The I-Brid

"I ah fulfill what I was told.

Conquer the globe"

I-Octane - No Conscience

As scientists and theologians continue the seemingly never-ending argument of evolution in terms of life building and specifically human life building, a far less controversial, yet, perhaps just as scrutinized form of evolution is and has been ongoing for quite awhile. I always find it interesting to, because of the rather region specific nature of Reggae music and Caribbean music in general to draw comparisons, whether direct or indirect, between different stages and eras of artists as, generally you’ll have an artist come up and be influenced by a whole heap of different names to whom they looked up throughout their developmental years. Now, of course this isn’t to say that one new artist might ‘steal’ from an elder artist, just as its not the case in sports when one athlete has a style similar to one he watched as a youth. This is, instead, in my opinion musical evolution and while you might not actually believe that Man descended from Monkey, there simply cannot be any type of strong argument against this type of phenomenon. Naturally in Reggae music by far the easiest pillar to draw comparisons to would be that of the King, Bob Marley and the just as easy examples of artist who have ‘evolved’ on his style would be his children. Take anyone of Bob Marley’s signature tunes and then compare them to ANY of those of his youngest son, Damian and, at least on the surface, there are very little similarities outside of the name on the album. However, when you take into account that the elder Marley grew, developed and died, for the most part, outside any era where Dancehall (and, by extension, Hip-Hop) could have had any great influence on him and his music whatsoever, then more evidence of Jr. Gong’s even further developing his Father’s work begin to shine through. I would go as far as to make the case that, although vocally speaking Bob Marley most closely resembles the well talented Ky-Mani and musically speaking the vibes he made is the direct ancestor of what you’ll find Ziggy making these days and for the majority of his storied career, if he were to have developed in this day and age and even up to a decade or so ago (and probably even more) he would probably sound something like Damian and not to any small degree either. Given the elder Marley’s propensities to making music which not only could pull in the masses internationally but also gain the attentions of Jamaicans and, more specifically, Jamaican youths. To do that to SUPREME effectiveness he could not have possibly eschewed the Dancehall COMPLETELY or even satisfied it by merely doing the occasional combination with a Dancehall artist. He would have had to have thrown himself into that arena somehow and do so unabashedly and at least somewhat consistently.

Evolution of Reggae is also at play these days thankfully. Before Sean Paul, there was Supercat. Before Mr. Vegas, there was Eek-A-Mouse, before Beenie Man there was King Yellow Man and the list goes on and on down to the point where evolution, and ONLY evolution, could explain how such a period of time as brief as two decades, all but meaningless in the scale of specie evolution could explain just how in that amount of time we could get from what Ninja Man made his name doing, to whatever in the hell space age methodology was applied to it by his DIRECT musical descendant, Aidonia, these days. And as the Sizzlas and Bujus and Capletons and Anthony Bs of the world stand, in my opinion, as DIRECT descendants of Peter Tosh (even though Buju and Capleton arrived there quite a bit differently didn’t they) as artists who grew up listening to him and Luciano did the same with Bob Marley and more closely Dennis Brown, so to, have artists done the same to them. And unlike Marley, Brown and Tosh, and even the newer artists, these youths have done so with the spectre of the Dancehall looming as a POTENTIALLY million dollar industry.

It has to show itself in some type of way and thus, as opposed to Capleton, Buju and Spragga Benz (more on him a minute) who began as Dancehall heads only to engage in their own bit of personal musical evolution or Sizzla and Anthony B who grew as Roots artists and would eventually grow to add bits of Dancehall into their style, this new crop of artists are developing as BOTH Dancehall and Roots Reggae artists. Names like the fire breathing Teflon (pictured) come to mind, Ras Myrhdak and the most well known of this bunch, the controversial Munga Honourable (the self proclaimed ‘Gangsta Ras’ who has shown himself to be far more ‘gangsta’ than Ras) come to mind as artists who have established themselves as hybrid Dancehall/Roots artists. You could also probably add the aforementioned Damian Marley to this category as well, yet, even if you did the artist who, although he doesn’t receive the press as Marley or Munga, has proven himself already the most talented of this bunch is the WICKED I-Octane. The Clarendon native is, in my opinion, the PROTOTYPE of virtually a new genre of Reggae which is just as much Roots as it is Dancehall. However, Octane’s style, unlike Munga’s, is one which is CLEARLY anchored on the Roots sides as, WONDERFULLY, even when he does dive full on into a Dancehall vibes, straight forward DJ style, he does so with a lyrical edge clearly aimed at promoting the positive aspects of life and righteousness. As I said, I-Octane definitely isn’t as well known amongst more casual Reggae listeners but those who know his music well can so easily attest to the fact that, although his is CLEARLY a journey still well in progress, what he has developed into as an artist is just AMAZING at this time. And, he would have grown up listening to the Sizzlas and Capletons of the world, taking bits and pieces of their styles and combining it to his own and writing his own material, to the point where what you have is an artist who can do almost ANYTHING on ANY riddim. He has voiced for some of the biggest producers in the game including Don Corleon, Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor and Penthouse and has scored hits of varying levels, perhaps most notably to date, the anti-violence Gun Rise alongside the aforementioned Teflon.

He has also appeared on some of the biggest stages in Reggae as well. With an awaited performance coming soon at 2009’s Reggae Sumfest, I-Octane will seek to build on what has proven to be a bit of ‘coming out party’ for him (although if it took that long for you to catch on. . .), his HUGE performance at 2008’s installment of Sting where he definitely gave one of the finest performances of the entire bill even on his own, shortly before calling on his musical “daddy” the one and only Spragga Benz, to deliver an outstanding live rendition of their SCATHING hit, Hurt Mi. And while musically speaking, Octane’s journey isn’t very much at all like Spragga’s and nor is his actual sound, the Dancehall legend turned Roots extraordinaire represents the CLASS of artist I-Octane will potentially someday register alongside. And, fittingly, he’s also reached the heights of Roots artists’ performing on Tony Rebel’s Rebel Salute stage as well.

So who does he sound like? Well, as I said, I-Octane is the prototype of what is, in my opinion, a new subgenre of Reggae music and, in doing and in being that his influences are obviously all across the board. For example, a fairly large number of artists could have inspired his tune Clap Dem, across the Pure riddim from a couple of years ago, Bounty Killer, Vybz Kartel and a slew of others perhaps. The same could maybe said for his recent BIG tune, Mama You Alone across Arrows‘ CASCADING Karma riddim; the song sounded like something Lutan Fyah, Jah Cure or maybe even someone like Luciano could have sang. The ‘issue’ comes here, HOW IN THE WORLD do you rationalize ANY comparison between Vybz Kartel and Luciano? And. More importantly, how do you rationalize that comparison being laid in the character and musical makeup of ONE ARTIST? Either Dancehall and Roots music became the same thing without anyone telling me, or the talent gap of this artist, whoever he or she may be, is off the charts. Of course, both of tunes are owed to the credits of I-Octane and serve as a rather potent example of just how talented this youth can be. Now you add to that the fact that both of those songs, in the realm of Octane’s quickly expanding catalogue, kind of rank right in the middle in terms of quality and maybe even lower. At the top of I-Octane’s ledger are tunes like the MAMMOTH Run Yet and the MOVING Different Page.

Also, with these are tunes like Nuh Frighten We, Poverty (both for Kemar McGregor’s No Doubt Records imprint), the DAZZLING Straight From The Ghetto and an earlier hit, Stab Vampire. When he is at his best, I-Octane is an artist, as I mentioned, capable of sliding in and out of different styles and while he largely doesn’t do it within the landscape of a single tune (thankfully) his aim on different tunes differs so greatly that its hard to just say a single artist is his influence. He also wouldn’t even fit in line with someone like Sizzla, Anthony B or even Turbulence as if either of those well talented artists were to voice a tune like Clap Dem, someone might make a fuss, but with Octane, no one bats an eye because his base an artist is one which lends his talents (in whichever scope they may eventually go within Reggae music) to an existence seemingly without boundaries. And lyrically speaking, while its so easy to get caught up in the different styles which he uses (and actually his base king of raspy/earthy chanting style isn’t too far away from something you would hear from a Fantan Mojah but the well talented Mojah doesn’t have this type of range and his talents come, instead from his commitment to PERFECTING his chanting), I-Octane is one of the best young WRITERS in the game also as he delivers very sprawling type of Roots anthem which rather easily lend themselves to be both powerful and catchy for the most part. So to answer the question: Who exactly does I-Octane sound like? He sounds like I-Octane and when he reaches the levels to which every sign seems to show that he’s headed, it won’t be a matter of who he sounds like but who sounds like him?

I-Octane’s rise to prominence is even more impressive when you consider that he’s largely doing

things which either haven’t been done before at all, or is doing things that are only being done now with others. The very fact that artists such as young superstars Etana, Tarrus Riley and others are around even helps the ‘case’ of his evolving the game as, by evident of they’re existences in what they are, STRAIGHT FORWARD Roots Reggae artists, it shows that a steady shift of the industry isn’t at work and instead its simply a few who branch out into what I-Octane is doing. So, while Sizzla, Capleton, Buju, Anthony B, Luciano and all of the ranking hierarchy of Roots Reggae in Jamaica are definitely on top of the proverbial food chain now, when they make the move into the next stages of their careers and move out of the Mansion, they may do well to give the keys to I-Octane. Even though he may paint a few rooms different colours, put entirely new paintings up, knock out a wall or two, hell he may even add another floor. WHEN he does take control, things do figure to be just a bit different under his reign.