Shadrach Kabango (born 1982), credited as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian hip hop musician and radio broadcaster. He is the host of the International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on HBO Canada and Netflix.
Born in Kenya, to Rwandan parents, Shad was raised in London, Ontario. His mother worked in London as a hospital lab technician; his father, as a machinist. He attended London Central Secondary School.
His debut album When This Is Over (2005) was self-made, financed with $17,500 he won from 91.
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Shadrach Kabango (born 1982), credited as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian hip hop musician and radio broadcaster. He is the host of the International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution on HBO Canada and Netflix.
Born in Kenya, to Rwandan parents, Shad was raised in London, Ontario. His mother worked in London as a hospital lab technician; his father, as a machinist. He attended London Central Secondary School.
His debut album When This Is Over (2005) was self-made, financed with $17,500 he won from 91.5 The Beat's Rhythm of the Future talent competition during his time as an undergraduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University. The album is recognized for Shad's self-deprecating lyrics which is often atypical of the current rap scene and focusing on social causes—for example, the track I'll Never Understand examines the Rwandan genocide and includes poetry written by his mother, Bernadette Kabango.
In 2007, he was signed by Black Box Recordings and released his second album, The Old Prince. In 2008, The Old Prince received a Juno Award nomination for Rap Recording of the Year, and was nominated for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize. The Album also nominated him for two MMVA Awards and won him a 2009 Indie Award.
In May of 2010, Shad released his third album, TSOL, to excellent reviews and a wider reception than any of his work to date. TSOL was a short-list nominee for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize, the video for the song "Rose Garden" received a nomination for a 2011 MuchMusic Video Award, and the album won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards.
In 2011, Shad collaborated with Dallas Green, better known as City and Colour, on the EP Two Songs. Shad then released the EP Melancholy and the Infinite Shadness in 2012, and in June 2013, he released a collaborative EP with Skratch Bastid entitled The Spring Up.
Shad's fourth album, Flying Colours, was released on October 15, 2013. It was nominated for the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year in 2014, and was a short-list nominee for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize. In the summer of 2014 Shad released “The Legend Of Cy Borg Pt 1” and “The Legend Of Cy Borg Pt 2” as the EP Holy Shad, with Holy Fuck. In December 2014, Shad released a collaborative EP with DJ T.LO entitled Boarding Pass.
In 2016, Shad released a 90s-influenced soft-rock album, Adult Contempt, under the pseudonym Your Boy Tony Braxton. Musically, the album was inspired by Michael Penn, Terence Trent D'arby, The Cure, Bryan Adams, and Janet Jackson.
The album A Short Story About a War, was released in October 2018 on Secret City Records and included collaborations with Lido Pimienta, Kaytranada, Ian Kamau, Eternia, and Yukon Blonde. It was short-listed for the 2019 Polaris Music Prize, marking Shad's 4th Polaris short-list nomination. In June 2021, Shad announced his seventh album, TAO, would be released October 1, 2021. TAO was short-listed for the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.
Shad’s most recent EP, Reel Speakers, was a collaboration with 14KT that was released October 2024. In July 2025, it was announced that his newest album, Start Anew would be released on October 31, 2025.
In the four-part documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution, Shad interviewed multiple noted hip-hop and rap artists to explore the origins of this music genre. This documentary was featured in 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and shown on HBO Canada. On December 2, 2016 Netflix released the series internationally. The series went on to be one of the 2016 Peabody Award winners and won an International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming in 2017. On October 19, 2018 Netflix released a second season of the series and a third season was released on September 6, 2019. Hip Hop Evolution's fourth season was released on January 17, 2020.
Shad is bilingual, speaking English and French. He holds a business degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a master's degree in liberal studies from Simon Fraser University. Shad and his wife married in 2016; they have two daughters.
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…shrink me down again