Cadence Weapon’s home-field advantage at Casa Del Popolo

  Acclaimed hip hop - poet - author Cadence Weapon gives Montreal a kiss at Casa Del Popolo with Fireball Kid & Ura Star. 

    Always providing an electrifying performance, Fireball Kid & Ura Star did not fall short. On a crowded stage, they found the space to dance and jump around, reflecting the audiences’ energy. The idealist pop best friends remind me of the sweetness of friendship and dance every time I see them. I never feel jealous for lacking a best-friend-connection like that when I see them because their presence fills my heart with joy and my body full of dance.

    Cadence Weapon’s newest album, Rollercoaster, feels urgent, but he wasn’t rushing on stage. Leaning into his home field advantage in the Mile End, Cadence was very happy to be here. Armed with just a mixing deck and a microphone, his stage presence felt like an English teacher turned old friend. In a midnight purple chromatic shirt and a really fun tie, using Fireball Kid merch as a towel (provided by the band), he exudes friendly swag. He's so naturally comfortable on stage, been in the game for over 20 years now, and the audience was largely made up of his friends. He spoke to us in between each song like we were all hanging out in his living room, telling us little anecdotes about the producers or the meaning behind the song or specific lines he thinks we’ll love; often stating that “this next one is a banger” and commented on the fake humility a lot of artists exude. He’s proud of his work and thinks it's great, and we all know it is. He’s so confident that he’s written a book about his experience in the hip-hop industry. Bedroom Rapper came out in 2022, and it chronicles his personal history of rap and the scenes he’s been around. He also writes about his effort in imbuing politics into his creative practice, something I respect very highly of artists, using music and art to bring real material change in the world. I am very excited to read his book.

His album Rollercoaster has a dystopian hyper-rap feel; it focuses on the authority technology has over our lives and global politics. The internet used to be a cool back room, he said, to chill and find niche art on; now it's full of extremists and doom. He spoke about his recent deletion of the ‘X’ (formally Twitter) app from his phone, which he wrote about in his recent Substack post. He’s sick of the tech oligarchy that is leeching our energy away and fracturing communities. He made a point that the more he talks about it on stage the more he has to stick with it, cause damn, sometimes it does feel good to scroll. He spoke a lot about how much he loves Montreal, how good this city treated him and how awesome it felt to be back. He gave us a snapshot into his Mile End life, living off of Van Horne, walking around the block to hang out with his friend, eating lentils and watching obscure documentaries, never thinking that years down the line that very friend would have kids with the richest man in the world. We all laughed really hard at that. 

The whole vibe at Casa that night felt so hopeful and pure; the snow was melting and our jacket layers were thinning. Cadence commented on how you can really tell it's spring in Montreal cause people are just making out, on the sidewalk, on the corner of the stage (sorry guys), all over the place; it's a beautiful time, and Cadence is having a blast. “Hey guys,” he says at the end of his set, “where are we going after this?”.