Toussaint Smith, Staff Reporter
FILE
Sancho performs live at Harlem Week in New York, across from the Apollo. Sancho was the only reggae act billed for the show. Sancho chants a few lyrics alongside legend and veteran dancehall artiste Nicodemus.
THE GLEANER has had its fingers on the pulse of the entertainment scene for decades. Naturally, our picture archives contain many a 1000-word story about those who have given us happy, memorable moments. In our series `From the Archives`, we pluck a pic and take a peek into the past, speaking to the central figure about the moment and subsequent events.
The story reads: Sancho will perform at the Black Music Festival Harlem Week in New York. The show features rapper Essence, U.M.C. and many others. The event is staged by the State of New York and other non-profit organisations. Sancho was the only reggae artiste billed for the show.
Sunday Gleaner: Tell me about the show.
Sancho: Harlem Week is like a one-week festival that is kept in Harlem on an annual basis. I don't really know the history of it; I think it is a black originated event. Numerous activities like culinary arts, you have dancing and musical expressions being exhibited, you have like exhibitions. It was like a family thing. It's also educational.
SG: What was it like being the only reggae act at Harlem Week?
S: It was very interesting and it was a challenge. It was definitely a challenge, because at that time reggae never had the type of exposure that it has on the North American market; it was like people was finally getting into Jamaican artiste, to me at that time it was a challenge. Me never have much company and I got a very good response. From there it was like a strengthening for me. It give me more encouragement and more confidence, because at that time is like the foreigners was listening to the cultural part of the music more than we of our own natives and that was in the '80s.
SG: How has your life changed musically since?
S: Dramatically! And when I say dramatically, there were certain things happening in the music business since the early '90s coming on is like I couldn't relate to or I never want to deejay, because the music has changed form; the root that me know it has change from. It was like nuh space nuh in deh fi we, fi tell yuh the truth, because it was like about gimmicks, woman and fun and that was the kind of artistes who we really were. It had we like an outcast from the business, some things weh start happen in a di business. Because me couldn't cope with it. Fi real, 'cause me is just a cultural deejay from long time and any weh yuh go yuh start notice a bag a almshouse. It have me drift back out of the music business, went back home, live mongst me family, live a normal life. But recently me notice there have been a change; the music have changed back to related to the era that we came from. It more calmer, it nuh hype. You can really entertain people, mek people enthuse without that type of hypertensive approach towards it. Me think that it incite violence inna di society.
SG: Tell us your most notable achievement in the business.
S: Because me did start out good yuh nuh, when I came to Kingston me start record from bout 1986 and the first song that I did Jah Love use to play that song regular, Dance Inna Mount Zion, that was the first song I did, then I did another one name Chase Vampire. Chase Vampire outta nowhere become a hit big time inna the North American scene without even getting promotion and nuh body promoting me as a artiste. Chase Vampire has been a song that is partly responsible fi the era weh North American people start listen to Jamaican deejay. Yeah! Outa nowhere that just happen. Until now that song keep on playing and I voice that song 20-odd year ago.
SG: Comparing dancehall now to back then, are you satisfied with the direction of the music?
S: No man. If the music take a negative direction, that is the same way the people will go. The music have such an impact of influence that wherever the music goes the people follow and right now we still hearing a lot of negative music. The things that we don't like is the negative or the corrupted part of the business. So I woulda say right now, talking about dancehall, mi nuh really see the dancehall a gwaan more than so yuh nuh. A mostly some street dance, 'cause from the sound string up it string up inside a lawn and the artistes or whosoever, dem work. Mi nuh really see dem thing deh. Stage show might run different, but nowadays none a di man dem weh get the name say dem a dancehall artistes, they ain't no dancehall artiste ... Nowadays you don't know what is going on."
SG: What are you up to now?
S: Sancho has always been a deejay, a inside producer of positive lyrics and positive work, yuh understand, 'cause to me my work is a calling. So the mission weh me up to right now is to get some new recording done and get it out there that the world can hear it. That is one of my main objectives right now. What I really want to do now is to get back active in the business, but really me want the world to hear me voice and weh me haffi say.
