Name: Shadrach Kabango aka Shad
Occupation: Rapper, songwriter
Nationality: Kenya-born, Canadian
Recent release: Shad's new double-A-side single "K.I.S.S. + Islands" is out via Secret City. Full-length album Start Anew will follow on October 31st 2025. Pre-order it directly from Shad here.
Shout outs: Shout out to all the artists finding creative ways to connect as independent artists especially. I think that's paving a cool new path for healthy, sustainable, creative expression and for community around the music too in hip-hop.
Recommendation for Toronto, Canada: My local watering hole-- Low Bar.  

If you enjoyed this Shad interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



What were some of the musical experiences which planted a seed for your interest in hip hop?

Freestyling with cousins and friends as a kid is an early experience that comes to mind.

From the start, feeling like I had a voice in that form and also feeling the joy of entertaining people.

What does the term hip hop mean and stand for today, would you say?

The term "hip-hop" still evokes a sense of free expression, of style, of Black creativity and culture.

Hip hop has always been about a lot more than just music. For you personally, is hip hop a way of life – and if so, in which way?  

It's definitely more than just music.

To me, it's about pride in who you are, where you come from, and your point of view. Hip-hop helped give me that for sure.

It's also about connecting to others all over the world that love hip-hop--hearing their stories, appreciating how they express themselves, and just enjoying that community across difference.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to creativity?

The main thing for me has always been trying to find what is uniquely mine to offer--in terms of POV, style, sound. That's what excites me. I have so many inspirations and artists that I love but I've never been interested in just emulating them.

What gets me out of bed and excited to write is when I have an idea that feels genuinely a bit fresh, feels like a unique contribution that I can provide.

Where do most of your inspirations to create come from – rather from internal  impulses or external ones? Which current social / political / ecological or other developments make you feel like you need to respond as an artist?

I feel like I started out really inspired to tell my own story, say some things about my own experiences in a way that I wasn't necessarily hearing much in hip-hop.

But my last couple albums have been much less about me and more about my sense of things out there in the world. It's hard not read them as comments on our political/social/ecological situation, but to me they're more inspired by the kind of spiritual undercurrents going on.

They're about how fear, love, pride etc are shaping us right now--and always.

Hip hop has always had an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and pushing the music forward. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

I think the root of hip-hop actually is being forward-thinking. So it's less a balance and more understanding that it's truly "hip-hop" to be open and adventurous, especially when it comes to technology and when it comes to finding your own style.

For me that's about having something original to say and trying to be fresh by whatever means--sometimes that means doing something that's sonically very kind of traditional in a way that still feels good and not boring, other times it means going for a sound that's wild and different but still has that funk.

What role do electronic tools and instruments, including AI, play for your creative process?

I don't use AI myself but obviously I'm mostly creating "in the box" as we say--in the computer.

That being said I always work with some producers that use classic samplers and drum machines so those textures are in the mix too.

Tell me a bit about the sounds & creative directions, artists & communities, as well as the colleagues & creative hotspots of your current hometown, please. How do they influence your music?

Toronto is one of the most diverse cities culturally and musically.

My albums tend to reflect that organically: I'll have rappers from different parts of the city featured, producers with different cultural backgrounds, musicians from Jazz, rock, and other scenes.

Just a reflection of how diverse the city is and the different music scenes I intersect with here.

How do you see the role of sampling in hip hop today?

Sampling is part of every genre now, it's amazing to see.

But yeah it's still very core to the sound of hip-hop, core to our approach to songwriting. That textured, techy, choppy feeling is still there even if it involves people now creating their own pieces to sample or digging more on YouTube than in actual record crates.

There has always been a close connection between hip hop and jazz. What role does improvisation play in your current creative process?

Not a huge role anymore for me but it's still there a bit in the live setting.

I don't freestyle much at my shows or off stage anymore but there's always still an element of responding to the moment. I always leave some room for that when I'm performing live.

It can sometimes seem as though, in hip hop, production is the main force of progress. Do you feel like there is still space for genuinely new ideas for lyrics and vocals as well? If so, what could these look like?

I think so.

One thing I'd like to see is more lyrics that aren't just autobiographical. I think there's still lots of room to explore if we can break out of being so diaristic and literal and do stuff that's just more imaginative and metaphorical.

Also as hip-hop ages, we're getting stories about what's it's like to 40, 50, even 60 in hip-hop which is brand new.

For many artists, life-changing musical experiences take place live. How do you see that yourself?

100%. The older I get the more I realize live experiences matter because time is scarce.

There's only 50 weekends in a year, for example. So if someone's weekend is built around going to a live show of mine, that's significant. That's forming the shape of their year which is shaping their life.

So yeah it's literally life-changing to be at a live music event. I try to honour that as a performer.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

At this point, I'm pulling from across my catalogue for my live shows.

They skew towards my newer material but I love to entertain so I try as much as possible to perform what's gonna create the most enjoyment for people.  

From Star Wars via The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the Fifth Element, there have always been amusing sci fi ideas about how music could look like at some point. For a not too distant future, where do you personally see it going?

I think it's going towards more independent artists forming micro-communities around their music. More tangible pieces and live experiences.

I think we're simultaneously bored and overwhelmed in the digital realm. There's a quiet return to something more simple and tangible already underway.