Words By Prop Jay

As a new edition to the Crew, Gotty™ asked me to find a track that hits home to serve as an introduction. Immediately, I had Jay’s “Can’t Knock The Hustle” up on Sharebee. Then I realized that readers here are smarter than that and the choice simply wasn’t going to cut it.

So instead I give you a track by Jah Cure and Fantan Mojah. I imagine that both of these guys are known to most of the reggae heads who check TSS but not to most others. What differentiates both artists from the pack is that they express their Rastafarian faith in their music, which is becoming rare in contemporary Jamaican artists. With that, I find both Jah and Fantan are able to add that roots feel to the new sound of reggae, with either the use of just an acoustic guitar or using their raspy voices over the laid back melody’s delivered in the background.

Roots reggae has a place in my heart because I grew up in a white family north of the border and simply put, back then, there wasn’t much exposure to any “cultural” music. This is where roots reggae came in. No matter what, the sounds of Bob Marley’s hits, Steel Pulse’s Life Without Music or even the painful eighties “pop” reggae we heard then (remember “Tide Is High“?) were playing in the background. I find that both Jah and Fantan keep the feel and sound of the timeless greats, but add the contemporary sound that so many genres (Jazz & Blues) have struggled to find. On the other hand, Reggae has progressed, maybe helped made popular by Hip-Hop at times and the mainstream at others, but still found its place and I’m glad it did.

*Passes the dutchie*

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Jah Cure Feat. Fantan Mojah – “Dem Nah Build”