ANTHONY B - REAL REVOLUTIONARY

By Jesse I (2005)

Anthony B is not just one of Jamaica's most successful artists and musical exports. He is also the most outspoken critic of the police in a country that leads the world in extra-judicial killings.

"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"

While others would watch their words carefully in an environment where people are regularly killed by the authorities (and the head of police has cultivated a "Dirty Harry" image) Anthony B doesn't appear to think twice. "I never feel nervous, because I burn the authority bigger than police, which is the Prime Minister and the Opposition".

Since making his start in the reggae music scene in 1994, Anthony B has regularly had songs banned by the Jamaican government. The first of many was the song which helped break Anthony B both at home and abroad in 1996, "Fire Pon Rome". As well as calling for metaphorical "fire" on the Pope, this song was an open condemnation of Jamaica's leading politicians and businessmen that wasn't afraid to name names. "Nah Vote" was banned the following year for encouraging Jamaicans not to go to the polls, while "Watch What You Eat" was outlawed for its opposition to the "corporate monarchy".

"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 and show Jamaican people, look out! I get a lot of fight for that. Right now, the next thing I look out and see... Jamaica is like the 53 rd state of America".

This resistance to the "bigger heads" is firmly rooted in Anthony B's strong Rastafarian beliefs, and his awareness of the importance of music in Jamaican society. "For me, first and foremost, music is like the alphabet. For kids it's like education. Before any kid knows their subjects, before the English language, before they know science and maths, they know the music. For me music is a very great instrument of influence, so I'm trying to use that in a positive sense. 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 said, 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" you know".

Anthony B was born Keith Anthony Blair in the Jamaican farming parish of Trelawny. Around 1988, at "a young age - say 11, 12, 13", he moved to live with his uncle in the city, searching for a better life, and more opportunities. "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... in the city you see guns". It was in the newly built community of Portmore that Anthony B made his first steps in the music business.

"So we start our little thing called "ghetto show" on a 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 a hundred, two hundred - til thousands of people come. Then you would find big stars in those days like Shabba Ranks, Supercat - those artists would come through - Chaka Demus, Pliers, all those artists - til it became famous. This event that people looked 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."

From the ghetto shows in Portmore, the logical next step was the studios of Kingston . After a fruitless recording attempt with the producer Wizard, Anthony B made his way to Black Scorpio's 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".

Eventually he formed an association with Richard Bell of the Star Trail label, and things started to fall into place. It was his first Star Trail produced album "Real Revolutionary" that launched his career internationally when picked up and distributed by VP records as "So Many Things" in 1997. From there he has released at least one album each year (often much more), built his career to the point where he regularly sells out venues from Europe to Japan, and become a regular on the reggae festival circuit. However, crossover commercial success has always eluded him, despite last year's "Untouchable" album which featured collaborations with the likes of Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg and Bonecrusher. While the last decade has seen non-Rasta dancehall artists such as Sean Paul, Shabba Ranks, and Supercat break through to the mainstream, Anthony B knows that he'll never get the same opportunity as long as his message remains uncompromised.

"I'm all about Rastafari. My life is about Rasta. My god is Haile Selassie I. They've seen what Bob Marley can do with the music. 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. They 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, they can't allow that!"

Despite his opposition to Babylon's big business and corporate values, Anthony B is very much aware of the importance of marketing in today's music world. Looking at Bob Marley's success, he places great importance on Chris Blackwell's work behind the scenes, and messages that all people can relate to.

"It is Rasta music, but it is 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 saw 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 would 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 that 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."

Despite having written some of the most controversial and revolutionary lyrics in the last decade of Jamaican music, it appears that Anthony B might be seeing things differently these days.

"Haile Selassie I teach I of diplomacy... 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, nor governmental development. We have to start learning now to do as other communities do. 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 bold - no partiality. That's a revolutionary song. When my black brother hears 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 are a lot of things that will come up that are 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 tried this already. So we try a next door, because Bob Marley said "when one door close, many more would open". We unlocked the revolutionary door so long, we have to unlock the love door now.

I think that's what stops Rasta music. All us come with one aim - to sing about Rastafari. None of us come 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 to 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 generations and generations to come. So that is the part we have to work on."

When asked if he can see a problem with Rastafarians mixing religion and money in this way, he replies with a smile, drawing the distinction between Rastafari as a spiritual movement as opposed to a religion, and taking the opportunity to expound on one of his favorite subjects.

"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! But listen to this... All of us have a conscience. These people now, rich millionaires... let's say you wake up and you find yourself with 350 billion pounds. One son and he is already rich. 25 business places, 10 palaces, 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 dollars? Here's a man who make 70 million 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 can't sleep - so you have to create a place where you can go and bury this conscience, to feel good about yourself. That's what the church is about - for these rich people go and feel good about themselves. Anything they've got to give to the poor, they donate it to the church and the church lets 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. That's why they had to create the church, because they realise its easier for them to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the gates of Zion . They cannot go to Zion ! So where they got to go? Church!"

In July 2004, Anthony B helped make Australian reggae history, when he was one of the first Jamaican artists to record with Melbourne producer Jake Savona - the first collaboration of its kind. The song "Blaze The Fire" was voiced on Savona 's "Arabian Nights" riddim, recorded in one day at Jah Freedom recording studio in Negril, Jamaica.

"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."

"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... blessed, Rastafari, Haile Selassie I the first."