TORONTO – With respect to Shad’s award-winning career in cerebral hip-hop, it’s likely many Canadians first heard the 32-year-old’s voice as he played guest host of CBC-Radio’s “Q.”

Now that CBC has named Shad the full-time successor to Jian Ghomeshi, The Canadian Press presents a list of highlights from Shad’s four critically acclaimed albums.

1. “I’ll Never Understand” [from 2005’s “When This Is Over”]

Interweaving chilling spoken-word soliloquies from his grandmother, Bernadette, Shad reflects on the inconceivable horrors of the Rwandan genocide that tore his family apart. With a restrained whisper, he raps: “I’ll never understand how people can go on and live/ The miracle of finding the strength to forgive.”

2. “Brother (Watching)” [from 2007’s “The Old Prince”]

Over a spine-tingling sample of Isley Brothers’ “Brother, Brother,” Shad probes the world’s “crazed infatuation with blackness.” With an eye to his upbringing in London, Ont., he examines the pressure leveraged on young blacks to simultaneously assimilate with their mostly white peers while also proving their stereotypical black bona fides, rapping: “You’re expected to have mastered this smooth swagger and move with the right walk, the right talk, fashion and crews.” Kanye West praised the track on his blog.

3. “The Old Prince Still Lives at Home” [from 2007’s “The Old Prince”]

Here’s Shad at his most lighthearted, rapping through a grin about the rarely hailed pleasures of living with your parents. With a clever “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”-themed video — if only BuzzFeed and Jimmy Fallon were mining nostalgia for viral gold back in 2007! — he gradually comes to simply find cheer in cheapness, including this eternal nugget of post-grad wisdom: “Why get a bed and a couch when you can slouch on a futon instead?”

4. “Yaa I Get It” [from 2010’s “TSOL”]

And here’s your reminder that Shad can flat-out rap with the best of them. Over a flaring beat, he sprints through bars like he’s on a pub crawl, dropping rap-a-tat references to Method Man, Jet Li, Microsoft XP and even fleet-footed outfielder Otis Nixon. He even takes a rare dip in braggadocio, breathlessly testifying to his own status as “Rakim, North Pole edition.” No arguments here.

5. “Fam Jam (Fe Sum Immigrants)” [from 2013’s “Flying Colours”]

Once again, Shad finds fertile creative soil near his family tree. As the sun-dappled guitars make clear, though, this time it’s a celebration. Channelling the open-armed elation of erstwhile family gatherings, he celebrates the hard-cleaved journey of anyone “Third World born but First World formed” who had to find home in the foreign.

— Follow @CP_Patch on Twitter.