It features the gold-certified single One Day. On other Billboard charts, the gold-certified Gyalis by Capella Grey continues to make its presence felt. Limit by Bob Marley and the Wailers are three and four, respectively. Now you can read the Jamaica Observer ePaper anytime, anywhere. Subscribe Login. Some comments may be republished on the website or in the newspaper; email addresses will not be published.
Please understand that comments are moderated and it is not always possible to publish all that have been submitted. We will, however, try to publish comments that are representative of all received. We ask that comments are civil and free of libellous or hateful material. Also please stick to the topic under discussion. A lot of them just didn't realize that it was survival.
I figured it out early by being [signed] to these record companies, that if we didn't make numbers, we weren't going to get ahead.
It was just so popular. So I knew that going into it, I had to make records 10 times better and work 10 times harder than the average artist, because it was just not a level playing field. We came in as the underdogs. We were from this little island with music that people don't understand. So that was an art within itself.
I'm from Kingston, so I know how to talk real Patois. I would mix it with the Queen's English, but I'd use dancehall melodies and the flows. So after a while, a lot of people ended up doing that too. I definitely hit them like a storm because they didn't expect it.
So I was really back in the core [of dancehall] and people actually started to rock back with some of my older stuff. But I didn't like the pay grade, so I went back to pop music. The chorus is American English, but you're spitting raw Patois on the verses. I thought it was smart because most people are not gonna understand what you're saying, so they'll want to replay it. It's a balance, you know what I mean?
So they might not understand it very well, but they know the flow is so dope. It only lasts for eight bars anyway. If I'm doing a 12 or bar verse, I'll throw different English things in there to make them a little bit more understandable and popular. I try to make timeless records. I was never surprised that the record label didn't like anything we did.
They just couldn't understand us. They're used to a cookie-cutter style of making records. We were coming out of left-field from a different culture. They're not going to spend millions of dollars promoting some kid just doing dancehall.
Dancehall had such a stigma: guns, violence, homophobia, all kinds of s--t. So that made it hard for me to maneuver through it. So you still had some credibility. But that just wasn't the case. We've gotta give him a shot. The only reason I was on that soundtrack is because Terry McMillian, who wrote the novel, loosely based it on her love story with this Jamaican guy.
So she told [producer] Terry Lewis that I had to be on this record. Either Mariah and Janet who was gonna sing the chorus. But then Janet wouldn't come in the video or help us promote it.
And out of nowhere, they just started to play the one with me and Janet. That's how MCA signed me. It wasn't because of my track record. The thing with dancehall [at the time] was all the artists got a hit, but they never had a follow-up. It was a new genre and nobody was risking that. But we looked at Shabba Ranks as a God because he had more than just one hit. Even though he only went Gold, that was a big one for the culture. I'm sure that had to blow your mind.
It was our first in the U. That shows you [how little] they put behind it. We just didn't have management at the time that knew how to work those buildings. They were just so happy to be on a major. I remember meeting him and couldn't get a word in, because he knew so much about me. There's things I wanted to ask him, but I couldn't because he was just so interested in learning about me.
How the hell you sell so many f--king records without promotion? It was a great night. We were one of the biggest highlights. Did you see the collarbone on Whitney [Houston]? I never had a lot of famous friends like that because I could see through a lot of the bullsh-t. They'll only call your phone when you're hot. I was so loyal to my team. Now that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. I should have played the game.
I sold 10 million records with my guy so I'm going to stick with him. But it was a great ride. But one of my biggest meetings was with James Brown [in ]. He was so inspirational, man. We were on a tour together and he watched my show every night. You should let [the world] see both sides of you.
I think you're going to go very, very far. I remember not being very happy with the whole production, because they dressed me as a pimp. When you become that big, you have the suits and the record company coming in.
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