Shad writes about himself and his generation.

Shad is the man when it comes to London and the 2008 Juno Awards.

The London hip-hopper has a Juno nod in the rap recording of the year category for his critically acclaimed CD The Old Prince.

"It was pretty unexpected -- it's like another step," Shad says.

It is the first Juno nomination for Shad, the Kenya-born and London-raised artist.

Shad is not the only one who finds the Juno nod surprising.

"People seem to be really surprised," he says.

Maybe that is because some people -- fools that they are, I say, fools -- are surprised that any hip-hoppers come from London. Let alone a hip-hopper who might claim a Juno tonight. Rap album is one of 32 Junos to be awarded tonight at a private, ticketed event.

Tomorrow's 8 p.m. telecast reveals album of the year and more.

"It's one of those recurring things," Shad says of the surprised reactions he gets when people realize the man behind The Old Prince (Black Box/Fontana North) is from London.

Conservative London. Vanilla City. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Well, Shad was born in Kenya to Rwandan parents. His family arrived in London in 1983.

Now 25, and a student at SFU in British Columbia, the young Shadrach Kabango was already carrying the Shad nickname as a student at Central secondary school when he was aware of the London hip-hop scene. Fritz tha Cat is one of the names he mentions as an early mentor.

Well, just last week, a good Toronto record industry type blurted: "Fritz tha Cat is from London?"

Yep, it is -- or was until hip-hopper Fritz set his sights on Bayfield.

Maybe The Old Prince -- curse-free, vibrant in its use of strings, and beautiful in its beats and rhymes -- will help gently slap a few of those people to their hip-hop senses. "The story about the Old Prince is about me (obviously), but as I see it, it's also about my generation," Shad writes on the CD jacket.

Shad raps freely about not liking to start lines with "I," the high cost of beats and children needing Jesus. Politics. NBA stars. Free speech. Love, peace and soul.

Among the Londoners with a place in the credits are recording aces Michael Tompkins and Andy Magoffin. Shad is the auteur, but The Old Prince is a team effort.

The Old Prince should win the Juno, it says here. But that decision is made elsewhere.

"Loosely woven together as a children's story, The Old Prince is a solid slab of hip-hop, both reverent and outside of the form," says Exclaim magazine.

That -- and many other positive reviews -- give Shad his edge in the rap recording field.

Also in the running are Belly (for The Revolution), BrassMunk (The FEWturistic) and Marco Polo (Port Authority). Juno organizers made a mistake in the rap recording category. After they realized that rapper Classified had been nominated for the same release last year, they dropped him from the category and added rapper JDiggz. That brings Memoirs of a Playbwoy into the rap album mix.

"I've met the guys from BrassMunk," says Shad.

His connections to some of the other nominees isn't as certain.

Of the rap album crew, Belly is also tied to Fontana North and has another nomination as new artist of the year. The Junos can be industry-obsessed so that might be a hint that Belly has the inside track in the rap category, too.

Maybe not. Let's hope not.

There other London connections to the 2008 Junos. The producer of the year award is named for Jack Richardson, the legendary Canadian record producer and longtime Fanshawe College professor. (Last month, Shad was named winner of the urban category at the 2008 Jack Richardson Music Awards, a grassroots celebration of London's musical excellence. SFU classes kept him in B.C. that night).

Fanshawe MIA grad John (Beetle) Bailey, who was recording engineer of the year in 2007, is nominated in the same category this year.

Other London ties include two in the blues album of the year category. London sax Chris Murphy played and wrote the horn charts on Jack de Keyzer's Blues Thing. Guitarist Ted Leonard plays on another Toronto-area release, the Johnny Max Band's A Lesson I've Learned.

Jazz bassist Andrew Downing is a former Londoner who has won a Juno for his own work. Downing plays as part of the Creation Dream band on Toronto guitarist Michael Occhipinti's Chasing After Light. It is up for contemporary jazz album of the year.

Shad is front and centre in that 2008 London crew. The Juno nomination and other honours have his friends, fans and me pulling for him.

"Shad, congrats again on what is turning out to be a great year for you man," Fritz tha Cat e-mailed earlier when the nominations were stepping out.

Tonight, we'll see where the next step takes him.