that’s good at gadgets, the kind of person that would finish a video game three times while you’d still be on the first stage. He also had Coppershot Sound since he was 13 and he’s been pushing through for years. He produced two tracks on my first album. He also produced a riddim called Titanium 2000, which featured songs by Elephant Man, Lexus, Hawkeye, and others. Since then, my career took off, and he was busy buying equipment for our studio so he never had much time to work in the studio. Another producer on the album is Lenky, the man who gave me my first number one hit on the Billboard charts for the song “Get Busy.” This is the guy that showed me how to set up the melody and sing the song the right way to get the most out of it. On this album he produced a song for me called “Ever Blazing” and another called “Sen’ it On.” He’s been in the business for many years, but just producing for about five years. We also have Blax. He did one song with me on his Egyptian riddim but it never made it to the album. He’s a guy who used to hang with the Dutty Cup crew back in the day. He got in a car accident and since then he’s been in a wheelchair producing. I’m proud of him, because to me the Egyptian riddim started the whole sped-up deejaying thing sweeping Jamaica. So I just have to say bigup to the crippled youth who keeps people dancing. Who did you work with on the album as far as other artists? I worked with Wayne Marshall, a person without ego. He’s a good person, a talented artist, and I always wanted to do something with him. I did a song with Tami Chin, a young sexy diva who’s signed to Universal Records. She’s been blowing up Jamaica for the past two years with production by the Renaissance Crew. Her mother had one of the first female bands in Jamaica in the 60’s, so she’s musical in every way. Dutty Cup crew is my original crew featured on the album, and has been with me from the early 90s. Of course that includes Luga Man, the most lyrical of the crew. His father, Richie Daley of the Third World Band, plays bass, and he’s always coming up with some great hooks. We also have Kid Kurupt, who is a youth who’s in between circles. He’s cool with the uptown and downtown sides of Kingston, and as the name goes, he’s the one who gets in the most trouble. These are the people that have been inspiring with me from day one. I had an opportunity to work with Nina Sky, and in January I worked with the Neptunes again. I also went to work with Scott Storch in the studio and 76
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even did some demos with Ashanti. All those things are on the shelf. I didn’t want to give people the same Dutty Rock album. I wanted to give them something different. I also did another song with the Clipse which is going to be coming out on their album. Musically, does it have the same vibe as your past albums? The Trinity is split into three moods. One, the party vibe, which y’all know me for. Two, the critical vibe, where I talk to the critics and let them know that I’ll still be the same person that’s been doing this music since 1995. I chose to ignore the critics up til now, but I had to address the questions like, “Can he do it again?” and so forth. If I only sold 75,000 albums with my first album, then worked with a multi-million album seller like Beyonce, and then worked with the greatest rapper alive, Jay-Z, and never felt pressure to work with icons like Busta Rhymes, then why would I feel pressure now when there is less to conquer? The third mood is a darker mood. It’s a mood where I had to deal with personal loss as well as the country feeling loss with all the excessive violence. It was just a different place for me. My friend Doddigan started the Dutty Cup crew with me in 1995. He was the big deejay at the time over at 2 Hard Studios, and now I’ve become more popular than him. He’s a rasta, and was recently featured on Junior Gong’s album. I wanted to get him to work with me on this album and it was unfortunate that didn’t happen. We lost Jamaica’s greatest dancer Bogle, and shortly after we lost Doddigan. To lose Bogle as an artist was a hard loss, and then to lose my friend as well as my aunt – who died in a car crash in the same year – it all brought me to a very dark place. I wrote a sad song called “Never Gonna Be The Same.” I feel I have to keep their flame burning, because these people would’ve done the same if they had lost me. Sounds like there’s a lot of content on this new album. Yeah, I did a lot of traveling, a lot of learning, and had a lot of loss. If you buy the album at Target I have a bonus song which I wrote called “Time Rolls On.” It’s probably my deepest song. It’s a political song that I wrote to a guitar that I learned to play four strings on. It talks to the leaders of government, gangs, and religion. It’s a very powerful song. So if you’re going to buy the album, get it at Target. At least you get the full hundred.