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I Wayne, Black Am I

Mateel Community Center

On Monday, October 27th, 2014 - in thier first concerts at the Mateel - we’re excited to welcome “I Wayne” and “Black Am I” to our stage!

Two of the hottest Jamaican roots reggae artists performing today have teamed up for an exciting 2014 tour that includes cities from coast to coast throughout the USA, and we’re excited to have them stopping at the Mateel for one night only between several of thier thier California performances and Washington State concert dates!

Reggae lovers should mark their calendars and get ready for a hot autumn night of genuine “Jamaican born” roots reggae at the Mateel!

For more about these talented artists and links to additional information see the informative biographies below.

Ticket information will posted soon, so make sure and get yours!

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I Wayne

Roots and culture artists have long been a constant in Jamaica, from the influence of legends like Bob Marley to conscious dancehall singers like Garnet Silk. However, in the summer of 2004 a new and powerfully distinct voice emerged on the reggae music scene. With a fresh timbre, substantive lyrics, and a passionate performance, this singer almost single handedly led a new wave of roots and culture reggae music that swept the island of Jamaica.

I Wayne, born Cliffroy Taylor in the working class Kingston suburb of Portmore, Jamaica, officially hit the international scene with his #1 hit “Can’t Satisfy Her,” the first track by a cultural reggae artist to be added to Hot 97 in New York, a station noted for its hip hop preference. The tune then caught on in several markets and spent over 22 weeks on the Billboard Hip Hop/R&B Hot 100 chart. I Wayne followed up that firey description of a desperate Jamaican reality comprised of prostitution, poverty, and sexually transmitted diseases with “Living in Love” on the Stephen Gibbs and Errol Thompson-produced Hard Times riddim (VP2272).

It may seem as if I Wayne suddenly burst onto the scene, but the 28 year old has been refining his craft since age 7. Coming from a musical family, it’s not surprising that I Wayne’s first performance venture with local group Vibes Machine took place when he was a student at Greater Portmore High School. The collective of singers and DJs performed at afterwork parties held at popular Kingston clubs like Cactus and Asylum, until one night, when his bandmates were late, and I Wayne was forced to take the stage alone. The response was tremendous, so he perfected his solo act, incorporating his keen appreciation for singers like Sade, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Marcia Griffiths, Beres Hammond, and Sizzla Kalonji, into his developing style and honing his craft by chanting DJ style with local sound systems like Diamond Cruise and The Legend, as well as performing at Garveymeade, an annual Portmore event held on December 24th for the past 10 years.

His distinctively fluid yet controlled vocals won him a record deal with VP Records in 2004, and his debut album, “Lava Ground,” hit stores in the summer of 2005. It yielded two hit singles, “Can’t Satisfy Her” and “Living in Love,” as well as the critically praised title track. Slipping and sliding through the higher notes of the scales with a jazz singer’s assurance and a reggae chanter’s rough-riding rhythmic sensibilities, I Wayne’s meteroic rise and his lyrical gift for piercing the veils that cloak Babylonian hypocrisies sparked a new wave of enthusiasm among the industry for this young generation of roots and culture singers and songwriters and eager anticipation for his second set, The Book of Life (releasing November 6).

This time around, a set of spare, light-as-air roots instrumentals, produced by the finest of Jamaica’s young mixing board talents, provides an elegant showcase for I Wayne’s even more dazzling singing/chanting, richer melodies, and more penetrating lyrics. Says Neil Edwards, the project’s executive producer, “For the past year, a lot of artists have been glorifying death and destruction, so I Wayne flipped that and focused on life.”

Where many are didactic and full of condemnation, this time around, I Wayne simply wants to remind listeners of an essential truth—that life is a gift for which we can be grateful. “I just praise life, just deal with it naturally,” says I Wayne. “There’s nothing wrong with praising the sun, moon and stars and the wind, and all that create balance. Life is love and love is life.”

The philosophy may seem simple yet “Life’s” topical range—I Wayne’s detailing of where natural balance has been lost—is typically far-reaching and deep. He covers domestic violence in “Jealousy and Abuse” (featuring the great Lady G); male and female intimacy in “Need Her in I Arms”; and wordwide divisions and anarchy in “Politics and Religion.” The title track, which is the CD’s first single, provides an overview of the set, expressing everything I Wayne has learned in his 28 years of life and his desire to share his experience—a glowing example of the personal rendered universal. This uniquely positive worldview comes across most clearly in “Life Is Easy,” in which I Wayne flips the script on reggae’s usual recounting of the suffera’s trials by reminding listeners that the way out of suffering is to give thanks for the blessings nature gives us.

“Just appreciate life as it is and praise it,” he explains. “I’m against anyone who wants to change that. When one wants to tear up the Book of Life, they mess with the elements, the universe. Scientists are killing to make millions and giving false information. Just love life as it as it is and don’t try to destroy. We need to care for life more. We can’t have too much love for material because then we disregard life. I’m trying to keep it simple and real, just sharing some of what life has taught I. I’m not hear to force anyone but to share some of life’s knowledge—just being ‘naturous’.”

More at: www.vprecords.com/i-wayne and www.facebook.com/OfficialIWayne/

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Black Am I

One of the newest recruits to the Ghetto Youths International ranks, the culturally inclined reggae singjay Black Am I has already distinguished himself as a powerful voice of Jamaican music’s next generation. While he may be fresh to the music business, Black Am I has got ambition aplenty—and the talent and integrity to back it up. If you don’t know his name yet, then it’s time to get familiar.

In this time, when some of the most fundamental tenets of reggae culture seem to have fallen by the wayside, Black Am I replenishes the great traditions of self?determination, equal rights, and celebration of one’s African identity through hard?hitting yet conscious lyrics. Backed by fresh sounds that blend classical roots reggae with contemporary dancehall energy, the young artist is poised to spark a revolution in the minds and hearts of music lovers worldwide.

Born in the rural village of Nine Mile, situated in the hills of the Jamaican parish of St.Ann, Black Am I knew that he was blessed with the gift of music. “Growing up in Nine Mile reggae was a part of me,” Black Am I explains. His father chose to call him I?Nesta, out of respect for Nine Mile’s most famous son, Robert Nesta Marley. Sometimes a name carries the seeds of destiny—in keeping with the Rastafarian concept of word,sound, and power—so it came as no surprise somehow when Black Am I was inspired to sing. “Music we say,” Black Am I affirms. “I love the thing for a long time. I just want to see it reach to a level.” But the level he’s aiming for isn’t just the usual “next level” cliché of searching for any form of success by any means necessary. Instead, Black Am I holds himself to a higherstandard. “I feel like I’m responsible to bring back roots reggae,” the young singer says without hesitation. “Cause the thing get watered down.” From an early age—long before he had access to a recording studio—Black Am I began writing his own songs. Right now all I need is a producer, he told himself.

So when Damian “Junior Gong” Marley was visiting Nine Mile one day, he recognized the opportunity. “I approach him and say, ‘I am the artist in the place you know,” Black Am I recalls. Always willing and able to support fresh talent, Junior Gong asked him to sing something. “The first time I met up with Black Am I in Nine Mile,” Junior Gong says with a smile, “I told him that he needed some more pratice.” But Black Am I was far from discouraged—quite the contrary. “I was never disappointed,” he says, “cause practice is perfection. So I just went for it.” Rising to meet the challenge, Black Am I diligently put in the required work, and made sure he was ready the next time Junior Gong visited Nine Mile. The occasion happened to be a celebration of the Ethopian Christmas on the 7th of January. “Gong was in the place again, and a celebration was in the air,” Black Am I remembers. “After the gathering he was walking back to his father’s place. And I just started to sing.” The memory remains fresh for Damian Marley. “He just came up beside me and started sing: If you don’t wanna be misled, I tell you Ras up and come. He did this whole tune and I said, Wait! Who’s this?” Something about the voice seemed familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. That’s when Black Am I reminded him. “You don’t remember me? The same one you meet a year ago—you told me to practice.” Impressed by the youth’s talent, Junior Gong invited him to a formal audition at Tuff Gong studios in Kingston. “I did not even know Tuff Gong at that time,” recalls the singer, who was then still known as Nesta. “I came to Hope Road to the demo studio. Some tracks were playing and we voiced on them.” That initial session would prove to be fateful for more reasons than one.

The first song he recorded that day went like this: “Black am I, why should I stray? /Sticking to my roots and culture and so me ah go stay. / Black am I, like who must I say? / Martin Luther King and Marcus Garvey.” That powerful lyric had an immediate and lasting impact on all who heard it, and on the artist himself. “People never knew my name at the time,” the artist recalls. “So everybody was calling me ‘Black Am I.’” Soon thereafter Junior Gong made it official, telling him “that’s the name we’re working with.”

Since that time, the artist formerly known as I? Nesta has come to appreciate thesignificance of his powerful new name, his consciousness expanding to fulfill the potential implied by the title. “Being Black Am I, now I just represent for ‘I and I’ roots and culture,” And we burn bleaching. We are African—there’s no denying that. So that is why we have to just accept our name and say: This is the job we’ve got to do. Nothing has changed. Rastafari come from the root—Africa. The Lion of Judah shall never break him promise.” Junior Gong has invested significant time and effort on artist development, and has noticed a rapid evolution of the young singer. “When we start work with Black Am I, it was just really natural talent and love of music coming through,” he says. “Since that time, he’s started to get more calculated.” “With Damian Marley I become a workaholic,” says the artist, who has put down tracks like “Dwelling”, “People Kill People” on King Jammy’s General Riddim and the thought provoking”Modern Day Freedom,” which raises timely questions about life within a 21st century system of economic dependency. “How can we free ourselves?” the artist ponders. “We have to put our shoulder to the wheel. No more complaining. Work to be done. I myself call pon every Jamaica right now. Stand up for your right. Get up, stand up. Sitting down too long right now. You know what I mean? It’s game time. Training. Practice. Perfection—straight. Moving forward Black Am I continues to record and tour with Ghetto Youths International, moving toward his goal of being a voice for the voiceless. “Who have ears to hear, let them hear,” he says. “I do music from my heart. I express myself in a way that I feel like the world want to express themselves. Because,” he says, closing with a line from the book of Marley, “there are so much things to say right now.”

More at: www.twitter.com/BlackAmI1

 

DATES/TIMES

WHERE

• Mateel Community Center

PRICE

• $25
• $22 adv.