M.A

FROM THE UPTOWN UNDERGROUND
Kingston, Jamaica – November 2007
MICHAEL ‘ICE’ ANDREW is happy and sad. Oprah Winfrey has a standing offer for him to sing his global anthem “God Bless You’ on her show – a rare invitation for a Jamaican reggae artist. But his deportation from the USA prevents him from accepting that opportunity at the moment. Who is ICE?
One of the new group of third generation Jamaican artists who blend reggae with dance hall and hip hop, ICE’s biography is typical of most upcoming Jamaican musical artists. His parents migrated to America when he was a youth, leaving him with an urgent need for cultural and social links with Jamaica that led him to the Black hustling underground. Turning to selling ganja on street corners eventually led to his deportation back to Jamaica -- a familiar tale.
But what sets MICHAEL ‘ICE’ ANDREW apart from the rest is that his is not a story of an underprivileged youth from Kingston’s raw, violent ghettoes that have spawned so many hit-making singers, DJs and musicians. ICE was born on the opposite side of those tracks. His neighbourhood is the big homes, sprawling gardens and security gates of Cherry Gardens – Kingston’s most upscale neighbourhood that breeds financial giants, political leaders and exotic hybrid ‘browning’ beauties.
ICE’s journey from ‘uptown’ to a Miami jail cell, to a career as one of the brightest young DJ/singers budding from reggae’s dancehall explosion is a tale worth telling. After early schooling at prestigious Columbus Prep in St. Anns Bay, Hillell and Priory in Kingston, Michael’s parents migrated when he was 14 to what he describes as ‘a redneck community’ in Florida. Missing everything he loved about Jamaica, Michael gravitated to the ‘next best’ – the troublesome streets of the Black community, where he started getting into trouble.
Still in high school, Michael lack of residency status and social security number prevented him from getting a real job to earn spending money. “I washed cars and mowed lawns until I put enough money together to buy a pound of herb,” he admits, “then I started the life of a street hustler.” Why did he do all this? “When you realize that you are not part of the system and never will be, you have to look for anything you can do to survive. Though it definitely was not in my training to be selling illegal substances to adults and even minors, it was just part of the game, as they say.”
Through teenage years ICE lived the life of a petty criminal. He was locked up 4 times, the most spectacular case being at 14 for distributing counterfeit money, that brought him national news coverage on CNN and Florida’s Channel 10 as the youngest person ever to be arrested in that state for that crime. His parents did not know what to do with him. After a fourth arrest at 19, because of his age (and probably his parents social standing) ICE was given the option to either serve his time in an American prison or at the then-newly opened behaviour modification campus of Tranquility Bay in St. Elizibeth, Jamaica, where misbehaving children of better-off parents in America are sent for ‘re-orientation’.
Tranquility Bay was a wake up call for ICE. It was a tough institution with harsh discipline and ICE ran away twice only to be captured and put under severe punishment. He contemplated the worst, but when he saw one female inmate jump headfirst off a balcony, it was a wake up call that made him realize he need not throw away his life with negative behaviour, but change could bring positive benefits. “Tranquility Bay did a lot of good and bad, but it sobered me up. It made me realized that life depends on how you live it. If I hadn’t gone there, I would either be permanently locked up or deceased.”
“My father came for me after 8 months … I was so glad, I cried,” he confesses with a tough smile. He returned to Jamaica in 2003 to live with his grandmother, and picked up again the musical career that began at age 11 (when he made his first recording for close neighbour Jeremy Harding, Sean Paul’s manager) and continued during his several incarcerations. “There was this guy at Tranquility we called Luis ‘Beat Box’ Urana from Flatbush, NY, who used to use his mouth to make riddims that I would DJ and sing on. We used to perform for the other inmates and even the staff used to ask us to entertain them sometimes.”
ICE has performed in London and Canada, as well as Jamaica, but is still trying to get access to return to the USA to visit his family who still live in Florida, and especially to accept Oprah’s invitation to perform ‘God Bless You’ on her show.
Meanwhile, he is compiling tracks for his first album, working with producers such as MultiCast Entertainment’s Makonnen, Baby G, Jordy and Riddim Kings and preparing for a major launch in Jamaica and overseas. “God Bless You” will be available for free download on his MySpace website. ICE is also offering it to the Heifer International charity www.soundaid.org. that raises money for philanthropic projects. “It’s my gift to the world,” says ICE “maybe it’s kinda an apology for all the bad things I’ve done in my life so far, and a sign that I’ve changed completely.”
Looking at this quiet, serious young man, it’s hard to believe that he is anything but the ‘nice, uptown youth’ his exterior presents. But listen to his lyrics and you will hear that ICE’s experiences have given him both the material and depth of maturity that marks a true Jamaican warrior.
© JAMAICA MEDIA PRODUCTIONS LTD.