JAH

Autobiography by Abdul Rahim JahMy name is Abdul Rahim Jah. I was born at Rotawa, a small village in the Kasseh/Bureh/ Maconteh Chiefdom in the Port Loko Distrist in the Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa. I have three sisters whom I grew up with; me being the only boy.  My mother Adiatu had raised us as a single parent.  My dad, her husband had never been in my life.  As a matter of fact, I had never met him.  I am told he has many wives apart from my mother and many other children by those wives that I never met.Growing as the only son, I was a bullied by my sisters and always got into trouble tring to fought back.  My past-time included hunting rodents, deer, poking toads and raising goats and sheep.  In order to get me out of trouble, I was enrolled into a local elementary school at Mabanta,   some five miles away from my village.  I had to make those daily trips to school on my bare feet.  My mother was gainfully engaged in a small scale business that necessitated her traveling to and from the city of Freetown where she sold farm produce and bought items that were in high demand in the village. At the age of ten I toyed with the idea of singing and got a chance to sing for a society of invalids.  My efforts were well celebrated and was applauded and encouraged to pursue my dream to become a successful singer.  I migrated to the city in 1994 to join my sisters who had earlier moved into the city of Freetown in pursuit of higher education.  Here in the city I had to learn Pidgin English (Krio) which is the Lingua - Franca.  I also learned English as a foreign language.  I also got to listen to a lot of reggae music and fell in love with it.  I had admiration for celebrated artists such as Lucy Dube, Bob Marley, Buju Banton, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and Shaba Ranks. I graduated from primary school in 1996 and was admitted to High School.  As I got to understand the English language better, I developed a liking for R &B and hip-hop music.  I came to like artists such as Mary J. Blidge, Monica, R. Kelly K.C & Jojo, Brandy, Boys 2 Men and others.  That was when I Started to dream big.  I started to dream of migrating into the United States to try my luck in big time music.  My passion for music became unstoppable.  My thirst for the art was unquenched until I made it in the U.S. I got a chance of a life time in the year 2000, at the height of the rebellion in my country.  A war that spanned 11 years. I got a visa to the U.S.A. On arrival into the United States, I got admitted into North Western High school in Maryland.  School in Maryland was no fun at all since school friends delighted themselves in teasing me for speaking English with an accent they founded funny.  I was teased at any opportunity by a growing number of school mates.  I resorted to truancy as a means of escape.  In my third year at North Western High School, I joined the school choir where I learned voice Control, posture and contact with the audience.  After graduating from North Western, I started to look for mentors and contacts that could give me a conduit to big time music.  I have since had opportunities to sing at concerts.  I am also terrific at Songs-Writing.  I cannot wait for my break-through which, by the grace of God, is just around the corner.     CLUB BREAKERS
.. CLUB PERFORMANCE, ATL
.. .. Club Performance
..