At first listen, Canadian rapper Pimpton’s latest single, “Moonroof,” sounds like nothing more than a seductive invitation to a cozy nighttime drive. I mean, check out that slick come-on of a chorus:
Open up the moon roof
Let ya hair down baby, we gon’ fade away
We connect like a Bluetooth
Live from the belly of the beast, but in God we pray
Pretty romantic imagery, right? But it’s just the shared victory lap for verses in which Pimpton boasts eloquently about the perseverance that put him in that car in the first place. Dropping rapid-fire references to everything from Givenchy to The Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic, he motormouths a toast to his own greatness that’s the perfect counterpoint to the lulling cruise control of the music. Long, held chords of orchestration are integrated so effectively into the mix that you barely notice when they momentarily drop out to be replaced by a collage of hushed background vocals.
This stealthily jam-packed jam is the spotlight single from Pimpton’s new album, P.T. & Kholebeatz—which just happens to be his closest collaboration yet with his musical “pen pal” of the last 13 years, the Oslo-based Kholebeatz. As album projects go, it’s one of those rare cases in which a contract dispute was actually good for music. Last year, Pimpton had been hard at work on what was to be his next release, KCMKV3, when some of the guest artists he had planned to feature on the record got signed to a major label, necessitating a renegotiation of their publishing credits. While that protracted process was working itself out, Pimpton reached out to Kholebeatz and proposed a stopgap: a collaboration on which Kholebeatz would produce every song, while Pimpton wrote, arranged, recorded and mixed.
Kholebeatz conscripted some of his own trusted collaborators to take part, Pimpton enlisted everyone from childhood friends to his touring DJ, and voilà! Eight new tracks dripping with self-belief directed both inward and outward.
“Ultimately, the album speaks to the Sisyphean journey all artists must endure on the rise to prominence,” Pimpton says—and he’s absolutely including the experience of making this particular record as well. The message to himself and others? “Keep going.”
It’s a philosophy that’s been good to the Saskatchewan-based rapper since he arrived from Trinidad & Tobago and set about combining his Caribbean culture with the contemporary hip-hop stylings of his adopted country. He’s since sold more than 20,000 copies of his previous six independently released studio albums. And just under four years ago, he wrote and directed TUNNELZ, the first visual album created and released by a Saskatchewan artist, which earned him a nomination for Video Director of the Year at the 2021 Western Canadian Music Awards.
Over the course of his career, Pimpton has performed over 500 shows across North America, including appearances at major festivals like SXSW, JunoFEST, BreakOut West, the Aftershock Festival, the Cannabis Cup and Canadian Music Week. He’s shared the stage with a host of internationally recognized acts, including the Wu-Tang Clan, Young Jeezy, Bone Thugz N Harmony, Xzibit and Warren G. In September 2019, he was the direct support act for Dizzy Wright & Madchild on a 25-date cross-Canada tour.
And since this is Pimpton’s first trip to Europe, he’s also booking a show in Oslo, so he can finally meet Kholebeatz face to face. For all they’ve shared and worked on, they’ve never been in the same room. Just shows you what believing in yourself can do.
This May, Pimpton will be heading to Rotterdam to showcase at New Skool Rules, the largest urban-music conference and festival in Europe. In preparation, he’s playing a handful of other dates in his native Canada and on the European continent:
Thursday, April 18 – Bulldog Event Center, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Saturday, April 20 – The Exchange, Regina, Saskatchewan
Sunday, April 21 – Penrose YXE, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Wednesday, May 15 – Milan, Italy (Barrios’s Live)
Friday, May 17- Catania, Sicily (Palestra Lupo)
Saturday, May 18- Siracusa, Sicily (Medusa)
Sunday, May 19- Santa Teresa, Sicily (Theme De Yo-Yo)
Monday, May 20- Bologna, Italy (IL Pallone)
Wednesday, May 22- Cologne, Germany (Veedel Club)
Thursday, May 23- Vienna, Austria (Na Nang Club)
Saturday, May 25- Freiburg, Germany (TBA)
Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 2- Rotterdam, the Netherlands (New Skool Rules – De Doelen)
Friday, June 7- Oslo, Norway (Storgata 26)
