In the last year, k-os has set a new standard for success in the Canadian hip-hop world, from collecting an armful of Junos to getting major play on radio stations of all formats. The Post's Adam Radwanski spoke to the rapper in advance of his show at the Molson Amphitheatre tonight. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation.

With all the crossover experience, are you noticing a change in your audience?

When Crabbuckit came out, I was walking - I think I was in a mall - and this woman was coming towards me. So I went to the left, she went to the left; I went to the right, and then she came up to me and said "You know, I just love your song Crabbuckit." She must have been about 45 - someone I might not ever hang out with.

That was kind of my worst nightmare - probably the reason I was a bedroom dweller. I just wasn't prepared to be put in front of people I didn't relate to or didn't know.

So you like it now?

On days of low self-esteem, definitely. But on days when you're not insecure, and you don't need anything, sometimes it's a bit intrusive.

I take it day to day, and try my best to be gracious and honest and thankful that I'm having a chance to actually impact on the world.

You've mentioned that you grew up listening to CFNY. Did it catch you off guard the first time you heard you song playing on that station?

It's historic - it's one of my greatest accomplishments, to be played to the kids I went to high school with.

The perception is, because my skin is black, I went to school in some area of Scarborough - people assume that all the time. But because I grew up in Whitby, listening to CFNY, when my manager told me "you just got added in heavy rotation on the Edge," I was like, wow. What artist with my cultural background has ever done that?

Those are the things that make me go, "OK, this is great." Because people's minds must be more open than they were five, 10, 20 years ago.

Do you think you're bringing back some people who might've been turned off hip hop in recent years?

I don't think people ever left. Hip hop is an attitude, it's a way of life. Hip hop is a mentality. I don't think people changed their minds - I think there wasn't anything there for them to connect to.

I could only be connecting with people if that was already in their consciousness. Eminem existing was probably a lot of people who weren't black or Hispanic or whatever feeling that they wanted a representation of that. We kind of think things into reality. I think Canada for a long time has wanted its own hip-hop artist.

You've talked about how important lyrical content is to you. Have we been conditioned by modern music to tune out lyrics to the point where it's an uphill battle to get people to actually listen to what you're saying?

No. If I thought people were going to react to my lyrics with their conscious mind, I wouldn't even do this. There's so many ways to put messages into music beyond just making sure there's always a message in people's face.

You have to have faith that if what you say is true, or what you say has any universal resonance to it, the person is going to go away and maybe in a month, even if they think they came up with it themselves, they'll be like "hey, I'm kind of thinking like this now." That's how fashion trends work - people don't all of a sudden just start wearing the same thing. They see somebody wearing something, then somebody modifies it, then they're in the store and they're like, "I'm going to get this colour instead of this colour" - all the while making those choices based on what they've taken in, but not knowing where exactly they heard it.

The Joyful Rebellion focuses heavily on anti-materialism and the state of music. Are we going to see different themes tackled on your next album?

It's going to be very conceptual. The first album, Exit, was about a kid who couldn't find his place in music, or wanted to leave - it was a hip-hop bedroom album. Joyful Rebellion was about him turning into a man and going "OK, dude, you can't be the mad rapper your whole life. Why don't you be happy, and maybe the happiness will be a rebellion?"

The next thing is where he is now in the world. He's in his place, he's looking around him and he's seeing truths that he couldn't even have been informed of in the beginning. I don't want to say the name of it yet, but I'm already working on it. It's gonna take a couple of years, but it's the next instalment.

Do you see yourself delving into specific cultural and political issues?

Hell, no - that's why I'm doing music, so I can be flawed and human and make mistakes and write about them and have catharsis. I don't want to lead people. I think people should lead themselves.

You talk about not wanting to hit people over the head with your ideas - what did you think of Live 8?

People criticize Bob Geldof, but I'm sure his place is pretty much set for him. He's done a lot, and to me, instead of criticizing someone like that, it's, like, do something better.

However, I'm into theocracy. I think all these problems will end when mankind consolidates his relationship as a universal citizen with higher forces - God, what have you. I'm into that. I'll do a concert for that - for the awareness of our souls.

Considering your emphasis on people arriving at ideas themselves, does it concern you if fans - younger fans in particular- take too much out of what you’re saying?

No, because it's just a stage. It's like training wheels. You rely on things for a certain amount of time. For a long time I relied on Q-Tip and the Roots and Lauryn Hill, anything they did I duplicated it in the studio, because that's all I knew. And then when I could stand up by myself and my bones got stronger artistically, I said "Okay, I'm not going to listen to these CDs that much. But for that time, I needed it, and lo and behold, you can hear all those people in my music.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be influenced, but I believe the end result of the whole thing should be people standing on their own two feet.

How's it been going in the U.S.?

A lot of these places in America, they have a very, very hard line as to what black music is, how black people talk, how black people walk. They don't really feel like commercializing an idea of a hip-hop entity or black man that isn't American.

If a Canadian rapper came out who was on point and had substance and had a dope live show, would America be like, "Here it is, dudes! The next evolution?" I don't think so. I think it would have success at a cult level, people would recognize it, probably be influenced by it, and when something American like it came about that was way more commercial and less maybe wordy or heady or intellectual, they'd be like, "Here it is! A new American form!" So I'm prepared for that.

The be all and end all of my career is not to sell records in America. It's more to do a song with Sam Roberts or something. Or tour this country and play to 17,000 people - that's way more realistic than walking the streets of some country I don't live in and expecting to influence people there.