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Exhibitionists·Video

How a chance encounter with Pharrell Williams changed Humble The Poet's life

Once upon a time, Humble The Poet was on a bus to an exclusive Google event in Italy when an encounter with Pharrell changed his life. Sound like a dream? It's not.

'He ended up saying a lot of very profound things to me'

Mercedes Grundy · CBC Arts ·

"He ended up saying really profound things to me": Humble The Poet on his conversation with Pharrell Williams

8 years ago
Duration 1:44
Canada Reads panellist, spoken-word artist and author Humble The Poet reflects on a chance conversation with Pharrell Williams that changed his life

Once upon a time, rapper and author Humble The Poet was heading to an exclusive Google event in Italy when an encounter on a bus with Pharrell Williams changed his life.

Sound like a dream? It's not. Don't believe us? Just listen to Humble tell the story of the life-changing advice he received from the beloved musician.

He was sitting right behind me and I got to turn around and kind of hug my seat and pick his brain for an hour.- Humble The Poet

Right in time for Canada Reads — where Humble will be defending André Alexis' Fifteen Dogs as the book that all Canadians need to read in 2017 — we sat down with the artist to hear about the very special lesson he learned from Pharrell, and how it made him rethink his own work. 

The Canada Reads debates will be broadcast March 27-30, 2017 on CBC Radio One at 11 a.m. (1pm AT/NT), CBC TV at 4 p.m. and live streamed online at CBCbooks.ca at 11 a.m. EST.

Watch Exhibitionists on Friday nights at 12:30am (1am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT) on CBC Television.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mercedes Grundy

Mercedes Grundy is a producer for CBC's Unscripted division. She has played an integral role in the creation of series like Exhibitionists, The Filmmakers and Canada's a Drag as well as special projects like Superqueeroes and The 2010s: The Decade Canadian Artists Stopped Saying Sorry. Collectively, these projects have won Grundy 5 Canadian Screen Awards. She has an educational background in photography, and produces film and theatre when not busy here at the CBC.

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