Jamaican dancehall artiste Garfield “Konshens” Spence will launch his new album Red Reign on November 12.
This album, Konshens’ fifth studio album, symbolises the artiste's new hunger. His drive is to promote the genre of dancehall globally as well as promote Caribbean artistes to the world.
He went to Jamaica just before the covid19 pandemic put the world in a stranglehold. He thought he would be there for two weeks, but soon found not only was Jamaica on lockdown, but the world.
“Tours cancelled, party was cancelled. You realise say this is serious. So for the first two months it is just reality setting in.
[caption id="attachment_921000" align="alignnone" width="683"] Jamaican dancehall artiste Garfield “Konshens” Spence will launch his new album Red Reign on November 12. -[/caption]
"Then the stress come. The stress and the depression come. And then is like, ‘Yuh know what, just lock up inna de studio,' yuh know,” he told Newsday in a Zoom interview.
During that time, Konshens wrote and recorded over 70 songs, 18 of which will be on Red Reign.
It will feature collaborations with Jamaican record producer Rvssian, fellow Jamaican dancehall artiste Spice, Nigerian-American singer/songwriter Davido and English rapper/singer Stefflon Don, among others. There are no TT collaborations, but he has also collaborated with Bermudian artiste Kaelyn Kastle.
At first, to deal with the isolation caused by the pandemic, Konshens said, in an earlier conversation leading up to Newsday's interview, he drank and smoked every day. That routine brought on mild depression and he started developing some social anxiety.
He then channelled those negative emotions into creativity and ended up with 70 songs.
For him, "holding a vibe" with music was "kind of therapeutic," he said. He added that knowing the Konshens of 2010-2012, it was the hungriest he had ever been as an artiste.
That was also when he coloured his hair red.
He then sang more dancehall songs and songs for the “gal dem.”
“A lot of songs for the brain, but a lot more for the body,” he said.
But at that time he also had a driving hunger. That hunger is back now – renewed during the pandemic – and it is pushing him to see the genre ascend to a better position. He believes he has the road map to get it there.
The album is structured in such a way to show dancehall’s capabilities and how it can be presented on a global scale.
“Me show me can mix it up with Latin – which was birthed from dancehall – but me need to make sure the identity of dancehall is in it.
“We have songs that are 100 per cent hardcore dancehall to show that the capabilities are there and this is not something as a genre we should shy away from.
“We realise we ah shy away from the authentic dancehall a little bit. It is cool and nice. But the world want it. The world want dancehall…”
Konshens fused Afrobeats and other genres with dancehall.
“I try to show them div
