Cadence Weapon garners plenty of one-hand clapping

Cadence Weapon must have sensed that the damp audience at Dundas Square needed a pick-me-up, so when he took the stage at TIFF’s closing ceremony on Saturday, he did a brief imitation of bellicose rapper Fat Joe’s “I Make It Rain.” It’s even funnier when you consider the Edmonton rapper’s own, un-thuggish style: he wore an embroidered shirt made by his grandma, who he said was about 80 and to whom he dedicated a song about cellphones. He also poked fun of the audience’s umbrella-in-one-hand clapping and allowed three cute, soaking boys to be his dance crew onstage. Even though it began to pour, Cadence and DJ Skratch Bastid attracted a pretty large crowd by making people smile, dance and forget the festival was over. When he asked the (mostly young) audience if they’d seen a lot of movies, a rather unenthusiastic grumble gave him his answer. “What is a movie, anyway? A bunch of moving pictures?” he mused. Just like…life? “Think about it,” he said.—Melita Kuburas“