{"id":12114,"date":"2026-02-13T11:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=12114"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:31:46","slug":"t-o-k-s-alex-mccalla-calls-j-cole-sample-a-win-for-jamaican-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=12114","title":{"rendered":"T.O.K.\u2019s Alex McCalla Calls J. Cole Sample a Win for Jamaican Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T.O.K.\u2019s Alistaire \u201cAlex\u201d McCalla says J. Cole\u2019s sampling of the group\u2019s 2004 track\u00a0<strong>\u2018<em>Footprints\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0on the new album\u00a0\u2018<strong><em>The Fall Off<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2018proves Jamaican music still carries weight globally.<\/p>\n<p>McCalla told\u00a0DancehallMag\u00a0that the moment goes beyond his group and that he hopes more international producers and artists dig into classic Dancehall and Reggae catalogs in similar ways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am humbled and I\u2019m grateful that the song is still finding audiences so many years later,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing. I think it does wonders for us as a group, it does wonders for the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope that many more people will find many more of our songs and many more of our fellow dancehall or reggae songs from other artists to find ways within which ..our music can live on, you know?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Cole\u2019s song\u00a0<strong>\u2018<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wjAckFWVkSo\"><strong><em>Only You<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>,\u2019<\/strong> released last Friday, pulls from both\u00a0<strong>\u2018<em>Footprints\u2019<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0<\/em>and Jah Cure\u2019s\u00a0<strong>\u2018<em>Longing For<\/em>,\u2019<\/strong> both of which appeared on Don Corleon\u2019s\u00a0<strong>\u2018<em>Drop Leaf\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0riddim two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shows that music is forever, it\u2019s almost like water, I guess in essence, where it\u2014it\u2019s always flowing and it can always be used and added to so many different things to create something else than what it was originally, you know?\u201d McCalla noted.<\/p>\n<p>He also tied the sample to what he sees as Jamaica\u2019s creative resilience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it speaks also to the culture\u2026 it speaks to our tenacity, it speaks to us as a people,\u201d McCalla said. \u201cI think in terms of the fact that we are always, no matter which way, how, finding ourselves within the midst of doing something unique, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cThere is no place like yard. We as Jamaican people are the most\u2014one of the most creative and the most unique set of people on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2018Footprints\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0has over 12 million views on YouTube and 23 million plays on Spotify.<\/p>\n<p>Formed in Kingston in 1996, T.O.K. comprises Alistaire \u201cAlex\u201d McCalla, Roshaun \u201cBay-C\u201d Clarke, Craig \u201cCraigy T\u201d Thompson, and Xavier \u201cFlexx\u201d Davidson.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to\u00a0<strong>\u2018<em>Footprints<\/em>,\u2019<\/strong> the group is known for their hit songs\u00a0<strong><em>\u2018Wacky Dip\u2019, \u2018Gal You Ah Lead\u2019, \u2018Chi Chi Man,\u2019 \u2018Solid As A Rock,\u2019 \u2018Money 2 Burn,\u2019 \u2018She\u2019s Hot, Shake Your Bam Bam\u2019\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018Galang Gal.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>T.O.K.\u2019s Alistaire \u201cAlex\u201d McCalla says J. Cole\u2019s sampling of the group\u2019s 2004 track\u00a0\u2018Footprints\u2019\u00a0on the new album\u00a0\u2018The Fall Off\u00a0\u2018proves Jamaican music still carries weight globally. McCalla told\u00a0DancehallMag\u00a0that the moment goes beyond his group and that he hopes more international producers and artists dig into classic Dancehall and Reggae catalogs in similar ways. \u201cI am humbled and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-12114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-breakingnews"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12115,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions\/12115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}