Oh, to be 18 again. There are times I wish I could turn the clock back a decade or so a relive some of those sweet moments as a carefree young man when all there was to worry about was copying book reports and sneaking booze out of the parent’s liquor box. Nothing serious, you know, kid’s stuff. It’s what you do at that age unless you happen to be a musically inclined, sharp-tounged Bronx born emcee named Kardi, in which case you release your second mixtape album titled The Valedictorian. There’s nothing kid-like about ripping some of the rhymes this kid fires off.
At only 18 years of age Kardi exudes a level of maturity and confidence not often found in the material of a minor (non-OFWGKTA affiliated, that is). Confusion originally shared the single “Black Ferris Bueller” back in late January, but in case you missed it the first time, you can catch it again down below. If you like what you hear, a complete download of The Valedictorian is available here.
DOPE cover art. It’s a picture of Edmund Perry. Taken from the cover a book about his story called Best Intentions. Ya’ll need to learn that story before you download this mixtape.
I recognized the image but couldn’t place it, so thank you for pointing out where it comes from. I asked Kardi about his decision to use that particular picture for his cover art, here are his comments:
“The album as a whole kinda alludes to the story of Edmund Perry; our stories are extremely similar. When I learned about his story, it was one I empathized with more than any other figure prior to that. He went through a lot of the same shit I went through, underwent the same stuggles, enjoyed the same victories. I think it’s a story that isn’t known about by that many people, so I wanted to have people inquire, who is Edmund Perry? There’s a lot of kids like him, living among the elite coming from the exact opposite and excelling, and that’s a huge part of my story.”
Clearly this is an important story to be aware of. Hopefully through the efforts of folks like yourself and Kardi, more people will become interested in it and educate themselves about the topic.