Cadence Weapon released the video for “Toronto Zoo” today, the final advance single from his forthcoming album Forager, out April 24, 2026. The clip moves through streetwear shops, corner stores, Sankofa Square and the city’s signature jam pats, anchoring the track in the Toronto geography its title claims.
“Toronto Zoo” was the first song recorded for the new album with producer Junia-T, and it arrives with live instrumentation courtesy of drummer Chino DeVilla, bassist Scott McCannell, guitarist Daniel Espina, keys player Mark Anthony King Edward James, and James Baley on backing vocals. That band configuration marks a pivot for Rollie Pemberton, whose electronic and industrial production has long defined his sound. The track wraps score-settling bars in something closer to soul, with Pemberton rhyming “I’m the truth, undisputed in the booth / Voodoo over loops, Acne made my suit.”
Watch the video below:
Forager arrives with a release strategy that pulls Pemberton’s thrifting habit directly into the rollout. The Forager Markets kick off April 25 at Hamilton’s Cotton Factory with HVC Markets, followed by Toronto’s Standard Time on April 26, Montreal’s Essai Futile on May 2, and Edmonton’s Orange Hall on May 9. The free events pair vintage pop-ups with exclusive vinyl, framing the album as a cultural artifact tied to physical spaces rather than streaming platforms.
Pemberton has been building a second platform on Substack, where his essays on music industry economics, politics and thrift culture have sharpened the critical voice that won him a National Magazine Award for his 2022 memoir Bedroom Rapper. His next book, an essay collection titled Ways of Listening, lands May 26, 2026, roughly a month after Forager.
The Hamilton-based rapper, formerly Edmonton’s Poet Laureate and a Polaris Music Prize winner, has spent the past few years operating as much as a cultural critic as a recording artist, contributing to CBC Commotion and the docuseries Paid in Full. Forager looks like the point where those roles converge: a record made with a live band, released through markets he’s curating himself, arriving alongside a book about how we hear music now.
FORAGER MARKETS
4/25 Hamilton, ON – Cotton Factory with HVC Markets
4/26 Toronto, ON – Standard Time
5/2 Montreal, QC – Essai Futile
5/9 Edmonton, AB – Orange Hall (Strathcona Lodge)
