With his rigorous touring schedule and message-driven songs, Rastafarian firebrand deejay Jah Mason has overcome cultural and linguistic barriers to touch the hearts and minds of people around the globe.
But, with all these achievements and his championing of reggae music internationally, the Mi Chalwa singer has become increasingly concerned about the quality and tenor of the indigenous music created by the new generation of artistes.
Jah Mason has observed that today’s crop of artistes seems obsessed with the creation of wealth through nefarious means: scamming.
“The main songs dem mi a hear from the youths is all about going into man bank account and tek dem money,” Jah Mason said.
He lamented that it is tragic that today’s artistes see music merely as a vehicle to fame and wealth, and encouraged aspiring artistes to deliver more socially conscious music to fulfil reggae and dancehall music’s full potential to reach hearts and minds and forge a better society in Jamaica.
Jah Mason said he had observed a sharp decline in the quality of dancehall music because “since COVID, the man dem change the ting, it left from trap to something else”.
“Something went wrong,” he said decidedly.
Although he is mindful that each successive generation is free to determine how culture evolves and changes, Jah Mason feels the need to remind today’s crop of artistes that they still have a moral responsibility to convey positive messages through dancehall and reggae music.
“If we fail to address the things that need to be addressed and we push it under the rug, that means that we’re worse than the man seh who say ah go jump off the cliff and we say ‘jump nuh man’,” Jah Mason, whose real name is Andre Corey Johnson, said.
Jah Mason is gearing up to release a new project in the year 2025 with Brotherhood Records which is based in France. It will be his 20th studio album. His soul-stirring lyrics, mixed with themes of spirituality, social justice, and empowerment, have resonated with listeners around the world. Some of his biggest releases include My Princess Gone, Run Come Love Me, Lion Look, Farmer Man and Babylon Rise.
However, he is best known for the iconic hit, My Princess Gone, with its mournful wailing lament of a lover lost. Most fans believed that the song was about a spouse migrating to foreign lands, but not so, said Jah Mason.
Instead, the song was inspired by a true event. His girlfriend at the time ended the relationship after hearing false rumors of his infidelity. Jah Mason returned home from tour to find his Mandeville apartment empty.
“She just draw up the door and just left a note pon it. Mi come in with whole heap a money, Jah know, to how she gone, mi not even a worry bout that. Mi have about US$20,000 inna my pocket … Jah know mi have nuff money fi enjoy miself … and mi just seh, you know mi ah go find a song,” Jah Mason reminisced.
Jah Mason went to Kingston to voice the song for a producer who refused it.
Jah Mason believes that My Princess Gone is a ‘mystic, mysterious’ song, which retains its significance 20 years later.
“It go number one two time inna Trinidad before it go number one inna Jamaica, yeah man. When it go number one inna Trinidad the first time, mi de ya ah hold it and ah hold it and ah hold it because mi never understand the business. Mi go deh and go sing and mi nuh know if Richie B (radio broadcaster) go over there and Iley Dread keep a concert called Icons in Concert and go back inna the chart again and it go #1 in Jamaica in 2005,” he said.
The song is especially popular in France and its colonial territories from the Caribbean, thanks to what he called the ‘French Connection’ where music popular in France is disseminated throughout the Francophone diaspora.
“Everywhere mi go inna the world and take up the mike and say ‘my princess gone’ , the people dem know that song, dem can relate to it,” Jah Mason said.
Jah Mason first toured Europe in 1998 with Flames Production. Not long after, he got his first number-one hit with Run Come Love Me Tonight, featuring Jah Cure.
Jah Mason remains a huge advocate of extensive touring to reinforce the message of righteousness, spirituality and love which is the heart of reggae music.
“The more you go out there, is more fans and more people you get to know, and the ting grow from there,” he said.
Jah Mason will be one of the headliners of the ‘Roots and Culture’ tour which will kick off in Berlin, Germany on March 1 before heading to Dortmund, and then Groningen, Amsterdam and Deventer in The Netherlands. Other stops include Lille, Rennes in France, and then Bilbao in Spain on March 16. The tour then snakes through regions of France before ending in Paris on March 27.
The tour is organized by Michel Jovanovic of Europe-based Mediacom and Free People Entertainment, led by its chief executive officer Cabel Stephenson. Other artistes on the tour include fellow Rastafarian singer Lutan Fyah and emerging reggae singer Zhayna and the Free People band.
You must log in to post a comment.