6 minute read
Arts & Culture pages 12 and
’Toban turntable
Shad — ‘TAO’
ARTS & CULTURE
Grace Paizen, staff
5/5 stars
After an election season as tumultuous as it was apathetic, the question of where Canada goes from here remains unanswered, particularly in how the country faces evergrowing economic, housing and climate crises.
Serendipitously, award-winning Canadian rapper and arts-scene darling Shad’s sixth studio album TAO offers a sounding board that speaks back to the disenfranchised younger generations, particularly of the millennial variety.
From tracks like “GOD,” which addresses the capitalistic hellscape we “didn’t want to play” but were forced into by birth, to “Work,” centring around the precarious “looking for a job” current way of life in the “maybe I’ll sleep when I’m deceased” gig economy, to “Slot Machines” and its perceptive take on how our world is run by screens and advertising “selling us addictions,” TAO quickly becomes a millennial anthem of all that was promised but never came.
There’s something about upbeat music with dark lyrics, and Shad plugs humour into the mature themes to take the edge off — crowing “only chalet we going to is Swiss” in the song “Black Averageness.”
Eclectically melodical, the record is held together by the intertwining ideas of 21st-century challenges and how they are interconnected to promised lands of the past.
Regardless of bouncing between music and television in his career, Shad’s rapping remains impeccable — his rhymes, rhythm and timing showcase his veteran talent and mastery of the artform.
Most powerfully, the opening track sets the tone for the rest of the album by questioning what happened in the past that has brought us to this point of uncertainty in history, and how this history is being addressed now. In the first few lines of “Out of Touch,” Shad asks, “Who’s speaking Canada’s truth?” which is the very quandary Canada as a country has been grappling with for years.
A short album by today’s standards, clocking in at 38 minutes, TAO may leave the listener wanting more dissection of our current political landscape. However, with such precise brevity and idea-packed songs, each of the 12 tracks have weight, which is an impressive feat in the current landscape of lengthy albums with repetitive choruses.
Nicknamed after Taoism, which teaches that humans should live in balance with the universe, Shad’s TAO is the perfect record for the current self-reflexive era we as humans are entering, or rather, have already entered as humanity is already living through the climate disaster.
The takeaway from the album seems to be of hope, to explore the vitriol of the past and to see what good can be made out of the dark world we live in moving forward.
Want us to review your album? Email us at arts@themanitoban. com!
Bisons defeat Rams in home opener
Kornelson discusses Bisons readiness
SPORTS
Isaiah Wagner, staff
archive Carolyne Kroeker / photo /
The University of Manitoba Bisons football team had not played a game in front of their loyal fans since Oct. 19, 2019 due to the COVID-19 outbreak cancelling the 2020 season .
That all changed on Sept. 25, 2021 as the herd faced off against the University of Regina Rams in the highly-anticipated start to the 2021 season. The Bisons came away with a 21-17 win after a great game of football played. The team started off slow but put up a second-half shutout to pursue the victory.
Going into a new season is often fun, but the feeling about the first time playing in front of fans after a long absence makes second-year defensive lineman Collin Kornelson excited.
“I think this opener is one of the most important games of the year,” Kornelson said. “It really sets the tone for the rest of the season and I think […] everyone is excited to be playing in front of their friends and family for the first time in two years.”
It is also a big game for players like Kornelson who will be playing their first game as a Bison.
“For myself, this is a big game,” Kornelson said.
“It’s my first time starting in a regular-season game at university level, so I am excited and nervous but more so happy to be competitively playing the sport I love.”
Although at its core football is all fun and games, at this level it is taken seriously by the teams involved, with preparation and focus being key to victory. The Bisons had a plan going into this matchup with the Rams.
“To beat the Rams, it’s simple,” Kornelson said. in the pocket because he likes to run and ultimately hit them harder than they hit us and get some points on the board.”
“Preparing for the Rams and the rest of the season has been all about knowing the playbook from front to back, knowing your job on every play,” Kornelson said.
“For the past two years, we’ve been drilling [the] playbook through walkthroughs and film sessions.”
Kornelson and his teammates underwent much adversity on the way to their first win of the 2021 season. Thanks to his coaches, Kornelson said he and his teammates were given the resources needed to be prepared for the 2021 season.
“Here in Manitoba, we were definitely at a disadvantage in terms of training as a team compared to other provinces because of how strict our COVID guidelines have been for the past two years,” Kornelson said.
“With that being said, our coaching staff did a great job of doing whatever they could to ensure we’d be able to train and get out on the field as soon as regulations permitted it.”
Overall, the Bisons definitely look prepared to start the season. Hard work pays off, and the team showed it on Saturday. With a win under their belt, it is great to kick off the first game at home undefeated.
The Bisons are back in action Oct. 1 with a matchup against the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton, Alta., then back at home Oct. 16 for a tough battle against the University of Calgary Dinos.
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