I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. Did you know that Cancer Bats snuck into London during Valentine's week to film a music video downtown? The band was shooting for their coming single "Road Sick" and came to London to film with the tank in Victoria Park.

Although passersby asked them what they were doing, the band managed to keep their identities quiet and work — one of Canada's most popular hardcore punk bands, and a moment's walk away from London Music Hall.

Fame is a funny thing, especially when it comes to the music industry. It's easier to focus on the negative than the positive — we've heard all sorts of stories about the struggle, about the long, hard road to success and the thrill inherent in making it big, but what happens after that?

Classified is a hip-hop artist from Nova Scotia who rose to success after building his name through a series of releases on his own Halflife Records imprint, one he launched to release his first LP when he was 17. His Shipwrecked Tour with Hedley saw the artist in London at the John Labatt Centre on February 29.

Prior to his visit, Classified spoke to Interrobang about the differences between his style and process when he was an emerging artist on the east coast and now, as his 14th studio release, Handshakes And Middle Fingers, approaches a year old.

"It's more of an anal process now, where five to 10 years ago it'd be make a beat, write a rap, track that," he said. "Where now it's analyzing the shit out of everything. There's a beat, but could the beat be better? Could the drums be better?"

"There's the beat, the drums, bass line, pianos, so many options you can bring in. Then there's the dissolves, the bridges, the choruses, making sure the point isn't lost in the song," he continued. "Having more options definitely makes tracking a bit of a longer process nowadays."

Despite the options, Classified indicated his focus remains on quality — though he admits he might overanalyze things, he pushes for the best in himself, beginning with fleshing songs and concepts out long before the tape starts rolling.

"It's a harder process than 15 years ago, it's easy to get excited, like 'I've got something, I gotta write it down,'" he said, referring to his process of building a song. "I'm just writing ideas down, oneline song ideas or thoughts or whatever. Then when I come home I'll hit the studio, try to sit down and write everything out and come up with something."

But it's a process that works; audiences nationwide have been connecting with his lyrics for years. Canadians in any province can relate to coming from a small community and working hard on something they love, concepts that Classified has seen firsthand in his travels back and forth across the country — like his current tour putting him before thousands of people in a given night.

"It blows my mind; when I was coming up in 1996 there was a crew called Hip Club Groove who were like the big Halifax crew in the 1990s," he recalled. "They were doing shows and I remember they were making like $900 a night, and I was like, 'Dude, that's amazing, if I could ever get to that point, I'd really be doin' it.'"

To learn from Classified, finding satisfaction and longevity in your career is directly related to knowing yourself and constantly investing in finding your limitations and pushing past them, even if sometimes that introspection can sting a little.

"Sometimes I have a hard time listening to my old music, thinking, 'I could've done this better, could've done that better,'" he admitted. "I'm a perfectionist, a little more likely to focus on what's wrong with it rather than what's right about it. I'm always analyzing the shit out of it, and sometimes it hurts, but that's just how I make my music."

"I'm always trying to get better, it's good in that way, too — I want to make sure that the new thing I'm doing is better than the last thing I did, so I feel like I can push myself much harder and get that much more from it."

Classified is currently on tour with Hedley, with more Ontario dates scheduled midway through March. For more information on the tour or his acclaimed LP Handshakes And Middle Fingers, visit classifiedofficial.com or follow him on Twitter @classified.

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