Kardinal Offishall @ TheRezidue.com

Earlier this week Toronto's own Kardinal Offishall stopped through Atlanta to have a listening session for his new album Not 4 Sale. It was pretty damn dope. And when I say he had a listening session, that's exactly what it was. He put the CD in and just let the entire thing ride from beginning to end, no interruptions.

Over the years, I've either owned or heard most of what he was putting out. Dude been dope, but I don't think alot of cats are up on him like that quite yet. He has a very unique style that blend Hip Hop with Dancehall and Reggae. He has this one song called "Set It Off" featuring the Clipse which is pretty dope. The beat does this sick ish with that bullhorn they be blowing at those flag parties. He also go a dope joint called "Bad Like We Bad" that you hear on the first video in the background. He also has tracks with T-Pain (not no obvious T-Pain ish though), J-Davey and a track he's pondering whether to put Rihanna or Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls on. Overall, the album I heard was dope. In fact, the album is 15 tracks, but I actually felt fulfilled after tracks 11 and 12. He had a sick ass freestyle at the end of the album though that gives some real food for thought. Don't sleep on this dude's album, I think you'll really enjoy it. There are already a few tracks floating around on the web including the lead single "Dangerous" if you wanted to check them out.

Crazy thing is, when I walked in I wasn't sure I was in the right room. Akon and Sean Garret was in there going back and forth listening to tracks trying to figure out what would work for that Ray Lavender dude. All I know is, I didn't hear any Kardinal playing...but they informed me that I was in the right place and the session was starting in 15 minutes.

Anyways, me and Kardinal chopped it up for a few minutes to talk about his new album, responsibility in Hip Hop and his world travels. It came out pretty dope if I should say so myself. Check out the vids and let me know what you think...

Part 2



Random Ass Bonus vid:

In searching for more Kardinal Offishall videos, I effed around and found one that I was in at the end. This was last year during BET Hip Hop Awards weekend. Ludacris, Rawse and Bun B had a video shoot out in the middle of nowhere. I was out there getting quotes and info for this story I wrote for XXL about video directors. I actually forgot "Down In the Dirty" existed.