While some may not recognize Kardinal Offishall by name, many of us have already shaken our booties to him. Best known for his recent hit single from this album, "Dangerous" featuring Akon, Offishall has a lot of potential as an up and coming artist.
Though the CD borders on having a clichéd dance rap sound, Offishall brings his own flavor to an almost repetitive genre, and many of the tracks sound entirely different from one another.
Jamaican born, Offishall infuses a certain reggae sound into many of the tracks, most notably in "Nina," a slower, happy song that makes me want to take off my shoes and grow out some dreadlocks.
This influence is again present in his second single off the album "Numba 1 (Tide is High)" which features Rihanna. However, this track has a much harsher sound, and is not as easy to listen to as "Nina," nor is it as catchy as "Dangerous." In fact a change in the track half-way through was necessary, because quite honestly it hurt began to hurt my brain a little.
Dance song "Digital Motown," may have actually been a better choice as the second single, as it combines a catchy female vocalist hook with an easy to beat to dance to.
Some tracks on the album, such as "Bad like We Bad," actually are just bad songs, combining way too many laser noises with island sounding beats, to the effect of sounding like a Jedi battle in the Bahamas.
So while the tracks of this album may not exactly be breaking down any new walls in the realm of hip-hop, Kardinal Offishall is an artist definitely worth at least giving a listen.
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