“Every album, I’m trying to die/“The goal is ego death every time that I rhyme,” is one arresting line, among many others on Shad’s album Start Anew. It’s taken from a track called “Happiness” and for Shad it crystallizes one of the main themes of the new project. According to Shad, for a new beginning to emerge you have to be willing to discard the old way of doing things and genuinely challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone. “I decided against calling the album fear of death—a phrase you hear throughout the record. I just figured that’s not a very approachable title. But “Start Anew” to me represents the same idea – this fundamentally human thing of the difficulty we have embracing endings even though that’s often the only way to arrive at something new,” Shad says. “The new start, that positive fresh new life is right there,” he says. “But it's often on the other side of risk or even loss of some kind.”

It’s a concept that Shad has embraced himself in his musical approach and successful career. Since his 2005 debut, he’s been racking up critical and commercial acclaim, winning the Juno Award for Best Rap Recording for his 2011 album TSOL and being shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize a record 5 times. He’s also delivered music ranging from spontaneous head-spinning lyrical bars to deeply introspective concept albums complimented by consistently engaging videos for songs like “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home,” “Fam Jam” and “Rose Garden.”

Additionally, Shad has branched out as a radio show host (CBC’s q), TV host (the Peabody and Emmy award-winning Netflix docuseries Hip Hop Evolution), new wave singer alter ego (Your Boy Tony Braxton) and is also now an academic professor at the University of Toronto and Laurier.

On Start Anew, Shad’s first album in four years, he even incorporates his own studio experiments, sampling music from his own unreleased vaults which veer from house to psychedelic pop into the album’s sonic mix. These refurbished and repurposed cutting room floor elements are woven into Start Anew’s throwback feel, evoking the playful soulfulness of Shad’s early releases. “I feel like my last couple of albums involved a lot of experimenting and a lot of pushing boundaries musically and for myself,” says Shad. “I didn’t want to do that on this album. Musically, I felt like I want to make something this time that is kind of simple and easy on the ears and very listenable. At the same time, incorporating these studio experiments felt like a fun, interesting creative challenge.” Featuring longtime Shad producers like Ric Notes and his steadfast DJ TLO, this familiar sonic foundation allows Shad to advance the album’s thematic bent in an unapologetically direct manner. Or, as one of Start Anew’s most immediate tracks asserts, ““K.I.S.S.” (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Either way, Shad contends Start Anew has a lot in common with 2018’s A Short Story About A War and 2021’s TAO.

“TAO to me, was about disintegration and the different pieces of ourselves and how they feel disconnected and this felt like the continuation of that conversation,” says Shad speaking about his last album. “It felt like that exploration almost ended with a question of ‘What do we do? Do we try to put the pieces back together?’ And [Start Anew] felt more almost like an answer of, ‘Well, maybe not. Maybe everything comes to an end.” The answer isn’t always putting up scaffolding and fixing it. Sometimes, the answer is, a thing has run its course. But maybe there’s something good to come if we can embrace that.”

In the effort to explore the issue at hand, Shad offers a number of approaches. Addressing the unavoidable fact that individual effort to change can often be confronted by systemic and social barriers, “Slanted” offers up the sobering phrase “The land is slick and slippery and slanted/Few fully notice how a few take advantage” to illustrate the deceptive illusion of an equal playing field for all, addressing wealth inequality among other issues. In doing so, Shad stakes out the case for renewal and change at the centre of Start Anew.

Undeterred, Shad is careful to ensure optimism is part of the equation and on the two-part centrepiece of the album “Look Pt. 1” and Look Pt.2” he urges the listener to take stock of their situation and to chart their path forward to their goal, being careful to acknowledge the small wins along the way. “Look how far you made it/Look what you created” is the affirmative mantra accompanying the latter track, just one of a myriad of phrases that could double as motivational speeches.

Accountability and support from others is often instrumental in achieving meaningful and sustainable change and Shad recognizes the value of a collective approach on ”Islands” and “Rain” (“Don’t need to reign like a royal/We just need rain on the soil”). This collective mindset is borne out by enlisting a number of collaborators to participate in the proceedings. These include Brampton, ON’s esoteric Raz Fresco ( “Look Pt.1”), hooper turned MC Jon Kabongo (“K.I.S.S.”), Queens, NY underground stalwart Homeboy Sandman (“Sacrifice”) and TAO collaborator versatile rapper/singer Phoenix Pagliacci (“Look Pt. 2”).

The presence of these featured MCs means it’s no surprise that despite Start Anew’s overall theme, Shad does not disregard the unbridled witty wordplay that initially helped to distinguish him from his peers. Noting he has been ‘raised on Dilla and Lauryn Hill,’ “Bars and BBQs” features a litany of pop culture alliteration, literally serving up food for thought, allowing Shad to flaunt some well-earned swagger. Similarly on the low-end head-nodder “Discern” Shad lays down a marker asserting his legacy, with lines like ‘’Even pre-pandemic no one came close to me.‘ and ‘Can’t call it a comeback/ I just kept showing up.’

Clearly, seven albums deep and 20 years into his career he’s already got an enviable career to look back on. “I don't know if it's my last will and testament, but it does feel like the end of something,” says Shad “I think there's some of that in the album too. I think you can hear some of that.”

Whatever the future holds, Start Anew is the latest compelling evidence of Shad’s own commitment to taking chances, his own ongoing hip-hop evolution, if you will.

“I feel like these last three albums have been less personal and a little bit more philosophical, and thinking about the world, versus my earlier albums that have been me telling my story,” says Shad. “These [albums] have felt more like me exploring my sense of things out there so they feel they feel less personal. Maybe [a more personal album], that's the next chapter.”

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