TORONTO -- Celebrating Nova Scotia's hip hop scene is second nature to Classified, but the Canadian rapper wanted something particularly special for his latest album.
So he whipped together an all-star track featuring some of his closest friends from the Halifax area. All it took was calling them up and inviting them to swing by his studio in Enfield, N.S.
That impromptu collaboration turned into "Super Nova Scotian," a boastful tribute that presents the province as the undisputed champ of the East Coast music scene.
"It feels like some old '90s rap posse cut," Classified said, referencing an era when it was especially common for a huge roster of hip-hop stars to jump on the same song together.
"Super Nova Scotian" fits comfortably in that tradition.
Among the names heaping praise on their Maritime stomping ground is Mike Smith, best known as Bubbles from "Trailer Park Boys," as well as R&B singer JRDN.
"It was a Monday and Tuesday night, and everybody came out. We had some great times in the studio," said Classified.
Veteran battle rapper Pat Stay, of Dartmouth, N.S., is first out of the gate to spit rhymes.
He's later joined by JRDN who proclaims, "We're not loud enough," and Tyrone Parsons, who performs under the name Knucklehead.
Parsons is known to "Trailer Park Boys" fans for playing J-Roc's manager T, but before that he appeared alongside Classified in the late 1990s Halifax rap act Ground Squad.
Rounding out the crew is producer and DJ Skratch Bastid and Quake Matthews, who Classified calls "the next generation of hip hop from Nova Scotia."
"Super Nova Scotian" appears on Classified's new album "Tomorrow Could Be the Day Things Change," released earlier this month.
