Kardinal Offishall – March/April 1998
Style: Kardinal sin
Line-Up: Kardinal Offishall (rapping, programming) with various F.O.S. crew members
Contact: Mansa Trotman, Warner/Chappell Music Canada, 85 Scarsdale Rd., # 101, Don Mills, ON M3B 2R2 (416) 445-3131. FAX (416) 445-2473
Number one is where he’ll end up. Signed to a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music Canada, 20-year old Jason Harrow, a.k.a. Kardinal Offishall, blends soul, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and a wholly inventive approach to beats on his 21-track debut album, Eye & I. The streetwise Toronto-based rapper received a Juno nomination for his contribution to Beat Factory’s 1996 Rap Essentials Vol. 1 compilation. A remixed version of the cut, “Naughty Dread”, retitled “Knatty Dread Part 2″ appears on Eye & I. Make no mistake this rapper is an original. His beats vary from the menacing to the earthy to the other-worldly to the sexy; his raps trip off the tongue, hard, witty, real, clever. Pay your respects to “Break Down (Keep Movin’)”, “On Wit Da Show” (featuring Denosh), “Da Brown”, “P.W.O.T.”, “Mysteries”, “She’s My Nigga” and “Madmoiselle”. Produced by Kardinal Offishall, much of the album was recorded, engineered and mixed by Neville ‘Gadget’ Campbell at Studio 306. Additional recording was done at Cherry Beach Studios with engineer Rick Andersen and assistant Pino Halili.