BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - Feb. 2016

JUCY
CLASSIFIED
staying true has staying power
by Willow Grier
From kitchen parties to concert halls, Classified retains the humility and alternative approach that has distinguished him for years.
photo: Jess Baumung
There is a lot of material surrounding the music
industry that will have you believe that
selling your soul is essential to advancement.
Do you want to succeed? You’ve got to compromise.
Here’s 10 tips to change your style so that
record labels will notice you. You’ve got to make
diss tracks to create buzz. Build yourself up to
appear like something close to royalty. Flaunt sex
and money like it were the most important thing
on the planet.
And then there’s Classified: a hip-hop artist who,
for two decades, has been redefining what being a
successful independent musician means. He’s been
primarily self-releasing his own music on his own
terms for the last 20 years, and what does he have
to show for it? Dozens of award nominations and
wins, platinum and gold singles, and a #1 Billboard
Canadian Music Albums debut for Classifed (2014).
All while retaining creative control of his music,
and keeping his roots close.
Classified (a.k.a. Luke Boyd) declares on the first
track of his new album Greatful, “I ain’t your rapper’s
favourite rapper, I’m my fans’ favourite rapper.” This
is an attribute he takes pride in, and cultivates by
being approachable and inviting fan interaction For
example, running a contest for fans where he brings
the tradition of East Coast “kitchen parties” to the
masses, hosting house shows all across Canada along
with the Greatful tour.
For Boyd, one of the keys to success outside of his
strong connection to his fan base has been collaborating
with other artists to keep his style fresh and
evolving. This also helps keep things lighter and stops
his analytical mind from taking over. “With this album
what stood out was that I don’t wanna be in the
studio by myself any more,” he laughs.
JUCY
“I like having someone else there to pull me back
when I’ve been working on a set of drums for five
hours and it comes out not sounding any different.
You can spend hours dwelling on nothing when you
smoke weed.”
On Greatful, Boyd works with a broad collection of
artists including Slug from Atmosphere and Brett Emmons
of Ontario rock band The Glorious Sons. “The
way I came up was the old-school hip-hop mentality
of making beats by going through old vinyl from the
‘60s and ‘70s and chopping them up to make a beat
out of it,” Boyd recalls. “That was kinda my first way of
collaborating without doing it for real. Now instead,
I’ll just call so-and-so who I know sings or plays guitar.
Having different minds and opinions always helps. It
brings a different outlook and fresh perspective.”
The 16 songs comprising Greatful are a glowing
example of how much Boyd has progressed as a musician
over the years. The production is more technical
and clean, the structures grander and better executed.
“It’s the next step in my life,” Boyd states. “I’m writing
about stuff I haven’t written about before. Musically,
production-wise, there [are] a lot more intricacies and
live instrumentation.”
One of the highlights of the album is “Noah’s Arc,”
a reflective track featuring fellow Canadian Saukrates,
that questions whether the state of the world could
be improved by a global flood. Boyd raps, “We’re
living in a dirty world and it needs to be refreshed. So
the rain keeps falling down to wash away the mess.”
In contrast, one of the album’s other lead singles, “No
Pressure (featuring Snoop Dogg),” is a West Coast
anthem with an accompanying video featuring Trailer
Park Boys star J.Rocc and comedian Tom Green,
among others. In the video, the unlikely cast work to
fulfill their deadline when Classified and Snoop end
up being write-offs on shooting day. The concept is
a light-hearted throwback to the goofy music videos
that used to heavily populate MuchMusic and MTV.
Other tracks on the album speak to his home life,
being married with three daughters (the sarcastically
named “Having Kids Is Easy”), and the burden of balancing
independent musicianship with mainstream
success (“Heavy Head”).
When asked what his favourite part of making
such a varied album was, Boyd jokes, “Finishing it.”
He continues, “It was definitely something we didn’t
want to rush,” alluding to the long process of creating
and recording it. “Now I’m just stoked for people to
hear it and see it live.”
In the time that Luke Boyd has been making
music as Classified, his overall creative process has
stayed the same, and it’s as straightforward as he
is. “If I’m not hanging out with my kids, I just go
into my studio. It’s just something I like doing.” So
maybe there is room to leave old mentalities behind,
like the idea that you have to put yourself on
a pedestal above fans in order for them to respect
you. Maybe it’s OK if people just want to chill with
you and invite you to their kitchen party. It may
be less “flash and bang” but it’s also less “flash in
the pan.” Classified has proven time and again the
staying power that can come with being down to
earth, and Greatful is a celebration of the heights
to which that can take someone.
Catch Classified on his Greatful tour with SonReal
at the Shawn Conference Centre on February 19th,
MacEwan Hall in Calgary on February 20th and the
Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on February 27th.
Classified will be doing a signing before his Calgary
show at HMV Chinook Centre at 1:30 p.m.
BEATROUTE • FEBRUARY 2016 | 35