About

Reggae music is my day one

I’ve loved reggae music since I first became aware of it at age three. I heard UB40’s ‘Rat in Mi Kitchen’ on the radio and desperately tried to tell my mom about it. At first, she thought that there was literally a rat in the kitchen. But she was patient, figured out what I was talking about, and got me my first album (thanks, Mum!).

Like many lovers of reggae, I was introduced to a lot of aspects of the music, Rastafari, and wider Jamaican culture through the great Bob Marley and The Wailers. I went on to discover the other legends, including but certainly not limited to Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Toots & The Maytals, Third World, The Wailing Souls, Johnny Clarke, Max Romeo, Jacob Miller, Gregory Issacs, The Abyssinians, John Holt, Burning Spear, Black Uhuru, Marcia Griffiths, and Buju Banton.

I continue to patronize reggae artists to this day, especially those of the reggae revival. Some of my biggest current influences are Protoje, Damian Marley, Chronixx, Kabaka Pyramid, Samory I, Jah9, Lila Iké and Mortimer. I honor Jamaica first because she gave us reggae music, but I have favorites from all parts of the world, especially Katchafire, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Gentleman, Easy Star All-Stars, Marcus Gad, and Nick Sefakis.

I have a deep love and appreciation for various flavors of reggae, but mostly the roots, lovers rock, and dub. Although most of my originals are conscious music, I also enjoy making covers of great songs from both within and outside of the genre. I hope that by releasing my music to the world, I contribute to the spectrum of reggae music while staying true to its core intent and messages.

I am influenced by a wide variety of music

My early education in music also featured a lot of blues, gospel, R&B, and soul. It may be the case, in fact, that I feel these forms of music even moreso than reggae. Of course, these genres had such a big impact on the development of ska, rocksteady, and reggae that perhaps they are all exist on the same continuum.

I first took note of afrobeat in the early 2000s when I heard Antibalas’ ‘Who Is This America?’ on public radio. I have since fallen in love with the work of the king, Fela Kuti, and Ebo Taylor, as well as a number of lesser known acts. I really enjoy the music of Kokoroko, Chicago Afrobeat Project, Big Mean Sound Machine, Blundetto, and The Budos Band.

There was a good period of time in the early 2000s as well that I got heavily into drum and bass/jungle and other bass music. In fact, this is what got me to start producing music. I later got into garage music, then dubstep, but also have a deep appreciation for trip hop, house, some trance, and breaks.

A lot of hip hop artists have had a huge impact on me as well. I tend towards conscious or otherwise clever/intelligent hip hop. Mos Def tops my list of hip hop artists, but I’m also really into Atmosphere, Digable Planets, Jean Grae, Skepta, Bahamadia, and Kae Tempest.

The last few years I have been getting into a lot of other music from around the world. I love all sorts of cumbia, highlife, afro-Peruvian (Novalima, in particular), psychedelic music from Cambodia, Zamrock (WITCH), and Anatolian Rock (Altin Gün). There’s so much amazing music out there that fills a unique niche and cultural expression, and usually does not fit neatly into a genre at all.

I could go on, but I think you get the point: I’m into all sorts of music and it has all influenced the music that I make, even if Well Grounded is a project that is mostly focused on reggae.