Five things you didn’t know about Juno-winning rapper Shad, including why he crushes on Alan Thicke
1 | His parents are confounded by his career
“In Kenyan culture, music is just a part of life—everybody does it. The way my mom puts it, being a musician is like playing duck, duck, goose professionally. They’re always asking, ‘Are you sure you don’t need money?’”
2 | He’s not a team player
“Sometimes people ask me to guest on a track, but collaboration has never been my thing. Even when there’s an artist I really love, I’m not like, ‘I want to work with them.’ I’m content to just listen to their album.”
3 | He still can’t believe he beat out Drake at the Junos
“The Junos are like a fun wedding. Chromeo is at your table. Neil Young is the funny uncle who gets up and gives a speech. I was just there eating my food, pretty confident that was all I was going to get out of the night. Then Jian Ghomeshi, with this big smirk on his face, said I’d won. As soon as I finished my speech and was backstage, I was just dying laughing—like, what the hell happened? I ran into Drake the next day. He said congratulations, and was very kind and genuine.”
4 | He’s an REO Speedwagon fan
“The thing with my guilty pleasures is that I’m weirdly proud of them. That REO Speedwagon song, ‘Keep On Loving You’—I love that one. It’s amazing.”
5 | He crushes on Alan Thicke, too
“Alan Thicke is my number one Canadian, for sure. He wrote all the theme songs for all the sitcoms that I used to watch when I was a kid. And he was on Growing Pains. So he’s the man.”
Flying Colours
By Shad
Available now
