{"id":3721,"date":"2022-06-24T22:30:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T22:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3721"},"modified":"2022-06-24T22:34:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T22:34:29","slug":"high-times-for-dre-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3721","title":{"rendered":"High Times for Dre Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

For\u00a0his sophomore album,\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\u2018High Times\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/strong>, singjay Dre Island was strategic with the collaborations on the project.<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI put a lot of thought into who I wanted to be on\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>. Of course, Richie Spice is the definitely the man from Jamaica who represents marijuana from then time till now. Skillibeng is my brother, and it was just natural to put Carlio on the album. This is his first song \u2018All Night\u2019<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>and I will be signing him to my label. He delivered well on the song. Prince Lawrence is featured on\u00a0\u2018Best Life<\/span><\/em>\u2019.<\/b> I saw him at a session in the Bronx and we decided to do some work,\u201d Dre Island told the\u00a0Jamaica Observer<\/span><\/strong>\u2019s<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Splash<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018High Times\u2019<\/span><\/b><\/em>\u00a0was released on June 3 via DubShot Records\/Dre Island Music. It is the follow-up to 2020\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Now I Rise\u2019<\/span><\/em>.<\/b> With eight tracks,\u00a0\u2018<\/i>High Times\u2019<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>is a steady burn through life\u2019s most precious moments that elevate the mind, body, and soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dre Island shared the album\u2019s concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe herb\/marjuana is my first inspiration. Each of the eight tracks speaks individually of different moments of getting high, being high or living high. However, those who do not smoke can still rock with it. I designed it that way. It is about having a good time, living life to the best of its ability, and appreciating nature. Whether it\u2019s motivating yourself to stay in that uplifting moment or just keep that high energy and soul. Meditate on life in its purest form,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cMarijuana is a plant that I use throughout hard times, good times, joy times, the fun times, pain, hurt and every moment of my life. It has been a part of my healing process and it takes me higher in meditation and thoughts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Dre Island, he has grown musically since his debut album.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve definitely seen growth musically on the\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>. The way that I express myself, the way I choose the music, the type of music I choose to sing on this album, and its all a learning process. After the first body of work, I\u2019ve learnt a lot of things I think I should\u2019ve done which I apply to\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>, of course we\u2019re still growing and still learning more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dre Island enhances his own high in this nuanced song collection. The album\u2019s title track featuring Skillibeng is a straightforward celebration of simple pleasures \u2014 papers and good kush \u2014 paired to the sounds of swirling key chords and a thick trap bassline produced by Jafrass. As the album progresses, Dre Island shifts to the upbeat tempo of contemporary tropical dance music on\u00a0\u2018High with You\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>, a classic tongue-in-cheek weed anthem alluding that the plant is a close friend.\u00a0\u2018Take Me High\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>is a slower, more contemplative ode to ganja that reworks Louis Armstrong\u2019s lyrics about \u201ctrees of green\u201d into the more smokeable type. Roots-reggae singer Richie Spice is featured on\u00a0\u2018High Grade Smoke<\/span><\/em>\u2019<\/b> produced by Jamie Roberts. Other producers on\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/b>\u00a0include Kushface, Green Lion Crew, Che Big 12, Zimi, TJ Records and Tac Dem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born Andre Johnson, the 34-year-old Dre Island hails from the Red Hills Road section of St Andrew. His musicianship and revolutionary vocals have been shaking sound system speakers for several years now. He has become associated with the \u201creggae revival\u201d, a term used to describe a new wave of conscious, spiritually awakened artistes evoking the golden era when foundation reggae artistes sang of oppression. Despite heavily embracing the spirit of reggae and Rastafari, he tries to remain genre- agnostic.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For\u00a0his sophomore album,\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019, singjay Dre Island was strategic with the collaborations on the project. \u201cI put a lot of thought into who I wanted to be on\u00a0\u2018High Times\u2019. Of course, Richie Spice is the definitely the man from Jamaica who represents marijuana from then time till now. Skillibeng is my brother, and it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-3721","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\/3721","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3722,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3721\/revisions\/3722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}