Singer Ras-I describes his new album Kingman as a “lighter and more enjoyable mood” contrary to “a lot of darkness” he believes has been perpetuating music lately.
“It’s like when Wizkid did drop Made in Lagos, and everybody was like, ‘Wow, mi never know mi did need this album. Mi never know mi did need fi hear dem songs yah and have this energy inna mi life right now,’” Ras-I told The Gleaner. “I think this can be that for me, for the world.”
The musician said he drew inspiration from the 2020 Wizkid project for his self-released album, which was not far-fetched from his own eclectic and explorative musical expressions, which manifest across the nine tracks. The tracklist includes the lead single Kingman Ting, which captures the album’s mission to promote a positive consciousness. Other tracks include Though We Rise, a toast to one’s success story featuring Christopher Martin; Dangerous, a reflection on societal ills with Dre Island; and the solo jazzy charmer If You Don’t Mind.
Hear more about the project from the ‘Kingman’ himself in this week’s Five Questions With.
1. Who is this album for?
Everybody. There’s something for everybody and every situation. All of us can use this energy right now. We’re living in a loop, and we’ve found one and two ways and means to alleviate some stress for some time, and then we end up going back into the loop. I think this can be another tool of comfort, another dose of medicine, but it’s like a greater dose of medicine.
2. What was your favourite part of creating ‘Kingman’?
Just the initial day of creating the songs, the studio sessions … The recording sessions are always great. Mixing and mastering is just going back over and tweaking, but the initial creating process is lovely cause the writing team, me and mi brethren them, we never go inna the studio and say, ‘let’s create this song today’. We just deh deh a vibe, steam some herbs, reason, cook some food, and this is what came out of that.
3. What made you choose Christopher Martin, Dre Island and Royal Blu as the featured acts on this album?
I can’t just collaborate if I don’t have like a vibes with you already, and all of them is my brethren from long time. Royal Blu, from when we do Crazy Over You, mi know seh anything weh mi and Royal Blu collab pon, we a go get a good sound because we know what each other brings to the table and how we want things to flow. Dre lsland, as well and Chris Martin, a mi brethren. We play ball together fi years, so we give thanks fi the strength cause dem answer mi call, and everybody come through and deliver some solid verses.
The visuals for the track ‘If You Don’t Mind’ show a sexier side of Ras-I which we’re not used to seeing. Was that out of your comfort zone?
We (director ALT) did kinda know the direction we were going in; it was going to be some level of sexy, but dem did waan go sexy-sexy for real and mi a seh alright, fine, cause yuh haffi do something different. It’s not very often that dem see not only just me, but a Rasta man in a video like this, so I think it’s just me showing a more mature look, giving the ladies a different view, shirtless and all sort of things, just stepping out of the comfort zone, pushing the envelope… They’ll get a lot more of that coming in the future too.
You’re no stranger to having your own shows like ‘Inna Ear’. How will you promote ‘Kingman’, especially during these unique times?
I’m not allowed to say much about that, but we’re going to be doing a lot of interviews, probably go Live and hold some vibes … I see that the entertainment thing kinda opening up more and more so, even if it’s to do an Inner Ear, that would be a good start. Mi nah lie, mi just waan do a big, mad show and just beat down the place but it’s going to be a little bit before mi do a show because I want to promote and push it some more so that when mi seh show, we have a greater audience coming out for it.
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