The Current - Aquakultre explores his own roots on new album 1783

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Nova Scotia's Aquakultre is exploring his own family history and the history of Black Nova Scotians in his new album 1783. We talk to him about how the birth of his daughter drove him to find answers to his own past.

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Halifax's own Lance Sampson. You might know him better as aquaculture. He has a record coming up. It's called 1783 Aquaculture with me in studio. Good morning. What's up, man?

How you doing? It's nice to see you. Nice to see you. Privileged to be here. I'm honored to be able to spend this time with you today. That was something. This comes from this record, 1783. Give us the history lesson.

What happened in 1783? Well, 1783 would have been the, the year that the Black Loyalists came here to Nova Scotia, they would have settled in Shelburne County area. And 1784 was actually considered the first race riot, potentially in Canada. So a lot of us that are descendants of Black Loyalists, black refugees, we can trace that history back to at least 1783. Privileged to have the Halifax Archives here. You're directly descended from those settlers. So, yeah, like, historically, that would have been black loyalist time coming here, but, like, I could trace on my dad's side, Joseph Warrington coming from that boat over to Shelburne. So Joseph Warrington is the furthest relative I can track from that, from that group of folks.

Tell me about that tune that we just heard. That's Gallows. That's Gallows, man. So my great, sorry, my grandmother, Carolyn Samson, God rest of soul. Like she told me a story of her grandfather, Daniel Samson, who was wrongfully convicted for a crime that he didn't commit the last person to be hanged at the Halifax Courthos. The last person to be hanged. Last person to be hanged at Halifax Courthos, 1935. And she always told this story to our family, but I don't think I really understood the weight of it until I got older. And as I was continuing doing this research, this research for this record, I wanted to make sure that I honored my, ancestor through this, through writing songs and actually now we're on the verge of trying

to get them exonerated. We put an application March 7, 1935 to get them exonerated. And we're going through that process right now. We've got a fundraiser going on for legal expenses. We're doing what we can to make sure that we bring back to Samson name. Tell me about the community what the community means to. People talk about, I mean, black Nova Scotia, African Nova Scotia, Scotia. Yeah.

What does that mean to you? What do you? Well, Scotian, it's a particular culture, man. Like, it really is. Like, I feel like a lot of the black folks in Nova Scotia, like, the ones that are here are true descendants of black refugees. So that means that a lot of, like, folks from the Carolinas, Chesapeake Bay, Caribbean, they came here and settled.

So, like, that culture was able to flourish. And I feel like when I look at the North Preston's or the Preston community, North Preston in particular, that culture, that dialect, that dialect, like that was studied. Like, there's an African, Nova Scotian vernacular English

that was a study that was kind of hand to hand with the African-American vernacular English. And I feel like they were able to kind of preserve that

through the isolation that existed. And it's just really great. Like when you go, anywhere as you go, man, Scotians, Scotians are known, proud.

We're fighters. You know, we don't play around. We keep it real. And I feel like everywhere as you go that Scotians are there because,

like, it just makes it a better place. Like, Scotians made their bones. in L.A., Scotian made her bones in Toronto. Everywhere's that Scotian's a rat man, we represent. You have an amazing story, and people might note some of this. You grew up in public housing here.

That's right. Ended up on the wrong side of the law behind bars a couple of times. And when you were there, I mean, things changed in your life. And the story goes, and I don't know if this is true enough, but the story goes that books ended up in your hands. And the book of Negroes in particular, Larry Hill, Lawrence Hill's book, kind of changed your life. That's right.

You got a smile on your face, as I mentioned that. Tell me about that. Well, I mean, like, I just, I look at my experience with incarceration as a blessing, man, because, like, I, if I didn't go in and take that time to really settle down and kind of understand myself and kind of really kind of look within, like, I don't think I'd be here today. Like, where my life's trajectory at, but when I did have my first or my last time incarcerated, if I would have, if I would have stayed on the street, man, I honestly don't know if I'd be here. So, like, when I got there, like, I thought I had to be this, like, you know, square town soldier, like, really kind of like. Like, you know, be with the people and be with the men's. Tough guy, right?

But as soon as I got there, like, you had a lot of the OGs that's been there for a while, like the real, real killers in there giving me books. Like, and be like, yo, you can, you can chill. Like, real guys, like, handing me opportunities to learn how to play guitar and, like, open up the band room for me and, like, really kind of teach me how to be myself rather than this tough guy I was trying to put on. You say that you found yourself within those walls? Yes.

And so who are you now? I mean, you're a dad? I am of all of them. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you very much. It is. It's hard, man. It's hard.

But it's hard work for a big payoff. That's right. Hard work for big payoff. What have you learned about what it means? I mean, as you said, you went into that situation thinking that that's what it meant to be a man, to be that tough guy. That's right. What have you learned now about what it really means to be a man? On the other side of it as a dad and a partner.

That's right, man. I think, I mean, like, as a black man growing up in Nova Scotia, my generation, like we feel like, like we kind of fall under this thing that we have to be you know super toxic masculine like we just have to be like super tough guy like jail time ain't nothing um you know being in the street and having that relationship of the street and we haven't really been taught any other way like it's either basketball or this it's either sports which is highly competitive and there's there's not a lot of room for you know creative elements like i don't think we've been taught as black men in nova scotia what it means to be creative or like what it kind of means to express yourself and what it means to express yourself and what it means it kind of looked deeper, what it means to really kind of dig deep into your history and the morals of your community. I think it was there at one point, but it got lost. And as I became a father and as I really kind of took that wrote into really being a good human in general, it just made me realize like, wow, like I've been, I haven't been being myself most of my life. And, you know, being in a great partnership, shout it to my wife.

Jules Annie. And being a father, it really helped me understand and be patient with myself and just really just dig deeper and just be authentic. And I feel like I try to do that as much as I came within my music is be authentic and just try to change some of those themes that we kind of grew up with and get people thinking differently about what it actually means, not just to be a man, but just be a community person. A good human, just a good human, man. Like, you know what I mean? just like really, you know, just practice those beliefs, man. It's, it's important, and it's a big payoff at the end. Well, would you want a record like this?

I mean, it's music, but there's history that's kind of running right through this. What would you want that record to say to that next generation? I mean, your family, but also like the next generation of kids, they look up at you and they want to be you. Well, what I hope this record does is I hope it really kind of, it encourages folks to really, you know, look at the bigger people, picture of what community really is. And like I just recently was at Wayne Miff Falls 30th reunion. And what got splashed at me was like community is a common

unity. So I find that my generation, we kind of really, you know, enveloped ourselves in like, I don't know if you know about the wire that show. Yeah. Like all them shows, like the wires, like really, like we just enveloped ourselves in street culture and really kind of took on like that New York kind of like machismo. And I feel like that that, that lens in that way of life and like kind of honing in on that was just, it was, it's, it's, it's, it's detrimental to how we can actually change a lot of the stuff that we need to change within our black communities. Like, I grew up around the drug culture. I grew up around street culture. grew up around sex trafficking. Like all these things that we were kind of taught to really kind of put, like, mind your business. Don't say nothing about it. And like, I'm just, the way I process that was like, well, I don't really want to be silent about this. And I kind of, I massed being tough to kind of, um, to kind of like get through. that and not really pay attention to it and not really do something about it. And I hope that this record really kind of allows us to look at the things that we need to change within our communities and just act on it and really try to make the change

for the next generation because, like, man, like, we got a lot of work to do and staying silent and mind your business about it. It's not going to help. We're going to play Scotia Born. Tell me just quick about this tune. Scotia Born, shout out to Gary Beale. Shout out to Haley Smith. Scotia Born is a song that's really that just puts our call.

to the forefront and really and be proud of that. And I hope that when people hear this Nova Scotians here and Nova Scotians abroad, that it becomes an anthem for them in their everyday life because, you know, I feel like this is an anthem for Scotia. It's fun to write an anthem, man. Straight up. Straight up. I'm glad you're here.

Thank you very much. Thank you, brother. Ladd Sampson is Aquaculture. That album 1783 comes out in February. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cBC.ca.

slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca. slash podcasts.