Toronto Urban Music Festival 2009

Showing another piece of his heart, Kardi expresses his hope for his music. “More times, really and truly, I really pray sometimes that the people get it. That they listen, and not just listen and get it, but they put the good vibes out and take the jewels I am trying to give them”.

And this time, it is all the more possible. After being signed to MCA alongside The Roots, Common, and Black Star, the release of Firestarter Volume 1 (a recompilation of previously released and demo tape tracks), things were looking positive. With momentum building, Firestarter Volume 2 finished, and a video for the Neptunes produced “Bellydancer” single almost complete, it all fell apart. The label was eventually dismembered and the artists were scattered leaving Kardinal on Geffen, a label ill prepared for his project. Summing up the situation he states, “Some artists just get shelved for a minute, like Saukrates at Warner. I went through the worst-case scenario with everything: everything that could go wrong, went wrong”.

However, about a month after the debut of the “Kardi’s Corner” mixtape joint on the Traffic Flow Mix Show, he would make a live appearance on the show with some positive news. He had just left the offices of EMI Canada and had completed negotiations for the release of his album across Canada, while allowing for him to sign deals with other labels for international releases. Without any figures being mentioned, it was clear that the money was right.

“I am just kind of pleased that we were able to do something that made sense with a Canadian label”, he commented. Reflecting on the history of his relationship to the domestic industry, he added, “we had been shut down at the time, because, number one, Canadian labels didn’t have any belief in me and I don’t know if they necessarily backed Hip Hop like they should have”. Kardinal will be the first to admit that there is room to grow, citing stagnation in the upper-echelon of industry decision makers as a major problem, but he also points to personal responsibility in an international marketplace that goes far beyond the localized viewpoint of most artists. “There is a common frustration among a lot of Canadian Emcees, but to tell you the honest truth, a lot of times what people ‘feel’ as a limit, is a limit they put on themselves; it’s like the grasshopper within the jar, sometimes they don’t see when the lid is taken off”.

With the album finished, and set to be released in November across the country, Kardinal sits in position few of his peers have enjoyed. Even so, his sentiment is that, “I haven’t reached nowhere yet, in terms of where I am trying to go to”.

While his vision is far beyond what he has achieved thus far, in Kardi’s eyes, he is at a point where things are coming together: “A couple of years ago, I thought that I had lost my faith, because I kept questioning God saying, ‘why is this stuff happening to me?’ It’s crazy because I’ve kind of had a rebirth of my faith, and believe that everything that happens to me, God does for a reason, cause I see everything that I went through and I am standing on the other side, I can see that God put certain things in my life so I could learn from it and it would make me stronger”.

Closing his reflection on all that he and those surrounding him have survived in death, illness, and unexpected disappointments, he confesses that, “People ask me how I’m doing… honestly, I can’t complain. I’m at a really good place in life because my eyes are wide open and my heart is wide open”. W