Interview: March/April 2007
Interviewed by: Ida C.
A lot of people hear the music out in the streets and may not necessarily know who’s behind it.What are some of the riddims you produced?
Hollow Hollow, Mexican Riddim… whole heap more… Cookie Monsta, Della Move Remix, Yellow Tape… dat ah fah me bredren Rraw Dawg ah DC… Big up RR! Produced four tracks on Elephant album, two tracks on Sizzla own… whole heap more. If we should talk about dat right now, we wouldn’t stop. But that’s just a few.
Briefly take us through the process from the conception of the riddim, to building the actual riddim to voicing the artist to getting it out there in the streets.
Well starting from the production side, basically it’s like this… yuh catch a vibes… seen. You’ll probably be on an ends like we are now at a studio with a group of friends and the energy comes from people around you… yuh undastand. Because you catch a vibe from there and you go into the studio… you start to build the riddim and then the idea comes forth. It just happens at the spur of the moment and den we take it from there… start build the riddim and everything just falls into place.
What made you decide to get into producing?
Well as you can see, my father is like a living legend… King Jammys. Growing up as a child I usually see my father doing all these stuff but I didn’t understand what he was doing. The older I got, it was like I start to realize that he was making music. Being around all these stars like Johnny Osbourne, Junior Reid… it motivate me to know that my father’s been doing it for so much years so why not just carry on the legacy because if something happens to him who’s going to take it over? So I decided that it was my choice. He created an empire and his sons have to carry on that legacy.
So do you find it harder for you coming from King Jammy’s camp?
With him being your father, is it hard to get people to respect you? Because they may look at it like… oh that’s King Jammy’s son so that’s why he’s doing it. But you’re actually doing it because this is what you love doing. We stamp we name inna di ting… you know… dat ah di first ting. We wouldn’t get props if we neva do wi work. So yes that has helped… it’s not a downfall, it definitely helped.
So it’s never been a hindrance?
No! Never nothing like that! It helped because people might deal with you on a level like people will respect you just the fact that to know that you’re a son of a living legend… yuh undastand. Just like Bob Marley’s kids… anywhere they go they get respect cause their pops did the work before. He laid the foundation… so you just have to build the rest and set it.
I know before cds, producers would print actual 45s. Now with the internet and people being able to download and bootleg music, how hard is it for you as a producer to really make money off your riddims?
Let me tell you something, the bootleg kinda help still yuh know. And at the same time, it kind mess up the whole system.