Winnipeg State of Mind - Caid Jones

This article was originally published in Stylus Magazine in February 2021 as part of a series of profiles on young and upcoming rappers in Winnipeg at the time. Tragically, Caid Jones, whose given name was Cayden Carfrae, passed away in February 2024 at only 24 years of age. I was fortunate that I was able to interview Cayden and help spread the word about his music, may he live on forever through his songs and these words.

“Be just and justify your actions” - Big KRIT

Caid Jones is a product of Winnipeg and he’s proud of it. The talented young hip-hop artist is passionate about representing the city that raised him. Part of the new generation of local hip-hop artists who are not striving to be lost in the cold shuffle of music industry capitals such as Toronto or New York, Caid Jones is all about building up community within Winnipeg. His community is community in the widest sense of the word, not strictly within hip-hop.

From a young age, Caid Jones understood that music can be used as a tool to reach a wide segment of humanity, a back door invitation to changing the world one listener at a time. Caid’s journey into hip-hop began young. When visiting his father in The Pas, Manitoba, Caid first heard Eminem’s record “The Eminem Show.” In an instant, a hip-hop fan was born. His father graciously gifted him the Eminem CD and a young Caid Jones was off and running into the vast history of hip-hop music, making stops at Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and many others.

By the time Caid had reached Grade 10 English class, with the push of his teacher, he was making the connection between his interest in Eminem and the poetry he was writing in school. Experimentation and practice quickly led Caid to believe that writing lyrics and rapping was not only possible but so exciting that he found himself doing it every night. Caid Jones had set himself along the proper rap trajectory on his own but there is one place responsible for catapulting him into the position he is today, on the verge of becoming Winnipeg’s next household name.

Studio 393 has become a touchstone in Winnipeg’s hip-hop community. The youth drop-in centre located in Portage Place Mall and run through Graffiti Art Programming has employed some of the biggest names in Winnipeg hip-hop history and has hosted as guest programmers prominent names in Canadian rap, from Skratch Bastid to Shad to Odario. But their bread and butter programming is just being a place where youth can go to write and record hip-hop music with professional equipment and expert guidance, all for free. When Caid Jones found Studio 393 between Grades 10 and 11, it was an immediate fit. Initially lured in by the promise of a show at the West End Cultural Centre, 393 has provided countless opportunities to Caid and so many other youth.

He cites the leadership of former 393 staff like Pip Skid and Charlie Fettah and [in 2021] current manager Nestor Wynrush, whose mere presence in such a humble spot as Portage Place impressed a young Caid, only familiar with his rap idols appearing on a screen. It has been through Studio 393 that Caid Jones has had some of biggest opportunities of his young career, including opening for the rapper Madchild in 2018.

However, the most exciting collaboration for Caid has been 393’s continued partnership with Synonym Art Consultation. Through Synonym, Caid and his fellow 393 brethren have performed at many shows and events but none as important as opening up Skratch Bastid’s BBQ in Winnipeg in 2019. All these connections work to not only establish a relationship with the larger name acts but also with the other artists in the city, working together to build up the local community.

Caid Jones new EP “No Distractions Please” is a testament to the young artist’s drive and hard work. The EP is the initial release on Pay Attention Records, the imprint that Caid and long-time friend and collaborator Josue Davi are getting off the ground. “Higher,” the opening cut and lead video single off “No Distractions Please,” touches on many subjects, but partly is a powerful ode to the authority of artists as community leaders. In the song’s second verse, delivered in an almost impossibly fast flow, Caid questions the morality of his favourite artists, including Eminem, through their relative silence on the important moral and ethical issues of our time. While showcasing his musical diversity through the sung chorus, “your power is higher, let go your desire,” Caid is also urging the powerful artists of our time to take a stand.

While speaking on this subject, Caid’s passion is palpable, asking for the same from his idols: “where’s all that passion and energy that I had seen when they were standing up for people?” This circles back to Caid Jones’ goal when making music, using it as a tool to reach the masses with influential messaging. Caid describes an epiphany he had while in his early teens about how he knew that music was the way to bring about change and betterment in the struggling communities he had witnessed growing up.

While a lot of people talk a big stick about community, Caid is all action. Twice in 2020, he organized and executed donation drives of warm clothes, food, and other supplies that were distributed to frontline organizations and directly to unhoused people. This type of dedication is not often found in someone who is also an incredibly talented artist, someone who can reach you with their lyrics and music but also with their actions. Caid Jones, whose ancestry is Irish from his mother and Swampy Cree from his father, proves that, forget tomorrow, the leaders of today’s communities are Indigenous youth. Caid Jones is a young, visionary leader in Winnipeg’s hip-hop community with the world in front of him. The revolution will be rapped.