Ras-I - Jab, Jab; finding the right hook.

Jamaica is a reputed creative nation, where the act of creating is a kind of unconscious alchemy for it’s people. This sentiment is not decorative, euphemistic, or even hyperbolic in the least. If you’ve spent any great deal of time, or if you in fact live here, you can attest, there is a sea of naturally creative/musical people. This perhaps has something to do with the general apathy audiences have towards unbroken artists. They’re not easily impressed because they see it everyday, and that forces our artists to work double time for a listening ear. Yet, amidst this sea of natural talent, there are some who stand out with honed skill, timely wisdom, and tactical mind at the ready. These self contained, independent artists have been able to use their wits to platform themselves into the public conscious. One such, and perhaps one of the most interesting is, none other than the Ordinary Day hit maker Ras-I.

How long would you say you’ve been honing your craft?

As an artiste, since 2012. But as a producer from around 2007/8. So I used to build alot of riddims for a lot of big name producers.

Do you think you’ve had the passion for it longer than you’ve been honing it?

Yeah. I mean mi did always know say mi woulda eventually be in front on the stage performing. Certain things I did have to learn and get in line, before you can make da step deh. Because you can’t know until you’re ready.

When did you have that moment where you realized this is what you want to do and nothing else?

I think for me that moment was my first full band show. I think 180 live in Triple Century. When I saw how many people came out to support, and the reaction that I got to feel from the crowd. Mi a say a suh it feel? No sah! Mi like it! It’s just a great feeling. It’s just that moment when you know say people wid yuh. Then you have other moments but that was one of the first real times. I go home and smile to myself the whole night, and say you know say a it dis.

What were you doing before?

I used to- Majority of the jobs I was doing was already in music or entertainment. I used to do production for like shows, working on production sets for advertisements and music videos. So I have experience in basically every aspect of the industry. At one time I even did a tour as an artiste liaison. So is a long time I have my foot in the business, especially through my mother. My mother, she has been at Tuff Gong since the beginning, but she’s retired now. We spent alot of days down there.

There’s a certain level of fortune to that as well.

Yeeah, you get a whole heap a knowledge and you haffi just know. Because don’t think obstacles won’t ever be in your way because of fortune. Make it worse I don’t have a last name that stands out on the entertainment side of di ting where some doors automatically open for you.

But also the capital

Ahh the capital is not so common, amongst us. [laugh]

There are those moments and those are the things regular people identify with in music where something happens to shift the axis in their world and then they realize where they truly belong. Those moments are transformative, especially for creatives but alot of the times it takes failing hard to get to that point. So talk about that in your process and how it’s driven your sound.

Soundwise, My first song was a love song so mi did always know say the love song–women, or just people in general prefer it, because from the women love it, everybody will love it. But then, the sound wasn’t my problem, the problem was to get the sound to the people. I wasn’t always in tune to how we’re gonna get the music out because it changed from when I was younger. Now is going to the radio station and you have a roadman for that, dem nuh deh pon dat. Today, if we’re gonna be real, you’re lucky if your tune gets played out of the library. Your tune have to come in an email and you better hope the email address it’s coming from is a respectable one. [Laughs] Mi a tell yuh.

Jamaican music has developed a fast paced release atmosphere, there is certainly that expectation from the audience. Knowing that you can’t necessarily keep up with a bigger machine, talk a bit about your philosophy and deciding how to release music.

You have to think like a boxer. Dis man ya bigga dan you and stronga dan you but, unuh still in the same weight class. Weh yaw go do. Pick my punches. Im gonna jab here, and move, but I’m gonna make sure that every punch I throw does damage. So every song I drop, must be powerful. Can’t drop weak music. Because you are not an artiste with a household name that can drop a weak song, come back next week and drop a strong one. No. It will do greater damage to your career.

That’s an interesting point. The fact that independent artists stand to lose more by playing into the fast paced release atmosphere.

Yeah man yaw fi know weh yaw do. Also, I think you control your audience. I think if you give them, let’s say five or six songs a year, and they’re all wonderful; you think they’re going to complain when you decide to give them a next wonderful five? But when you give them 20 fi di year, but only 5 or six hit, weh yaw go do. So you don’t fire stray shot, don’t fire wild shot. I deal with precision. So I’ve given them a couple tracks like Crazy Over You, Ordinary Day, Cease Fire, then we said alright here is the body of work that completes the puzzle. So now you’ve set a standard as an album artist, and your audience is looking for projects. Albums are very important.

You mentioned Ordinary Day, which was a great track, very interesting, some would say genre bending, what went into the making of that track?

Coastal Kings produced that, that’s Keneil and Pelle, both of them are drummers, very good bredrins of mine. One night myself Almondo and Pele in the studio. We were listening to either Ari Lennox or Daniel Ceaser, or maybe both, but the vibe was that. We just wanted to make something with a very easy, pleasant listen. The drums were laid first, then the guitars. It had some very wonderful musicians taking part, like the bass player, Kelsey Rodriguez from Free Nationals, Drew Keys, Okeil on trumpet, Almando, Zoe on flute, so many.

How did you know how to bridge that gap, what was the transition like learning that cadence?

I realize that for my sound to be effective–is my singing really do the work for me, so I just decided to pull back the pacing on the song, just sing and let the music breathe. Just give it space, allow people to enjoy it. That was the whole thought process going into production. I challenge myself to make sure that every song is greater than the ones before.