation that is dedicated to helping children around the world. Ancient arts with a modern philanthropist flair.Life belongs to everyone.
So purports ONEXONE - a non-profit foundation whose mandate is to support, preserve and improve the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Through an annual campaign, ONEXONE is dedicated to helping create a world where children can live safely and with dignity.

This charity is supported by k-os. Support this cause and get you t-shirts HERE.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

K-Os Video Cameo Contest - Dose.ca


Contest ends at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Friday May 8, 2009.
Click HERE to enter.

k-os' Tour Dates


Shad's Tour Dates


K-OS Part of 2009 Regina Folk Festival Lineup

"K-os, born Kevin Brereton, is a genuine neo-crossover rap n' roller whose music, much like your Ipod, might speak to hipster club kidz, pop chart gazers, Canadian indie rockers, dirty south electronic rap renegades, or reggae rude boys simultaneously. As it should - his rhyme and crooning skills took root in arguably the most polyglot and multi-cultural city on the planet, Toronto. And he's quite vocal about his not belonging to any one genre - he belongs to them all."

Early bird weekend passes until June 30 or until sold out: $78 (adults), $68 (students, seniors). Grab your Early Bird tickets HERE

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Shad - A Story No One Told (Live)


This has to be my favourite live performance of Shad live to date. This performance was a masterpiece. The emotions were captured in the story and melody just to be released and shared when it was sang.
This was taken at Mod club in Toronto.