CREDIT: SCOTT MUNN
Catch Froshfest headliner Classified on campus September 9, alongside Shad and A Tribe Called Red.

Fed up by the fact that no record label wanted to sign him, rapper Classified started his own when he was a teenager.

“I wanted to put my stuff out, and no label was trying to sign a 15-/16-year-old kid from Enfield,” said Classified, whose real name is Luke Boyd. “I don’t blame them. I wasn’t that good back then, but it was just something I wanted to do.”

Classified, the artist behind the Platinum-certified song “Inner Ninja,” will be headlining the FSU’s Froshfest on September 9 with electronic music group A Tribe Called Red and rapper Shad as opening acts.

Originally from Enfield, Nova Scotia, a half-hour drive north of Halifax, Classified began rapping when he was about 15.

“Just getting in with friends, messing around and stuff,” he said.

Back then, he listened to ‘90s rap artists such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Cypress Hill. Or at least, he tried to – his parents didn’t want him to listen to music with swearing.

But he says the music was eye opening.

“It opened my eyes to a lot bigger things in the world,” he said. “[It taught me] about New York and [Los Angeles] and down south. It’s kind of what you do when you rap – you represent where you’re from. You hear all these rappers from different places growing up different than I [did], with different lifestyles and stuff.”

Around that time, Classified began putting out demos, but no one would sign him. That’s when he started Half Life Records, pressing CDs and selling them to friends.

He says there were disadvantages to releasing music through his own label at first. He had to use his own money and find his own resources. But nearly 20 years and almost 15 albums later, Classified is still releasing music under Half Life Records in Canada.

“I can do whatever I want,” he said. “I don’t have to answer to anybody. I don’t have to get approval: ‘Hey, do you like this song?’ and ‘Can we put this out now?’”

In the United States, where he is signed to major record label Atlantic Records, his self-titled album, Classified, still hasn’t come out. It was released in Canada more than a year and half ago.

He says the label is trying to make the album exactly how they want it to be, whereas he just wants to release songs.

Last year, the album won him a first Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year.

“It’s not like you make music to win Juno Awards, definitely not in the rap world either ‘cause the Canadian rap scene is not that big,” he said. “But it was definitely a cool thing.”

Nowadays Classified says he keeps busy producing albums, especially for younger artists. He’s also working on a new album himself – he’s done one song and plans to record the next one soon.

“It’s usually how that goes.”