Words: Jason Thomas Shutter: Courtesy of Virgin Music Canada

Rapper Kardinal Offishall

Canadian hip hop has seen a healthy resurgence over the past few years, and one of the main architects is none other than Kardinal Offishall. His authentic Jamaican vibe incorporated into his sonic blend of beats and rhymes is unmatched in Canadian hip hop. He’s the only Canadian urban act to appear on BET’s Rap City and he’s worked with Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Pete Rock  Method Man, to name but a few world-class artists that have sought to collaborate with Offishall.

The fall of 2005 marked the release of his third full-length album, Fire & Glory.  Offishall dropped into the Klublife offices to give us the 411 on his new album.

Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall

Klublife: How long did the new album take to put together from start to finish?

Offishall: With my process there is no such thing as starting and finishing, so the cut-off was the summertime, but I am still in the studio right now. So I guess technically speaking, maybe from 2002 ’til now, probably. I mean, I have recorded over 150 songs so I have had to weed through a lot of stuff in order to have a cohesive album. It was something that flowed nicely and made sense.   

Klublife: There are many collaborations on the new album Fire & Glory. Why so many?

Offishall: There is a story behind each collaboration. Like Busta, on the first album, he came and he was searching for me. He ended up finding me when I was in New York on the radio at Hot 97. So we built up the relationship since then it wasn’t just one time, I would always go and check him out in the studio. We would hang out and do our thing. One day we were like, ‘yo, let’s do this record’, and we went in and banged it out. Rene that used to be with Zhané, when the first album came out, it was the same kind of thing. She was hunting me down through Ivana Santilli, however it worked out: she found me and when we went to New York, we were instantly like family. We spent a lot of time together, her, myself, and a DJ from the city, Skimpy. We all would just hang out a lot of the time and we became like family. She actually came up with the concept of the record for “Mr. Officer.” She came up with that concept one day when we were recording in New York at Battery Studio. She said I have this concept called “Mr. Officer” and she started singing her part, and I thought, that’s dope. Why don’t we do it like this, and blah, blah, blah. We just did it.

Klublife: You covered Arrested Development’s “Everyday People” on the new album. What gave you the idea or inspiration to re-record this classic?

Offishall: The Arrested Development version is actually a remix of their song, and that is kind of a hybrid of Bob James and Sly and the Family Stone. So mine is like a hybrid of everything put together, but what I wanted to say originally is that the song never died, it still plays today on the radio. I wanted to do a version of it so new school people could grow up on it the way when we first heard the Arrested Development version we were like, man this is crazy! I want for the new schoolers to be like, I never heard this before, but this is sick. And I want it for the people who already knew about it, or people that went back to the Sly version, to the Bob James drum track, I want for them to be like, ahhh, he brought it back. And really and truly that has been the response out there, because just the other day we were at this Bell Gala and we were sitting at the table and this lady beside us who was 40 to 45  said, “oh what do you do?” So I said I am a rapper. She asked if she would know any of my songs and I said we do have this song on the radio called “Everyday Rudeboy” and she said, yeah, I don’t think I know that song. But she said, “there is this one song that I really like and they play all the time and it is a remake” and she started singing and I am like, yeah, that’s me. And she goes “that’s you? I love that song!” And I said fantastic, just buy the album when it comes out. But that is what I think is dope. It is really across the board. Everybody can enjoy it and with my music because I am such a maniac everybody can enjoy my music all the time, because sometimes it is a bit over the top for maybe people in their late 40s to get into but it is cool that I have one joint that everybody can enjoy no matter what age you are. ’Cause hip hop is definitely a youth-driven culture, but at the same time it is cool when the older heads can get into it and appreciate it too.

Klublife: Can you tell us a little about the Chocolate Factory?

Offishall: We also used to do stuff out of the Chocolate Factory, which was the Choclair Studio, and Ivana Santilli used to have her studio right next door. So I have to big up my man Solitaire, because he was the one that first started collaborating with her. He would play me a couple of bits and I would say where did you get that sample from? And he would say ‘no’, Ivana played that. This was not even the horns, it was some keys, strings and other stuff. So when I brought her into the studio I said, “look I have this idea,” and again, she played on many different tracks that we did. But this “Last Standing Soldier” one where she played the horns, I kind of mapped it out for her and then she went in and played it and layered it, so it sounds like a nice little horn section—but it is actually just her harmonizing with herself. Crazy, ’cause you get a lot of reggae heads that say “I really love that tune” and say “who is the guy that is playing the horns?” I say, “That’s a white girl from Toronto. That is an Italian from Toronto playing those horns.” Ivana Santilli, she always represents crazy.   

The spring of 2006 will mark not only the third full-length album for Kardinal entitled Fire & Glory but keep an eye and an ear out, as you will be surprised to see what he has up his sleeve. Kardinal has many surprises for 2006, many of which you will be blown away by!

Kardinal Offishall's new album, Fire & Glory