Jah Ringo come fi Liberate with Good Vibez
About a year ago, on July 5, 2019 to be precise, Liberation (Mama Africa) a single from Jah Ringo Touray saw its digital release on the Gr8ter Music Label. It was soon followed by the video which would catapult Jah Ringo on to a wider and broader audience beyond his immediate circles.
Jah Ringo, a Gambian Reggae Singer who is based in Berlin, Germany dedicated this song ‘Liberation’ in honour and service of Mama Africa. The video opens up with an excerpt from a speech lamenting the lack of self confidence, the feeling of we can’t do it for ourselves, which is the residue of colonial impact on Africa; hence the message that Jah Ringo brings forth: This is the time of liberation / Mama Africa awaits her revolution / It is the time for meditation / free up your mind from lies and illusions /Come mek we stand up and start a revolution / In ya dis ya time of elevation / haffi keep your head above the pollution. It is a message that strongly resonates with the African youth, particularly in the Diaspora, where he finds himself today. A Pan African stance which he strongly believes is possible as he explained via the video interview:
“A lot of people don’t think it is possible and if you don’t believe it’s possible then I mean it’s over you know, the story is done. This is where we have to start, we have to believe it is possible, that is the foundation of it that is why I say it is never too late, it is achievable but it has to be something that we all believe in.”
Growing up in the rural village around the hills in his native home, The Gambia, Jah Ringo has always been listening and enjoying music, it was original African music that formed and attuned his listening ear and the hardships that he saw shaped his outlook on life. Just like many a youth in the villages, improvising and creating music and melodies with drums came naturally as a past time. That is where his foundation is, where his musical journey started. His older brothers would return from the city with some Reggae music cassettes where they would spend days on end listening to the likes of Ijahman Levi, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and that is when Reggae seeped into his being. Later, at the age of 15, he moved to Serekunda, the largest urban centre in The Gambia situated 13 km south-west of the capital, Banjul. The huge Serekunda market provides a backdrop for the hustle and buzz and Reggae music is the soundtrack, almost all the youth listen to Reggae and it is believed that in the Gambia, every Ghetto youth is a Superstar, they can all sing and chant and he explains further:
“Yeah man, Gambian people, we love music especially the youth, I used to see how music, especially reggae music used to make me and my friends feel, we were so into it that we would try to memorise the entire album in our heads. We will have one CD in rotation, pass it on to one person after the another because we couldn’t afford to buy own CDs, they were expensive, so yeah, Reggae music was a big part of our lives, even during those times I would imagine how it would feel that one of us could rise and experience the same feeling”
He never imagined though that it would be him among his friends to rise to the occasion, when in 2009 he moved to Germany, as part of the big exodus of youth who left the Mother land to look for greener pastures in West. His journey has always been a musical one. He had already started recording music back home, from his make shift home studio which he set up and that would be very instrumental in giving him valuable experience in music and voice recording. He would also venture in other studios to voice for other local producers, but as he explains. “The quality was not of good standard for release”. So by the time he a go reach Germany, he had some “unreleased material.”
He came to Germany as Foday Touray. A chance encounter with a ‘mysterious friend whom I don’t know anymore’ changed him into Ringo, Jah Ringo. It was as if the man felt that the youth would rise to higher heights, just like Ringo Starr, the name most people attribute and associate the name Ringo to, yet Jah Ringo is not even familiar with the star, “You know when people hear it they think it has to do with one Ringo in the band whom I don’t know, I have never known this man, even in the picture I won’t be able to recognise him. I believe though that my friend was referring to the Ring, the one I always have on, which has its special place in my heart and journey.”
Germany has since become his second home and has added to his experiences that influences his music. He uses the mixture of what he experienced in Gambia and what he experiences in Germany to create the music that he has come to be known and appreciated for.“I’ve been through a lot here and it opened my eyes to the circumstances of what it’s like for people living in different countries like myself and also everyone that I know. I feel I’m still inspired by my experiences; it was experiences that inspired me to go into music.” He also draws inspiration from others who came before him, man like Rebellion The Recaller who is also a Gambian based in Germany. The two have much more in common than just music and being fellow countrymen; it goes beyond that, almost like brotherhood. “I was with him (Rebellion) even before people got to know me. He used to come visit a lot. He taught me a lot about music and his wisdom and knowledge of music is something that I admire and it’s something that I like. Yeah, like I said if you are outside of Africa, sometimes people see it like you loose your connect with Africa, they say “ok he is not here” so he is no longer relevant there compared to someone who is really there, who stayed in Africa; and I would say Rebellion is still representing Gambia here in Europe at the highest of levels. To me He is still King, because I work with him and I see how he does things, I’m a musician and I’m learning still and I see how Rebellion works and I don’t think that there are many people that work like that.”
This brings forth the question then of how he manages to stay relevant with his fans back home. Social Media of course plays its important role, but it’s mostly the DJ’s who keep spinning his songs at the clubs and radios, then bringing it back to social media. Jah Ringo can see and feel how they react to his music back home, but the impact would have been much more intensified and better “If I was in Gambia, but I will say that I have a lot of fans in Gambia, because I can see that on Facebook, Gambian people do love the music, I can see we are not totally disconnected.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuvnJ0obMC4
Despite the challenges that he faced, he pushed on and his popularity started growing beyond his base in Berlin, spreading throughout Germany like fire, even landing him a gig in Switzerland at the Royal Reggae Festival. An occasion that he describes as one of his greatest and memorable experience because it was after this event, that he felt the confidence of taking his profession to another level.
“It was a time when I haven’t released any songs and nobody knew me and I was not used to playing for big crowds, that was the first time and even when they told me about it, I was skeptical cause I had never done something like that, and I was asking myself “will I be able to do this” but at the end of the day I told myself that I’d do it. On that day when I went on stage and I could see that everybody loved it. And that was the start of things because I told myself that music is not just about people, it’s a weapon, a mission”
Since then he has been performing around Germany and made a debut performance at the famous Berlin Yaam Club where he also shot some parts of the video for his song Good Vibes. Good Vibes is his latest single, which had its video premier on the popular German Reggae site and received a massive positive response within days of its release. Despite Good Vibes being such a hit, Liberation remains the popular song among fans and peers as he himself reiterates: “Liberation is still a lot of people’s favourite song, even after I released Good Vibes, some of the promoters in Gambia are telling me that’s a big tune (Good Vibes) but our favourite is “Liberation”. (laughs)
He recently featured on Berlin Reggae United popular Live stream sessions during the Lockdown period and appears on many mixtapes produced by popular DJs. Most, if not all Gambian DJ’s, home and abroad, never play a set without playing Jah Ringo, either ‘Good Vibes’, ‘Liberation’ or “Fire Burn” from his steadily growing catalogue of hits. His career was taking off and his schedule was all set and booked for the summer festival circuit when the pandemic hit and set the entire world on lockdown. Everything came to a standstill as most events had to be either cancelled or postponed. Germany was one the hardest hit in Europe, and so very tight and strict measures had to be put in place. Despite all of this, Jah Ringo remained steadfast and positive; “Yeah man it didn’t feel good you know, but it is something we couldn’t avoid, so we just have to deal with it, I mean the future is still bright. The main thing is that the people love the work that we are doing and even if it doesn’t work to tour right now in this moment, that is life. We believe in God so we believe maybe it was something that was supposed to happen and it is happening, so we just hope that we can continue to do more music and stuff like that until there is time to continue.”
He is also using this period to reflect and create more music, because nobody can stop Reggae. Speaking of Reggae and Good Vibes, the song that just brings and carries a whole heap of good good vibes when listening to it, a massive tune that may very well be the ‘Anthem’ of this generation of ghetto youth dispersed and scattered throughout Europe, it feels like Good Vibes bring the buffer, the antidote and underlying healing vibes; Jah Ringo had this to say about the making of the song:
“Its reggae music you know, I respect and love Reggae music a lot and it has been part of my life for so long, but also people have different views about reggae music, so I was just expressing my views and how it makes me feel all the things that happen around reggae that reggae is telling me, so I was not speaking I was just letting reggae speak. Music is music you know, it’s just the message, anything you give me if it’s part of my direction I will put Jah Ringo on it, be it Dancehall, African Music or Reggae, I will put Jah Ringo pon it.”
And the message and closing words:
Hey Fam, Let’s Unite, let’s Unite and make life better for each other. – Jah Ringo Touray.