Alborosie ADD

Alborosie’s Track by Track Guide To Freedom & Fyah

05/08/2016 by Angus Taylor

Alborosie: “I named the album Freedom & Fyah. It’s the shorter version of Songs of Freedom and Fyah but I never wanted the title so long we cut it to Freedom & Fyah. Because at the end of the day reggae is militant to me and it’s against the system. I don’t really know pretty reggae. Reggae can’t be too pretty to me. The songs are on Fyah with the concept of Freedom that after so many years of battling through, is still vital and essential when it comes to reggae music. I don’t believe and I don’t even look upon a form of reggae unless there is a good portion of militancy in it. Otherwise I’m not interested.”

01. The Prophecy feat. Rev. Rohan Treleven
“The album opens with an intro called The Prophecy. When my son was baptised – the pastor made a speech where it was to me like a prophecy. Listen to the intro and you will understand what I’m saying. I loved that speech so much that I wanted to use it on the album. The man never knew me or my family but he goes straight into the music. The music is your language and you’re going to talk through your music to people, communicate through that powerful vehicle which is music. It was so magical I said “I need this on my album”.

02. Can’t Cool [LISTEN HERE!]
“Then we go to a song named Can’t Cool. “The fire cyan cool, the fire cyan tame, we step up inna Babylon and them call we name”. They have to know that we were doing the work. So make sure you guys do your work because we are doing the work too. You have to be prepared.”

03. Fly 420 feat. Sugus [LISTEN HERE!]
“Then we have a song named Fly 420. It’s a ganja song. It’s a dubstep type of vibe. Not too aggressive like the real dubstep. Very light dubstep. Not really like the Skrillex or whatever. More like a dub reggae vibe with some dubstep elements.”

04. Cry
“Then you have songs like Cry – still in the rubadub dub vibe. When you listen to the album you’ll see that the album is very rubadub. It’s still Alborosie but it has a modern touch to it. I’ve never really done an album like that.”

05. Strolling feat. Protoje
“I have a song with Protoje on the album. A song called Strolling. When the Rastaman Strollin’ into town people a watch and say “Yow, the Rastaman strollin’ into town” “Over the mountain and across the seas, when they need it them calling we!” It’s bit of a “You a di ting”. When they need it them send for me so we strolling into town and we fling the judgment.”

06. Rocky Road [WATCH VIDEO!] and 07. Poser [LISTEN HERE!]
“Rocky Road – we’ve released already on a video. And Poser – these two songs released already a couple of months ago.”

08. Judgement
“I have some dancehall vibes too – one song – Judgment. It’s dancehall but not too dancehall. It’s Rasta dancehall so you have the dancehall with some Rasta elements. It’s very conscious. And the argument is very much: before you judge somebody you should really speak to the person and find out certain things. Don’t judge the book by the cover basically.”

09. Life To Me feat. Ky-Mani Marley
“Then you have Life To Me featuring Ky-mani. Ky-mani is basically always there. Ky-mani always present in mind. Me and him are a team. It’s important – I don’t know why – me and him – because of his father and the talent, Ky-mani always has to be involved somehow. The song is a love song. It’s a beautiful song. We’re going to do a video for Life To Me.”

10. Rich
“The song Rich, I don’t want you to get it wrong. Really the song is Money Don’t Make You Rich. I just called it Rich because Money Don’t Make You Rich is very long. It’s a bit tricky right there when you say Rich. You know Tanto Blacks “Real Rich!” I don’t get involved in that!”

11. Carry On feat. Sandy Smith
“There is a song produced by Winta James. Winta used to work with me. The first tour we did Winta was the keyboard player. We exchanged a lot of knowledge and experience and I’m happy to see him now doing his thing. So he produced the rhythm for the song called Carry On. Carry On has Sandy Smith doing a little thing on the punchline.”

12. Everything (Roots Radics DJ Appearance by Pupa Avril)
“Flabba Holt is my brethren, so me and him produced a track on my new album. Everything is the Flabba Holt track. Wicked rubadub in an old school type of vibe.”

13. Zion Youth feat. Sugus
“The last song is Zion Youth. He is the youth from Zion. Zion Youth is a concept I would like to push this year. If you listen to reggae you are a Zion Youth. If you are a conscious youth and you love reggae, you are one of us – a Zion Youth. And the song is alongside one old school artist – she’s unknown but her tone, her voice sounds just wicked. She’s named Sugus. She lives in New York now. She’s a part of my family. She’s my fiancé’s grandmother and she sounds incredible. I had to utilise her voice for a few of my songs on the album.”


FREEDOM & FYAH INTERVIEW WITH ALBOROSIE