Welcome to a new monthly feature in The Hip Hop Museum newsletter. Each month, we will speak to an athlete, celebrity, or non-Hip Hop entertainer about what Hip Hop means to them. This feature is intended to showcase how far-reaching the influence of Hip Hop culture has grown in the past 50 years and how much the culture means to so many.

This month, we spoke with Ed Robertson, lead singer of the legendary Pop/Rock band Barenaked Ladies. Best known for hit songs like the Billboard Hot 100 number one record “One Week,” “Pinch Me,” and “If I Had $1000000“, Barenaked Ladies have released numerous Gold and Platinum albums, including 1998’s ‘Stunt‘ which went four times platinum in the US.

Photo credit: Matt Barnes

A lifelong Hip Hop fan, Ed is considered one of the most iconic frontmen in music. Barenaked Ladies recently released the vinyl debut of their best-selling Christmas album ‘Barenaked for the Holidays,’ originally released in 2004.
 

So Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies, what does Hip Hop mean to you?

“I picked up the acoustic guitar to learn classic Country songs that were constantly on the radio in my childhood home. I switched to an electric guitar to impress my older Brothers and learn Rock and Metal. Then I bought a drum machine, and everything changed!

I was born in 1970 and developed my musical taste in the 80s. By the time I was 16, I played in several bands and started to record at home on a TASCAM 4 track Tape Deck. I was lucky to grow up during the explosion of music videos, when everything was being played on the same station (Much Music in Canada, our MTV). The Rush video premiere I’d tuned in to watch was preceded by Eddie Grant and followed by Run-DMC. Then, it was OMD, followed by Ozzy Osbourne. Oddly, I loved all of it.

I was approached by an extremely cool pair of self-styled Rappers at my high school who’d heard I could record music at home. They had a song they wanted to get on tape. I will never forget MC CoCo teaching me the Jamaican Dancehall beat by tapping it out on the top of my Speaker. I programmed a drum machine and used some rudimentary samples, and boom, we had a track that was getting played at the high school dance: two Rappers, myself and a keyboard player. We even entered the high school Battle of the Bands. They introduced us as “McCoo”, and CoCo shouted from behind the curtain, “It’s M-C-Co-Co!!!” The curtains parted to reveal two very cool and stylish young MCs backed by two very nerdy musicians. MC CoCo shouted, “Trevor…Can I get a Witness?!”, (the name of our slammin’ demo track), and Trevor sheepishly responded, “Ummm, No… not yet”. “What do you mean, “NO”?!?” CoCo replied. “Ummm, the sampler is still loading. Sorry… OK, now you can!’. We started the jam, and all the rocker girlfriends of the dudes in the many Metal Bands hit the dance floor. It was the greatest! We didn’t win the Battle of the Bands but won many hearts that night!

I became a huge Hip Hop fan, greatly impacting my writing and performance style as they developed. I listened as intently to Tribe’s ‘Low End Theory’ as I had to all the Rush albums I’d devoured previous to it. I learned from it all. Barenaked Ladies was lucky to play with a bunch of my heroes over the years, sharing bills with De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC, KRS-One, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dream Warriors, and many, many more. It’s ALL in me!”

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