Yes yes y’all! It’s time for another edition of The Come Up Show Podcast. Every two weeks, we’re dropping a new podcast with one of your favourite hip-hop artists. Last time around, we sat down with Rich Kidd. This time, we go one-on-one with Canadian hip-hop legend Kardinal Offishall.
We begin by talking about Kardinal’s career beginnings with the Figurez of Speech crew and later the Circle. He tells us, “at that time, that’s all I had – music – to express everything. That was probably one of the last real times that music was just pure, unadulterated vibes and that’s it, you know what I’m saying?”
Kardinal Offishall tells us about how his upbringing instilled humility in him: “Sometimes it’s true, we lived in places that might’ve had roaches, but as parents did, they tried to make things better and better for us […] Coming from those times until now, it’s always kept me grounded, and I think that humility is what has led me to have a lot of good long-term relationships in the industry and has kept me relevant for so long.”
We talk about how performing for Nelson Mandela as a 12-year-old shaped him, and how Mandela’s words last with him until this day – especially when it comes to being honest in the lyrics he writes. “I would rather expose all of my flaws along the journey, so that people that are also going through the same things and making the same mistakes can say, ‘oh shit, if Kardinal went through that, then I don’t feel so bad going through the same thing,’ and they can take that journey with me to becoming a better person,” says Kardinal.
Later, he tells us what he feels the recipe to timeless music is: “I could just say for me, when I’m creating, I try and innovate […] at the end of the day, timeless music is music that is able to capture a certain energy, a certain vibe, and a unique vibe – that’s very important to timeless music.”
We talk about all that and plenty more. Listen below (and read along here).
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