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photo by Martei Korley
LargeUp lined with one of my personal favorite artists out of Jamaica for this exclusive interview between Busy Signal and UK dancehall specialist Siobhan Jones. and not surprisingly they went a little deep on the back-and-forth between the respective soundsystem cultures of both islands. See the excerpt below for an example and hit the link at bottom to read the full Q&A via LargeUp.
BS: Kind of both! It developed after trying it out, from a younger age before I became a known artist. You have this English deejay, Papa Levi. I remember me and Bounty Killer driving, in Bounty Killer’s vehicle, listening to Papa Levi with that fast flow back in the day, way before my time. He does a little part slow and them him start dealing the fast flow and I was like, “Yo, I wanna do this!” So I started trying it out and I just developed… Every now and then I throw in a little fast flow, or I just do the whole fast flow in terms of the song, or the whole verse. So Papa Levi really inspired me. And Papa San definitely – he was a Jamaican who really represent the thing for us.
LU: You mentioned Papa Levi there. What your understanding is of the Jamaican view of UK dancehall?
BS: The UK a full of style! The UK have more of this Jamaican sum’n in terms of sharing our genre of music. The UK version of dancehall or the UK version of reggae music, or the UK reggae artists or the UK dancehall artists it’s connected. Even artists that are in Europe ah really do, you have artists wah do reggae music, like Alborosie, dem do great stuff. I listen to a wide range of music and artists. So I have to big up Papa Levi and people that paved the way from those times. Cos Papa Levi was the first English artist to be a number one in Jamaica. I grew up with this, I know this stuff, and I can even say it in an interview, I’m proudly saying that – these people paved the way for a likkle yout like me who just start the music in 2005 professionally.
