Tarrus Riley: Reggae Interview (Video) | Reggae Interviews

Tarrus Riley Team Upsetta One Drop Sessions Interview 2

Tarrus Riley Interview with Niko One Drop

Niko Tripoli | One Drop Sessions | Team Upsetta | Upsetta International
29 February 2020

Niko (N): Welcome to One Drop Sessions & Upsetta.com, Tarrus Riley welcome to the show, welcome to this space. Thank you so much for the performance you gave us tonight.

Tarrus Riley (TR): Thank you. Respect man.

N: Yeah man. You’re coming to the end of the B.L.E.M tour. I hear it’s been going really well; sold-out nights, good energy. How has it been feeling for you?

TR: Exactly that. Sold out nights and good energy. You said it right.

N: Ok perfect. So far I’m getting an A. The tour been supporting the B.L.E.M EP, which came out last year, June 2019, produced by, amongst others …

TR: IzyBeats only.

N: Ok, so Jukeboxx had nothing to do with it?

TR: Jukeboxx is the business side, but the musical production is…. There is one track that we shared some production with. That’s ‘Just Love’, we have more than one version of that song.

N: Ok

TR: So that song, Tarrus Riley, Shane Brown, Dean Fraser and IzyBeats worked together on that one. So that Jukeboxx, Canon, Blak Soil and Izy. But for the most part, it’s an IzyBeats production.

N: Ok, very good …

TR: And why I stress that is because it’s the first time I’ve done a project outside of the home team, cause my previous projects and albums and tings like that are produced by Mr Fraiser. So that’s the intricate part of the whole experiment, yuh know?

N: Definitely. But you have worked with Shane…

TR: Yeah man, on hit singles, and a lot of mi friends dem, like Russian we make a lot of big songs, Chimney Records, ya know, Jordan, Troyton, Don Corleon, so many producers … DJ Frass, I don’t want to leave out anybody because you know they a mi bredren dem, but it’s a first, (to have) a project outside of home.

N: Hows that feel for you?

TR: It feels nice. It was a vibes. It was so much fun.

N: Do you have a favorite track off the EP?

TR: No. Because music for me a just a mood. So whatever mood I’m in, that’s my favorite song at the time.

N: Yeah! Ok, let’s talk about (the meaning of) B.L.E.M, I understand it stands for Blending Life’s Experiences Musically …

TR: Bingo.

N: Bingo! Also in patois, it means blend, no?

TR: Blend, its a mixture, its a blend. Cause, ya know, if you listen to the music there’s a whole heap a fusion of genres; afrobeats, dancehall, reggae, one drop. Its a blend, its a mixture…

N: It’s a beautiful thing right there…

TR: And life is full a mixtures and feelings and different moods, so it’s the same kinda vibe.

N: Yeah, so its got that double meaning there …

TR: Yeah.

N: I really like that.

TR: Thanks.

N: Can you talk about the first time you ever set foot in a recording studio?

TR: No, cause I don’t have knowledge of that. I’d been in the studio before I knew it cause I’d been in the studio when I was in my mother’s stomach. So my parents would have to tell you that.

It was a long, long, long time ago when I was a likkle baby.

N: Do you have a memory of a first studio?

TR: No, but I have memories of following my father to the studio and being around Sly & Robbie and Dean Fraser and Willie Lindo and people like that. Mixing Lab Studio, Jack Scorpio Studio, so many studio’s.

Taxi Gang is very intricate in a mi life, ya know what I mean? As mi tell you Sly & Robbie and the whole family, like Rory, his engineer Jason. So I have a lot of different memories. But I couldn’t tell you the first one.

N: Ok.

TR: It’s been a long time.

N: Sounds like its been, since the foundation.

TR: Yeah man, my roots are in music for sure. Nobody can change that.

N: No, never. Can you talk a little bit about what influence your father may have had on your craft, your art?

TR: Well, as a father, he has influence over me as being a man, cause children are influenced by their parents. So before I reach the music, a lot of my thinking in life, I learned to talk from my mother and father. I get everything from my parents, ya know? So I probably can’t find all the words to tell you cause I would leave out some things.

But my father is a major influence on my life and if music if life, then, that’s it.

N: With an answer like that I’ve got no response. That’s it.

TR: That’s it.

N: That’s beautiful. Change up the vibe a little bit, what music are you listening to right now? What’s on the playlist while you guys are cruising?

TR: I listen to a blem of music, ya know? I listen to all genres of music. I’m very current in modern music, and I also love original, foundation music. So it depends on my mood. I keep telling you, I don’t listen to music first, I’m in a mood and then I listen to music.

So, like, whatever is on the radio, as modern music, I’m up onto it. When I say Pop and RnB, I know about Roddy Rich, I know about all that stuff right now and I’m as deep as the Melodians in Jamaica. You know, to call names would be unfair to artists.

N: I respect that man. So in your work over the years you really seem to champion, for lack of a better word “women’s issues…”

TR: Hey, you think so?

N: I don’t know, this question comes from my girl.

TR: You left her outside in the cold?

N: No man, she’s inside and I left her the key. She’s good, I promise. Anyway, you sang a few of the tunes tonight, Getty Getty No Wantee…

TR: Come on, that’s not only for women.

N: No, it is not…..

TR: You know what that means, wantee wantee no getty?

N: Yes.

TR: What’s it mean?

N: It means that what you want you don’t get…

TR: No. Wantee wantee no getty and getty getty no wantee.

The people who want things, who always want it, want it. Im nah wantee, and the people who get it get it, they don’t appreciate it. They don’t want it, so the person who always wants, dem never get. Dem never satisfied and the person who always get it can never appreciate it. Never want it.

N: How bout ‘Just The Way You Are?’

T: I’m teasing you about the women’s issues part.

N: Yeah, I know. Honestly, I sat for a while trying to think of a better way to ask that question. I knew it wasn’t… But I want to be respectful of everybody, ya know?

TR: Yeah it’s cool. I deal with a lot of topics for women, facts.

N: The only reason I bring it up is because if everyone did it in music, then it probably wouldn’t be a thing and a lot of women would different experiences in their lives.

TR: But everybody cant do it.

N: So, why you?

TR: I love women. I love women. I’m very close to my mother, close to any daughters, I love women, I appreciate women. My culture, Rastafari culture, teaches us to respect women.

Woman is a queen, woman is a princess, I love women, so I wanted to sing songs to make women feel good. That’s a fact. Sorry.

N: I’m not asking you to be, I’m very happy for it! These are some of my favorite tunes of yours, yuh know?

TR: I really love the energy that women… I’ve got a lot of girl friends. I think that women are honest with me. A lot of times my man friend dem would kinda be reluctant to tell me certain things, a woman just tell ya straight.

N: That’s definitely true.

TR: I love women, I do.

N: I mean, there are a ton of great tunes (in this vein) that you sing and I know they’re appreciated by a great many people.

TR: Especially the women.

N: Especially the women.

TR: Which is great. Also, on a serious note, women make the world nice.

When women are happy the world is nice, even in the house. If the woman of the house is alright then everything is nice. A lot of times they target the man dem and leave the woman dem alone. But if you build up the woman, she teach even the kids. So that’s why they always say behind a strong man is a strong woman. So it’s really just like the balance, ya know?

If you love yourself, then you love the other half, which is the woman, so I really love that vibe, if you’re gonna be on that level.

N: Ok, the balance.

TR: Yeah man. I love women. I do, I do, I do.

N: I do too.

TR: Great.

N: Ok, last couple of questions. Reggae music, born a sufferahs music, a music of the people …

TR: No.

N: No?

TR: It’s the King’s music. Reggae music comes from Nyabinghi. Nyabinghi is the King’s music. It comes from chanting and praising and giving thanks for life. It’s not coming from suffering.

N: Ok, not suffering but from the experiences of those who have suffered.

TR: No, it don’t start from suffering.

N: Ok, tell me where it starts.

T: It starts by giving thanks. We don’t start suffering, ya know?

Reggae music is the King’s music. It come from Nyabinghi. The Rastaman dem chanting and dem giving thanks and praise for life. Then you have the music that beat down oppression, and beat down injustice. So in that now, where there is injustice people suffer.

Everyone have dem own story, you have Reggae songs that never talk about suffering. So ya can’t tell the world on camera that Reggae music starts from suffering. That’s untrue.

N: Ok.

TR: Cause you don’t say that Rock N Roll start from suffering.

N: No.

TR: Music on the whole… Suffering isn’t the root of it. The root of it is thanks giving and praise and encouraging and communicating with others. That’s it.

Suffering is a part of it. So we ease up some of the pressure of it. I won’t subscribe to saying that my music starts from suffering. Even though we go through tribulations, I can’t. If it starts in sufferin, that means it’s gonna end with suffering.

If ya plant a mango tree, you’re gonna get a what? A mango. So if I plant a sufferation tree what’s gonna be the benefit of the suffering? Every day and every single Reggae song, after the kids grow up and my kids, kids, kids grow up and they see his documentary and they say, ‘yes, Reggae is about suffering,’ so dem haffi sing a song about suffering. No, no, no.

Yet still, if you suffer and you sing a song, the song will be about what you’re going through.

N: I see.

TR: Even in the Rap world, in Rock n Roll, in every genre of music … People talk about what they know. But please don’t say that Reggae music starts from suffering. That hurt my heart when you say that.

N: Oh man, that’s the last thing I wanted to do. I was more referencing more people in the ghetto who started …

TR: No. Have you ever been to the ghetto?

N: I have been to the ghetto.

TR: In Jamaica?

N: Yeah, in Jamaica.

TR: And how did that work for you?

N: It was difficult but …

TR: Which ghetto ya go?

N: I was in Mo Bay.

TR: You were by yourself?

N: No, I was …

TR: Why were you there?

N: I was there on vacation.

TR: Why do you vaca in the ghetto? Do you vaca in the ghettos in America?

N: I mean, I’ve lived in (some of) the ghettos in America.

TR: I’m saying, when you go on vacation, you should go to the vacation places.

N: Well, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t stay in Mo Bay, I continued down the road and ended up in Negril.

TR: So You wanted to see the ghetto.

N: I wanted to see Mo Bay, and you find yourself in …

TR: Mo Bay’s not a ghetto

N: No man, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying the whole city is a ghetto.

TR: So, we are having a conversation. I like this.

N: Absolutely.

TR: When you go on vacation to Hawaii, do you go to the ghetto?

N: Well, some people they go on vacation to Syria.

TR: I’m asking you.

N: Man, I don’t go on very many vacations. I wish I could afford more of them. That’s actually the last vacation I went on which was in 2013, so you can see how often I getaway.

TR: Was it only difficult? Did you have some kind of fun?

N: It was the best country I’ve ever been to in my life.

TR: In the ghetto? Where else?

N: The whole country, from beginning to end. From the second I stepped outside of the airport in Mo Bay to the second I got back into the airport in Mo Bay.

TR: It was nice.

N: It was the most beautiful, the best people, the most friendly people, in the ghetto, in the resorts; best food, best vibe, best music, best smells, best beach, best ocean. I don’t mean to say anything, bad man.

TR: No, no, no you’re saying it.

N: Ya know, it just… So you’re right, I can see where you’re going. The experience of everybody and everything. You just taught me a lesson, huh? Is that what just happened?

TR: Hey, we’re having a conversation, you see, I just let you talk. Because when you say it, you feel it, you know what you’ve been through.

N: Yeah.

TR: That’s why I don’t give people advice, cause everybody has a voice inside of them.

N: Yeah, yeah. Tarrus, you just killed me. I don’t have anything else for you… I just want to say thank you.