Cadence Weapon's Parallel World album wins 2021 Polaris Music Prize

Parallel World, released in April, was the fifth album by the Edmonton-born and Toronto-based rapper Cadence Weapon, real name Rollie Pemberton, and has been named as the best Canadian album of the year, following previous Polaris Music Prize winners including Backxwash, Haviah Mighty, Jeremy Dutcher, Lido Pimienta, Kaytranada and more.

Cadence Weapon's latest album made the Polaris Music Prize shortlist in July alongside albums by The Weather Station, Mustafa, TOBi, Dominique Fils-Aimé and more, marking his third nomination for the prize.

The rapper will receive $50,000 as part of the prize, while the nine other acts on the shortlist will receive $3,000 each from Slaight Music.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cadence Weapon (@cadenceweapon)

While accepting the award, Cadence Weapon said, "If I won this, I wanted to announce that next year I’ll be using some of my resources to organize some voter registration events around the Toronto municipal election, as well as the Ontario provincial election because we need some changes to our leadership and we need to make things more equitable for people in this city to be able to vote. I also just want to take this time to mention that Justin Trudeau has worn Blackface so many times he can’t even remember how many times, and he was just given a third term. That’s exactly why I need to be making rap records that are political, that are about these subjects because that’s still a fact today."

He added, "Finally, this goes out to everybody in Edmonton and Alberta! I’m from Edmonton, 780, we’ve never been here before. I want to show everybody, all the young artists listening right now, and watching this, you don’t have to be from Toronto. Your experience is valuable. Your art matters. Coming from Edmonton, I don’t want you to forget that. The prairies got something to say. E-town."