Story of the song - Khago does rare 'Daddy' song

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

"To all you wonderful Dads out there y'nuh

Although more time some a we deadbeat y'nuh

A Khago y'nuh

Hey Dad, this one is reaching out to you

You never no sperm donor

Daddy from you gone

Me know me did a go struggle

Me know sey me did a go struggle

My life pon Earth a no bed a rose

For from you gone I no wear no proper clothes"

Good gosh, Dad is like you get a double kill

You drop out too soon, you never get fe lef' a will ..."

In Jamaican music, songs for 'Mama' are like Coaster buses in Half-Way Tree during peak hours - numerous, nigh indistinguishable from each other, yet serving a need in the consumers which hop on board and take the predictable journey over and over again.

Complimentary songs about daddy, on the other hand, much like a tourist bus in the same area - very, very, rare.

Khago, who has had a breakout year in 2010, is very well known for his song Nah Sell Out. Much less known is his late-2009 recording Daddy From You Gone, which chronicles his struggles after his father 'Zaro' died when he was seven years old. His father died while travelling by bus to see his family.

The deejay tells The Sunday Gleaner that the song could be much more popular, but he is reluctant to perform Daddy From You Gone.

"Is a big song and to how me 'fraid a it me not even make it as big as it should be. Is promotion make song big and me no really do it in me performance. Even if me do it is jus' a line an' cut," Khago said.

Daddy From You Gone was recorded for Flava Squad at their Dumbarton Avenue, St Andrew base and Khago says when he heard the rhythm, the song immediately came to him without him putting pen to paper.

"From me say 'Daddy' me jus' start say everything me feel over the years and it jus' connect," Khago said. "Me neva say me was going to write a song for my father. It jus' come."

The song is a composite of his experiences with his father, who he did not live with, and his seven siblings. The struggles in it, though, are all his. He deejays:

"Daddy big Sunday morning I no eat no breakfas'

White squall take ova me mouth like lip gloss ...

If me say certain things Dad yu would a turn an twis' inna yu grave

Family woulda shame whe treat I like slave ...

So me say music yu save me

Music yu save me

When the pagan dem a try enslave me

A try kill me talent whe de Mos' High gave me

A jus' tru me skill make dem no grave me

Hard work

The hard work he had to do included tying out goats and collecting wood when others whose parents were around did not have to do that much. And Khago says that even when everybody was collecting wood he had to make sure his bundle was "taller than everybody else".

He also deejays about missing his father's presence now that he is a father himself:

"Dad I wish you were around to see my three sons grow

What hurt most is that them look like you ... "

Those sons are now five, four and three years old and a daughter has been added to Khago's family since recording Daddy From You Gone. "Me good ya now," he said about his children.

However, being a father makes Khago miss Zaro even more. Close to Grand Market night, when he went to Brown's Town, one of his sons said "Daddy Khago" and "one spirit come over me. Me say look how me yute dem a grow, look how me son a call me 'Daddy'. Me say look pon me car outa road, a should a me an Daddy a par".

He says in earlier years he had a feeling of missing his father. Now, he wishes his father was around "to steer me and even help me".

Still, missing Zaro makes Khago more determined to be a good father himself. "Especially boy pickney no make it without a father 'round him. I mean a real father. If you a hooligan it no really pencil out," he emphasised, noting that no matter how a stepfather cares, may have more money than the child's biological father and the mother prefers him, it is just not the same.

In the closing stages of Daddy From You Gone, a voice representing Zaro and speaking to his eight children says "Sandra, Bev, Colin, Maxine ... Oonu jus' gwaan take care a yu mother, yu hear. Memba say Daddy love you". And the memory of that love makes Daddy From You Gone very hard to perform.

"Me fraid fe sing da song. No matter how yu feel happy in your performance, from yu touch da song deh yu jus' feel a way," Khago said.

'Me fraid fe sing da song. No matter how yu feel happy in your performance, from yu touch da song deh yu jus' feel a way.'