Classified celebrating life with a new book and concert in Halifax

As one of Canada’s most influential hip-hop artists with 18 studio albums under his belt, as well as collaborations with such renowned musical artists as Snoop Dogg and even having hosted the 2014 JUNO Awards, there didn’t seem to be much left for Classified to do except write a memoir.

“I think I am young in my career but at the same time you don’t hear too many 43-year-old rappers taking over these days,” says the Enfield-raised artist about his new autobiography, Off the Beat ‘N Path. “So I figured I’m at a point where I can reflect back on the last 25 years and look at what we’ve done and the places we’ve been.”

In the memoir, Luke Boyd (aka Classified) recounts his early years as a middle-class kid growing up in Enfield and his eventual rise to become Nova Scotia’s most recognized hip-hop artist, with more than 200 million streams and two dozen award nominations for such hit songs as Inner Ninja and Good News.

“I just thought it was an interesting story,” says Classified. “A white guy coming from Enfield, Nova Scotia and making it as a rapper is not something you hear about everyday, (but) that’s what happens to a lot of people if they really buckle down and chase those dreams and work hard and aren’t scared to step out of that box a lot of us are put in.”

Documenting his rise in rap in Off the Beat ‘N Path wasn’t just an opportunity to reflect on his success in music either. For Classified, it allowed him the chance to reveal intimate details of his life in more depth than he is able to on stage.

“A lot of it is me getting to expand on stuff that maybe I had touched on in songs, but I got to dig into deeper and got to really explain about my relationship with my wife and my kids, or my relationship with other artists I’ve worked with — the good and the bad,” says Classified.  “And even the way I came up, just being a kid that wasn’t out at 16 and 17 smoking weed and drinking, thinking this is it. That wasn’t me, I had my head down and was like I’m going at this music thing — I think a lot of those things will surprise people.”

Although Classified says he actually began the process of writing the book a few months prior to the beginning of the pandemic, he admits the various lockdowns helped him to focus on the challenge of composing a memoir.

“Honestly, (the pandemic) gave us time to take our time with it and play around with some things,” says Classified, admitting the book would have also come out sooner, but COVID-19 delayed its release. “I didn’t want to put this out until I can get on the road and really get this out to people.”

With that objective in mind, Classified will be playing Halifax for the first time in five years on November 20 when the rapper will headline the SuperNova Celebration, an all-East Coast talent extravaganza aimed at recognizing the return to live events.

“We’ve played so many shows throughout Halifax over the years (so) for the next show I wanted to do something different,” says Classified about the concert that will also feature such artists as The Trews, Ria Mae, JRDN and Matt Andersen performing at the Scotiabank Centre.

“It takes a lot of people to fill that place and that’s why we brought a lot of friends who I think are some of Nova Scotia’s best artists (and to) celebrate the two toughest years probably a lot of Nova Scotians have ever had.”

With the new book on shelves and what is being called “the biggest kitchen party Nova Scotia has ever seen” about to take place later this month, one might expect Classified to take a bit of a breather to finish up 2021, but the rapper has other plans.

In fact, Classified has already recorded his first-ever acoustic album and is excited for COVID-19 restrictions to loosen enough for him to get his music back into the hands and into the ears of his fans.

“We have ten music videos done already for this acoustic album that we have just been shooting during the pandemic because we couldn’t do anything else,” laughs Classified. “(So) we’re going to start dropping those in January and pushing that all of 2022.”

For more information on Off the Beat ‘N Path, visit Classified's website.