Akae Beka ADD

Single Premiere: International Dub Ambassadors meet Akae Beka - Whatever You Believe

03/14/2017

After two EPs worth of collaborations with hometown singers and producers, Puerto Rico’s International Dub Ambassadors expand their musical borders with Whatever You Believe, the band’s new single with Akae Beka’s Vaughn Benjamin, co-founder of St.Croix’s roots reggae masters Midnite. Also on board for the track’s mixing and mastering is producer Laurent “Tippy” Alfred of I Grade Records and member of the Zion I Kings family.

The Dub Ambassadors reached out to both personal heroes for their first international collaboration on record in an effort to bridge Puerto Rico’s reggae and dub scene with St. Croix’s storied influence over the genre’s style and sound. The end result – Whatever You Believe – is a timely plea for unity in an era of intense disagreement and data overload, where “there’s more information and less certainty”. Vaughn Benjamin cuts through the noise with a knockout chorus laid atop the band’s thick, reverb-heavy rhythm: “Whatever you believe, it’s still food you need / whatever you believe, it’s shelter you need / and what it takes in life to maintain your peace / is a juggling of will and priorities.”

Producer Laurent “Tippy” Alfred had this to say about the unprecedented collaboration: “Mixing and recording Vaughn Benjamin on this song was a powerful experience; to see how the heavy Dub Ambassador riddim perfectly blended with the timeless lyrics of Akae Beka and the important reminder that whatever you believe, we are one family.”

The single will be available for streaming and download through all platforms, including, Itunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon, on March 15th.

Listen to the world premiere here: