ENFIELD: The rest of Canada seems to be getting the message that Enfield rapper/hip-hop artist Classified is the real deal after he earned three Juno Award nominations.

The nominations were announced March 3, for the awards gala, which will be held to honour the best in Canadian music April 18, at Mile One Centre, in St. John’s, NL. The event will culminate the week-long event and be broadcast nationally on CTV.

Classified, also known as Luke Boyd, is nominated in single of the year, rap/hip-hop recording of the year and video of the year categories.

While he expected to be nominated in the rap/hip-hop recording of the year, he never imagined earning nominations for single and video of the year.

“It was pretty exciting news. We were kind of waiting to hear,” Class told The Weekly Press. “My manager was up at the press conference and he was texting me as the nominations were announced. We got the hip-hop one, we kind of felt we would get that one. We knew we were doing a lot more then a lot of artists in hip-hop this year. To get the single and the video, those two are really surprising. It’s crazy to be in that group of people like Michael Buble. I can’t wait to get there for the Juno weekend over in Newfoundland.”

The Sony Music artist is up against Buble and Drake amongst others in single of the year, while rising star Serena Ryder is amongst his challengers in video of the year. Drake, who Class says, is the biggest artist in the world for hip-hop.

“If I win one I’m good,” he added. “I’ve been nominated a couple times before so if I can pick up one I would be pretty happy. I think we have a pretty good chance at the video award. The hip hop and single ones could be tough because I’m going against Drake. If we get the video one I’d be pretty happy about that.”

The nominations come in the wake of the video Oh! Canada, filmed with 300 fans in Halifax less than a month ago, going gold. Classified, who owns his own independent record label company HalfLife Records, said in a couple weeks the video will likely be certified platinum.

“It’s my first gold record ever and I’ve been putting records out for 10 years now,” he said. “To finally get that status and I get the little plaque for my wall, I’m pretty excited. I think timing had a lot to do with it, with the Olympics and everything. Everything just fell into place and it just made sense. I couldn’t be more excited with the gold, almost platinum, record.”

Currently, Classified is halfway done a new album, performing at many shows, including a trip that will see him go to New York. And of course he just recently was among the featured acts at Halifax for Haiti, held at the Halifax Metro Centre.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of festivals in the summer,” Classified said. “I’m mostly going to be staying at home recording this album and I have a new baby on the way so there are a lot of things I’m trying to get done on the home front first.”

He did say for fans to stay tuned that he has something coming, however he couldn’t divulge the exact details.

“We’re working on something, but we can’t announce it yet until it is confirmed,” Classified said. “It’s going to definitely be the biggest show I’ve ever done in Halifax.”

phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com