By Andrew de Souza

Juno winning hip hop artist coming to PA

Nov 11, 2012 | 7:25 AM

Hip hop artist Mad Child of Juno Award-winning duo Swollen Members will be stopping through Prince Albert this month as part of his cross-Canada tour.

The tour is promoting his debut solo album Dope Sick. Mad Child, a.k.a Shane Bunting said the album chronicles his fight to stay sober after years of excess and addiction following Swollen Member’s heyday.

“It’s a reflection on the four or five years of trials and tribulations I had but also covering the rewards and the great part of life I’ve been living for past year,” he said.

After coming close to death, Bunting turned his life around and has been sober for two years. In those two years, he’s been working hard to rebuild his presence by recording relentlessly and taking part in international rap battle competitions.

“I’m having the most fun with what I do in a long, long, long time. I love rapping,” he said. “Maybe I was a little jaded back at the end before I came a drug addict, maybe I was a little tired, maybe I was a little lost as a person, but not I’m so hungry and I’m enjoying this so much.”

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Bunting said this project has been a labour of love. Working on two years sober, he said he’s completely immersed himself in music production and writing and that it should come through in the album.

“I think it covers the whole gamut. It covers the dark lonely place where I was to making better lifestyle choices now and really celebrating life and enjoying life 100-fold compared to what it was before,” he said.

Bunting explained he’s changed up his style to be less about the showboating of mainstream hip hop and more about the music and the art form.

“People in general they want the honesty,” he said. “Negativity and glorifying gangster stuff and drinking champagne wearing jewelry at the bar—we’ve had enough of that. It’s time to inject some love back into this world and it’s time to put in a little more honesty and truth.”

Bunting will be at the Union Centre on Nov. 20. Tickets are available at odeon.ca

adesouza@panow.com

On Twitter: @DrewdeSouza