Hip-hop laureate debuts before Edmonton council

Edmonton city council got its first taste of its new poet laureate Wednesday morning when Roland Pemberton, professionally known as Cadence Weapon, gave his first official reading in council chambers.

Pemberton performed a three-part poem called Critical Mass that explores the challenges of getting to work in Edmonton from three perspectives: As a cyclist, a pedestrian and a driver.

"I bashed a hood on Bonnie Doon, you know he had it comin' to him, no signal and city chimes, he cut me off at dinner time," Pemberton rhymed. "He caterwauled identity crisis, he must not know it's in my licence to be three for the price of one, it's the star in the game of violence."

Council members watched with smiles as Pemberton completed his poem with the line: "In the end, we all dissipate, never regenerate, wondering if we could make it to work on time." Then they burst into applause.

"I wanted to make sure that the poem that I made for this one in particular was very topical and very specific to the city council members," Pemberton said later.

"The focus of this was one just city planning and cyclists' rights, he said, " I wanted to illustrate all the complaints that people have."

Edmonton's three poets laureate have had very different styles, Mayor Stephen Mandel said. "Together you've made our city a very eclectic place."

The city's earlier poets laureate were Ted Blodgett and Alice Major.

Pemberton, 23, was named laureate on May 26. The hip-hop artist was nominated for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize in 2006 for his debut album Breaking Kayfabe and has won the Canadian Independent Music Award for best urban artist/group.

Pemberton was raised in Edmonton and still lives in the city. His father, the late Teddy Pemberton, was a radio host at CJSR, and is widely credited for introducing rap music to Edmonton. Pemberton's grandfather is Edmonton Eskimo great Rollie Miles, who played for the Canadian Football League team from 1951 to 1961.