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The preponderance of 'slackness' and gun talk in dancehall music during the eighties eventually led to a revival of 'conscious' lyrics combined with current digital rhythms at the beginning of the following decade. Singers including Admiral Tibet, Yami Bolo and Junior Reid helped pave the way for Garnett Silk, who was not only prodigiously talented but also very successful, and deejays such as Buju Banton, Capleton and Sizzla Kalonji also stepped forward chanting 'cultural' lyrics.
Sizzla was born Miguel Orlando Collins in August Town, Kingston, Jamaica 17th April 1976 into a devout Rastafarian family and, in 1995, he joined the Bobo Ashanti movement. Founded by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards in 1958 the sect's adherents are often referred to as Bobo Dreads and are typified by the wearing of long robes, tightly wrapped turbans and carry brooms as a display of cleanliness.
"There's no denying the dignity with which both the men and the women believers hold themselves, or the intensity of the performers who have embraced the religion, and the manner in which they seem in tune with an increasingly larger minority of the dispossessed Kingston youth."
Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton
As a young man Sizzla studied mechanical engineering at Dunoon High School and began deejaying live and direct on Caveman Hi-Fi, an old school apprenticeship, which was to stand him in good stead as his career progressed. From the outset the message in his music was all important and his mission began to take off when he started recording with Phillip 'Fatis' Burrell in 1996. Seven inch Xterminator releases such as 'True God' and 'Kings Of The Earth' and the albums 'Burning Up' and 'Praise Ye Jah' left the listener in no doubt where Sizzla was coming from. The 'Black Woman & Child' album for Bobby Digital(Bobby Dixon)'s Digital B label the following year consolidated his reputation and heralded the arrival of a significant new talent on the world stage. It is now regarded as a key release in 'conscious' reggae's Rasta renaissance. To describe Sizzla's output as prolific would be a serious understatement and, as well as continuing to record for Fatis and Bobby Digital, he also cut classic sides for Beres Hammond's Harmony House set up including 'King In This Jungle' and 'Live And Give Praise' and The Fire House Crew with 'Like Mountain'. In order to gain full artistic independence and freedom, he established his own Kalonji Records based in a recording studio and community centre, Judgement Yard, in August Town, Kingston which has become an important focal point for ghetto youth from all over Jamaica.
Inspired and inspiring the success and content of Sizzla's records, with both the traditional reggae audience and the crossover audience too, has attracted much mainstream media attention. He is reluctant to give interviews and has maintained his distance from the press but the tribulations of his career have been well documented over the last decade. A number of his overseas concerts have been cancelled due to alleged "hatred against homosexuals" and in 2004 he was barred from touring the UK, in 2007 concerts in Canada were cancelled, and in 2008, 2009 and 2010 several concerts in Germany were called off "after public protests". Despite Kalonji Muzik issuing a statement stating "that Sizzla abides by the laws of every country that he performs in and is not trying to invoke or incite violence against anyone" Sizzla was denied a visa for a proposed tour of the USA in November 2013.
One of Jamaica's most original reality chanters his talent is as prodigious as his work rate and he has now released over forty five albums where his lyrics consistently reflect his unwavering stand and "Sizzla maintains his stance that he is an artist using his creative expression and freedom of speech but will speak out against injustice where he sees it".
Sources:
Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton: The Rough Guide To Reggae (Third Edition) Rough Guides Limited 2004
US Bars Sizzla Jamaica Observer 19th November 2013 |
| Apr 18, 2007 (Dec 5, 2013 Update) Text by Harry Hawks
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