ANTHONY B
Interviewed by Jesse I -- July 2004

This interview was conducted in Negril, Jamaica at Jah Freedom Recording studio where Anthony B was working with Australian producer Jake Savona.

 

Jesse: Right now I'm at Jah Freedom recording studio in Negril , Jamaica , with none other than the original fire man Anthony B – give thanks.

Anthony B: Blazing, burning.

Jesse: Yes king, it's an honor to have you with us here on Chant Down Babylon. We've been playing your music here for as long as the radio show has been going, and I should say that a couple of weeks back before we left Australia we did a special on crime and corruption and no other artist had as many big tunes dealing with the subject as Anthony B - so I want to say maximum respect for that. Maybe you can talk about why you speak about these issues of crime and corruption, that are so important.

Anthony B: For me, first and foremost, music is like the alphabet. For kids it's like education, like a tool, like a book, like a pencil, like a classroom. Before any kid knows their subjects, before the English language, before they know science and maths, they know the music, they know the songs…

Jesse: Yeah, they know the heart beat…

Anthony B: …they know the heart beat before anyting else. That's not something parents teach to them, a lot of the time parents would say “where you get that from”. For me music is a very great instrument of influence, so I'm trying to use that on a positive sense. So, for me I want to be somebody with a purpose, not a rebel without a cause. So that is why I keep the music like this, because I'm always a conscious positive person. Even before I entered music I always say if I was a carpenter or a mason, I would still be a Rasta. I would still be a conscious person, I'm not a “reggae dread” y'know.

Jesse: Well I usually like to start my interviews at the beginning, so maybe you could tell us a bit about where you where born, what life was like growing up as a youth.

Anthony B: Well, I was born in the parish of Trelawny, which is the “cockpit country” of Jamaica . Famous warrior like Cudjo, which is the Maroon dem, these people. It's a faming parish, yam and banana, carry water pon your head, standpipe, latrine as we call an outside bathroom – like half a mile from your house. So I grew up with that lifestyle, collect water before school in the morning, you would have to go to the hills and look broom for you to sweep your yard. So we grew up with that farming lifestyle, growing up on that farm, go plant your own yam and plant your banana. Then I migrate to Kingston .

Jesse: When was that, how old were you when you went to Kingston ?

Anthony B: A young age - say 11, 12, 13 in those ages. Maybe around 1988.

Jesse: What took you to Kingston ?

Anthony B: Well, to live with my uncle, a better life. The country is more laidback. If you want to explore, or you want to become something, you want to go to college, you have to go to the city. For a better education you have to go to the city. So I think that's what bring me to Kingston – opportunity.

Jesse: So what was it like moving to Kingston as a teenager, and how did you start to get involved with the music?

Anthony B: Well the move into Kingston … the totally different lifestyle is that you don't bring water no more, you nuh farm no more, you have water inside your house, you have inside bathroom. You would see different type of things. Violence in the country would be like two man fighting…

Jesse: Fists versus guns in the city?

Anthony B: Yeah, in the city you see guns. Which you nah see with police, you see it with person, where they say “my gun dis” and it look unreal to you. You say, “your own gun?”. It's a totally different lifestyle. But getting to the music, growing up in Portmore, Portmore is this new community just coming together. New people from all over, from different parish, people from in the city, people from different ghettos coming together is dis community. So it's coming together creating your own vibes, so we try to create this corner, so you find yout' and yout' come and sit in a tree. Evening time there's nothing to do – it's a new community, road just finish, and the only thing you have is like corner shop. So we start our little thing called “ghetto show” which is like the greatest show on earth, and another thing called two box soundsystem. You put that out on the streets and make like a little board stage, and start to DJ right there until the crowd start to build and you find 100, 200, til thousands of people. Then you would find big star in those days like Shabba Ranks, Supercat, those artists would come through – Chaka Demus, Pliers, all those artists – til it become famous. This event that people look to every Wednesday night. So that's where I start making my name, because I was also a part-founder of this event. People start to look to me – I would be like the closing act, every night – no matter who come, from me sing it finish. So that's how the vibes started out.

Jesse: Where did it go from there?

Anthony B: We start to go to the studio, Black Scorpio studio.

Jesse: Black Scorpio was the first producer to voice you?

Anthony B: No, it was a producer called Wizard, he carried me to a studio called Sonic Sounds. You ever hear bout Wizard label? His name is Sid. He put out a song with Mega Banton and Ricky General in those days called “Remix”.

Jesse: Was year was this?

Anthony B: This was like 91, 92. I did a song called Poor Life It No Nice, and a next song with Little Devon. Little Devon is the person who take me now to Black Scorpio studio. I start going to Black Scorpio studio and I meet Richard Bell, which is Star Trail. That's how it all come. I start to voice for Star trail, and then I started to voice for Black Scorpio. We were just going to Scorpio studio, but we wouldn't get the chance to actually go into Scorpio's voicing room and voice. You just hang out there… that would be like your little garden, where you sow your seed and hope that it would grow.

Jesse: So what was the first tune that you actually voiced and got released?

Anthony B: The first song that get released for me is a song called “Brazil Dance”. That's 1994, Brazil won the World Cup. The big riddim in Jamaica at that time was the Corduroy riddim. So I go on that riddim and I did a song, “jump up and prance, rock dem like a baby with the Brazil dance”. Then Future Troubles did a song called “I and I Who”, in that same year - ‘94 coming like to December. I did a counteraction to that song called “Sniff Coke” or “Come From Bellvue”. That song is the one that start to get me going all around the dance. Then Future Troubles counteract my song with a song called “Hong Kong Mi Born and a China mi live, mi originate the Karate business”. Then I did a song called “Karate Man Who Is You” and it was like every promoter was calling for me and Future Troubles. That was the first time I go on Sunsplash. That's the first time I go on Sting. But we didn't actually clash, but I get the chance to go on the show as a young artist, and I did tremendously well. At that time I built a song called Repentance Time which wasn't on record, but I did it on the stage show – me baptise Bounty Killer, me baptise Beenie Man – and that song now, it mash up every event! After that I did a song called “One Thing I Can Do, One Thing I Can Say”. That song and “Hurt The Heart” come out and start to play in the dance. Then I did it for Ricky Trooper and Killamanjaro. That was like '95, when Killamanjaro and King Addies clashed in Portmore.

Jesse: And those tunes went on to the Real Revolutionary album on Star Trail right?

Anthony B: Yeah.

Jesse: For me that was the first one where I heard Anthony B - was that the album that broke you internationally?

Anthony B: Yeah yeah, that's the first album that broke. That's my first album ever. The second album I did after that was called Universal Struggle, which is a second Star Trail album.

Jesse: Tunes like Waan Back…

Anthony B: [singing] It's a universal struggle… You don't have to say you're sorry…

Jesse: Rastaman School , Mockingbird…

Anthony B: Yeah man. Stormwinds are blowing everywhere…

Jesse: And from there you've just released album after album.

Anthony B: The third album was Seven Seals.

Jesse: VP released those, but you've worked with a lot of other labels as well, and I believe you've just signed a deal with Universal now.

Anthony B: Yeah. I signed to Togetherness records, and then we did this album with Togetherness and we shop it and get a deal from Universal Records. The album is called Untouchable.

Jesse: You were talking before about artists like Burning Spear that have always commanded a certain amount of respect - well deserved - but now you're at a level where you're drawing just as many people all over Europe and all over the world. How does that feel as a Jamaican artist to have taken the music so far, and to have a new generation of reggae fans listening to your music?

Anthony B: As we always say about this music- the pioneers are like Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, Jimmy Cliff. Those people, you'd see like the people laying the subways, blasting those rocks and those mountains to create this train line. Like those people were fighting to invent aviation to fly around the world. So these are what these people are to the music. But for me now, it's a little bit easier, because the market is set up, infrastructure is set up. Its already popular, the music is popular, its just for you to come with the proper music that the people are looking for from reggae music. Bob Marley took the music to the highest level - to the hall of fame. And that's the highest that music can go, the sky's the limit, and Bob Marley reach there. So to have someone from your genre of music as a legend, its great for the music – there's plenty of genres of the world that don't create that legend. Don't create that superstar. Reggae creates so much. So, I think it's easier. Sean Paul now is doing a very great work. Shabba Ranks already set that pattern; Supercat; those people laid those foundations. So when Sean Paul would come up people would go “ohhh its like another Shabba Ranks” so those patterns are set.

Jesse: With those artists - obviously Bob Marley took pure Rasta reggae to the whole world. But the artists that have come up recently - like Shabba Ranks, Supercat, to Sean Paul now - the artists that are having a big international success right now aren't coming up with the Rasta message, it's a different thing. Where do you reckon Rasta fits in with the bigger commercial picture worldwide?

Anthony B: Well looking at Bob Marley's tremendous success. Bob Marley had a genius behind him who [helped] break Bob Marley. There's a lot of music around like Bob Marley, but there is no genius to present this the right way. A record label can come sign a reggae artist, but does he know how to market this artist's music? To paint a picture. Sometimes it's more about the artist that can sell the music, than about the music. Sometimes it's more about the music than about the artist that can sell the music. So sometimes you need to figure and draw a line in between there. Maybe if you come and market an artist as a true Rastafarian then he can sell the record after people get to overstand the music. Maybe if you come and market the music first, then people get to overstand who is this person. I think the clash is, who is willing to stand up and be the Chris Blackwell, to make that sacrifice. The type of music that break Bob Marley internationally figured him out. They are Rasta music but they are simple music. The simple minded people who love this music wouldn't see it as Rasta music. Music like “One Love” would be an anthem of the world, not just Rasta music. So Bob Marley see music in such a simplified manner that that's what take it across, it's not just a Rasta message in the music. When people who are marketing reggae music can see that, then I think the music will go. The first video I see on TV was Bob Marley - children playing in the streets, nothing to do with chanting around the nyahbinghi fire. But if they gonna come and market you now as a Rasta artist, that's the way they market you – chanting around a nyahbinghi fire. They wouldn't take you, put you on top of the world with all these different children, all these different countries, showing, this is what you're about. Chris Blackwell taught Bob Marley this is what he's about, one love, bringing all these people together - so people would go “oh we need a person like that in the world man”. So it's more about what he is about.

Jesse: Obviously you have music that deals with everything, from girls to ganja…

Anthony B: Yeah, so you can put out an album, and a record company is trying to market this album. Maybe they pick a song off the album on a strong topic, that we can market that song and that song can create something. I think that's a route Chris Blackwell took with Bob Marley. Bob Marley's first album was Catch A Fire. [the album cover was] like a lighter, a flash, catch a fire. That was the marketing strategy back in those days.

Jesse: It's a different level now, but it's the same principal behind it.

Anthony B: The same principle. So I think, that's what we need.

Jesse: I want to ask about the revolutionary side of the lyrics. Obviously you can present any kind of lyrics in the right way and it can work, but for a lot of us, it's the revolutionary side of the music that inspires us – but songs on certain topics won't get played on commercial radio. Even in Jamaica , I know you've had nuff tunes banned over the years.

Anthony B: They won't get played. So you see then, it's not just us. They see what Bob Marley can do with that music. If something is new to the world, give it a run and see what it can do. Now we see what this can do, we cannot let this thing grow! Seen? So the world is yearning, saying “there is nobody that can do it like Bob Marley” – but they would not give you that breathing space like Bob Marley. We can't allow another person to come and say that Haile Selassie is the almighty. To be so powerful that he can go to America and pull 20 million people, to tell these 20 million people that Haile Selassie I is god. No no no, we cant allow that! Give them a little thing, let them go around and do what they do. So it's a barrier - and it can be broken - but with diplomacy. So that's where we ask the fans of reggae music to sit and look at diplomacy, and look where we can break this barrier. To focus on artists that use diplomacy to break this barriers.

I'm all about Rastafari. My life is about Rasta. My god is Haile Selassie I. If I break the barrier while singing a song “yeah I love you girl”, I'm still a Rasta man. What I stand for is more strong if I have 50 million fans than if I have 10 million fans. If I get 50 million fans I can do more for Rastafari. So it's diplomacy. Haile Selassie I teach I of diplomacy. When Selassie I was going to meet the Queen, he dressed a different way than when he went to meet Kennedy. This is the king we a praise. This is the king we study, his lifestyle, his literature - this is how we live our life. A lot of people out there know the music, but they don't know the king we a praise. Our king is not just a warrior, he's also a peacemaker, he's the Prince of Peace. Our king is the greatest lover. Haile Selassie I is the only leader in the world that get his throne to sit on, and when they say his queen cannot sit beside him, he give up his throne saying “without my empress crowned, I cannot sit down”. So all of these principles are in the principle of Rastafari. It's not just get up and say you burn the leaders - there are many different aspects. There's economical, literature, education. Through my music I try to teach youth, and you cannot only teach a youth by just saying “destroy that, be a revolutionary”. You have to teach them sometime why you go ahead and destroy and say “burn that”. Like if a man say “yeah, burn Jesus” and stop there here, you'll find a million people want to kill him. But if him say burn Jesus, and this is the reason why… then you would have to spend the time and listen.

Jesse: Think about what he's saying...

Anthony B: Think about what he's saying. So, that's where the music is now. The music is at an explanation level where its going through a lot of different phases - because that's what Haile Selassie I life is about – a lot of different stages and a lot of different phases.

Right now the biggest problem in Rastafari, I sight, is the economical development of black people. It's not even a social development again, nor governmental development. We have to start learning now to do as other communities do. Like the chinee community, like the white community, like the indian community. How we a go do that? If we only teach through the revolutionary eyes then the love nah go get fi anchor. For me to be truly revolutionary I have to be truthful. Truthful and to be bold. No partiality. That's a revolutionary song. When my black brother hear a revolutionary song, there is no chance for him now to sit and look at nobody with a loving eye, because in revolution is memory. And in memory there is a lot of things that will come up that is sour and bitter. So if we want to get love across now, what we sometimes have to do is ignore other things. You don't forget about it, but you pass it fi a while and look for a different solution. We're searching for love, and we try this already. So we try a next door, because Bob Marley say “when one door close, many more would open”. We unlock the revolutionary door so long, we unlock the love door now. A deh so we deh right now, trying to get the music across, sell some more music. I think that's what stop Rasta music. All us come wit one aim, to sing about Rastafari – none of us come with the aim, with the business aim. Bob Marley was a man with that aim. Looking back at his life, he was a business man - a great, great business man. I think we have to start - search now, to build ourselves more powerful - as Rasta singers, as Rasta musicians, as Rastafarians. Red, green and gold is selling everywhere - it's a Rasta ting. Ites green and gold are Rasta colors. But who is making the money off of it? Rasta look at it as nothing. If Rasta look and put it in a business, it would mean economical development, because we have generation and generation to come. So that is the part we have to work on.

Jesse: You don't see a problem mixing religion and money? Because to me, when you look at the established church, it's all about the collection plate…

Anthony B: No, religion is something that was made my man. And money is something that was made by man. So anything that was made by man - they go together. Because if you listen to it y'know… Religion and money, reading about Christ… They say they built the church to worship Christ. In the bible they say Christ went to Jerusalem and destroyed the church - because there was gambling in the church, off of collecting in the church. So even Christ, that the Church was created to worship, burn the church! So it's a business. But listen to this… all of us have a conscience. These people now, rich millionaires… you wake up and you find yourself with 350 billion pounds. One son and he is already rich. 25 business place, 10 palace, and you drive through your community and there's 100 thousand people living in the street; homeless, hungry. But you wouldn't give those people one million dollar. Here's a man who make 70 billion every day. One million could build a plaza for these people and set them up, but you put yourself in a rocket and sail to outer space for 170 million a trip, just to go and look. After you do that now, looking at these people in the street, you cant sleep - so you have to create a place where you can go n' bury these conscience. To feel good about yourself. That's what the church is about - for these rich people go feel good about themselves. Anything they've got to give to the poor, they donate it to the church and the church let them look good. When you come and you feel bad, the Father would say “oh don't worry about that man, I pray for you, God will wash away all those sins”. So the church is the conscience box.

Jesse: And the whole time the bible says its easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than enter the gates of Zion …

Anthony B: That's why they got to create the church, because they realise its easier to pass through the eye of a needle than the gates of Zion . They cannot go to Zion ! So where they got to go? Church! So that's their own Zion . A rich man is not going to give up his money, so he creates his own Zion . He wont leave his money to go to heaven. So he's building his own heaven. Go to the moon, go out there to Mars, to Jupiter - find the next Zion , make it man! Because the earth laws are just like God laws. These people, these scientists study life – the cycle of life – and that's how they build their laws.

Jesse: Speaking of scientists and politicians coming up with laws - if they've studied nature and life, why have they banned herb?

Anthony B: Well… because herb is one of the best resources known to man. If herb is legal, all of us rich. Herbs can make oil, herbs can make rope, herbs can make clothes, herb can make so much things, to make money from. So [they think] we cannot allow this, cannot let it grow - if it's legal we cannot control the growth of it. Who make the money off what's illegal? The people who make the laws. The little man who goes out there and sells his drugs – they can watch you for 100 years, they don't care about you. Whenever they want you, they'll get everything you've got. So if you sell a billion pounds worth of coke, whenever they come for you, it's theirs.

Marijuana was made illegal because of New York . America is the country that made Marijuana illegal. Marijuana was the best thing back in the days. Ships used to use marijuana to make rope, they used to manufacture these things, use them for aviation…but now different aviation start, and they find different resources, they make it illegal. America is not a country but an empire. America is not like England or France , where there is a monarchy that hand down riches…

Jesse: America is a corporate monarchy

Anthony B: America is a corporate monarchy! If nothing is illegal in the country, there's no money. The first wealthy family in America , is from illegal liquor - this is how the country built. All these rich families, is rich off what's illegal. They are the law makers, they are the influence, they are the sponsors of these presidents. So the new president, they grow him. Every new leader - they know him, they grooom him, they influence him – and when he's in power he bows to them.

Jesse: Look at George Bush, the man's a monkey, he's a puppet…

Anthony B: He can't do nothing else, because there is richer people than you, and they created this presidency for you. Whenever you get powerless, they put someone else there, it's a business.

Jesse: I know you've had nuff songs banned over the years, but the first one I remember hearing about was Fire Pon Rome. That got played heaps in Australia – it seems like if something gets banned here [ Jamaica ] it gets played everywhere else around the world.

Anthony B: Yeah, because maybe because Mr Jones name never in it, in Australia , it never really affect them. But in Jamaica , all the people would talk about it. Another song called “Nah Vote Again”. Another banned song called “Watch what you eat, what you drink and where you sleep” – that time was the invasion of the McDonalds. All these places they build up now, they were just coming in. So at that time I was trying to block them out, show Jamaican people, “look out!”.

Jesse: Respect to that!

Anthony B: So I get a lot of fight for that. Right now, the next thing I look out and see… Jamaica is like the 53rd state of America . It sell already, delivered already, papers signed, handover… otherwise you would never see an American company, come from California, and spend so much in the Jamaican airport. The contractors who built LAX, them a build Montego Bay and them a lease it. It's an American state – them set up the airport so it can fit.

Jesse: Americans built the whole airport?

Anthony B: Yeah man. Now them a campaign so the Caricom start to spend US dollars.

Jesse: Obviously Rasta must come with fire, but in a country like Jamaica which leads the world in extra-judicial killings (police kill more people here than anywhere else in the world) do you ever feel nervous, like you're putting your own neck on the line?

Anthony B: Well, I never feel nervous, because I burn the authority which is bigger than police, which is the Prime Minister and the Opposition. A cop stopped me in Ochi and him a say any day mi lock up, him would get a medal. He would be like one of the most rewarded police… a lot of police would jump up in the air, because they want to hold a man like me. But the work have to be done. A lot of my songs stand out because… a lot of entertainers dem know about it, but they won't speak about it. Because no forward no inna it, no rail-up no inna it, no hype no inna it. A just the truth inna it. So that's why you find out that certain songs, is just me sing it. There are issues right now plaguing the business. Right now, in this time – and you will never hear nobody speak about it. Not even interview about it. Because that's the way they are.

Jesse: One thing I heard after Jah Cure got locked up was that it was police and the government who framed him for certain things he'd be saying, not just on record but at stage shows as well. Have you heard anything about that, or know if there's any truth in that?

Anthony B: I don't really know. I was on tour when all this go down with Jah Cure. The only thing I can say is freedom fi Jah Cure. Whatsoever go down, youth like that fi deh a road. Too much gunman deh a road, weh a shoot people, fi a singer who just a sing deh a prison.

Jesse: Where did the name Anthony B come from?

Anthony B: Mi middle name a Anthony and mi last name a Blair, so mi a say, just like how Babylon done give me a name already, mi keep it but stick a next name pon myself.

Jesse: Remix the name…

Anthony B: Yeah, just remix the name!

Jesse: Obviously you've come to Jah Freedom today to work with Jake here from Australia . It's the first time an Australian producer has ever come over to work with Jamaican artists – can you tell us a little about how it was working with his riddim?

Anthony B: It was a joy you know! The riddim is very hype, we give it 100 percent right now in Jamaica, its going good. It's an honor, because it's always an honor to try something new.

Jesse: And help build bridges between two countries.

Anthony B: Great, great honor. So I'm saying to everyone in Australia , just keep loving reggae music, and remember Anthony B is for real - no meal deal. Not just singing to make some money off of the music, but singing for a purpose, and a reason. Everything we're saying come from the heart, our deepest thoughts. We think about what we sing about before we start to sing, and meditate about what we sing before we start to sing. But we got to sing a lot about the ladies, because we can't let the ladies around the world feel like Rasta music is just a man thing, just a king thing. It's a king and queen thing. Selassie I say its Him and Her. Her and Him. King and a Queen. So that's what we sing about. When you go to a Rasta concert, bring your empress, make it look joyful, make it look royal, look tremendous. The only way we a go get rid of certain elements. Blessed, Rastafari, Haile Selassie I the first.