A favorite Reggae artiste of President Obama
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – “SHUBA Shuba I, Shuba Shuda Day. No real man can live without a woman; like night to day, so is woman is to her man. She’s essential to his purpose and his missions. A good woman is a glory to her man.”
These are some of the lyrics of ‘Virtuous Woman’- a 2001 popular tune penned by well-known Jamaican Rastafarian Reggae artiste Warrior King, who earlier today (Feb. 5) departed his homeland for a February - March North American tour.
In North America he would be promoting his 19-track 2012 album entitled ‘Tell Me How Me Sound’, which is currently nominated for ‘Reggae Album of the Year’ at the upcoming 55th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Cities that would be visited on the tour include Lake Tahoe, Nevada City, New Orleans and Hollywood Park.
Undoubtedly, many people around the world consider ‘Virtuous Woman’ as being the artiste’s signature tune. And even the American President, Barack Obama, said during a first-term interview with CNN that it was one of his Reggae favourites.
Speaking exclusively with this St. Kitts/Nevis media house a few days before his departure, Warrior King said he was feeling “enthusiastic” about the tour.
“I’m anticipating nothing but positive vibes and a warm reception from my people.”
Asked how he feels about his nominated album, Warrior King said it is a “beautiful culture album”.
“Well, to be honest, I’ve always try my utmost to keep the quality and the standard of my music very high. So it’s really inspiring and motivating knowing that my album has been selected as one of the albums nominated for the Grammy.”
Commenting on what influenced him to pen ‘Virtuous Woman’, the Rastafarian artiste responded: “Well, the main source of inspiration for my song came from His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, The First. At the time I wrote that song I was reading the philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey, because he was the one that said no real man can live without a woman and I took that statement [and] created a song. Reading the Bible, where it states who can find a virtuous man…it’s far above rubies. So all of that I incorporated into the song.”
He was asked if he believes that the ‘Virtuous Woman’ tune had placed him under the spotlight as an artiste.
“Yeah, it put me into the spotlight. In fact, the President of the United States of America, in an interview with CNN, said Bob Marley and Warrior King were the first artistes that he listened to. He even made a special part where he said Virtuous Woman is one of his favourite songs of all time.”
According to Warrior King, “it is the qualities of a woman which makes her virtuous…the character that she holds”.
His dormancy over the past few years up until recently was questioned and he revealed the challenges he had with his management team.
“No matter how great an artiste, if he or she doesn’t have proper management structure it ah go create damage on the artiste. At one point in my career, I was absent from a proper management team because I don’t feel that one person can manage an artiste. You have to have a structure around the artiste like road manager and publicist; different people form a team to make it work.
“So that was one of the reasons why the people never had Warrior King for a while. I was there recording music but there was nobody to market Warrior King or put the music out there. But, right now, I have a proper management structure so the people all over the world would be seeing a lot more of Warrior King, hearing a lot more of Warrior King’s positive music and performing all over the place.”
For Warrior King, “love is the fundamental ingredient in my music”.
His influences and artistes he enjoys listening to include Garnette Silk, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis, Freddie Knight, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Fat Dominoes, Tupac, Beres Hammond and Celine Dion.
Following the release of the album, Warrior King revealed that the public’s has been great.
“We’ve been doing a lot of promotions. The reception had been good because I have been getting a lot of rotation on different radio stations in Jamaica.”
Some of the songs on his album are ‘Jah is the Only One’, ‘I’m In Love With You’ and the title track - ‘Tell Me How Me Sound'.
As for the meaning behind the track, Warrior King explained: “From ever since from a youth, every time me write a song me send it to a friend and me always tell them, ‘Tell me how me sound.’ So ah end up write a song called ‘Tell Me How Me Sound’. People call it melody, because without melody there is no music. No matter how hard you work on a song it should always have melody to go with it, else it make no sense at all.”
For more information on this artiste, persons can visit FaceBook: WarriorKingMusic.
