INTERVIEW

Interview by : Alexandre Tonus Pictures by : Benoit Collin on Wednesday, April 21st 2004 - 11 891 views  Print        Reactions  (0)    The Reggaefrance team could not miss Alozade's visit to our capital, and it was after a long wait (while he finished his dubplate session; the man is in demand!) that we were finally able to get better acquainted with this young DJ. An interview over a much-needed meal, then, just before the concert, which set La Locomotive on fire, alongside Zumjay, whose interview will also be published very soon... Reggaefrance / First of all, can you tell us more about yourself? Where you were born. Where you come from. And can you explain the meaning of your nickname, Alozade? Alozade / I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, at Jubilee Hospital to be precise. My mother was there on the hospital bed and she started pushing... A little girl jumped out first. And then, 5 minutes later, it was me, so I'm a twin. For me, really, music was born in me. From the moment I had a talent, I had no interest in burying it, or showing it off, so I just worked on it. It's got me this far, but there are always trials and places to pass through, it was a continent. Because in spite of everything, all of that, all the places whose names I know, that's not the whole world, I'm not planted in every house, so I'm working on that. I push the limits up to the sky, that's my method: never give up! I inherited the name Alozade from Vegas and Chico; since them, that name has stuck to me, since my first 45, "Street Dreams", on the Crash riddim. Thanks to them, I stepped back a bit more. It's continuous work, in the studio, on stage... It's my everyday life! You mentioned your first tune, "Street Dreams"; that was for a label called In the Streetz. Are you still in touch with them? Do you still work with them? Not really as a singer. I have my own label now, and they are distributors. Because I'm not one, I'm about to get into distribution... So they distribute my riddim, which is called the Chrome riddim, for South Block Production. You did two tunes on the Chrome riddim, one solo and the other a duet with Vybz Kartel… Yeah man, you followed that well. Respect! I heard you had some trouble with the law. Can you give us more details about that? A lot of artists were involved in the same case, I believe… It's not me who had trouble with the law, it's the law that had trouble with me! There were a lot of artists at the trial… But in my view, it was a real injustice, when you look at it closely. In the end, they gave a reason, something like... call it X... because I was within my rights. But for fighting back against an attack by the police, and in front of the judge, I overstepped my rights. I wasn't in the wrong in the end, but go figure, in front of the judge, what gets said... The law put me out of the game and it hurt me badly, 6 months of incarceration. As I say, and rightly, life is a college of experience. So it's more knowledge, more wisdom. In prison, there are so many people from different backgrounds. When I went in, I saw fifty different kinds of people. I saw Chinese. I saw so many people from faraway lands, Jews and what else, everybody. Thieves, gunmen, rapists, you learn so much from everybody, because it's the ghetto's college, it increases your knowledge. I regret it, because my career was slowed down, but I don't regret it, because in the end it kept me safe all along. Because a lot of things go on outside and you could well be the victim of one of their gunmen. So I have to see it on a certain level. God knows what's best; for my renown, he let these things happen. Can you tell us how the international emergence of dancehall, with artists like Sean Paul or Wayne Wonder, is perceived by other artists like you and by Jamaicans in general? In general, you can't imagine, I applaud them, because they're carrying the flag high. Now, in the eyes of the world, dancehall appears as the new music, and everybody is interested in how we sing it, everybody is interested in how we play it, everybody wants to dance to it. They want to find new dances, dancehall is the new passion and it's moving the whole planet. So, new artists are going to come to the forefront again, like Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder, who will carry the flag high. Bob Marley did it in his day and there's still a great deal of talent to be discovered, so you have to keep your eyes and ears open, and just give them our support. Finally, do you have plans for the future? An album in the works? Yes, absolutely, I intend to work on an album in the coming year. Because working on this European tour, all these 18 dates we've done, it's like the preview of a big film! Seeing how excited, how enthusiastic people are about the performance, and the lyrics, and all those things, it makes you realise and it gives you a sense, and it makes you say: "Yo! People want more, so you have to give them more, and give them songs". So now, that's my plan as soon as I get home, to release an album. Peace, respect!  Print       Reactions (0)

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