Kardinal Offishall Credits Jamaica In Rise To Senior VP Of A&R At Universal Music Canada
Canadian deejay/rapper Kardinal Offishall took to Twitter to pay homage to Jamaica, the island of his parents’ birth, after creating black history by being named Senior Vice President, A&R, for Universal Music Canada (UMC) yesterday.
The promotion comes seven years after the multi-platinum, award-winning rapper and producer was appointed creative director for the company, which is regarded as one of the biggest and most profitable within the UMG group.
In his new role, Kardinal will continue to undertake his previous duties to discover, sign, and develop new artistes, and, among other things, provide strategic direction to the company.
“This one is for the Toronto kids. It’s for the children of people who immigrated to Canada or the US or the UK, looking for opportunity for their families. This one is for us. To all the dreamers, continue to dream bigger. Live with purpose. And big up Jamaica. Just cah,” the second-generation Jamaican tweeted, adding Jamaica flag icon.
Born in Canada to Jamaican parents, the Dangerous artist has always incorporated Dancehall and Reggae into his recordings and performances, and of course, unapologetically waved the Jamaican flag in his music videos.
No stranger to hard-core Dancehall artists, he also teamed up with Bounty Killer for the duet Sick in 2002, and the single OG with Agent Sasco in 2015.
Kardinal also took to Instagram where, in a much longer post, he elaborated on his success, and heaped praises on those who were instrumental to his ascension.
“Every step of my career, people told me ‘it’ would never happen. People said they’d never take Canadian artists seriously…so I kicked down the door and broke down the fences and the city ran through and we HERE now. They said being a senior level black executive would never happen in Canada-but here I am signing incredible domestic AND international artists and figuring out ways to continue to build an infrastructure that respects and cherishes artists who create music that WE love,” he said.
“This one is for the kids that will grow up and aspire to not only be global superstars, but now who will have aspirations to be executives within the biggest corporations of the land and beyond. Cheers to all my comrades and mentors who have normalized, encouraged, and demanded greatness from me. I will continue to push the boundaries and help eradicate the fallacies of the industry,” he continued.
As he gave thanks to UMG and his colleagues and friends he again hailed the land of Reggae for his success.
“Thank you to my squad at @umusic and to the @umgtfmc. Appreciate every one of y’all. Let’s continue the good work. Last but not least-Jamaica. Because a soh de ting set, yuzeet. One love,” Kardinal, 44, wrote.
Born Jason Harrow in Toronto, Kardinal first came to attention with Hip Hop songs such as BaKardi Slang, Ol’ Time Killin‘ and Maxine.
The Allow Me to Re-introduce Myself artist joined forces with Akon and his Kon Live Music company which had a distribution deal with the major Interscope Records, in 2008. Their collaboration produced the Billboard charting singles Dangerous and Number One.
His own single Dangerous which featured Akon, hit the Billboard Hot 100 charts and peaked in the Top 5, making him the first rapper from Canada to do so.
UMG describes Kardinal as having participated early on in the careers of Rihanna, Alex Da Kid, T-Pain, Vybz Kartel, Estelle, and Sean Paul, and as a cultural and musical ambassador for a new wave of Canadian superstars including Drake, and Daniel Cesar.