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Jesse Royal | THE Lily of the Valley
Jesse Royal has been one of the staple artistes which the world has to thank for contributing, wholesome, but contemporary takes on ‘rootsy’ sounds. From his earlier, more introductory mix tapes like “Misheni” and “Small Axe,” to his more recent, “Royally Speaking” with Major Lazer, and even his hit singles like “Modern Day Judas,” Jesse has always blessed us with music of a high quality. Now, with his debut album “Lily of The Valley” on the horizon, Royal is poised to establish himself as here to stay. Fourteen solid tracks displaying the versatile and musical nature of the Small Axe himself, symbolizing the return of peace and the second coming of Christ, it was only right we catch up with the Royal one as his debut approached.
Why the name Lily of the Valley, or what does it mean to you? Especially within the context of the world we live in, which is constantly applying pressure, where we basically have to fight to maintain our peace.
Yeah, well, when you approach it from that angle, the answer to that perspective of the title being “Lily of the Valley” would definitely be in reference to Christ coming forward as the Lily of the valley. And when we say come forward, we mean restoration of moral vision. Because peace and all a dem ting deh is only possible when love deh deh. As funny as it may seem, whatever that education may be is also a big process of love. Because even the original man, is really study he studied his wife to understand what real love is. So, from that perspective is definitely us attacking problems, not from a problematic stand point, but a solution stand point. Because if you realize this album is a lot more joyful than it is dark and we believe say once you change the mindset, then nuff will follow. What happens is, darkness follow darkness. Darkness can’t follow light, so we have to make the future bright again, in the mind first and then everything else will follow. Because everyone else around is just gloom and doom. So, our perspective is that it’s still a beautiful time to be alive, so mek we restore the mindset, versus trying to attack physical problems, because I think once we deal with the mindset, then people themselves will solve the problems. When it change, the conversation about wanting peace won’t even be necessary, because each individual will ovastand, how essential peace is for real progress and evolution. Y’nah mean?
When I think about your last effort, “Small Axe,” I see a change in tone and themes, because “Small Axe” had a more conflicting vibe, you were confronting a lot of injustices, even on a mental level for yourself.
We still a fight y’nuh? Is just a different type of fight, it’s a different angle to the fight, because experience teaches. So, there is no way I & I could be the same as five years ago. Because what happen is, you understand the war you really fighting. Sad to say, we have a lot of elders who have been chanting for 50, 60 years now, and the chanting is lovely and is itez, but we realize there is also things that we gotta do: there’s enterprises we have to set up, there’s business we have to start, youths to inspire, there are organizations we have to create. There’s charities that we have to develop, to really affect the system and change anything else, because we can’t just chant down Babylon. We got to work down Babylon and apply a type of pressure weh dem never expect before, because to them, we are savages, so they expect us to be wild. So now we learn say, there’s a time where there’s fighting with fire, and then there’s a time where there’s a different approach; a different stage of the war. Dealing with our community haffi start with ourselves. So, it’s about reassuring every one of their power, versus talking bout what they aren’t doing, let’s figure out what we can do. So, we going start the conversation with ‘we can’ versus ‘they are not’.
As you rightfully said, as time goes by, experiences will definitely be reflected in the music, but even when I used to listen to you earlier – and to this day – your language, in music and outside of music, is very reflective of Jamaican language, which is very proverbial – reflective of an older oral tradition. But I remember you saying in an interview that some people are afraid of new ideas, but that you are afraid of old ideas, because the old ideas is what sets us up to suffer. I found that interesting because you managed to strike a balance of retaining the best of the older schools of thought, while managing to leave the more obsolete ideas in the past.
Yea and if you listen carefully, like you said earlier, we tried our best to push forward some sounds; be as creative as possible where the music is concerned, because that is also a big part of things, so even though you hear we a say certain things like “pushing forward,” we still maintain our root. But we push forward because we feel like every generation took it a step further, and for us to come here and try to imitate and duplicate, would almost be an injustice to this greatness that is music, at large, Reggae specifically. So, we tried to experiment with sounds; experiment with melodies, ideas, do some likkle mixing and in an out pon some tings on the project. Because we a campaign fi restore the confidence inna creativity, y’nah mean? Because we are it. This generation, all of us, we’re it, no matter what. They’ll try to tell you that they still have the ammo, but they don’t – is we. So, the quicker we realize say we can shape the world to what we want, now we have the opportunity to do that. So, we do that in music, and other things that we have our hands on, but at the same time, were trying to inject that energy into everybody. So all the lawyers, the doctors, the politicians, everybody that playing a part in society, we want to inject that idea that they can be confident. Even the politicians, they can be confident fi stop Di fuckry. Y’nah mean? Like, we’re with you, so those fifty people in your cabinet that seem to be against you, we the 2.5 million people in Jamaica are with you, so try. Let’s try some new ideas. Let’s put an end to corruption. Let’s be brave.
I hear that a lot reflected in the album. The sounds, the production. Who are some of the people you worked with?
Well, Riff Raff mainly oversaw the project, but we have production from Winta also, we have production from Reemus and from myself and Kurt. So that’s basically the project where production is concerned, but riff raff did most of it. We have a whole lot of musicians who contributed their time and effort and energy into the project, so we give thanks.
As a person that tends to look for the story in a body of work, the track “Always Be Around,” definitely stands out as a marker for a place in your life. Speak on that a bit. I don’t get the vibe that you do reveal personal details in your music very often, and even on the rare occasions you do, it’s never in great detail.
Well, my first child, my daughter, was born on October 16th, 2016 and it was a very life changing experience for I&I because is the first time now you aren’t just a child in the world. You’re now responsible for somebody else. The level of love that run through my veins at just the thought of her being mine was a big inspiration in this song, without any doubt. As mi say, we as man, we live in a world sometimes where it’s always the gloom and doom, so even in this case a lot of times they expect us to run. They expect the man to not be there, so we know that in reality there’s a lot of youths that would do everything in their power to be there for both the mother and the child. So is really just a reassurance to the empress and then the daughter as she get older she can know say, yea man, is a real ting. Cause we put in on wax, so dem know say a facts.
Your life experiences definitely play a role and affect your music, but also your relationship with the music. One of the things I really appreciate about Jamaican musicianship is that a lot of the youths really grow with music. In terms of it just being a part of them. How do you feel about your relationship with music, having finished your debut album, going forward?
So in love… so in love with music. Sometimes, in reality, I can’t even find the words to express the love I have for music. Music is really my everything. Music has helped me to be the man that I am. Music forced me to overstand myself, because you can’t hide and you can’t go on no stage and talk without conviction. The vessel have to be pure for the message to be sure. So, we deal with ourselves in a different manner, which is good because it make you responsible for your actions. It makes you overstand karma, it makes you overstand what it means to send out frequencies out there in the world. When you feel what music does to other people out there in the world, when you get the love on stage, that is also an experience that is just ahh…is a ting man. Music is it, music is life. It sound very cliché, but music is really life, there isn’t a thing about music that I don’t like. Music is such a pure thing. The bug bite me, me go crazy fi music, literally crazy. There’s times weh mi deh pon stage and don’t know nothing but this baseline and this drum beat. So we give thanks to be blessed by her.
photos by Warren Mckane
Illustration by Kokab
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