On Saturday February 21st, Canada’s very own Kardinal Offishall rolled into town with opening MC Shaun Boothe, also a fellow Canadian. We were fortunate enough to be invited by Live Nation to attend the event. The night started off a slightly delayed, but the venue was definitely getting packed in and there was a semi-Caribbean vibe to it all.
Shaun Boothe kicked things off by welcoming everybody with his rendition of the Canadian National Anthem, which starts off in the manner that we’re all familiar with but quickly changes to a hip-hop version with bangin’ beats. For those not familiar with Shaun Boothe, he’s best known as a dope freestyler, as well he’s known for his “Unauthorized Biography” series, which not only Killahbeez, but thousands of hip-hop blogs out there have given love to as it is one of the most creative things out there, if you’ve never seen it, then check it here. On this night we were treated to him doing the “Unauthorized biography of Bob Marley”, which is the second one in the series. He also dropped his joint “The Reporter” on all the heads out there, check out the music video for the song. His set would end on that note.
Moments went by, when the lights dimmed and the heads in the house knew that Kardinal was about to hit the stage. For all of you that don’t know or have never seen Kardinal Offishall live, well then, let me just tell you this ain’t your average hip-hop concert, as Kardi is known to get live and keep the energy up throughout the whole show. Tonight was no different. He came out hitting folks from all sorts of angles with his energy and quickly going through his rhymes only to switch it up briefly to M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, and members of the Black Jays, Ro Dolla and Solitaire, joining him on stage as his hypemen. From there they went into CLASSIC Kardi joints such as “Money Jane”, which the original track featured Sean Paul, and doing his chorus on the hood anthem by the Clipse “Grindin’”.
From there he would hit the crowd with tracks from his current album Not 4 Sale. Pretty much getting the crowd wildin’ as he dropped “Burnt” and “Numba 1″. He would honestly keep the crowd live all night, as he once again changed it up and had his DJ change up the pace and play a medley of hip-hop joints such as DMX’s “Party Up”, Bell Biv Devo’s “Poison”, Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” and a few other tracks.
There was no doubt fans of Kardi were leaving the concert satisfied this evening, because like always he brought an energy that is generally lacking at live hip-hop shows. As usual Live Nation does a great job in producing the concert so be sure to hit up www.livenation.com for a list of upcoming shows in your city. Check out some of the songs that were referenced below.
Pictures can all be found on our flickr page.
Kardinal Offishall ft. Keri Hilson “Numba 1″
Shaun Boothe “The Reporter”
