Sometimes when people hold that carrot in front of the horse, when you have that opportunity to make millions some artist are like “Man I have to change focus”. Yet at the end of the day the music is the foundation and if your music is not bangin’ it will cut short every part of your career. I think that its up to us to, instead of having this little sidebar conversations about……….

Enter Kardinal Offishall….

illRoots.com: How did you get the name Kardinal Offishall?

Kardy: I mean really truly I wish there was a glamour and glitz real exciting shit to tell you but it was really just being bored in high school. We had studied this one dude by the name of Cardinal Richelieu and he was, in our day, considered a terrorist. The thing that was ill was that he was able to keep control of his kingdom by something called The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu and basically the things that I took from his political testament I kind of took and put on my life with a positive spin on it. Really truly that is initially where the “Kardinal” came from I just put the “Offishall” on it because thats what everything I do in life I want to be “Official” and have that stamp.

illRoots.com: One song to summarize your entire life?

Kardy: [LAUGHS] I don’t really know if I made that song yet.

illRoots.com: No, if I said Hallway and mine is Al Green “Let’s Stay Together”

Kardy: Oh..at this point and time I would say Andre 3000’s verse from Royal Flush.

illRoots.com: [laughs] Okay just that one verse?

Kardy: Listen that dude is so ill, when I heard that verse I was like WOWWW. He just said a lot of things, he expressed a sentiment that I had felt for along time. I just felt like he was able to communicate that so dope. So definitely Andre’s verse from Royal Flush.

illRoots.com: One Good Book.

Kardy: I’m reading a few right now. One that’s not that new but I haven’t read it before, its Nelson George’s Hip Hop America. Another one I have is called Fidel Castro A Spoken Autobiography, it’s by Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet, so that’s another one you should check out.

illRoots.com: I’ve noticed the records that you and Akon have been spitting out, give me a back story about how this came to be?

Kardy: Well I’ll tell you honestly and I don’t know why I’m actually sharing this with somebody but this is the first time I’ve actually shared this. The first even involvement with Akon was through a dude that works at Universal, actually a good family friend, who goes by the name Kirk Harding. He heads up International over there. I remember years back he was trying to send Akon up to Caribana. For those that don’t know about Caribana it’s the ill Caribbean parade that we have hear [referring to Toronto] every 1st week in August. Over a million people come up to the city. So for a couple years in a row Kirk was trying to send up Akon but he could never get past customs. So that was kind of always the joke, because of his record he could never able to get up here at that time. So that was really the first dealings I had with him. Then we collaborated on a song called “Kill the Dance” that was produced by Supa Dups and that was on the rerelease of his first album. So that came out and did very well, sold a lot of units internationally.

Supa Dubs & Kardinal Offishall

That was the first time we collaborated. Then kind of since then Akon is an international dude and travels all over the place and so do I. So everywhere he’d go people would be like
“Yo, you ever hear this guy Kardinal?..blah blah blah” and he said that he was following my career for a while. Then in 2005 that was really when he stepped to me just artist to artist we had a mutual respect for each other and he told me what he was trying to do with his career and his label. He was telling me about his new artist T-Pain that he was about to pop off and just showed me his vision. I showed him my vision and where I would like to go in this music thing and I prayed on it and it really truly became one of the best career moves for me both as an artist and as just as a man in general.

illRoots.com: What’s your take on Art & Commerce?

Kardy: Be a little bit more specific.

illRoots.com: Well I think right now one of the big things with Music is the musicality in it as well as the business. Now people make “club beats” instead of just making a song, so I think a lot the organic side of the music is sort of gone. I think that has a direct correlation with Art and Commerce.

Dangerous feat. Akon

Kardy: You know its interesting there is a really dope interview that was about ½ an hour long with, of all people , Q-Tip about a lot of those scenarios. Its real interesting because the lines are so blurred right now. There is a thing called “The State of Anomie” look it up. What that is to where all laws that govern how we function, when anything goes, and there is no rules to how we rock. When anything goes then everything goes to chaos. So its like 15 years ago in the game somebody could never EVER, dance for chicken for KFC because you would be looked at as a sellout. Whereas now really and truly how the game has flipped upside down on its ass as long as your making money and selling units or whatever, whatever its kind of like anything goes. Then if you disagree with that your kind of looked at as a hater. Right now its interesting because a lot of punk bitches and sucka’s have taken that term and made it something its not so they can get away with garbage. A lot of times as rapper as singers we take things and want to flip things so it works in our advantage. I look at it differently because if I am able to offer constructive criticism for something its out of love for the music. If I didn’t care about Hip-Hop and I didn’t care about what we are doing and how we work then I think things could be different and for sure anything can go. Yet when Hip-Hop music helps how you raise your children, helps how you see religion, it helps the way in which you walk and what to wear while your walking and something that is that important to you I think that we need to be able to offer our opinions and it not be looked at as hate. The thing about art and commerce is right now the labels are even spin-doctoring it, you know what I’m saying, big-up my label Interscope/Kon-live obviously but the thing is their roles are starting to shift because what used to drive the labels is no longer driving them.So now their trying to shift the fans attention to something else that’s why your having the birth of these ringtone artists. Its not that all of sudden these artists started catering to ringtone market. Its that a lot of the major corporations that are behind these artists, this is a lot of the time where they are making their money. So unfortunately as long as your with a major, whatever drives those finance departments that’s unfortunately going to be reflected in the music. But I do think there is definitely still people that are making some music just for the music. For example big up my man Busta Rhymes because when I was in LA about a month ago and he was playing me his “Back on my Bullshit” album [or Blessed as it was change], like I was definitely blown away by it. If you know anything about Busta the fucking Dungeon dragon Busta, that’s the fucking Busta we all wanted to see come back. The shit that I heard from him it just made me feel good because obviously myself I want to have the same affect on people but to hear people like Busta that are going back to

illRoots.com:..What it WAS

Kardy: Exactly, with a lot of energy and that creative type music and some other artists that it just made me see that there are artists who really do care about the music. Sometimes we grow in this music thing and as artists sometimes we loose focus. Sometimes when people hold that carrot in front of the horse, when you have that opportunity to make millions some artist are like “Man I have to change focus”. Yet at the end of the day the music is the foundation and if your music is not bangin’ it will cut short every part of your career. I think that its up to us to, instead of having this little sidebar conversations about it with other artists or sometimes off the record with magazine writers and stuff like that we need to bring that stuff to the table and talk about. For me this stuff belongs to all of us so if we just watch the bar steady be lowered, its hurting every music. No matter what type of music, East Coast, West Coast, down south whatever.

illRoots.com: So how did you feel creating this album?

Kardy: For me creating this album, all the collaborations I did ,I believe, are with people who helped me raise the bar. Because raising the bar is a hard thing to do, but I think there is strength in numbers. Even the people that didn’t necessarily make this album, you know you can have so many people on one album. Its like I’ve recorded with everybody from De La Soul to Rhianna to J. Davey to Estelle, so many people. On the album the people who made it like the Clipse are my favorite example. There is a lot of emcees out there that are talking that “pushing weight, selling weight, still in the streets” yet somehow I’m on MTV type stuff. Everybody talks that crazy crack rap but to me the Clipse are so ill at the way they do it that it makes you want to put on your black hoodie and go out and try to push some weight. I appreciate just the way they do it. From the first time when we did the “Grindin’” remix to where they blessed me with that opportunity I definitely wanted to show that back and we have a joint called “Set It Off” that if you know anything about myself or Pusha or Malice we try to step up that bar game and we smashed out something crazy.

Graveyard Shift feat. Akon

Then there is a joint on the album that I have with Estelle that was produced by Akon called “Do Me A Favor” and when you look at a joint like that is really just me looking at what its like living in the hood. I mean I just bought my first house just a few months ago. So my existence from up to about a few months ago was one where I was still in the neighborhood and I definitely still felt the vibe, I’m not one of those dudes where I’m like this the turf where I’m representin’ blah..blah..blah. The area that I grew up in is definitely dope because there is a lot of West Indians, Italians, and really just a lot of working class people. A joint like “Do Me A Favor” speaks of the struggles of everyday life. The first verse starts off like

I’m speedin’ down the highway with a blindfold on/ no hands on the wheel/ hoping god will lead me my way/ and I know he will/ so my grandma say/ but I/ feel the sweat from the sun/ cuz I work construction/ and I gotta take care of my son/ I got one in the oven on the way/ rent late/ 2 months/ and my land lord talk too much.

You know what I’m saying that’s stuff that the everyday dude can feel. One important thing that I mention from time to time that Rhymefest showed me a few years back is that people talk about “reality rap” or what have you but the reality of the situation in any hood that you go through no matter where you are when you walk out there on the street no matter where you are, you are going to see way more janitors, way more teachers, way more bankers, way more people that do that regular job. Then you see those infamous drug dealing heroes that we talk about so much. We got those in the hood but there is a small number of those people in the hood and for a reason because they don’t necessarily live to see a good ole age or a lot of them are in jail. I really keep that in my back pocket as an artist because its cool as escapism but sometimes they want to know that you come from where they come from and that you made it but at the same time you have to relate from them. So just because I’m on TV doesn’t mean I don’t go through the same things that you go through. To me that’s what made hip-hop so ill. Growing up listening to Cube to Nas to Biggie a lot of shit that those guys were talking about is paths that we were all walking.

illRoots.com: Right, you don’t really see that know. I’m a regular ass dude. A student graduating in 2 weeks and I have a 4 year old I’m raising so a lot of times when I look at MTV Jams I get kind of bored because I can’t relate to that. Now that YO MTV Raps is back on for a little it breaks the monotony. Yet it also illustrates the difference because you go from

“38-24-37, you and me hon, we’re a match made in heaven/I like to kiss you where some brothas won’t/I like to tell you things some brothas don’t/If only you can see through your elaborate eyes/Only you and me hon, the love never dies”

To

“I’m bout Monnneeeyyyyyyyyy, I’m bout Moneeyyyyyy/I’m on that chase for the Pappperrr”

And its so funny to me. Honestly I think hip-hop is only dead to the people who think its dead. I still see people who are doing good music. You have to did to find good music so it becomes MY HIP-HOP again and less universal. So you can be like “Yo you heard of Giant Panda” and people be like naw, “Man you gotta check them out”.

Kardy: No doubt and that’s one of the dope things about hip-hop. When it was coming up a lot of things were based on codes, not necessarily the code of the streets but you had to be able to decipher the codes in order to be into hip-hop.

illRoots.com: It was local.

Kardy: Right, it wasn’t acceptable to just any and everybody to be a true hip-hop fan you couldn’t just go out there and be able to know everything in 20 minutes you had to work for it and that’s what’s kind of dope right now. You have access to a lot of the bullshit but at the same time you have access to whatever you want. So right now there is just a lot of avenues that have been created so that different types of music in the genre can get out there. The one thing that I think we need to realize is that the demographic of hip-hop is growing up too. You can’t just expect for hip-hop to be however old it is lets say 30 years old and expect that everybody that is still listening to it is still 17 years old. Its has to be able to grow, we have to have the crazy club genre we have to have the genre of The Cool Kids, and a Kanye but at the same time I have to be able to have The Games and Fat Joes. That’s the one thing that has to be important we definitely have to have some balance if not than all the crazy, superficial hip-hop that’s based on money and girls and clubs. Its not like that shit is brand new its just that we don’t offer the balance. We don’t offer the other side right now. If we do its very limited. That’s why when we get a Talib Kweli coming out with his recent song when he went to Africa…

illRoots.com: Hostile Gospel.

Kardy: Exactly, joints like that they shine alittle bit more. Not because that not dope but because there is so few things like that out in the market. That’s all it is we just need more balance. With me and my album “Not 4 Sale” its just me and a furthering of me as a person. There is some people who really put on that character. 50 Cent is not necessarily the same person as Curtis Jackson. I’m sure there is some fundamental differences. I’m sure Jay-Z and Shawn Carter is not the exact same person. Not to say Kardinal is not the same person as Jason but at the end of the day I feel what I write about is really just an extension of what it is that I’m going through. That’s why I’m able to have joint named “Dangerous” because I’m come from a place that has crazy fly women. We have some of the illest clubs in the world and some of the illest DJ’s.

www.myspace.com/kardinaloffishall

Then again at the same time I have a joint like “Digital Motown” that is produced by Jake One that features J. Davey. We created a phenomenal joint on my album. It’s got that title because its got that feel of the old Motown but at the same time we are taking it to the future. Really and truly people complain that hip-hop is dead to me I would rather just create that balance. That is what the whole album is about is how I think about things and I how I feel about things and those are “Not 4 Sale”. You can’t just offer me money, don’t get me wrong I see the importance of selling records but there has to be a proper balance. Big up to Akon for that because he was able to let me do my craft yet have it be something marketable. Sometimes that’s where we fail in hip-hop. People say like “Oh Man that guy is crazy, but how come is albums aren’t selling”. Sometimes they aren’t able to market these people there are always those exceptions like your Lupe’s and your Common’s or even a Kanye. There is always people who slip through the cracks.Sometimes hip-hop can be a bit to extreme as well. Where your either in the club setting a pile of money on fire or a crazy geeked out Backpacker.

illRoots.com: Yea where your protesting in front of a library.

Kardy: [Laughs] Yea like that’s the thing it doesn’t always have to be extreme. Sometimes you’d be surprised when you talk to a lot of people just like how when Jay-Z revealed that Talib was one of his favorite emcee’s in the game. I’m sure that took a lot of us back. That’s the reality of things just because your Jay-Z doesn’t mean you can’t get into Common or Talib.

illRoots.com: True.Why does hip-hop throw these invisible walls up it seems like music in every genre seems to have a barrier of some type.

Kardy: You know sometime we are forced to settle. Don’t mind the wackness of the story but I believe it was the grass hopper in the jar with the lid on it. The grasshopper keeps jumping and hitting his head on the lid. Then after so much you remove it and it doesn’t jump because it is scared to hurt itself. People are afraid to jump. That’s kind of how hip-hop is right now we are in that lid to where we have that ability to jump out and that lid has been taken off a long time ago. Yet forever whatever reason, ignorance, in the real sense of the word, where we just don’t know any better. We just keep limiting ourselves that is the ill thing I respect about other genres is that if Madonna wants too she can come fuck with Hip-Hop then jump right back and do something with whomever else. But if Hip-Hop does that “Ahhh, that Nigga’s sellin’ out. How can he do it”, that’s crazy shit to me. But I think its dope because what we are doing its shining a mirror on ourselves and finding out what we want hip-hop to be and not what they want hip-hop to be.

illRoots.com: Where there is such an extreme right there is always going to be a wanting for that middle or mean if you will and I don’t know if people really know what they want but to find that medium is hard.

Kardy: Well you know what I see that it is an ill time, and I think for anything to grow it has to be totally burned down and created again straight from the ground up. Its like a lot of regimes that were running shit for a while are taking a back seat. Its scary being an artist that’s in that but at the same time its refreshing because there is hope and opportunity out there. We saw with 50 and Kanye it was something that was healthy because I’m telling you 50 went back and re-examine himself. Where it looked like 50 had the complete machine behind we definitely don’t know whats going to happen right now. That’s why we have people coming out looking like these kids that are from Native Tongues reminding me of the Jungle Brothers and the Tribe’s. These guys are kind of creating a definite void that’s been missing. I think that that is really ill. The one thing that I hate is that “I don’t even listen to hip-hop anymore.” If you really cared about hip-hop like how you should and how hip-hop has benefited your life and the ones that you love. Then you should never say I don’t listen to hip-hop that’s some weak shit.

illRoots.com: Its like a coach saying Mid season to like the Dolphins..”Man I don’t fuck with yall no more. My new team is the Patriots”

Kardy: Exactly, that’s a perfect example like the Knicks fans. Even when they suck they love them. It would be like the owner of the team saying “Yea I own the team, but I got all my money on Lebron”. That would never happen no matter how shit the team. That’s our responsibility as artist to pull it out. If you think its wack do your best to help to cultivate the culture.

illRoots.com: Thanks Big homie. As always man go out and support good music and Check out illRoots.com Family…Kardinal Offishall he’s the fucking truth. Real Words. Hallway I’m Out…

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