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| On Tuesday June 12, 2001, Montana took a break
from the hot Chicago June sunshine to interview Field Marshal. M: how long have you been in the Chicago area? FM: I was born and
raised here. M: How did you get into reggae? FM: At a young age, my teenage years, I used to travel with my mom to
a lot of international parties and everybody was listening to reggae- regardless of where
they were coming from. All the conscious
people, all the revolutionary people were listening to reggae. Whether they were from Guyana, Senegal, from Jamaica or from California, if they were
conscious, they were listening to Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear… and
that’s what got me listening to reggae. M: Who are some of your
favorite artists? FM: Oh man, that’s
a long list. You definitely gotta start with
Bob Marley. You definitely have to put Dennis
Brown in there, and some of my early influences were some of the early djs- to put another
“hat” in there, I do take to the stage every now and then and actually get on
the mic and do some dj work. You gotta start
talking about yellowman; you gotta start talking about brigidier jerry, some of those guys
from the old school. Then you gotta move on
to artists like cocoa tea who maintained a consciousness throughout their careers, who had
a conscious and political influence in reggae. M: What’s one of
the most memorable moments you can recall good or bad, at a reggae event in Chicago? FM: one of the most
memorable early events I can recall was probably my first Selassie day, probably 19 or 20
years ago now. The sound system was playing
and it was boomin where you could feel it
deep in your soul and to turn around and hear
what I’m thinking is a dj record thinking maybe it was Brigadier Jerry or U roy, and
to turn to see a guy actually chanting on the mic live and not realizing for maybe 15 or
30 minutes that it was a youth named Scotty Rankin and he was chanting over riddims and to
not have realized that and I’m just, you know, moving to the music, and to see him do
this live fascinated me. M: Was it in Washington
Park back then? FM: Yeah, and it made me
say “one day I’m gonna be able to do that”. M: Is the reggae scene
different in Chicago now, than it was in the past x amount of years? FM: Yes, the scene has
definitely changed. One of the major changes
I’ve seen since then is the amount of non Jamaicans and non West Indians that have
really gotten into reggae music. When I used
to first go out to parties, I would be the only non Jamaican guaranteed and this would be
a hardcore underground strictly dancehall thing. Now
no matter where you go, no matter how hardcore it is, you find people from every
background coming out to hear reggae music. M: Right right,
hopefully it will keep growing. Did you go to
the last Rodigan dance? FM: No, I didn’t
make it this year, but I heard about the turn out and you know, that’s one of the
things that hasn’t changed about reggae is that the scene grows, but there are also
those periods where the growth is stifled. M: Why do you think that
is? FM: I think reggae comes
in spurts cause we always have to look to what’s happening in the mainstream. We saw the like the past Shabba Ranks, when Shabba
was loved internationally, the reggae clubs saw an increase in the American born Blacks in
particular coming out and a lot of Black people born here in the states really got into it
in ’90, ’91, ’92. M: I think actually it’s started again with people like Shyne
and Beres Hammond. Have you seen that
Kardinal Official video? FM: Exactly, so now
we’re seeing it again, but unfortunately everything is based on what’s happening
in the mainstream. We had a time when
stations like WGCI were playing a lot of reggae tunes, then we had a point where they were
playing no reggae tunes and now we’re at another point where we’re starting to
see, like you said with Shyne, and the tremendous work that Shaggy has done and others. So now we’re seeing a resurgence I think, in
the mainstream popularity of reggae. M: Hopefully we can see
another even bigger renaissance coming. Are
you familiar with the reggae scene in other cities besides Chicago? FM: Oh, I’ve always
been a big advocate for getting on the road. I
go to all the major festivals around the country
and in the Caribbean and it’s always been my position that if
you’re really into something and you really want to understand something, you gotta
move out of your immediate area. You got
people who never leave the south side or never leave the north side, but you got things
going on all over the city. Then you got
people who never leave Chicago, when there are things going on all over the country that
you can take some ideas from. I go to
festivals and look how they’re set up, and say ‘well, maybe we can do something
like that’. But you definitely have to
be in Jamaica because that’s where the vibes are, that’s the foundation and if
you’re not actually going down every now and then you kind of stagnate. If you’re a mover and shaker in the industry
you have to know what’s going on in Jamaica. M: how do you compare
the reggae scene in Chicago to Jamaica? FM: Chicago is a weird
city because it’s the 2nd largest city by population in America, however,
it seems to be one of the slower cities for reggae and of course that definitely has to do
with the Caribbean population but it also has to do with the type of Caribbean people
here. I think we’re just a lot slower
certainly than Miami and New York, but even the little areas like Cincinnati and I mean
one time LA was surprisingly slow, but now a lot of things are happening in LA. You know
Boston and dc and Philadelphia…. M: and Cleveland. You can’t forget Cleveland. Have you been there? FM: Yeah Cleveland! They have a thriving reggae community and
they’re much smaller in population and that’s one thing that’s always
perplexed me about Chicago. M: What do you see the
scene in Chicago like in the future? FM: Well, Chicago has a
lot of potential and I think as long as people stay on the right track, as long as people
continue to support, don’t let small incidents, don’t let personalities
interfere with their support of reggae music and when people start fully investing-
there’s a lot of money in Chicago no doubt but none of it is being invested in
reggae. I think that’s one of one
of the main differences if you go around the nation- people are putting money in reggae
clubs, people are putting money in shows, people are putting money
in magazines and internet sites and all that. Chicago
hadn’t been doing that and that’s one of the things we definitely gotta step up
and do in Chicago. M: Right, definitely. Is there anything you want to add for the people
of the world, any message you want to give everybody? FM: I just want to say Chicago’s a great city. You got a lot of positive forces here making reggae happen and you gotta continue to support. One of the things they say about me, “Field Marshall no partial”- I support everybody. As long as we continue to be secular, as long as we continue to say ‘that’s not my thing, I’m not gonna go over there’, well then nothing’s gonna work. Unification is the key to everything in life and is certainly the key to reggae music in Chicago. copyright 2001 chicagoreggae.com |
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