By Simone Morgan—
BACK in the 1990’s, Snagga Puss rode dancehall charts worldwide with rib-tickling songs like Tatie Urkle Dance and Woody Woodpecker.
But these days, the former member of the Shocking Vibes Crew is a successful herbalist with his Nine Valley Roots company.
When the Splash team visited his regular spot in downtown Kingston this week, Snagga was not on location but his business was operating from the back of a car.
“Him gone sell a country today and will return on Friday so mi a gwaan monitor it fi him,” said colleague Danny Banton, as he carefully stacked bottles of herbal products in the trunk.
A few hours later, Splash caught up with Snagga by telephone from Clarks Town, Trelawny, where he was conducting business.
“My business is all about using herbs and spices to cure or treat myself and others,” he said.
Snagga Puss, whose given name is Norman Suppria, said he was ‘forced’ to take a break from music after developing stage one diabetes.
“It got so bad that it took me off the road for a while. The pills that I was taking got less effective and I am so afraid of injections, so I know that I was not going to take the insulin,” he said.
To learn more about alternative medicine, Snagga Puss relocated to Stuttgart, Germany in 2001, where he studied biochemistry.
He returned to Jamaica in 2006 and immediately began searching for remedial plants.
“In addition to diabetes, I had insomnia and I later found out that the Lignum Vitae plant was good at treating both,” Snagga explained.
According to the 54-year-old, it has been 22 years since he took pharmaceutical medication to treat his diabetes. His health has improved.
He said Nile Valley Roots products have treated and cured conditions including fibroids, poor blood circulation, and hypertension.
“God is the healer and I am the cleaner. One has to have a spiritual connection in order to be a herbalist and both the herbalist and the patient have to have faith,” he said.
Snagga Puss’s products have been used by artists such as Beenie Man, Freddie McGregor, Aidonia, Horace Andy, Dennis Walks and Spragga Benz.
He said the herbal medicine business is thriving in Jamaica.
“It is way more profitable than music. The herbal business is priceless, really. For instance, a rich man who was given three months to live may pay a million dollars to create a medicine to cure his disease, or a poor man with the same condition will probably pay nothing for the same treatment,” he said.
Even though he has found success in a new field, Snagga Puss said his music career is not over, as he is currently laying the tracks for an album titled Talk to The Herbal Man Volume One, his first in 17 years.
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