He’s rapped with Snoop Dogg, created the Juno Award-winning single Inner Ninja, and toured with The Black Eyed Peas and Ludacris.
But when hip-hop artist Classified first started making rhyme schemes in the early ’90s, he wasn’t good at it.
“I was in a group with six other (rappers) and I was the worst one,” admitted the Nova Scotian, whose real name is Luke Boyd.
“I knew it, they knew it, we all knew it … but I just kept doing it.”
As his more talented friends dropped out of music to “party,” Boyd kept right on rapping — even while completing a short IT program at college to please his parents.
When he got laid-off from his well paying tech-support job, there was no doubt in his mind he should focus on launching a hip-hop career — to the dismay of his skeptical mom and dad.
“They were pretty pissed off. They were like, ‘What? You wanted to go to college for a year for this? …’
“Now they enjoy coming to the Junos with me,” said a chuckling Boyd, who performs Thursday, March 3, at The Lotus Club in Red Deer.
In fact, his dad plays the piano, guitar and bass on a lot of his son’s albums.
The moral of Classified’s success story is stick with what you love. Boyd said, “It doesn’t matter if you’re not the most talented. In the end, what matters is that you’re the most dedicated.”
Another thing that can be gleaned from his experience is that a lay-off can sometimes allow you to do something you like better. “On my last day of work, I was already hyped up to do music,” he recalled.
By now, Classified has more than put in the 10,000 hours that experts say it takes to get very skilled at something.
The 38-year-old has released more than a dozen albums since 1995 that include the hits Oh … Canada, Inner Ninja, That Ain’t Classy and others.
His latest CD, Greatful, released in January, is full of sharp word-play and catchy beats.
Snoop Dogg collaborates with him on the track No Pressure. But its music video features neither artist.
Boyd admitted the creative story line about a bunch of look-alikes and would-be rappers lip-synching to the words, was born of necessity. The filmmakers couldn’t nail down a time to film with Snoop Dogg. They decided to capitalize on his absence — while also showing Classified supposedly getting hit by a bus in the opening shot. This way his “crew” could be filmed auditioning for replacements.
Boyd said he approached Snoop Dogg about collaborating after one of his shows. “He said, ‘Let’s get into it,’ and we did,” he recalled. “Snoop was down for whatever I wanted to do. It was cool.”
The two recorded together rather than recording their own vocals parts separately, which is unusual for hip-hop artists.
Greatful also includes some personal tracks. Classified expresses discomfort with fame on Filthy (“I’m not a star, I’m an asteroid,”) and frustration on Heavy Head.
The latter references his unhappy experience with Atlantic Records, which tried to get him to collaborate with Cody Simpson and Simple Plan. “They wanted me to go more pop than hip-hop,” recalled the rapper, who turned down both projects and left the company. His albums are now produced by his own Half Life Record label and distributed by Universal Music.
Boyd vents about kids growing up overprotected and over-prescribed on Noah’s Arc. “My own nephew was put on pills at the age of 12 because he can’t focus on things ... I’m not sure I agree with that …” said the married father of three, who also voices his disgust with reality TV shows.
That rap can express rage made it appealing to Boyd while he was growing up in tiny Enfield, N.S.
He recalled that angry, disaffected youths had two choices — to get into rap or punk — and Boyd chose what seemed like the less-worn path.
Tickets are $24.95 from www.songkick.com
lmichelin@advocate.com