sky juice interview
10/12/01 CHICAGO-I, montana, caught up with skyjuice,
selector from metromedia sound, Friday afternoon,
the day before the big birthday bash in
which sky juice would be juggling alongside saggitarius sound. I was very excited to speak with SkyJuice who has
been in the dancehall business for 25 years and is with one of the founding sounds of
dancehall.
When I asked him how he got started
in the business, he said he used to be a “very good dancer…yuh know say dancing
come from music…me used to follow a sound dem call Gemini”. He told me was born in Kingston, and spent some
time with his grandmother and grandfather in Trelawny Clarkstown and then left for
Kingston 13 “Barrick Road come grow up” and spent some time in Barbican. He was moving with a sound called Black Zodiac,
when in 1983 he met Peter Metro, “who used to DJ for MetroMedia sound”, who he
describes as his best friend who “come dung from England in 83….and Peter Metro
come to me an say him wan a selector for Metromedia”, and since then he’s been
selecting for Metromedia. SkyJuice
paused the interview here to “send
respect to Peter Metro and Daddy Metro, ZuZu, Clinton, the one Metromedia
family…”
His thoughts on World Clash:
Montana: “What did you think of this
latest World Clash?”
SkyJuice “World Clash now, I
don’t too like World Clash. You know
why?”
Montana: “Why?”
SkyJuice:
“the reason why, in World Clash they curse bad word too much.”
Montana:
“Well, you know this year they were supposed to have that ‘clean
round’”
SkyJuice:
“yeahyeahyah an I love dat. But
the first time, I don’t like World Clash. I
like clash you know, cuz I doan fraida no selecta. I don’t fraida NO SELECTA, cuz it’s music talk. I don’t fraida no selector. But you know what I’m fraida?”
Montana: “what?”
SkyJuice: “somebody come tellyuhbout
yuh modda and come say a wholeleap a bad word and disrespect reggae music. I don’t love that. I love reggae music.”
Montana:
“right”
Sky Juice “ I play reggae music and
get I 20jamaican dollar a night. I don’t
play reggae music for money. I play for the
love a it, for the love of reggae music. I don’t come to mash up reggae, I come to
build reggae music. I respect the selecta who
play clean.”
He went on further to big up Stone
Love, and say that he respects the selectors nowadays, “I naw fight against dem. I love Firelinks, I love Tony Matterhorn, I love
the whole a dem. But I don’t love how
some a dem go to the music. I respect the
whole a dem, but I don’t love how dem go to the reggae music. Some a dem, some of them, they don’t approach it clean atall. Me love to approach the music clean. Jamaica is reggae music an we love reggae music. We don’t come
to mash up reggae music. We come to build reggae
music.”
This is where I took the opportunity
to ask him what he thinks of hip hop in the dancehall:
“hiphop in the dancehall?” he
asked. “Well, hiphop is music and I love
music you know. When you’re talking about music,
you’re talking about music. I like hip hop too.
I love hip hop.”
Montana: “What do you think about the recent styles of
dancehall that are similar to hiphop? You
know, people like Bling Dawg…”
SkyJuice :
“time goes by, you have changes, so maybe it’s changing. But I stick to my original, and nothing can beat
original. Yuh understand? Nothing can beat original. Everything you do you have
to have a foundation. If you don’t have
a foundation you cannot stay. I
don’t go to an ‘igh school you know, but I’m very intelligent, you understand?
Anything that you’re doing you have to have a foundation… my reggae music is foundation. You have to know, reggae music is a
foundation. Mi haffi big up all the
foundation selecta dem…”
This is where he went into his 2nd
round of big ups to Stone Love, Metromedia, Geminii, Killimanjaro and “a wholeap a
sound back in Jamaica” Jack Ruby, King Jammy’s, Emperor Faith, Stereo Mix.
I asked him what he thinks of
selectors who leave their sounds to play solo:
SkyJuice: “…if they feel
like it’s a better thing for them, they do what they feel like do, cause every man is
just a man.”
He made it a point to say that
he’s not leaving his sound “I stick with MY sound. I just stick to
Metromedia.” (he repeated this around 3 times, so I’m pretty sure we won’t
see SkyJuice coming solo any time soon) and
that he’s not going to downgrade Firelinks or Tony Matterhorn because they’re
doing their own thing.
He says his favorite places to play in
outside of Jamaica are England, New York, the “small islands”, “I love
Chicago too”. This is where he took his
third opportunity to send big ups and shout outs to “Oliver, Scratchie, Jugs B…
an Me Myself, the guy dem call silva, daddy metro the boss mi send respect to the bigga boss…” along with big ups to his manager
in New York and all his family in Jamaica, and everybody in Jamaica who loves reggae
music, and all the people in Japan, “I
love Japan. You get a nice crowd in
Japan”
Speaking
of Japan, I asked what he thinks of Mighty Crown:
SkyJuice: “Mighty Crown? Nice Sound. I
love them too. They play good music
too.”
He said he likes Mighty Crown because
they don’t rely on cursing and that they play plenty of good foundation tunes. This is where he went into another tirade against
selectors who “come pon mike an tell yuh bout yuh modda, yuh mumma you know I don’t love that. Just the music.
Just clean reggae music. I
love dat. Clean reggae music ya
understand?”
We spoke of riddims and he said that
some of his favorite ones are the “Studio One music
like “high fashion”, “rockfort rock”.
Those are the original Music.” He
said the riddim that he likes currently is the “SuperStar”.
When the subject of favorite singers
and DJ’s came up, he very diplomaticly said that he doesn’t have any favorites. “I love Bounty
Killa, I love Beenie Man…if you make
reggae music I love you. I
don’t have no favorite DJ.”
On the subject of the recent
persecution of DJ’s during this past Sumfest for the use of “bad words”,
SkyJuice said:
“I don’t too love how dem a pressure the DJ dem. Cause you know why?
Dem shoulda give dem a notice first…
They should have send some thing to them, like a letter, and make dem know
and send out some warning…That don’t look right to me… They have to warn them first. What happen to the Calypso people dem who come to
Jamaica and do that and dem don’t get lock up? … when
dem have Calypso dem take off their clothes and dance in the road and anything and say
anything and dem get away with it. Dem
should give them a warning first.”
He went on further to say that
“I don’t give them a right to cuss bad words onstage, but them should get
warning first…They have to warn me, they have to
warn everybody and then go ahead with it. They
can’t just jump pon a wagon an say ‘now we ago lock up the dj dem cause they
cuss bad words’. That’s wha dem a
do for years an nobody ever lock up before.”
As far as the current state of bad
language in dancehall, Skyjuice has hope that it can change. “it can go clean you know”. He referenced dancehall of the past, and artists
like Brigadier Jerry and how the dances back then were “nice. Everything nice.”
I asked him if he was afraid to come
here in light of the recent terrorist attacks on America.
He humbly admitted, “Bwayyy baby, I’m fraid, I’m
fraid. When I’m flying I’m scared,
but I just believe in G-d…I just pray to G-d and live.”
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