INTERVIEW : NICKY B
Interview by : Benoit Georges
Pictures by : DR
on Sunday, April 08th 2007 - 314 853 views
Behind the B of Nicky B hides an illustrious family of Jamaican music: that of Mikey Bennett, the famous songwriter and producer. A first recording alongside Beenie Man launched the career of young Nicholas Bennett, but it was Don Corleon who revealed to the public his fresh, R&B-influenced voice, which suits dancehall riddims so well. Fully embracing this blend, in a style he calls Riddim and Dancehall (RnD), Nicky B is just as comfortable explaining the choice of his favourite themes.
Like Chico, he could have remained an underground singer, known only to fans of Jamaican singles, had he not crossed paths with Lord Kossity, who gave him a showcase on the album "Danger zone".
In France to shoot the video for Hotel room, Nicky talks enthusiastically about his young career, which began in 2004.
Reggaefrance / Let's start with your origins: your father, Mikey Benett, is a famous musician and producer. Did he contribute to your musical education?
Nicky B / Growing up in a musical environment like mine, around Maxi Priest, Shabba, the great Roberta Flak or Cindy Lauper, always leaves its mark. I also believe there are the genes: my father is an excellent lyricist, I think he's one of the best Jamaican lyricists. All of this of course contributed to my ending up making music today.
Did anything else contribute?
I think my personality also contributed to my making music. I'm someone with a free spirit: I like doing what I want, when I want. I didn't find music, music found me, because originally I wanted to be a chef. Funny, isn't it?
In fact, there are a few artists who really worked as cooks; I'm thinking of Hawkeye, for example ...
That's true. I wanted to go to school to learn that trade. But I lost my house in a fire. So I decided to stop school for a year and hang around the studio in Kingston. I stayed at the studio during my sabbatical year, hoping to be able to work with my father. So I decided to go into production because it wasn't in my personality to push myself forward: I was more in the mindset of staying in the background, making hits without receiving the honours, just making music. One day, Beenie Man came to the studio; he was working for producers from Sweden. He had verses but still no chorus. I was in the studio humming and everybody turned to me and asked: "what's that?" I said it was nothing, but Beenie Man insisted: "let me hear that". Then he wanted me to record it. I told him: "no, I'm not a singer, call a singer and I'll give him this melody". In the end, they forced me to record, and it was incredible. I loved those sensations. That's where my career began; What it feels like was my first professional recording.
Which song do you consider your first hit?
My first radio hit, the one that brought me real recognition in Jamaica and made the public start taking me seriously as an artist, is Are you ready ?, recorded for Don Corleon on the Good to go riddim. Don was really hot at the time and everything he recorded got played a lot. It was the first time one of my songs was played constantly on the radio. I also shot a video: it made my career take off in terms of "fan base", especially among young Jamaican girls.
Don Corleon pushed you to record more tunes for him...
Don Corleon and I get on very well, as I do with Steven McGregor (Freddie McGregor's son, ed.). I tend to get on well with producers who love music as much as I do. Don Corleon can call me at 4 in the morning because he's going to the studio to work on a song: I'll get up and go and join him. We share the same love of music. I've stayed in the studio with him for whole nights, I've watched him learn: I think he has grown into real excellence as a producer. I saw him when he could barely make a track, and today he produces hits for Sean Paul or Keisha Cole. I think he saw that I was bringing a different style, unique at the time. I describe it as RnD: Riddim and Dancehall. That's also the name of the first album I'll be releasing.
Precisely, one of your specialities is that you sing almost exclusively on dancehall.
Yes, I thought it would be interesting to bring a new style of singing. There are lots of very different singers who come from Jamaica. You have the likes of Barrington Levy or Pinchers, who have a very particular style, which you could define as the Jamaican style. Then you have other, more classic singers, like Beres Hammond or Maxi Priest. So I asked myself how I could position myself between those two styles. Craig David is one of my favourite singers among the young ones. His albums contributed a great deal to my style: listening to a lot of Craig David allowed me to speed up my music. I learned to speed up my flow and then slow it down, and so on. So I arrived with a different style, which dancehall needed.
When the “one drop” came back strongly in Jamaica, didn't you think of recording more reggae tracks?
I've done several “one drop” songs. I've often been told, in fact, that I sing much better on “one drop”. I agree with that. My father, for example, prefers me to sing on “one drop”: all the producers of his generation believe “one drop” songs have a longer shelf life. It's true: dancehall comes and goes, whereas some reggae songs from 15 or 20 years ago are still played and enjoyed by the public. Dancehall moves so fast: producers put out a huge number of riddims, almost twice as many as “one drop” riddims. It's completely different. It's hard for me to stand out on a dancehall riddim, among the Beenie Mans, Bounty Killers, Vybz Kartels, Elephant Mans… I still love reggae and I won't stop making it, but I've created my own style, which is RnD.
Another of your trademarks, when you look at your singles, is that you deal almost exclusively with girls and partying, no “badman tunes” like many young dancehall artists.
I think music should be a representation of yourself, of what you feel and where you come from. You're a rapper, you grew up on the street selling drugs to survive, you rap about that, fine. You live by the gun, you want to sing about that, cool. I don't think I should sing and act like someone I'm not. I'm not a badman, I don't walk around with a gun. I've done songs that basically said: “just because I don't have a gun in my belt doesn't mean I can't defend myself”. But I've never gone further, to the point of saying “you're going to get a bullet in the head” or things like that. That's not me. I talk about what I've lived through, what I know: I've been hurt in love, I've lost loved ones to illness. I've also partied a lot, because I'm young (laughs).
We agree. Many artists don't bother with those concerns. They're simply playing a role…
Yes, but what happens is that a lot of people in the United States think all of that is true. A lot of Americans think Jamaica is a place where you get held up right at the airport, where people shoot at each other constantly in the street. When they hear someone singing that, they don't care whether it's true or not, they believe it. I think my music should represent what I do and how I live. I make music mainly and truly for women: I care about women, more than anything else. So it's important for me to talk about real things. I talk about what I've experienced: I've loved, I've lost loves, I've cried and of course I've partied!
Two years ago, you were the opening act for Kanye West in the United States…
It was a very interesting experience. My sister was at the University of Massachusetts and they were organising a concert with Kanye West. They were looking for an opening act and had suggested lots of hip-hop artists to Kanye. But he decided to do something different, from another genre. At that time, Elephant Man and Sean Paul were smashing it. So he wanted to move towards dancehall. My sister, who was on the organising committee, put my name forward. My trip was quite memorable: I was ill two days before the flight. The doctor told me not to fly because the pressure could damage my eardrums. But it was a huge opportunity. So I flew from Jamaica to Miami, and then I had to take another plane to Boston. During the flight my ears hurt and I couldn't hear anything on the right. Everyone advised me not to take another flight and to stay in Miami. I didn't say a word to anyone, I bought a Greyhound bus ticket for a 32-hour journey to Boston. Those 32 hours were horrible: I had a fever, I was sneezing, coughing. I arrived in Boston and it was worth it, we did the concert and then other shows in the area. I think that's when my parents really started to take me seriously about music.
Why didn't you seize that opportunity to settle in the United States and build a career there, like many Jamaican artists?
You always have opportunities to stay in the United States. I go back and forth a lot: I stayed several months in Miami and six months in LA to work on my album. We have a saying in Jamaica: “if you want dance abroad, you haffi dance a yard” (if you want to dance abroad, you must first dance in Jamaica). Which means authenticity is essential in Jamaican music: if you're Jamaican, you're going to sound Jamaican, one way or another. If you stay in the United States, you're immersed in American culture and you risk forgetting where you come from. It's important for me to be in Jamaica, in the Jamaican atmosphere and culture. And that culture changes daily. What was “big” in Jamaica when I left for France won't be any more when I come back: there will be new slang, another way of greeting each other… If you want to be up to date, you have to be in Jamaica, nobody can do it for you. The longer you stay in the United States, the more you risk losing that culture and being exposed to sounds like Chris Brown, which I don't want.
I go to the United States but I don't stay too long, I always have to come back to Jamaica to pick up the vibes.
Let's talk about France now. How did you meet Lord Kossity?
I met Lord Kossity in Jamaica, when he came to work on the album "Danger Zone". I didn't know him. It was Chico, who I'm close to, who put us in touch. In fact, Chico had brought the video of Hey sexy wow to Jamaica. He had shot a video with Alozade and Kiprich and had hurt his heels: he couldn't walk. So Chico was looking for someone to look after Lord Kossity, who was due to arrive in Jamaica. He asked me to go out with him in the evenings. I met him at the hotel and introduced myself as Nicky B. Lionel and Olivier from Mek it happen had already produced a track with me, but they had had it recorded in Jamaica: I had never seen them! When I introduced myself, they said: “we know you, you recorded for us”. I said: “no, never”, but when they talked about the song, I realised I had worked on their project. We went out to a club and had a really good night. Lord Kossity then suggested doing a track together. Later on, we went into the studio: the first song we recorded was Gangsta girl. Don Corleon had given them a CD with five tracks, including the tune Stand up. I recorded it with Kossity and he chose that track as the album's single.
Then we went to France to promote the album. In the studio, he was voicing another Don riddim that sounded more soca. Chico started the melody, I followed and it became Hotel room. That theme really inspired us: we recorded the track in 20 minutes. When I went back to Jamaica, Mek it happen called me to say that after Booty Call, the first single with Chico, the next single would be Hotel room and not Stand up. When I came back to France I heard myself on French radio for the first time! We have just shot the video in La Réunion, which is a magnificent island. I think Lord Ko is a very good artist, very quick: I watched him work on the album and he recorded four songs in one day.
What are you going to do when you go back to Jamaica?
My goal is still my first album, RnD. I've been very selective with the songs: I thought I had finished it but I added songs, so that it would be properly representative. It won't be an album only for teenagers or for young people. I'm trying to reach everybody with tracks from different producers: Don Corleon, Ballers, who produced Hey sexy wow, Lenky, Birch, Track Masters, Steven McGregor… I think Steven McGregor is one of the best producers around right now, he's only 17 but he's an incredible musician, he plays every instrument. I intend to release more and more tracks with him.
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