DX: Yeah weren’t you planning to re-up for Firestarter Vol. 2 with like Pharrell and Timbaland?
KO: We had actually done that. We did all those records. We recorded with Pharrell, Timbaland, with Busta. There was a lot of different stuff that we had done for that album. But everything happens for a reason. And I’m glad that I went through what I went through with the label because it just helped me to be a stronger artist and to know what for an artist is the worst case scenario in the game. A lot of artists don’t go through that, so they don’t see what the other side is: being able to fight your way back from a label that folded. So it just made me a lot stronger and a lot more ready for this new album.

DX: Switching gears here, we spoke about your relationship with U.S. fans, but why do you think stateside fans tend to be unreceptive to Canadian Hip Hop as a whole?
KO: Maybe [Canadian artists] just need to step the level of their music up. I can really only speak for myself and my [reception in the U.S.] has been dope. I guess coming up from the days of when we used to just take our lunch money and press up vinyl and stuff like that. Sometimes I refer to it as "the Fat Beats era," when you used to press up your own [music] and literally had to carry around your music, and had to give it to deejays hand-to-hand. When you come up in that time you kind of get an appreciation for the work ethic that you gotta put in. And maybe all it is is that some of the [other Canadian] artists just need to physically get out there and travel more and see what’s up. I can only speak on behalf of what I went though, and some of my people like Saukrates and Choclair, and [we] know that our crew definitely has gotten a good response from not just the States, but a lot of different places in the world. As for the other [Canadian] emcees, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is that they’re missing, but at the same time I gotta focus on what I’m doing right now that maybe they can look to my example and see what I’ve done and kinda follow that and just use the [blueprint] that’s worked for me to their advantage.

DX: Well I tend to believe that most fans in the States just being bluntly honest view Canadian Hip Hop like they view U.K. Hip Hop as being too unfamiliar, and honestly just kinda weird.
KO: Somebody that would say that I could understand why ‘cause a lot of times in the States a lot of [musical styles] are driven by whatever comes out of the States, which is cool. But the thing is, they used to say the same shit about music that used to come from Atlanta, or music that would come from St. Louis. So [U.S. Hip Hop is] not something that’s unfamiliar to me, and I don’t feel any ways about it being from Toronto. Everybody looks at shit like that until you get some shit poppin’ though. And so now [because of] artists like Nelly and Chingy people don’t look at St. Louis the same way. People don’t look at Ft. Myers or Tallahassee the same way since Plies [click to read] and T-Pain came out. Maybe sometimes you just need for somebody to be a torch career and shed a light on [their region]. And I’m cool with being that [person for Toronto]. People can look at an act from Toronto or from somewhere else in Canada and be like, “Man, I ain’t fuckin’ with it.” But the thing is, once you win them over that’s a greater accomplishment. And I don’t have no problems with going into any club, any concert, any radio station and rockin’ it and transforming people and the way they think about Hip Hop from my city or my country.

DX: Speaking of your city, another criticism I’ve heard about Canadian Hip Hop is that it’s not street enough. But from what I understand the T Dot is just as crazy as any U.S. city.
KO: I’ll tell you honestly a lot of times I think [that criticism exists] because of the lack of creativity we have in Hip Hop right now we really just dwell a lot on sensationalism. It’s become less and less about the music and more and more about what the person outside of the music is all about. Now as far as my city goes, anybody that’s been here knows what my city is about. I’m not gonna be the one to promote [negativity] and say, “Yeah, our city is crazy because the kids are shooting each other. And it’s mad grimey.” It is though, but anywhere you go in the world a ghetto is a ghetto. And the funny thing is a lot of cats when they travel for the first time they go to places and think everything is sweet until something happens to them. T Dot is as real as the next place for sure. But at the same time, fuck that shit, to me that’s bullshit. I don’t wanna exist in a place that’s garbage. I’m trying to get out of that shit. I wanna lift my city up. I would love for my city’s crime rate to be down. Niggas that dwell on how hard their shit is and how much guns they got and who they be killin’ and how much crack they sell, that’s bullshit. As a people I think we need to elevate and definitely change our focus. So I’m not gonna be that dude. But at the same time, just have your wits about you when you come up to T Dot.