Meet The Nominees: Kardinal Offishall Does His Best Kanye Impression
Thursday February 16, 2006 @ 12:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Kardinal Offishall

Kardinal Offishall thinks the Rap Recording Of The Year category, in which he's nominated this year, is kind of controversial because everybody is in the same one category. "You can't have a solo indie artist against a group that's on a major label. It's really unfair for the up-and-coming artists," he said. For the last 10 years, Kardinal's pushed the Junos to consider this. They've ignored his pleas so far, but maybe things will change if the rapper wins this year in Halifax.

Kardi is up against heavy hitters K'Naan and Sweatshop Union to name a couple and ChartAttack had the chance to chat with the rapper at the Juno nominees press conference in Toronto on Wednesday.

ChartAttack: We're sick of the whole "Canadian Modesty" thing — can you give us some blatant self-promotion to justify your nomination?
Kardinal Offishall: You guys want me to do a Kanye West? I think I am the best Canadian artist, as far as making a hybrid of different genres and putting it under the umbrella of hip-hop. I don't think anyone else does it as well as I do and therefore I think I deserve that Juno nomination.

If you win, where will you keep your Juno?
At my mom's house with all the rest of the awards. My mom actually has a collection of everything I've ever won so you gotta check my mom's place out if you're gonna try and rob all the awards and put them somewhere.

Which Bryan Adams song best describes you? Why?
Don't ask cause I do not know. Not a clue and I'm not even gonna try. No disrespect to you Bryan, 'cause I grew up on you. As a kid I used to listen to you, but I don't remember.

If you win, what are you gonna do to celebrate?
Probably do what we do every year at the Junos and even before I was on EMI we used to go to the EMI party. If I win, we're gonna go to the EMI party and get very drunk. Eat a little bit, drink a lot. I don't drink beer though. I actually think beer tastes like cold pee and I don't know what pee tastes like, but I'd assume that it would taste like beer. I just got put onto Jagermeister, but I'm a dark rum guy.

Who's the first person you'd call if you won?
It'll probably be my mom 'cause she gets way more excited about these things than I do. Personally, if it wasn't for my mom, I'd probably just be at home with the information. Me and my boys would know and whether we win or lose, either way, it's cool.

Will you prepare a list just in case?
No, because you know, most of the important people will be there with me so the list is not necessary. I'm not one of those guys who has to thank, like, 50 people and the crew and stuff. If I thank everyone that worked with the promotion of the album and everybody that worked on it, I'm good.

Coldplay — honorary Canadian or glory hogs?
I'm gonna go with honorary Canadian only because I can't say anything bad about Coldplay. I think they're the only guys who do that type of music that I can listen to. Their videos are really slick and their songs are really cool, so I'm really excited that they're gonna be at the Junos this year.

Do you watch the Juno's when you're not nominated?
Yes, but that hasn't been very often! That was a Kanye West for ya.

If you win, is there someone in your life who will stop nagging you about your career choice?
No, my mom's pretty happy with the awards I already won.

—Phil Villeneuve