In recent years, JoJo Mac has done her share of uptempo party songs, but racially-charged incidents in the United States prompted the singer to hit a serious note.
Fight For Life is the name of her hard-hitting song that addresses racial injustice, especially in wake of last year’s controversial killings of African-Americans Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, by white police officers.
According to JoJo Mac, who is based in Philadelphia, reggae remains a message music despite the happy-go-lucky spirit of dancehall which most youth favor.
“In earlier years, I saw reggae as that genre that dealt with social commentary; I saw it as revolutionary, though there were songs that were for laughs and for partying,” she noted. “It seemed to have been mostly about issues affecting people.”
Fight For Life is produced by John “I-Sheko” McKenzie on his Rebelution ‘riddim’ which also has songs by Turbulence and Grabba Muziq.
While she has done feel-good tracks for different producers, JoJo Mac also wrote and recorded message songs like Stronger during her stint with Black Uhuru and for producers including Fitzroy Francis of Mightyful13 Records for which she did I Won’t Surrender.
She believes a market exists for reggae songs that educate.
“There is still a lot of that happening with the genre but the majority of sound system selectors and radio DJs are not pushing that kind of messaging as much anymore, which is really sad because now more than ever it’s needed,” said JoJo Mac.
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