Features : Canadian Rapper BraedenV Makes Music With Melodic Sound, Hip Hop Attitiude

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada — BraedenV is one of those musicians that doesn’t fit well into the boxes where people try to put musicians.

He’s a hip hop singer who sings some of his raps, and he sings about where and how he fits into the music scene in his latest single, “Trendsetter,” which is also the title track to his latest, six track album, set for release on Nov. 10.

“‘Trendsetter’ was inspired by how I've been perceived in my hip hop scene since I began making music,” Braeden said. “The idea being that people kind of very quickly dismiss me in the hip hop scene because I sing more than them or my rap is melodic. I’m kind of different, it’s kind of hard to put me in a box with the hip hop guys or the singers, so I've been a bit of a standout, not necessarily intentionally but just because of the way my sound is. I don’t fit into those traditional boxes.”

“Trendsetter” is a collaboration with the rapper and producer Spivey and was recently nominated for a MusicPEI Award, a provincial award given in Prince Edward Island.

The EP features three songs that have been previously released and three that have not seen the light of day.

He also sings R&B on the album in the song called “Nothing Left,” a song inspired by a tragedy that struck his home in picturesque Prince Edward Island, one of the three Maritime provinces in Canada off the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick coast. 

“I think ‘Nothing Left’ is a strong R&B song,” Braeden said. “It's got some rapping in it but it is the most melodic song on there. I think it will do well on radio. I think it’s kind of a Weeknd song with rappers in it, and it’s also very emotional. It’s one of the most emotional songs on the record, and to me that’s very important too.”

He said the video includes footage of Hurricane Fiona, which hit the Maritimes earlier in 2022 and left devastation in its wake. Braeden said he lost electricity and internet for nine days because of the hurricane.

“There were 150-year-old trees that came down during the hurricane,” he said. “I’ve got footage of one guy’s house that got pulled out onto a sandbar. It was heartbreaking footage to see. I though that would be a good angle to take the record because ‘Nothing Left’ is kind of about shipwrecks and I use a lot of those metaphors. I’m going to dedicate that song to anyone who has been affected by natural disasters or climate change events.”

BraedenV said he’s dedicating his career to his dad who was a musician in his younger days but couldn’t focus on it as a career because he was also a single father raising Braeden and his siblings.

“It was a family thing, I always felt like my dad never got the chance he deserved so I’m making sure I get the chance for both of us,” Braeden said. “I’ve always had a strong connection to music, we used to go on road trips all the time and we’d put on music and sing along to Rush and Barenaked Ladies and all kinds of famous bands, Peter Gabriel, I'm a huge fan of his, Tom Petty too. I kind of took a different path from my dad, he was very traditional instrumentalist whereas I do more hip hop and modern productions.”

BraedenV also has a podcast called The Chasing Planes podcast and named for one of the first songs he released in 2020, and he’s constantly releasing new content on his instagram, YouTube and Tok Tok channels.

He said he’ll be performing live as an opener for the rapper Dax on Dec. 3, 2022 at the Onyx Nightclub in Guelph, Ontario. That event will be a homecoming for Braeden who grew up in Guelph.

You can follow BraedenV on his music and social media channels:

Websites:
Linktree
Spotify
YouTube
SoundCloud

Socials:
Tik Tok
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook