[Interview] Kardi
My high school basketball coach has been putting me on to new music since he was my camp counselor almost thirteen years ago. Sometimes the music is good, sometimes not so much, but generally I trust his opinions. Last week, he sent me a Mediafire link to a mixtape by someone named Kardi with one line: “This kid is my manager (for his team). You have to listen to I Hate Prep School.”
I was a bit dubious at first, but after listening to Kardiology back to front a few times, I was hooked. Kardi was gracious enough to take time away from his senior spring to conduct an interview with us.
CotP: Let’s start with the basics: Where are you from? Where does the name Kardi come from? What are you doing when you’re not rapping? How did you end up at boarding school in Massachusetts?
Kardi: I’m from the Bronx, New York, but for the past couple of years I’ve been up in prep school in New England. I got my name Kardi from a nickname I had when I was living in Mt. Vernon; my government name is kinda hard to pronounce, so my friends started calling me Kardi. Besides rapping, I go to school, play varsity football, buy clothes, and watch Seinfeld. I do homework from time to time too. I ended up in boarding school through a program called Prep for Prep based in New York City for bright students from the inner city. After about a year of the program, they place you into a boarding school, and here I am.
CotP: How were you first introduced to rapping? What made you want to rap growing up? Has there been an individual who has had a personal influence on your development as a rapper?
Kardi: I grew up in the South Bronx in the 90s, so besides Dominican music, rap is all you really hear. I only listened to Hot 97, and when I was like 4, I was already knew all the songs on the radio by heart. So for me rapping was really seamless, it kinda happened naturally. I tell people [I started at age] 7, but I’m sure I started rapping before even then. When I was growing up, (besides the girls) Jay really made me wanna rap. As a kid, you can hear in his records that he just has poise and a certain control when he’s on the mic that almost no one else has. I can’t lie, when “Vol. 2: (Hard Knock Life)” dropped, I studied it. I wanted to rap just like Jay, so hands down, he’d be the influence on my development.
CotP: Where did the “Best Rapper Under 18” title come from?
Kardi: A lot of people have asked me this. It’s self-proclaimed, I have no problem admitting that. I believe that I am the best MC in my age bracket, so pretty much anyone born in the 90s. I listen to albums and mixtapes from rappers my age back to front, and lyrically, there is no rapper out there who compares to me from a lyrical standpoint, or can do what I do. It may sound conceited or pompous, and it probably is. But I wouldn’t bother rapping if I didn’t believe I was the best, and I say it on a lot of records to let people know that no one is better than me. When people first heard me say that, they thought I was ridiculous, and some people still do, but the number of people who say that has gone down drastically, so I must be doing something right.
CotP: Who handled your production on Kardiology? What is your recording set-up like?
Kardi: Besides the beats that were from other peoples’ songs, all the production was in-house; me and my friend Thiz from BC did all of the beats. Our entire production and recording set-up is very low budget: me and Thiz make the tracks on laptops using FL Studio, then we record using an old 8 track recorder we have. My “vocal booth” is a closet in a room in a Harlem brownstone my friend lives in; he’s the “engineer” of the “studio,” all the equipment is his. Obviously, we’re three kids, so we don’t have thousands of dollars to rent a studio. The music comes out dope, so that’s all that really matters.
CotP: Who do you consider to be your biggest influences as rappers? Is there a rapper whose flow or lyrical content you emulate or look up to?
Kardi: I kind of touched on this already, but Jay-Z to me is the paragon of lyricism. [Growing up] I would literally study his albums the way a student studies a textbook. I learned how to manipulate words and use different flows from his early works. There’s lines from his albums you won’t really get until you go back and listen to again. And people have told me the same thing about my tracks, so it’s pretty evident. I got older and stopped “studying” him, but he definitely was a big part of me learning how to rap.
CotP: Over the last few years, rap production has evolved in a few different directions, all incorporating different genres of music, including pop and electronic dance music. This is something you’ve embraced on Kardiology, rapping over beats and samples from MGMT, Lady GaGa and Wale among others. Is this evolution something you’re conscious of in production? Where do you see rap going over the next decade?
Kardi: Yea, my friends say I may be too conscious, haha. I want to make sure that not only my lyrics stand apart, but the production is not run-of-the-mill either. Most producers like to sample soul music; some of those beats are some of the best tracks of all time. But when so many people do it, it’s no longer appealing and gets run into the ground. What I and my production team are trying to do is to make dope music out of anything. So, yeah we do incorporate electronic music, but we’re not making it a point to just sample that kind of music; whatever’s dope is dope. I have beats I’m considering for the next project that sample things from old Stax records to Bollywood to Vampire Weekend. I think that rap goes in cycles, it interpolates. So I wouldn’t be surprised to hear elements of like, 90s music in hip hop this decade. I also think that hip hop is becoming more eclectic; with the internet and all that, it’s easier to access all types of music. I think the options of influence will spread.
CotP: Do you really hate your prep school as much as “I Hate Prep School” would lead us to believe?
Kardi: Hahahaha, I guess so; I really just said what was on my mind, cuz it took me five minutes to write literally. The sad part is everything I said is true, and what’s worse is that thousands of kids agree with me. But it really isn’t that serious. I’ve heard rumors that Kardi got expelled from his school when the administration heard the song. Now that I’m a second semester senior, I don’t hate it nearly as much as I did than when I wrote it last year. But I can’t say it has been the greatest time of my life.
CotP: What’s next for you, musically? Do you know yet where you’ll be going to college? Will you continue to rap once you get there?
Kardi: Well, I’ve got some big things planned. I’ve got two tours in the works; this spring, I’m trying to organize a Prep School Tour, and this summer, I’m going to Asia to perform for a couple of weeks, so I’m making some moves. Also, we’re beginning work on my second album, “The Valedictorian,” due for this spring or summer. It’s called that because lately, with all the newcomers, they keep comparing hip hop to school, which is real convenient for me. I’m just stating that if hip hop is school, I’m at the head of the class. I don’t know where I’m going to school next year and won’t find out till March or April, but regardless of where I go, I definitely plan to continue music; I don’t know if I could ever actually stop.
Kardi - KRD
Kardi - Mr. Mee Too Freestyle
Kardi - I Hate Prep School
Get all of Kardi’s Kardiology mixtape here.
