New Artist of The Month: Meet Aima Moses!

Aima Moses

Meet Aima Moses! This one is certainly MUCH less of a typical ‘new artist’ (and my selections generally are) and much more of a ‘secret weapon’ of sorts as fiery Dominican chanter Aima Moses has been making music for quite awhile. And though you may not know his name, Aima Moses quietly one of the most fervent and ‘curious’ followings of any ‘underground’ Caribbean artist that I am familiar with. So what is it about the thirty-one year old Kingshill native which attracts the masses and keeps them talking? It’s difficult to say. In general, just listening to his music over the past 3-4 years or so, to my opinion, Moses is much more of a ‘Jack of All Trades’ type of artist. He has a very rugged and rough around the edges type of style and there isn’t one dominant trait (with the exception of his intensity when he uses it) which immediately jumps out at the listener from his style. HOWEVER, what I will say about the artist is that he falls into a very unfortunately small category of artist who’re able to REALLY convey the message that they set out to display. There is no question on an Aima Moses tune (whether you like it or not), that his passion about the particular issue is HIGH and unyielding and he does whatever he musically can to get this point to his listeners and he’s generally quite successful. For example:

This tune, ‘No Barriers’, was actually the title track from Aima Moses’ debut (and to my knowledge, to date only) album which released way back in 2004:

For Moses, it seems as if the problem (as it is for so many of our artists) is getting more and more quality notoriety. Dominica does have an increasingly nice history when it comes to Reggae music (with names like Nasio Fontaine and Harry Mo amongst others), but it certainly is difficult to get more attention there than even other more prominent non-Jamaican Caribbean ports for the music such as the USVI or Trinidad at this point. And when you add all of the various musical forms which come from the very musically colourful and spicy ‘Natural Isle’, it makes it even more difficult when you’re competing for international attention with artists who come from a variety of different genres and backgrounds (and bilingual as well). So, with that being said I was SO happy to see a big tune from Aima Moses, ’All The Same’, jump up on the full version of the recently released Mirror Riddim from the Italian based Goldcup Records:

You can also pick up the full album digitally, making it one of the first (and maybe the actual first that I can think of), of Moses’ tunes to be available worldwide on a digital platform. The making of the actual song and that it is now readily available is a big success for Moses’ career and hopefully he continues to advance so. I do want to most certainly make it clear that this is a big artist. Too many times fans (myself included in some cases) see the stereotypical turban clad Bobo chanter and immediately think you know what to expect and again, while Moses doesn’t have a dominant aspect of his style, his overall COMMITMENT to his craft and singing the music of His Imperial Majesty, and the fact that his lyrics are very strong (I guess that would be what I would say is his biggest musical strength), is definitely what sets him apart from his peers. And when he’s in the ’mood’ Moses cranks up the fire and when combined with strong lyrics, it’s definitely something to be heard and check the interview:

So keep an eye out for the hopefully upward traveling Aima Moses. It’s taken him awhile to reach where he is and thankfully he’s persevered and maybe we can see him getting even more and more work and exposure on the European scene as well and achieve the big break he so definitely deserves.

Aima Moses @ Myspace
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