9. Kardinal Offishall
[Editor’s Note: Kardinal did not list himself as one of the great Jamaican MCs for the purposes of this article, but we took the liberty of using some of his commentary from yesterday’s “Heds and Dreds” interview to illustrate his qualifications].
In terms of hip-hop, anybody that has had any longevity has not been a one-dimensional MC. Nobody… And that’s kind of where I’ve always been…In terms of the dancehall rude boy thing, that’s just me, who I am as a person. I have been blessed with the opportunity to live in whatever world that I feel at the time. Everyday is not a Jordans-and-T-shirt day, you know? Sometimes, if I’m in a crazy, remote, international location, you might feel you’re fly like Slick Rick, and throw on your suits, and your gold chain and your Ballys or Clarks… For me, music definitely reflects life, and I am blessed to be able to live in a lot of different worlds, and do it well. When I first linked Akon, he told me like that’s the reason I am drawn to you—because you can murder anything. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on a Lady Gaga remix, or rocking with Spragga Benz. That’s been a blessing to me.