Enfield rapper Classified is calling for a Canadian riot in Halifax on Sunday afternoon. The hip hop star wants up to 1,000 flag-waving fans to swarm a section of the downtown and act as extras in his video for Oh Canada.
“We’re celebrating Canada. It’s going to be like what the streets should’ve looked like if Canada won the game last night,” he said earlier this week, the day after the national junior team lost gold to the U.S. “It just goes to show Canadian pride.”
Classified wants red and white flags, toques, jackets, signs and painted faces to fill the pedestrian section of Granville Street starting at noon and running until 5 p.m. Classified, a.k.a. Enfield’s Luke Boyd, will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs, as well as shoot the video.
Oh Canada, from the 2009 album Self Explanatory, was written as Classified toured the world and ran up against the strange ideas people sometimes have about Canadians.
“We’ve all heard the stereotypes and the things they think Canadians portray. It’s poking fun, but being proud of who we are,” he explained.
“I’ve been around the globe and heard the confusion. Honestly a lot of y’all are ignorant and stupid,” he raps in Oh Canada before name-checking great Canucks. “Our national mascot’s a damn beaver. Oh Canada, we love our beaver,” he concludes.
The rest of the video will see Classified re-mix the famous Canadian Heritage Minutes. Classified and his crew will bump aside James Naismith and his peach baskets to reinvent basketball and then recreate the birth of the national anthem.
“Me and my boys, we’re all going to dress up. We got the wigs and the moustaches and the old clothing,” he said. “We’re just poking fun — we don’t want to make it too serious.”
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Check out Classified’s Facebook page or go to www.halfliferecords.ca for complete details about Sunday’s video shoot.
