By the time you read this, one of Canada’s finest lyricists Cadence Weapon (aka Rollie Pemberton) will have assumed his place as the new Poet laureate of Edmonton. To put it in perspective, his predecessor is a 74 year old professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of Alberta who has 29 published books, including 17 collections of poetry, under his belt.

Says Pemberton:

“At first I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ Poet laureate — whoa. Getting heavy. Do I need a staff, and a big, grey beard? But then I actually starting thinking about what I do already, and most of my content is about Edmonton. Most of the music I’ve put together comes from a very specific regional source. And I feel like I can just expand that into the poetry as well. It’s basically another outlet for the writing I’m already doing, and I can focus it even more now.”

On the Web:
City’s poet laureate raps about nights on Whyte [Edmonton Journal]