My Summer Lair Chapter #225: How Special Is October 17?
Programming Note: This is a MSL Yearbook Episode. A few years back I used to record In Session With… in a bar in downtown Toronto. The Pacific Junction Hotel bar which is sadly no longer with us. Sometimes bands would come in and play, sometimes they’d come in just to talk and hang out. From In Session With… I graduated to My Summer Lair and we’re having lots of fun: chatting with dope people doing dope things. Still…and occasionally I’m going to use this My Summer Lair space to present a classic In Session With… episode…like reminiscing with an open Yearbook about the days and times that were. This episode is from October 18, 2018.
I spoke to Shad on October 17.
October 17 is Black Poetry Day. That describes Shad’s MO to a T…Shad is a crafty ninja with words. He recently covered De La Soul’s Stakes Is High adding news bars like: “always thought she’d have a yacht instead she’s having a sale…” Snap! That’s fresh.
October 17 is the first full night of NBA games (last night was just an appetizer. The season begins tonight!). Shad is thrilled to have Kawhi Leonard on the Raptors as am I…it’s one of the biggest sports trades in Toronto history and it’s an impressive gamble for a conservative franchise. Celtics looks deadly though, so we won’t know what’s the what until the NBA Playoffs begin. For now, we have 82 games as a trailer.
October 17 is the one year anniversary of Gord Downie’s death.
That doesn’t affect Shad per say rather the true connection is The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund which acknowledges Canada’s shameful treatment of our First Nations. (Which sucks all the more because it’s present tense not past tense!) Shad is a passionate activist; he earnestly works to make our broken world better. As he raps on Magic my favourite track on his new album:
“Your traditions and intuitions
Supports, commitments, decisions
They vanish from your hand like
(Poof!)”
October 17 is day weed becomes legal in Canada. And though it doesn’t relate to his new album A Short Story About A War I ask about weed because weed it is a significant hip hop subculture. If weed is legal and there’s no more rebellious culture around it…than what happens to hip hop? I figure the host of Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution may offer some insight.
So that’s October 17.
As for the rest of this month in 2018:
On Friday October 19 Season 2 of Hip-Hop Evolution streams on Netflix.
On Friday October 26 A Short Story About A War drops.
It’s a good month for Shad. For music fans. Especially when you factor in all that delicious free candy that ends the month.
Episode Set List
The Fool Pt 1 (Get it Got it Good) {from A Short Story About A War}
The Stone Throwers (Gone in a Blink) {from A Short Story About A War }
Magic (feat. Lido Pimienta) {from A Short Story About A War}
Shad @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Wednesday October 17, 2018 at 6:00 pm EST
Stress free pop culture tastefully harvested for your divine delight. Once a week a carefully curated edition of My Pal Sammy goes directly to your inbox. Sign up for my newsletter so we can have some fun…like a long story about pop culture!
