Wordplay? World Class: A Lyrical Analysis of The Albums of Lutan Fyah

"What is music?

It's a spiritual work from the heart.

Melodies through the vocals tone.

It is of Afrika indigenous"

Taken from the song Music Is Love by Lutan Fyah

We’re lucky, you know? The spoken word is a gift and while we can sit here and endlessly argue about the source of the gift, there can be no denying that, as a human being and one who is able to comprehend and appreciate the art of language, my life (and yours) are simply ‘better off.’ With that concept and that art we are then able to comprehend things on an entirely different level and the basic act of engaging the senses in some form or fashion (commonly known as ‘entertainment’) opens itself to many more individuals with the potential capability of MASTERING it. Such individuals, when they enter the field of music are generally achieved some inclined level or downright different level, in terms of status, ESPECIALLY when you consider that within the range of ‘urban’ music. In Hip-Hop, there were years upon years where Jay-Z was somewhat openly acknowledged as the greatest living rapper and yet the one name Nas is held in an almost entirely different esteem, particularly amongst the deep and INVOLVED fans of the music. Similarly, in Reggae we’ve also had such situations, the last of which (in terms of comparing the vibes of the music where Hip Hop = Dancehall) you’ll probably remember as Vybz Kartel began his ascent to Dancehall royalty and did so largely in the shadows of the far more well known Beenie Man and Bounty Killers of the world. Dancehall heads recognized it from early, that the very strange Portmore DJ was simply on another level. And while I don’t think fans caught on as early in this case as in Kartel‘s meteoric rise to prominence, I’m sure I couldn’t have been the only one who saw the same thing in Lutan Fyah a few years back. What I saw exactly wasn’t necessarily that kind of odd and flashy style that Kartel had shown, it was, to the contrary, almost the direct opposite approach, but just as strong. Lutan Fyah, on the surface, is about as ORDINARY of an artist that you’re likely to hear these days in Roots Reggae. By comparison, he lacks much of the superficial (in a non-negative way I mean, and you’ll see, as I’m about to mention several of my very favourite artists) qualities of some of his peers: He doesn’t have the varied style of someone like a Turbulence, who may very well be one of the best singers in the game, period. Lutan Fyah doesn’t have the voice of Jah Cure (no one does), the ‘mood’ of his good friend Jah Mason, he doesn’t (usually) make these HUGE and SPRAWLING anthem like tunes like Tarrus Riley (and he doesn’t have that promotional vehicle glued behind his career) and he doesn’t have the established name of some of the elder artists either and I could mention others such as Warrior King, Chezidek, I Wayne and more (Etana, Queen Ifrica, Ras Attitude), all of whom seemingly have an ‘edge’ in terms of appeal or apparent style which would give them a theoretical ‘advantage’ over Lutan Fyah.

However, on the largest, down to the most minute of details, the ONLY artist who I’ve heard who can even approach Lutan Fyah on a lyrical level is Sizzla Kalonji and I’m a Sizzla diehard to the core and not even he can ‘deal with’ Lutan Fyah on that level on a CONSISTENT basis. I’ve never heard anyone so casually deal with matters musically and lyrically as Lutan Fyah does tune in and tune out, VERSE in and out. And while Sizzla’s general lyrical power seems to derive itself from his overall COMFORT with the words and his ability to COAST where others have to force (which, again, in my opinion is a matter of comfort), Lutan Fyah just comes off as a person who has solved some type of a mathematical code which allows him the lyrical freedom to make each and every point of his choosing and do so in typically overwhelmingly powerful details and/or metaphors. PARA EJEMPLO:

“I know we were created by the loving hand of one supreme being

So comely, not of race, or party or creed

Waters of many colours so we haffi swim deep”

That piece is taken one of the very first tunes from Lutan Fyah I EVER heard (see it here), ‘No More War’ from his album, Time & Place. The song is, essentially, one which speaks of unity and how people so casually divide ourselves based on minimal things. The line which really strikes you is the final one, “waters of many colours so we haffi swim deep”, which is, in my opinion, a way of Fyah saying that we must EXPERIENCE this wide array of beautiful people. You can take it on the simplest level of simply ‘colour’ as in complexion and skin colour and still get that vibe. That metaphor is just SO SIMPLE. And you can bring it full circle with another tune from that same album, ‘Rise & Shine’:

“Wake up from your slumber

No tribal war or political border

Babylon create the differences and a dem a di exploiter

Who feel di pain, just look at your skin colour”

Now I know what you’re thinking because when I made that connection I was thinking the same thing also. You’re think about that last line and you’re thinking that he means that Afrikan people are the ones “who feel di pain”, but I don’t think that’s where he was going with it. You go back and you look, again, at the fresh line “waters of many colours, so we haffi swim deep” and just generally take that entire song into the factor here and I think what Lutan Fyah means when he says “just look at your skin colour” is that, if you have a colour on your skin - any colour at all - then YOU can possibly feel the pain. Who is babylon? Corruption. Corruption has no skin colour, it comes in every one of them.

That is, of course, not to say that Lutan Fyah doesn’t deal in matters of Race at all, because he certainly does and, as is his style, he generally does so in downright WONDROUS fashion. It is interesting, however, that when at his best Lutan Fyah will almost ALWAYS take an unconventional road when dealing with the subject. What he’ll do is to talk about Black liberty and Black upliftment, but do so in the ‘shadow’ of His Imperial Majesty. Unlike someone like a Sizzla who’ll tie the same subject matter with a variety of different things (such as the destruction of something else, or just a COMPLETE pseudo history lesson, see ‘One Away‘), Lutan Fyah’s race lyrics will be presented as the closer the Black man comes to following in the line of His Majesty, the more he becomes uplifted. A prime example of this comes on his debut album, Dem No Know Demself, with the big combination tune ’Black King’ alongside the aforementioned Jah Mason:

“Remember King Selassie is the righteous seed

Hey, ghetto youths you betta gwan proceed

Only a righteous man can take dem youths yah and lead

Outta babylon, dem full of corruption and greed”

The first two lines of the passage sounds like something Sizzla would write, DEFINITELY. When you go on, however, you get this kind of mixed feel which ultimately HAS TO be tied back to the title of the song (which isn’t Sizzla like (as I said, with his ‘comfort‘ he pretty much says whatever he wants), it’s actually quite Determine-like) to get the meaning of the song, which is to set the ‘Black King’, Emperor Haile Selassie I, as the example to the youths (which he doesn’t even do, he just, very cavalierly says “gwan proceed”, ‘do as He does’). Furthermore, to reach the youths, he uses the word lead, of course it rhymes, but you can well see the attraction of the word ‘lead’ or ‘leader’ to mostly all people, but especially children. Similarly, a later tune by the name of ‘Crown Him’ (which hasn’t appeared on one of his albums o date and was voiced on Militant Muzik’s Found Her riddim), which wasn’t a combination and was a generally more MATURE (not better, but mature) written song, in terms of the target audience:

“King Selassie I dem youths adore

Lets crown HIM. Lets Crown HIM.

None after, tell yuh none before.

Lets crown HIM. Lets Crown HIM”

With the eventual historical aspect the tune and just its lyrical composition, it’s easy to see that Crown Him wasn’t a tune for the youths, but for those WITH youths. The very subtle change (and I THINK Crown Him was from 2007-’08), while the Dem No Know Demself album was from 2004) can definitely be considered a sign of development (never mind the fact that Crown Him was just about better than Black King in every way), but that’s not why I brought it, I bring it up to draw that APPARENT tangent between the two tunes which signal a VERY powerful wordsmith, whose power is simple, that its almost complex.

Getting back to the subject of His Imperial Majesty in Lutan Fyah’s music, besides standing as a kind of ‘reference pillar’ from which the ideas seem to spread and revolve around, The King also is put into the mix HIMself as well and this is USUALLY done when Fyah spreads on the metaphors as THICK as possible. I remember seeing the Healthy Lifestyle album and having my attentions captured, on paper, by two tunes. The first was, of course, the title track. The second? The album’s opener, ‘Thief In Jah Garden’ (and you already know where I’m going with this one, don’t you???):

“I know there’s a thief in Jah Garden

They only come to spoil Jah Jah harvest

I know there’s a thief in Jah Garden

Take it all, nuttin dem nah lef”

Which thief? Later he tells you:

“Di devil is on the prowl and dem a seek soul”

Take out the word Jah and Devil and you know you can replace them with both with MAN. If you listen to the balance of the tune (BIG tune it is) what you hear is Fyah bringing into question SEVERAL (dozens actually) horrible acts occurring in the world, with the punch line of the tune being, “I know there’s a thief in Jah Garden, they only come to spoil Jah Jah harvest”. He is clearly metaphorically using Jah’s ‘garden’ and ‘harvest’ as PEOPLE. Righteous people who are being corrupted (spoiled) by those who fight against positive actions (Devil). And this concept lead me to the SWEET SWEET tune ‘Mightier Than Them’ (which appears on both the Jam Down Riddim Driven album and Lutan Fyah’s double album Africa) which, again, places His Majesty DIRECTLY into the mix, where Fyah will speak of HIM in terms of human traits:

“Selassie I mightier than dem all

A whosoever fight The King shall fall”

This song (and this passage in particular, which is part of the chorus) is VERY interesting, because it applies both human-like and the expected biblical qualities to HIM, which is a two (or three) dimensional lyric:

“I see the doomsday clock is ticking up on the wall

Dem say dem nah hear Rasta none at all”

Mightier Than Them is a MIGHTY tune on so many levels lyrically speaking (love the Jam Down riddim same way, biggup Danga Zone). On that same PACKED project, songs like End Of Days (especially), of course Watch Over Me and others have a similar style and impact. Check Rasta Set The Trend:

“Say Rasta got the sovereign rights to teach

Hey we stay tune with Jah blessings and resonate peace

The hypocrite a ask how far we ahgo reach

Show love to the people who we meet”

When you look directly at the second line of that piece, “Hey we stay [in] tune with Jah blessing and resonate peace”, I think that’s where the power of that portion lies (and the entire tune, which was a MAMMOTH combination alongside Morgan Heritage) and is yet another great point, directly tied to Lutan Fyah’s lyrical usage of HIM. This one goes back to the previous point of placing HIM in a more ‘regular’ and tangible position lyrically and does the EXACT opposite - it brings man into HIS ‘terrain’. Being in “tune with Jah blessings” allows us to “resonate peace”, which is something He does ALL THE TIME. It makes us like HIM! That one little line is so powerful as I often speak of a tune being so flashy (or just odd as hell) that the message is overlooked and that line there is a prime example, you wouldn’t get that vibes if you were rocking and just happy that the Morgans decided to make a tune with Lutan Fyah and vice-versa.

The lyrical application of The King is so powerful in Lutan Fyah’s music and I just have to allow it to continue for just a moment, but we have to now look at the African Be Proud album very briefly. Specifically, my favourite tune from that very uneven album, ‘Word, Sound & Power’, which is absolutely FULL of interesting content expounding on the involvement of HIM in Fyah’s music:

“Red, Gold & Green is the banner of life

Coulda Haile Selassie I crowned with a wife

HE was born on the bank of the Nile

Rastaman a hail HIM Rastafari

And I’m so safe within HIS keeping

Over land and sea Binghi reaching

Man shout His name aloud upon the mountain

Hey, my blessing I’m counting

Word, sound and power is Jah way

Blessings haffi shower when we hear Jah name”

For me, this song captures the title of the album, even more so than the actual title track, because you can just see that passage (and the entire song) absolutely EXUDING pride. And I’ll draw this connection here to two different songs (watch this). The first is the BEAUTIFUL ‘Never Stop Hail Rastafari’ from the You Bring Blessings album (just look at that TITLE!), which does the same thing:

“And I’ll never stop hail Rastafari

Thy Kingdom Come

Is a blessing unto I

His loving caah done”

I’ll NEVER (!) EVER stop hail Rastafari. So much pride into that one. And then check what is my current favourite tune from Fyah, ‘Genesis’, (from the recent The Biggest Reggae One-Drop Anthems 2009 album) which is ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE and features such a slow and swelling type of pride (and remember what I just said):

“Let Emmanuel Black Star shine

We’re coming from the BANK OF THE NILE”

&

“Rastafari Genesis

Blessed with the POWER & SOUND

Big from the beginning. . .”

And it’s not recycling lyrics or even recycling a concept. It is the reinforcing and backing up a vibes which Fyah simply feels so strong about and one which, at least in my opinion, says quite a bit of his aim and his ultimate lyrical foundation.

The final point I’d like to make here is a social one and I could (and I just might) continue to draw a line connecting His Imperial Majesty to the words, but that’s not my intention (again, even though I may do it anyway). Instead I want to briefly look at how Lutan Fyah approaches a tune which is almost purely a social one. For this, of course, we head to his opus, Phantom War. This STACKED album (one disc, nineteen tracks) (and a video) was the one which, to my ears made the greatest contribution in this respect and we’ll begin (DUH) with the title track:

“How could you say we’ve got no reason to live

You give us no hope, no chance nor no privilege

That merry-go-round, you have us spinning like a gig

And who you no rob, you go kill

I hear sirens and I saw navy blue

Dem soldier come down inna camouflage and some big black boots

Rude boys rolled out inna them garrison troop

Who no get boxed, so them get bruised

Oh yes they’re fighting a phantom war

I see the city full of crime and violence

Them high society no care

Them cause us to fail

Biggup them borderline and city fence”

The tune, as it develops, is just BRILLIANCE. It is absolutely a special social commentary of a song and one which not too many of Fyah’s peers (if ANY of them) could deal with. We go forth with another of my favourites from the album and one which I constantly find myself finding something more and more to like, Still Deh Deh, a combination featuring veteran singer Mark Wonder:

“Tell di youths dem go look work

Hey, before you go bust off your gun take out your book first

Nuff a dem, dem nah mind di youth cuz dem a be gruff

Thief like a puss

And right yah now dem inna tough luck

Say things rough

Oh well”

Besides the VERY impressive wordplay throughout the tune, what you have here is the song kind of playing in the foreground of a very bleak background (which isn’t very far in the background in that passage in particular which I chose, specifically, because it kind of melds the thought of “poverty still deh deh” and the thought that it doesn’t have to be as close as it is) which makes an attempt to step out of that type of light so much more righteous and respectable. I almost smile when I hear the second line, “take out your book first”, like I’m hearing it in the back of my head as, ‘don’t be a fool, stay in school’, which is essentially what he means. Fyah also explores the concept of the family unit in the tune with tunes like Mother Earth’s Healing (BIG family there) and especially Screaming For The Poor and that leads me to a tune from Fyah’s most recent album release, Rising Up, by the name of ‘Family Effort’:

“Papa is a good man

Sun toiling everyday for the better

Look how hard Mama work

When tings get rough she put out the effort

Hey fi mi Papa couldn’t be a deadbeat

He’s always there, inna famine or feast

Just to provide the corn or the wheat

Hey yes, to make sure everything complete

Hey fi mi Mama spend nine months to bring forth mi siblings

She never waste time streetside giggling

Fi mi parents no perfect but we blessed from the beginning

And for that we give thanks to The King”

And I’ll resist (and you have no idea how hard that is for me) (well maybe you do) to draw the comparison of Family Effort with BOTH ‘Children Love’ and ‘Birthright’, but trust me that it’s there. Specifically when speaking of the family unit in terms of social situations, Lutan Fyah’s modus operandi seems to be one which not only reinforces things on a spiritual plain (and believe me, even though I’m not mentioning it, there certainly are TONS of examples of that), but to use it to point out the source of a more tangible type of hope. And I really like the fact that he goes out of his way on Family Effort to give some respect to the Fathers (like me) who are actually worth a damn and don’t see the birth of a child as the firing pistol to race away down the road. Of course, the only source of hope in Fyah’s lyrics isn’t just the family. There’s also one which will be the last point I make here and easily the most powerful of them all, one which descends through His Majesty, through the family and resonates with every righteous person on the planet:

“Show me some love as I will

Who can stop all this blood from spill?”

&

“True love is all we know

Yes it is the answer and of that, I’m sure”

Both passages are taken from the songs ‘Show Me Some Love’ and ‘True Love Is All’, respectively, from the MASTERPIECE, Justice. These songs show how Fyah deals with the conquering concept of love (he actually even uses the word “conquer” two lines on in True Love Is All: “Prevail and conquer, it’s an open door) develops and swings its way through his songs. Bring this concept almost full circle is the tune ‘Crying Out’ which features Gardian. You wouldn’t think the tune, just listening to it basically speaks much of love, but that’s THE point of the tune. Where’s the love?:

“The system is a fake

Money runs the day

Yet people work five days for a one day rate”

Gardian- “Hear the people crying, hear them bawling out”

The song paints a very harsh picture of the world around (and justly so), but it never answers the question of what are “the people crying” out for? BUT IT DOES. Crying Out is a tune speaking of the absence of LOVE. If you love someone you don’t pay them for one day after they’ve worked five. You don’t KEEP them in and full on SPONSOR their poverty. When Lutan Fyah writes these BEAUTIFULLY STUNNING tunes about love, in the context of social situations, his way is to show you all sides, with and without it.

In closing: The reason why I chose to write this in the context that I have is because, when you go through Lutan Fyah’s catalogue, there almost seems to be something missing, but there isn’t. More and more each day I tend to wonder why the ENTIRE WORLD has not picked up on what this man is saying in these songs and why doesn’t it seem to be registering. Is it just the fact that he sings Reggae music? If he was a Hip-Hop artist would they listen? If he could sing like Jah Cure, would they listen then. Would I listen better, maybe I’m missing the point too. I don’t think I am and slowly but surely I find myself caring less and less. I think Lutan Fyah would even tell you himself that if there is just ONE person who was supposed to receive the message he was to bring, then he would feel achieved in his work if that ONE person received it. Well, thankfully that isn’t the case because I see the lights turning on, one by one. More people are waking up to an artist who has taken language, in EVERY RESPECT, and made it his own personal playground, like the Marley’s, Bujus and Sizzlas who have come before him and by the time he’s done, he may even prove to be the one person playing on the field in a class of his own: Scoring goals on an empty net.