BY ALYSSA MAHADEO
In order to become successful in the music industry, you have to be quick on your feet and utilize your creativity to come up with something that’s different, new, fresh and exciting.
In recent years, we’ve seen more local talent achieve success, especially since the rise of the 6ix God. It has inspired many artists to revisit their own beats and lyrics to create something suited to the new generation of reinvented music genres.
That seems to be the ultimate goal of three young artists and collaborators from Toronto, Emmanuel Addai, aka ‘Thaoneandonly Emman’, Jermaine Chin, aka ‘JFresh’ and Luke Uddenberg, aka ‘Fokus’, who have been joined together to redefine dancehall music.
Canadian born with Caribbean roots, both Addai and Uddenberg are old friends from high school, and built a friendship on their mutual love and interest in hip hop. After tapping into their lyrical creativity for a class project, they composed a rap song about “hanging out”, rapped over Dr. Dre’s instrumental of 50 Cent’s latest single at the time “In Da Club”. Their performance was well received by their classmates and it motivated them to further explore their respective talents. Over the course of high school, they took separate paths but reconnected in their fourth year, alongside Dominic Giuliano, better known as ‘Infinity’, the co-founder of SounDrive Records. Addai and Giuliano had collaborated together during the school year to make urban music under the name The Young Legendz. Later, Addai introduced Giuliano to Uddenberg, remembering his knack for writing lyrics. Together, they finalized their urban group name to The Legends.
The group disbanded for seven years before Addai and Uddenberg reconnected again in 2015. Addai had been working with music producer Chin, to produce an album under his own established beat production company NewClearSound Production. Remembering Uddenberg from his past collaborations, Addai introduced him to Chin. He suggested that Uddenberg be featured on Chin’s latest single “Whine for me”, which spoke to and connected them to their West Indian roots; it was released on June 20th of this year.
Together, the three of them became a reliable team and decided to produce a collaborative album demonstrating their own creative talents, soon to be known as “You Won’t Believe This.”
Their music is inspired by a new genre of dancehall music called rap fusion. Using hip hop and R&B beats infused with a dancehall melody, rap fusion has a different vibe and a unique flow similar to conventional dancehall. The difference lies in the arrangement and the unique beats and lyrical rhymes produced.
“I listen to almost everything, especially classical and jazz,” explains Addai, sharing that his inspiration is a mixture of different genres, melded together to form new sounds.
“I’m inspired by the fun old school dancehall, like Sean Paul, Shaggy, and Mr. Vegas,” shares Uddenberg, noting that his lyrics are derived from the beats Addai puts together, a combination that flows very well together.
They are very open minded when it comes to finding new sounds that work together, drawing on past generations of quality music and utilizing their own skills to create something worth listening to. “We have to be open to different styles to be able to create what we want to create,” says Addai. “We want to be a part of something bigger, right now just building our catalog, so that we put them together in an album in the future.”
“It’s all about love for the music, you want it so bad even if you were doing something else in your heart you would still want to be making music,” shares Chin.
NewClearSound Production’s latest track, “Whine for Me” – Jfreshaz Nuh Fear Dem Ft. FoKuS, is available for download on Soundcloud, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio and many more networks. Check it out and stay connected with them on Facebook and Instagram @newclearsound for the latest updates and details.
