In an attempt to redeem myself for last week’s poor no-show this week I’ve upped the ante and bringing you a whole mixtape.

A month ago Drake was the only Canadian hip-hop artist I knew of, and judging from a quick Wikipedia search my knowledge hasn’t expanded much, however I recently had the good fortune to come across Shad. I love old school hip-hop beats and so it would appear does Shad, his social awareness and general rapping style remind me a lot of Common’s older material, all of which make his music pretty awesome.

‘Besides’, released in December, is a mix of some of the features he has done over the past years. It is one of the best mixtapes I’ve heard in a long time. It’s available for free download on his website www.shadk.com so I suggest you go get it.