Since starting his career in the mid ‘90s as part of the Vancouver hip-hop group Swollen Members, Madchild has been spitting tough-as-nails bars in his signature hard-edged, nasal sneer. Born Shane Bunting in the neighbouring suburb of Surrey, British Columbia, in 1975, he nabbed four Juno Awards with Swollen Members before kicking an addiction to Percocet that almost killed him. In 2012, he dropped his debut solo album, Dope Sick. The mix of dark humour and pain on tracks like the bouncy “D******d” and the explosive “Monster” helped the record reach No. 3 on the Canadian charts. He followed it up with 2013’s Lawn Mower Man and 2015’s Silver Tongue Devil, where he was flexing and frightening on tracks like the former’s “Prefontaine” and embracing shadowy vibes on the latter’s intimidating “Jackel”. In 2020, he teamed up with ex-pro wrestler Tom MacDonald and rapper Nova Rockafeller for introspective tracks like the bare-it-all “Sober” and “Bad News”. He continues to show his vulnerable side, as on 2021’s haunted-by-demons track “Running”.