Kardinal Offishall’s first album since Akon signed him on to an American label. Good for you Kardi!! Seems like if you’re gonna make it in the big time you will have to do it south of the border with our American friends.
I have been shooting Kardi and the Black Jays for a few years now, and when Kardi’s manager Mayday told me about the upcoming album and the title I was really intrigued. I remembered when I directed Kardi’s video Heads Up from his Fire & Glory album he was wearing a T-shirt with a barcode and it said NOT4SALE.
I spoke with Kardi about my idea to put a barcode where his mouth should be completely eliminating it and i put together a rough composite to show him, he really dug it. So The label Interscope in L.A. gave me a tentative deal to shoot and put something together and if they like it then we got a full cover deal.
I spoke to Kardi again the day before the shoot and we came up with the concept of a soldier holding a grenade in his mouth, which we later had to loose because of legal issues. No ammo in pictures, hmm interesting, weapons are ok though ;0
We shot in Kensington Market and Harlem restaurant and a bunch of other renegade locations, no permits, run and gun. Better to ask forgiveness then ask permission.

Some of the above images were created just for my own amusement and were not included in the album artwork.
Here are some of the images we shot and used in the album art.