This past few months Protoje\u2019s song \u201cLike Royalty\u201d seem to play like clockwork on Canada\u2019s only commercial black music radio station. I hear it so often I find myself singing along word for word and vibing like crazy to the infectious bassline. This is a rarity for me because, I can\u2019t even remember my phone number these days, but the lyrics of this particular song has stuck in my mind.<\/p>\n
I am happy for Protoje\u2019s success and his vast talent and notoriety is no surprise to me, because he is a solid artiste and I know he is from a legit music bloodline. I first met him as a child when I was a member the band Crucial Vibes when we worked for a while with his father Mike Olliverrie (Lord Have Mercy) a former calypso king from the island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. I also did several performances with his mother Lorna Bennett best known for her 1972 rendition of “Breakfast in Bed”. My fondest memory is performing a duet with her at a concert at St Elizabeth Technical high school in Jamaica many moons ago.<\/p>\n
I started following his career from the release of his debut album \u201cThe 7 years Itch\u201d produced by Don Coreleon Records in 2011, I have been a fan ever since. I remember going to Dundas square in Toronto to watch him perform for the first time; I felt proud for his mother and father. I even got the chance to say a quick hello backstage and talked about my connection to his parents.<\/p>\n
Protoje who hails from St Elizabeth, Jamaica and has successfully released four studio albums to date. \u201cThe Seven Year Itch\u201d in 2011.. \u201cThe 8 Year Affair\u201d in 2013 which spawned the hits \u201cRasta Love\u201d ft Ky-Mani Marley, and \u201cKingston Be Wise,\u201d which featured on the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto. \u201cAncient Future\u201d dropped in 2015 which featured the international hit \u201cWho Knows\u201d ft Chronixx which topped charts worldwide and has amassed over 70 million+ views on YouTube. The Grammy-nominated \u201cA Matter Of Time\u201d was released in 2018. The album includes noteworthy singles like \u201cBlood Money\u201d, \u201cTruths & Rights\u201d featuring rising crooner Mortimer, \u201cBout Noon,” and the bouncy \u201cNo Guarantee\u201d featuring Chronixx.<\/p>\n
He has sold out headline UK, US, and European tours, and is a firm favourite at festival\u2019s throughout the world, performing at the likes of Glastonbury, Coachella, Reading & Leeds, Boomtown, Summer Jam, Afro-Punk, and Canada\u2019s Pemberton Music Festival.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t know how to define Proteje\u2019s music, but Like his bloodline his music could never be of only one genre, because he is organically built by different influences. He is a member of the Reggae Revival crew led by Chronixx and includes Kabaka Pyramid, Jesse Royal, Jah9, and more. These younger artists has a flair to blend genre to perfect their sound. In a July 23rd 2018 article by Rolling Stone Magazine Proteje was adamant that they are not interested in simply looking backwards to the Seventies glory days of roots reggae. \u201cWe are much more experimental than our predecessors,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re influenced by hip-hop, rock, pop music, with a reggae base underneath it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2020, Protoje announced his signing of a new label deal with RCA Records. The company will throw its weight behind his label In.Digg.Nation a company he started in 2014.The deal allows him “a certain level of creative control” and included artists Lila Ike and Sevena who he had been mentoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past few months Protoje\u2019s song \u201cLike Royalty\u201d seem to play like clockwork on Canada\u2019s only commercial black music radio station. I hear it so often I find myself singing along word for word and vibing like crazy to the infectious bassline. This is a rarity for me because, I can\u2019t even remember my phone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}