Classified

Classified is currently Halifax’s hottest hip-hop commodity. His new album, Trial & Error to be released on May 6th is self-described to be 15x better than any of his previous albums. He’s got a video for the first single, ‘Unexpected’ in medium rotation on MuchMusic. You can also find the track on the Dig Your Roots hip-hop compilation. He’s also got a video for ‘Heavy Artillery’ hitting MuchMusic very soon and another video for ‘Gossip’ in the works. He recently made it to the final twelve of Hi-Tek’s Cincinnati rap contest. He’s about to blow up and there ain’t nothing you can do to stop this do-it-yourselfer. You can check him out at: www.classifiedlive.net. After his performance at this year’s East Coast Music Awards I got the chance to chat with Classified.

Classified Interview:

Brockway: So, Classified. That’s a pretty vague name. How’d you come up with it?
Classified: The first time I was in the studio I had no name. I said that the next thing I see, I was gonna go by. I was looking at the newspaper, saw the classified section and I figured 18 ways to flip with it. Like ‘Class in session’, ‘Class clown’ or whatever. There’s just so many ways to work with it. I just decided that was it. And then as I futurely went on, if that’s even a word, I actually thought the name meant more just because people want to classify music as underground, commercial or whatever they want to call it. I don’t think my music can be classified as commercial just cause I’m trying to say something divine, but the beats ain’t underground because people can feel ‘em. So basically, I just try to flip it a bunch of different ways. My music can’t be classified.

Brockway: You say that it’s not underground, but I kind of disagree…
Classified: When I say underground commercial, I ain’t talking about industry. I mean the way the music is sounding.

Brockway: You’re a pretty busy man, doing production for a lot of people…
Classified: Yeah, I hit this cat up, PIMP-T. I did this thing on his album…
Brockway: Yeah, yeah. ‘Funky Punks Anthem.’ That’s just dope.
Classified: Get that album. I did some shit for Rocky Ninja. We just did a track last week. I did a couple tracks for Bonshah, J-Bru’s album…
Bonshah: We still gotta do more.
Classified: Yeah, we got some more Bonshah one’s coming.

Brockway: So when’s the compilation album coming out with all artists you done production for?
Classified: First I wanted to see how this solo album’s gonna do (‘Trial & Error’), and just get it out. My next plan was going to be either after this album or the next one, I wanted to do an album where I just did all the beats and had a guest on each track. I’d still rhyme on it, cause I like rhyming and stuff, but have a guest on every track. Basically, anybody I’ve worked with. Just try to push it and get a couple big names.

Brockway: Yeah, sort of like a Swizz Beats, but you’re actually an emcee.
Classified: Exactly. Just make the beats, but still try to bring a little bit of different flavour.

Brockway: And you have the vision to help new up & comers, like TKO who you’ve worked with. You’ve been around so long that I’m sure you’re able to give them more vision…
Classified: Yeah, a lot of young cats are calling me cause they just want to get a beat or two or whatever. They’ll come over, we’ll hook up and I’ll just give them pointers. I don’t try to change a sound because everyone’s got their own type of thing, but I just give my opinions. If they take it, they take it. If not, it doesn’t matter.

Brockway: But it’s that whole knowledge that makes you invaluable.
Classified: Exactly, cause I’ve been doing it for awhile. There’s a lot of people coming out and they don’t know what bars are. They don’t know what a hook is. They just know that they rap. So, I try to explain how to make a song. There’s tons of rappers, but people can’t make songs. Everyone’s a rapper.

Brockway: Getting laid off from your job, err… well, quitting?
Classified: Laid off. Well, I’ll tell you how it went down. I got laid off and I had hoped that might happen so I would have the opportunity to do music for the next year just living off unemployment.

Brockway: Cause you said that by the age of 25, if you weren’t up there in the big leagues, you were gonna quit.
Classified: I’d still do the thing, playing around and messing around writing stuff, but I wouldn’t do it on a serious tip and try to push it 100% cause you just can’t do it. You try to work, make some money and get things going. It’s hard to do it 100%.

Brockway: Yeah, I honestly don’t know how you did it because you were so busy.
Classified: I don’t know. Now that I’m not working I don’t think I could do it because of the way we do it now. We always record and stuff in the daytime.

Brockway: Yeah, and I’m sure you must be awful busy.
Classified: Yeah, I stay busy. We like to hang out and just jam on the tracks. Throw a beat on and just freestyle. We like to play around. Sometimes we do it seriously. We’re always doing something, so it keeps things moving.

Brockway: Congrats on your national distribution deal with Urbnet. What are the terms of the deal?
Classified: Basically, I have complete creative control and get a nice little pay off of each cd. They market the cd, and distribute it. It should be in all major stores across Canada on May 6th.

Brockway: How important has Urbnet been in giving you added exposure?
Classified: Urbnet has been real dope. Since I first started talking to them a few years ago, they have put me on compilations, exposure on their website and now gave me a deal for the new album, so it's all luv from them.

(At this point we were distracted by a guy taking a piss on the window of the club right in front of us. Good ole Halifax :)

Brockway: So you handled most of the production on your album?
Classified: I did it all, but this is a step up from my last album cause I got an MPC. I started playing around with that and started using dirtier drums. I used samples and a lot of different stuff. This album is about 15 steps up from the last album. I put out ‘Unpredictable’ and it was good, but ‘Union Dues’ was a little bit better I thought. You thought ‘Unpredictable’ was better. I remember. I read the review, but it’s all good. Bottom line, this album is about 15 steps up from ‘Union Dues’, both lyrically, production-wise and full songs. It’s so much better – I can’t wait to get it out.

Brockway: You’ve already ready to have two videos out for the album, so…
Classified: Yeah, we got a video for “Unexpected” out now in medium rotation on MuchMusic. We shot the one with Rocky Ninja called ‘Heavy Artillery’ up in Toronto. We shot that in December. That video drops the last week of April. Watch for it!

Brockway: Did you work with Jim Morrison on that?
Classified: Yeah, he shot my first video for ‘Unpredictable’ and he shot this one. We actually just got another grant for another video for a track called ‘Gossip’ with Jim, so we’ll soon be shooting that. We’re supposed to shoot it in New York.

Brockway: So three videos. How crazy is that?
Classified: Yeah, three videos. Full album. Maestro’s on the album and I finally got somewhere to put out the album.

Brockway: So before long, getting an interview like this will be a lot more challenging cause you’ll be touring the world.
Classified: I’ve got no one calling me, so call me up. I’ll do an interview. (laughing) With the three videos we’re hoping that’s really gonna push it. The video for ‘Unexpected’, the cartoon one, got the attention of a big label and they called up wanting the whole package. We sent it off and they were supposed to get back to us, but we never heard back.

Brockway: What’s the concept for the video for ‘Heavy Artillery’?
Classified: Every video I’ve done had a concept. With this video, we just wanted to go with a straight performance. We had a budget of $5000 Canadian, which is nothing and we shot on 35 mm film.
Brockway: Sometimes that’s the best way to do it. Like with Trobiz’s video for ‘Neva Satisfied’, it was simple.
Classified: And it was dope. It was straight performance and Jim did that one too.

Brockway: What do you think about Jim Morrison supporting Halifax hip-hop?
Classified: He’s from Halifax. He grew up here on Quinpool street. I hooked up with him a couple years ago and he’s just a cool cat. He’s great to work with because he takes input. When we did ‘Yuh Dead Now’, it was pretty much what the director had to say, and I had no input. I wanted to change some things and he said ‘just trust me.’ In the end the video for ‘Yuh Dead Now’ came out bullshit.

Brockway: Were you surprised to make the final twelve in Hi-Tek's Cincinatti contest?
Classified: Real surprised!! First they told me it was only open to Cincinatti residents, and then over 1200 people tried out for it. I actually had to send in a copy of my video and a performance and they took me based on that. Then some shit happened and I got pulled out, but it was good when it lasted.

Brockway: How did you feel when you arrived in Cincinnati, only to find out you had been disqualified cause you were from Canada?
Classified: I'm not even sure if that's the reason why I was taken out of the showcase. It did suck cause it would have been a good opportunity for some important industry people to see me perform, but I got pulled out. I heard from a lot of reliable people that it was cause I was white and from Canada, but I can't confirm that so I'd just rather drop it altogether and keep moving ahead.

Brockway: Finally, Mic B, your brother. I seem to remember lyrics on one of your tracks from way back when, about you saying your brother was making fun of you because you were a rapper. And now he’s rapping on your album?
Classified: Straight up. That was just me and him joking around cause we always used to play around with stuff like that. But when I first started rhyming, it was just me and him. My Dad had a band, so we had some gear in the basement that we’d play around with. He listens to hip-hop more than I do. He’s straight into it, so he gives me good opinions. He’ll tell me straight up if my shit’s wack or horrible. So, as a person I can always to go him to find out if my shit’s wack. He helped me with a lot of stuff on the album by providing his opinions. If I make a beat, he’s the first person I call to ask his opinion. He’ll say horrible or dope.
Brockway: That’s a huge help to an artist…
Classified: Straight up. It’s great to have a person like that who is able to tell you if its tha shit or just shit.

Brockway: That’s cool because just talking to people tonight, there’s a lot of family connection. Like J-Bru’s working with his brother, Ebony. Trobiz working with his parents. So the whole family thing seems to be quite important down here in Halifax.
Classified: It always helps to have someone that’s gonna be feeling it with you. If you got no one to make the music with, then it ain’t fun. If you’re doing your shit by yourself, then it’s kinda dry. If you’re chilling with people doin’ it, then it’s just a better feeling.

Brockway: Any final thoughts? Website?
Classified: www.classifiedlive.net Album’s coming out hopefully within a month and a half, ‘Trial & Error.’ We got the video’s dropping for ‘Heavy Artillery’ and ‘Gossip.’ Be looking out for the production because it’s coming out big this year. If you’re looking for beats, hit me up. I need money.

For more information on Classified, check out his website at www.classifiedlive.net.