soul food: shad's 'flying colours'

no words to describe this dopeness, y'all. i don't know how shad keeps getting better with each album, but he truly does. this is all kinds of magic. and the collaborations are really smart, too. this is a perfect combination of brilliant storytelling and masterful technique.

it is thoughtful, intelligent, sharp, introspective, and it makes you think. it makes you stop everything to listen. and it consistently knocks you over with just how bloody good it is. it has also rendered me unable to review it properly because i keep jumping out of my seat yelling 'whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!! whaaaat!?' and startling everyone around me. i shall therefore leave that to the professionals and go back to my vigorous head-nodding.

soul food: shad's 'flying colours'

shad k: it ain't over

oh, shad. how i love you. this is awesome.

from the album 'melancholy and infinite shadness'

download.

shad k: it ain't over

soul food: illume sessions ~ shad k

so we had this idea one day. and it grew into 'illume sessions', a mini-documentary series featuring artists and change-makers. after many misadventures in the editing lab, illume creative studio's first 'illume sessions' episode is up, and it features the brilliant shad k. it was filmed while shad was back in rwanda performing at the kigali up! festival. check it:

i learned so much working on this. and i'm so excited to be working with by brilliant partners in crime. and also: shad is awesome.

more soon come!

soul food: illume sessions ~ shad k

illume sessions: shad k

trailer for shad k's illume sessions (via illume creative studio). a brief glimpse into the upcoming episode featuring performance and interview with shad k.

illume sessions: shad k

17 years later...

seventeen years have passed, and the people of rwanda are going about the business of building our future. honouring memory, without being paralyzed by the past. telling our stories so that they may continue to be heard...so that we never forget. rebuilding our country and our people so that we are empowered to ensure that the horror of genocide may never again be repeated. 

today, we remember the lives lost over the course of 100 days in 1994. 

today, we honour the lives of those lost in the years leading up to the genocide. 

today, we pray for the survivors, as their struggle continues.

today, we pledge to preserve our dignity and uphold the truth.

and whether or not we can ever understand how such horror of such magnitude took place...today, we remember and we vow, 'never again'.  

'i'll never understand' by shad

17 years later...

yaa, he got it: shad k wins a juno

shad k can finally polish that juno! on the first night of the juno awards, held in toronto, canada, the amazingness [sic] that is shad's tsol received the award for rap recording of the year, beating out the clear favorite: drake's thank me later. so well-deserved. this album is the freshness. (in case i haven't said it before)

shad k, 'listen'

yaa, he got it: shad k wins a juno

soul food: shad k's 'keep shining'

when i first heard this track on Shad's TSOL album, tears came to my eyes. a beautiful ode to all the women that have shaped and influenced his life, personally and professionally, 'Keep Shining' is positive and uplifting and reinforces that 'true beauty doesn't run from the light.' the video features women of all walks of life spreading the message. love it.

'no curls too tight, no mind too bright, no skin too dark to keep shining'

soul food: shad k's 'keep shining'

soul food: shad + von pea and donwill: rose garden (remix)

this is turning into an all-shad-all-the-time blog but, uh, this is too good not to share. check out shad's 'rose garden' remix, featuring tanya morgan's von pea and donwill. and it's the hotness.

download here

soul food: shad + von pea and donwill: rose garden (remix)

soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

from the awesomeness that is TSOL, shad k's latest single, we, myself, and i:

pure dopeness.

soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

soul food: afropolitanic nomads: shadk + k'naan on tour

this just in: shadrach kabango and k'naan on tour together, this fall.

afropolitanic nomadic lyrically genius awesome, all in one show.

a little reminder of why i have nothing but love for my favorite african canadian lyricists
artists:

soul food: afropolitanic nomads: shadk + k'naan on tour

soul food: afropolitana: shad k

i have waxed poetic in previous posts about the awesomeness that is shadrach kabango.

his next album T.O.S.L is due out on may 25th and, from what i've heard so far, we may not be ready for it's dopeness. (yes. that's a word.)

here's the video for his first single 'yaa, i get it'.

listen to more music from the forthcoming album, here. ('rose garden' is killing me softly with it's awesome.)

soul food: afropolitana: shad k

soul food: afropolitana: shad k and zaki ibrahim

on his latest album the great escape, louwop collaborates with two of our favorite canadian afropolitans (tm phiona of afripopmag), shad k (rwandan/kenyan/canadian) and zaki ibrahim (south african/canadian) on the songs 'one2check' and 'get up', respectively. in anticipation of his album release, louwop posted an live video that blends both tracks. awesome talent.

soul food: afropolitana: shad k and zaki ibrahim