Today, rapper, producer, author, and former poet laureate Rollie Pemberton — better known as Cadence Weapon — announces his sixth studio album, ROLLERCOASTER, arriving April 19th via MNRK Music. In conjunction, he presents the first single “Press Eject” and announces a North American tour kicking off this coming spring. Having emerged as an artist who gave voice to issues of systemic inequality and racial disparity, particularly among Canada’s Black communities, with his 2021 Polaris Prize-winning fifth album Parallel World, Cadence Weapon returns with a sense of urgency, addressing the dizzying contradictions of modern culture and technology with both precision and irreverence.
The hyperpop and electro-inspired production of ROLLERCOASTER is intended to replicate the internet’s “sensory overload.” With credits including the likes of Grandtheft, Jacques Greene, Machinedrum, Cecile Believe, Martyn Bootyspoon, Loraine James, Taydex, Wesley Singerman, myst milano, and Harrison, Pemberton has organized a combination of tried-and-true Canadian collaborators and “fellow Black weirdos,” as Pemberton puts it, to execute his vision. Acoustic interludes from Bartees Strange break up the discord, reminding listeners that they can get back to a more “organic” mindspace, and that maybe they should, indeed, touch grass. “He was this siren beckoning you into the album,” Pemberton says, “this mysterious voice that you hear every so often.”
With “Press Eject,” the anthemic, techno-revolt lead single, we see Pemberton rejecting the rules of the internet and reminding listeners of their agency. “I don’t wanna play your game […] / Don’t wanna pay for the space that I made / It works better when you post your face,” he sings over corrosive drums and squelching electronics. “I wanted to write an anthem for people who are fed up with the way the Internet has become,” he explains. “I want to remind people that there are platforms that have come and gone, because they’re vulnerable if we aren’t on them. I’m encouraging everyone to be more empowered and thoughtful about how we engage with social media. Maybe we can create a better situation for ourselves.”
