Kardinal Offishall officially has his own capsule collection. The iconic Toronto artist linked up with urbancoolab, an artificial intelligence fashion platform to create his “Firestarter” line. The collection is meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his second album, Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1.
The designs were done by STiCH, the company’s robo-designer, who created an array of pop culture-themed pieces that play on Kardi’s hits including “BaKardi Slang” and “Husslin,” which appear on tees, hoodies and sweatpants. Many of the pieces also pay tribute to Offishall’s Caribbean heritage, featuring Jamaican Ting soda bottles. He posted about the collection on Instagram, writing: “THESE ARE A LIMITED RUN!!! SHARE WITH THE MANS DEM AND YOUR GIRLS!!! THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO COPPED ALREADY!”
Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1 recently won the first edition of CBC’s Canada Listens, championed by Kathleen Newman-Bremang. “It’s an honour to have an album that is so special to me win the first ever Canada Listens,” Kardinal Offishall told the CBC. “This album was created during a time when Black artists from Canada had a difficult time being taken seriously internationally … never mind rap artists!”
In another interview with Tom Power on CBC’s Q, Kardi reflected on the album’s legacy while sporting a hoodie from his collection. He reminisced about how “Ol’ Time Killin’” was “the biggest key that unlocked so many levels.”
“It’s like a video game,” he said. “You know when you get that secret code and all of a sudden it just unlocks all these levels that you never heard about or you didn’t know existed? That’s exactly what “Ol’ Time Killin’” was for me.”
The Kardinal Offishall x urbancoolab “Firestarter” collection is available for purchase now via urbancoolx.com. You can check out images of Offishall modeling the items below.
