Hip-hop takes the main stage as the sun dips
As the midnight sun eased toward the horizon over Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks, Cadence Weapon shifted a Saturday main-stage crowd from steady head-nods to full-on movement. The rapper and producer — also known as Rollie Pemberton — arrived in a crisp, patterned button-down and steadily built a set that blurred live performance with an after-hours feel, steering the festival’s energy into club territory.
Known as one of Canada’s hip-hop polymaths, he balanced roles throughout the evening: MC, producer, author, and a vintage clothing entrepreneur. Alongside the microphone, he had a set of decks staged to one side, ready for the moment when the show would tilt from performance to dancefloor.
From verses to the decks
The turning point came with “Step Out”, his single with DijahSB produced by Junia-T. As the track peaked, he set the mic aside, took the decks, and ran a club-styled outro that redrew the main stage as a late-night room. That thread carried into a run of cuts with deep dance pedigree, including the Kaytranada-produced “My Crew (Woo)” and the Jacques Greene collaboration “Night Service” — selections that stitched together hip-hop, house and late-night pulse in a way that fit the open air of Yellowknife’s lakeside grounds.
“This is a different kind of ‘folk,’” he joked, later calling out, “Anybody who liked rap music, come on closer. This is the rap show.”
Teens and twenty-somethings clustered at the front as the beat took over, reflecting a shift in sound that still felt at home under the festival’s banner. Over the music, one voice from the crowd summed up the mood with a simple verdict heard between songs:
“He’s so good.”
A multi-hyphenate presence on Yellowknife soil
Beyond the mic and mixer, the artist’s broader creative life was on display. A former poet laureate, he also had copies of his newly published book Ways of Listening at the merchandise table. The throughline on stage was that same curiosity and restlessness — verses delivered with precision, transitions mixed like a club set, and a setlist that threaded Canadian collaborators into a northern festival moment.
There was a local texture to it all. As light faded over the rocks and water, the performance tapped into a kind of northern nightlife unique to this latitude: no roof, no walls, just the bass and the breeze. The sightlines took in the darkening sky as he eased from song-led sections into stretches of groove, making the main stage feel, for a spell, like a downtown after-hours transplanted to the Northwest Territories.
Highlights and collaborators
- Club-ready transitions that reshaped the main stage into a dancefloor under open sky.
- Showcasing Canadian links through DijahSB, Junia-T, Kaytranada and Jacques Greene.
- On-site presence as rapper, producer, author and vintage clothing business owner.
| Track | Collaborator/Producer | On-stage moment |
|---|---|---|
| Step Out | DijahSB / Junia-T | Extended into a club-style outro as he took the decks |
| My Crew (Woo) | Kaytranada | Pulled the set toward a late-night, dance-driven feel |
| Night Service | Jacques Greene | Vibey, house-informed stretch that deepened the groove |
Why it resonated in Yellowknife
Folk on the Rocks draws a wide mix of tastes every year, and Saturday’s program placed hip-hop in front of the festival’s broadest audience. Cadence Weapon leaned into that spotlight with a set that acknowledged the setting — open air, resilient crowd, and summer light that lingers — while nudging the sound toward something more nocturnal. In a place where outdoor shows unfold under a sky that barely goes dark, those dance breaks felt like a fitting twist on the “folk” gathering many in Yellowknife return to year after year.
As the last notes faded, the memory left behind was simple: a northern main stage turned into a late-night floor, and a Canadian artist bridging scenes and styles, right here at home in Yellowknife.
