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It wasn’t too long ago when Canadian’s finest rhythmic radiating music sensationalist released his latest video, Numba 1 (Tide is High), from his current album Not for Sale featuring ‘the musical flowerchild’ Keri Hilson. The video note and style electrifies the moment the initial star-lighting strobe and beat collide, soon introducing Kardinal’s compelling vocals followed by Keri’s sultry sonant accenting the 40-year old chorus. The audio gripping single infused with Kardinal’s influential brew of hip-hop, reggae, dancehall, and rap emanates from the timelessly seasoned Jamaican jingle later remade by pop icon Blondie in 1980.
Born Jason Harrow with immigrated Jamaican parents, and bred in the West Indian quarter of Toronto, the island beats echo throughout this dance track as music and fashion guise intermingle throughout each frame inevitably revealing I&I’s very own Jason Panton’s aesthetically fluid imprint. The dernier cri of I&I’s summer catalog is stapled with ‘Beat the System.’ The dynamic artistic union comes as no surprise, as ‘Beat the System’ poetically roots, radiates, and respires the Caribbean inspirits and flavor that both Kardinal and Panton hold and exhibit.
The Kardinal Offishall signature animates from the great 17th century politician Cardinal Richelieu, regarded as the Red Eminence and known for his adept and dominating nature…certainly similar traits Kardinal exudes in Numba 1 (Tide is High) along with the rest of the musical compositions on the album. Not 4 Sale, significantly and inventively titled, is meant to provoke. An idea originated by Kardinal a few years ago as a T-shirt with a barcode on it; the album cover, title and paramount nature of the artist resonates throughout. As he says, “My idea was something provocative – that went beyond gender, went beyond race, went beyond what type of music you’re into…There’s energy you can’t buy – the essence of people that can’t be bought or bottled, and lives within them.” Indeed it is the essence of people, the stamp of the spirit which leaks into the moments, the words, lyrics, brush and paint and resounds in our visual representation.
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