Randy Valentine’s Triumphant Return

Leaving his home in Clarendon, Jamaica, and migrating to UK at a young age, Randy Valentine’s is a story of a long awaited and triumphant return to the island of his birth.

“Kingston Dub Club, we went to dub club. When you deh a London yuh hear bout dem ting deh. Everybody looks to jamaica for some kind of Joy. Especially when you leave and you haven’t been here in such a long time you just deh pon line, a watch everything a move. So me deh a London just a look forward to being there, not even to perform. Suh just being there and being introduced to the artist dem weh me deh a London a watch. Being here has definitely been a blessing. Haffi come back a Jamaica…” The elated Randy shared some of his experiences recently when he stopped by the Riddim Radio office in Kingston for a reason.

Riddim Radio: For a person who has never met Randy Valentine, what does your music entail , what is it about?

Randy Valentine: My music is my life in audio format, my story, my experiences, my journey and the things I’ve seen. Things weh me see that’s helped me through certain things and I think maybe if I put this in a song and somebody hear it maybe that could help them through that. So we make music to inspire and motivate at the same time.

RR:Who is Randy Valentine?
RV: Who is Randy Valentine. Understanding,mom an understanding person, I like reasoning. I think most of the things I’ve learnt through life I’ve learnt through conversation so I like talking to people. So I’m a very understanding person,I’m listen a lot. Might not talk much but I listen.

RR: It felt like a vibe where a lot of the content in the EP manifested out of realizations through deep conversations…

RV: Definitely conversations. It happens simply through the traveling, different perceptions, different understandings. That a my fuel still, a dat me love

RR: What do you hope to achieve with your music?

RV: Ahh there’s no end game. There’s no, well we want reach yah so and once we reach yah so this is it, y’know. We just hope to keep on growing. The next project that we working on is called still pushing and I think that for me, is just what we’re gonna keep on doing. Keep on pushing.obviously where we are in life right now is a hundred percent better than where we were hundred years ago and it’s through people who were pushing. Suh my ting is we a gwaan push and we will get better.

RR: How would you compare the Jamaican music industry with the UK music industry?

RV: UK now is kind of funny. We don’t get much commercial support from radio for reggae music. Not much commercial support. You get reggae songs on the radio but it’s very rare. Underground radio now. You have nuff underground radio station that run the streets and everybody can try to reach them. So we have that. I don’t see much of that here in Jamaica ,but for me that doesn’t really matter because every day yuh get up yuh hear Reggae and Dancehall on the radio. As for the industry now, being here for the past couple weeks, I haven’t met everyone. But the amount of people that I’ve met, I don’t know, there too much conversation being had about manipulating the music industry than actual conversation about the music itself. Nuff people nah talk bout music, dat me notice. I haven’t had enough time in Jamaica for me to give a full synopsis of everything. I like where it’s going, big up Kabaka Pyramid, we like people like dem . Nuff rebel out there doing good music, yuh see weh mi a say, so good music deh a Jamaica. There’s always been good music in Jamaica , we just probably didn’t have a strong representation in the media. It’s always been good music so, big up di one dem inna di forefront right now. Reggae music good, deh so it deh.

RR: Tell us about the kind of thought that went into your most recent project “Break The Chain” .

RV: In the beginning, the EP was called finding myself and that’s where I was at that time. Remember we spent two weeks in Switzerland trying to record, trying to create the project and I couldn’t write anything. It was just at the end of the Tour, I was in a very bad place. I needed to make some decisions or ask some more questions so I know exactly what I wanted to do. Because at that time we were just writing songs, which is not really just what we wana do, we actually wana have purpose. I was finding myself then, and then I realized, through conversations with Riga again(he’s a great conversationist), we have to keep on going. We have to be better, we have to come out of this slum where we think we can’t do certain things. Looking at the example of my father,milf my father did sit down and say ‘yo my yout, cyaa do it enuh so me a stop’, thence wouldn’t deh yah so. So you see that whole concept of thinking that you actually can’t do something? Break out of that. Break The Chain, and that’s where that came from, so it can be used in any context, anything you’re breaking out of. Break The Chain.

RR: What has it been like coming back to Jamaica after a such a long time?

RV: Yoow. (He laughs). Whole heap a different different things. But more than anything else, is just pure joy. Pure joy. Go a Clarendon go link up Mi cousin dem , link up di likkle yute dem we me grow wid. All of us now having big man conversation, simple ting like dat, mean nuff to me. Even the old man dem who live in the area when we used to small, still deh deh. We sit down and talk bout when we were young and a run joke, so it’s good to know we can still do that. Spent two day up deh, one day worth of crying, and the next day worth of laughter, but it was all love man. It’s nice to be home. A long time me a look forward to this now. We deh yah now, so we give thanks.

RR: Do you feel like being in island adds a special element to the music?

RV: It definitely does add something. Some kind of experiences in Jamaica, that you can’t get anywhere else, some lessons in those experiences. Experiences weh, I don’t think if I was born somewhere else I don’t think I would be the person I am today. So I give thanks that is Jamaica me born and grow. This country is rich. So being here I’m looking forward to whatever can come out of this trip.

RR: What has the reception to your music been like in the UK so far?

RV: Well now it gone up. Big time. In the UK they have this perception, where you have to go Jamaica fi buss. As a UK artist you have fi go back. You don’t have to, there’s no one way of doing this thing. You just make good music and people will hear it. But right now it’s different thing now that I’m in Jamaica, I did the onstage thing the other day. Which is definitely good for profiling. Big up all a di DJ weh a trendsetter, weh set it when I was there, mi family dem! Big up everybody else who’s there, dun know, it’s love. But UK shows love.

RR: What are you working on now musically and what can people look out for next from Randy Valentine?

RV: Well we gonna keep on making music. Still pushing is the project we working on for next year. It’s produced by Joe(sp?), who’s the mad professor’s son. Mi bredrin dat, first studio mi start record inna was his studio, so it was very good that he came back and said lets work on a project together. That’s the next thing. All lives sounds, seven tracks, Still Pushing. Look out for that next year.

RR: Where can people see Randy Valentine perform live next?

RV: Live shows. Well I think next year March, we have the tour. The European tour starting off in January, we going all the way to April, with a week in Australia for three shows