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Tuggawar is a young, dancehall artist from hackney London, whose story
is so compelling, it would even get a Hollywood scriptwriter's pulse
racing.
The first to remember is that he's no novelty act, but a deejay with
serious skills. Tuggawar and confederates like Freedom - who does
brilliant impersonations, by the way - produce tracks themselves, with
most of the recordings having taken place at Tuggawar's own studio in
Hackney, London.
The surest indication yet that this son of Greek and Irish parents is
keeping it real, no matter the acclaim he's already received in
Jamaica itself.
"We had our own local sound when I was young," he explains, "but I was
always listening to tapes of Unity and then Saxon with Papa Levi,
Smiley Culture, and Tippa Irie. From Jamaica, I used to listen to
Super Cat, Ninjaman, and Johnny Ringo. I always wanted to be a deejay,
and I started writing from very early. I do other music now, but I was
into reggae more than anything else and still am, because reggae's the
foundation of musics like grime, drum & bass, and hip hop. All of them
revolve around reggae, and they couldn't exist without it, but those
early dancehall pioneers had a massive impact on me. I think the
standard of deejaying was higher back then, than what it is now. They
took the trouble to write proper lyrics, and that showed in their
records and what they were doing on sound-system, y'know?"
Just as any serious newcomer should, Tuggawar took time out to learn
the art of deejaying properly, and he was therefore already well
practised before his grand adventure really began, and he took his
first trip to Jamaica. "In 2001 I went down to Jamaica for two weeks,
and ended up staying for a few years," he says, laughing at the
memory. "That was more by accident than design. I didn't know anybody.
I just went down there with my girl friend, met some of her family and
that was it. We arrived in Kingston, but stayed in Spanish Town, and
it was real hardcore.
"Basically, I got jailed for weed out there, and was locked up with
Jah Cure and Zebra in Spanish Town prison. I was on the same block as
them, and they had a concert in the prison one Easter Monday. That was
the first time I ever performed in Jamaica, and there were two
thousand prisoners at that show! Jah Cure called me up on stage, I
wrecked the place, and then Sean's father told me I reminded him of
his son, because he was in there as well. He was getting released two
weeks before me, and said he'd arrange for me to stay in Jamaica,
because they were going to deport me otherwise. He was willing to
support me, so he contacted Roy Francis, who took care of the
immigration people.
Roy then Produced my first tune, Hot Gal, on Sly & Robbie's Macca
rhythm. It was after that I began hanging round Mixing Lab, and all
these other artists would pass through. Lexxus, he was there one day,
and asked me to voice on this rhythm he had.
I said yes straightaway,
and from that day onwards, we started rolling together. He brought me
on stage at a lot of shows, and introduced me to a lot of producers.
That's how I ended up doing so many recordings, because whenever one
of these Producers wanted to voice Lexxus, he'd say to record me
first.
I didn't get any strong tunes from my time in Jamaica, but I did make
quite a name for myself as a performer, and that's how Laing came to
book me on Sting and a good many other shows down there, including
Vybz Kartel's birthday bash.
"To give you an idea of how much work I was doing, I got released from
prison in May 2002, and by September I was booked to perform at Sting
for the first time. Then just before I left, I met up with Steely &
Clevie, who offered me a recording contract, except due to some family
problems here in England, I never got to sign it. After that, I began
to build my own Pro-Tools studio, and apart from doing shows and
recordings, I did a lot of networking as well.
His profile's continued to rocket in the meantime, mainly thanks to
MySpace and support slots on recent UK tours by Beenie Man and Busy
Signal. After that debut in Spanish Town Prison, no audience on earth
can worry him, and that spell behind bars inspired a good few lyrics
as well.
Does it require a different approach, chatting on conventional
rhythms? "Well yes, but I grew up listening to Saxon and Unity, so
it's nice to include some original, one-drop, rub-a-dub style rhythms.
Request To The Farmer is another like that, and was one of my biggest
tunes when I was in Jamaica, because I was doing it round about the
time of their election, in 2002. I remember hearing Seaga [Edward
Seaga, the Opposition Leader, who's of Lebanese extraction] declare
that, 'me nah born yah, but me for yah.' I was listening to it on the
radio with Gadaffi the producer, and said, 'I can write a tune from
that!' Those were the lyrics that got me booked for Sting, because I'd
go on stage and say, 'me nah born yah, but me on yah, request to the
farmer, who grow the yam and the banana. Down inna the west, me get my
high-grade marijuana,' and the crowds would go crazy. That was a
massive tune for me down there." "Well, I've always
seen myself as a hardcore deejay, but I like doing more melodic
things too, I like showing my versatility on all types of rhythms, and
sometimes taking a different kind of approach, rather than chanting on
it, or deejaying. It's like a sing-jay sort of style, and it's a style
I like, so if I feel that vibe from certain rhythms, I'll keep doing
stuff like that. No one's really heard Tuggawar like that before. It's
different, y'know?"
And his new album #GANJA Produced by Chester Walker for very huge
records is a master piece !
with tracks like ganja on the answer riddim , LOVE WEED which is a
next world wide ganja anthem also HIGH GRADE GANJA Featuring MR LEXX
is a sure hit ! also songs like PARTY which is a Lenky {Dwaili} made
beat and a sure anthem ! along with the return of the street sweeper
by Steelie & Cleavie Classic Riddim the track called NU BAD is sure to
be a street hit ! also great tracks like WAR , DISRESPECT are real
hardcore Dancehall hits ! theres also GIVE THANKS FOR LIFE which is a
one drop style and DIAMOND STONE for the ladies , along with great
skits this album is sure to go down in history as a Reggae/Dancehall
all time Classic Album.
#GANJA ALBUM OUT NOW BUY WITH THIS LINK:https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/gan...
http://www.tuggawar.com
http://www.twitter.com/tuggawar
http://www.facebook.com/tuggawarmusic
http://www.youtube.com/fidayz
http://www.soundcloud.com/tuggawar
and I started writing from very early. I do other music now, but I was
into reggae more than anything else and still am, because reggae's the
foundation of musics like grime, drum & bass, and hip hop. All of them
revolve around reggae, and they couldn't exist without it, but those
early dancehall pioneers had a massive impact on me. I think the
standard of deejaying was higher back then, than what it is now. They
took the trouble to write proper lyrics, and that showed in their
records and what they were doing on sound-system, y'know?"
Just as any serious newcomer should, Tuggawar took time out to learn
the art of deejaying properly, and he was therefore already well
practised before his grand adventure really began, and he took his
first trip to Jamaica. "In 2001 I went down to Jamaica for two weeks,
and ended up staying for a few years," he says, laughing at the
memory. "That was more by accident than design. I didn't know anybody.
I just went down there with my girl friend, met some of her family and
that was it. We arrived in Kingston, but stayed in Spanish Town, and
it was real hardcore.
"Basically, I got jailed for weed out there, and was locked up with
Jah Cure and Zebra in Spanish Town prison. I was on the same block as
them, and they had a concert in the prison one Easter Monday. That was
the first time I ever performed in Jamaica, and there were two
thousand prisoners at that show! Jah Cure called me up on stage, I
wrecked the place, and then Sean's father told me I reminded him of
his son, because he was in there as well. He was getting released two
weeks before me, and said he'd arrange for me to stay in Jamaica,
because they were going to deport me otherwise. He was willing to
support me, so he contacted Roy Francis, who took care of the
immigration people.
Roy then Produced my first tune, Hot Gal, on Sly & Robbie's Macca
rhythm. It was after that I began hanging round Mixing Lab, and all
these other artists would pass through. Lexxus, he was there one day,
and asked me to voice on this rhythm he had.
I said yes straightaway,
and from that day onwards, we started rolling together. He brought me
on stage at a lot of shows, and introduced me to a lot of producers.
That's how I ended up doing so many recordings, because whenever one
of these Producers wanted to voice Lexxus, he'd say to record me
first.
I didn't get any strong tunes from my time in Jamaica, but I did make
quite a name for myself as a performer, and that's how Laing came to
book me on Sting and a good many other shows down there, including
Vybz Kartel's birthday bash.
"To give you an idea of how much work I was doing, I got released from
prison in May 2002, and by September I was booked to perform at Sting
for the first time. Then just before I left, I met up with Steely &
Clevie, who offered me a recording contract, except due to some family
problems here in England, I never got to sign it. After that, I began
to build my own Pro-Tools studio, and apart from doing shows and
recordings, I did a lot of networking as well.
His profile's continued to rocket in the meantime, mainly thanks to
MySpace and support slots on recent UK tours by Beenie Man and Busy
Signal. After that debut in Spanish Town Prison, no audience on earth
can worry him, and that spell behind bars inspired a good few lyrics
as well.
Does it require a different approach, chatting on conventional
rhythms? "Well yes, but I grew up listening to Saxon and Unity, so
it's nice to include some original, one-drop, rub-a-dub style rhythms.
Request To The Farmer is another like that, and was one of my biggest
tunes when I was in Jamaica, because I was doing it round about the
time of their election, in 2002. I remember hearing Seaga [Edward
Seaga, the Opposition Leader, who's of Lebanese extraction] declare
that, 'me nah born yah, but me for yah.' I was listening to it on the
radio with Gadaffi the producer, and said, 'I can write a tune from
that!' Those were the lyrics that got me booked for Sting, because I'd
go on stage and say, 'me nah born yah, but me on yah, request to the
farmer, who grow the yam and the banana. Down inna the west, me get my
high-grade marijuana,' and the crowds would go crazy. That was a
massive tune for me down there." "Well, I've always
seen myself as a hardcore deejay, but I like doing more melodic
things too, I like showing my versatility on all types of rhythms, and
sometimes taking a different kind of approach, rather than chanting on
it, or deejaying. It's like a sing-jay sort of style, and it's a style
I like, so if I feel that vibe from certain rhythms, I'll keep doing
stuff like that. No one's really heard Tuggawar like that before. It's
different, y'know?"
And his new album #GANJA Produced by Chester Walker for very huge
records is a master piece !
with tracks like ganja on the answer riddim , LOVE WEED which is a
next world wide ganja anthem also HIGH GRADE GANJA Featuring MR LEXX
is a sure hit ! also songs like PARTY which is a Lenky {Dwaili} made
beat and a sure anthem ! along with the return of the street sweeper
by Steelie & Cleavie Classic Riddim the track called NU BAD is sure to
be a street hit ! also great tracks like WAR , DISRESPECT are real
hardcore Dancehall hits ! theres also GIVE THANKS FOR LIFE which is a
one drop style and DIAMOND STONE for the ladies , along with great
skits this album is sure to go down in history as a Reggae/Dancehall
all time Classic Album.
Big up Chester, you always been working, up,up,all deh way up. #MADInc..
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