Jesse Jendah.—-
Firebrand reggae singer, Jesse Jendah, also known as King Furnace, is upbeat about the fact that a single which was released from the mid-’90s has taken on new life. Twenty-five years after the song which touches on an oft-debated topic in Christendom made its appearance, Jesse’s prophetic warnings have taken on increasing significance.
“My song called Mark of the Beast is getting a revival. People from all over are calling me about it because it is a song for these times,” he told The Gleaner, with the merest hint of smugness. “When I was writing songs about things like microchip being inserted under people’s skin, my stablemates at Xterminator camp were offended by these arguments. But, tru people always seh me is a madman, I just continued speaking and writing reality as I envisioned it,” he said casually.
Jesse Jendah, who was a member of successful record producer and artiste manager Philip ‘Fattis’ Burrell’s Xterminator camp, with Luciano, Mikey General, Sizzla, Dean Fraser, and the Firehouse Family, equates the microchip to the biblical mark of the beast. A Rastafarian who knows his Bible well, Jesse Jendah quotes from the book of Revelation and puts an interesting spin on the topical new world order.
He added: “The things that I wrote about in that song are the reality now. Look how many countries are placing microchips right under people’s skin. In this revelation you will never be able to buy without the mark of the beast.”
The entertainer told The Gleaner that the coronavirus is ushering in what he calls “the new world out of order”, which will see the collapse of many businesses, and stock exchanges going haywire. “The world is shut down and they are paving the way for this new world order with one currency and all kinds of regulations and trampling on human rights. And they are doing it in such a clever way that it is the people who will be begging for their rights to be taken away because they want to feel safe,” he opined.
But he is not taken off guard by these signs because he has read and digested many books and much reference material throughout the years.
“I used to go to Muta’s book shop and buy a lot of books from various authors who have studied these things. One such book is New World Order by Ralph Epperson. Thanks to Tony Rebel because he was the one who helped to point me in that direction, and I have also mastered speed-reading. I choose to learn rather than be bamboozled and hoodwinked by the materialistic world,” Jesse stated.
However, the controversial Jendah, who gained notoriety when he offered former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson a quarter pound of weed, is not preoccupied with last-days signs and wonders. In addition to becoming a licensed ganja farmer, he continues to record and perform and is managed by Mightyful13 Records International. Among his newest offerings are Brainist, a shoutout to the “generation who are bright”, and Reparation Collection, which is labelled harsh. “The disc jocks ask me, ‘Why can’t you sing regular songs that people can understand?’ But they are uncomfortable with it all because it beats down Wall Street,” he explained.
He drew a parallel with a song that late Wailer, Peter Tosh, recorded in 1986, titled The Day the Dollar Die, in which Tosh states that “ cost of living it is rising so high, dollar see that have heart attack and die”, and extols the demise of the currency because “the day Sammy dollar die, we will love each other”.
Jesse recalled that at the time of the song’s release he was a second-form student at Glenmuir High School. “I didn’t have a clue what it meant. It took me 20 years to find out what the boss was a seh.”
And, having understood, the singer is ready to fight the good fight, without compromising his word sound. “The pussycat thing, I don’t like it. The Caucasian man would say ‘the cat got your tongue?’ We nah lie down and mek nobody come use us as doormat. Those days are over. Peter and Bob never die in vain,” the producer of the documentary, Runaway Slave, declared.
Born in Clarendon, Jesse Jendah has been recording since the 1980’s. Listed among his catalog are songs such as Reparation, Sip Cup, Leonard Howell, Rothschild Crash Bank, Weed Free, Kween Of The Morning Star and Rasta Love.
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