A Random Fyah

Lutan Fyah

After elabourating on it concerning Perfect Giddimani in our look at his brand new album , "Over The Top" for House Of Riddim, I've also been applying it to others: This notion of exactly how well or poorly history is likely to remember certain people. In Perfect's case it was a matter of his music and, more importantly, his style being overlooked or placed in the frame of so many others despite his many prevailing differences and in the case of Lutan Fyah, it is a similar one.

'Length of Days'

People such as Sizzla Kalonji, Buju Banton and Vaughn Benjamin are already celebrated for it and we are already at a point where we can divide up the career of Vybz Kartel and see the first half of it in this way as well: They are/were fantastic lyricists and, at their respective bests are in a category all of their own. If you read our work to any degree, you know that I consider Lutan Fyah to be at this level as well and have four years -- he once enjoyed a stretch of a very productive couple of years or so during which, despite the fact that I paid as much attention to his output that as I did anyone else at the time, I did not hear a substandard verse from Lutan Fyah, regardless of the track -- and he has been on a similar tear recently.

 "All people shall come to meet and greet -

And to look upon the face of The King From The East

Gifts and praises unto Thee

The Light of The World and The Prince of Peace

Story of my life increase

Say love who you got so close at least

Take this message to Rome and Greece [!]: 

LET RIGHTEOUSNESS INCREASE!

I've made my monument

And earned my ornament

I'm living the life of a king

The life of a king!" 

-'Life of A King'

The issue in his instance is an even deeper one than it is for Perfect. If you listen to about ten Perfect songs, it should be crystal clear that you aren't dealing with someone who falls into any line besides the one he drew for himself, but for Lutan Fyah, there is nothing as ostensible which separates him and his music. He is not, has never been and will never be the most dynamic and/or melodic of artists, but when you dig just a little deeper, you see the way in which this man absolutely dissects the spoken word and his style is one which is very straight forward and resounding but, again, he doesn't seem to get the credit for it, consistently, right now, so maybe history will be sure to remember Lutan Fyah as, at least, one of the greatest writers of his era and, at best (and "at correctly"), one of the greatest of all time. 

"So when you think 'that's all', 'it's over' and you can't take the pain no more -

Call upon Jah 

You gotta know, that He'll be there for sure

Even when time gets hard and so rough

You better put The Most High none before 

Call upon Jah 

Say Rasta never bow

Remember there's no easy way to go

Slowly but surely -

Mi know seh Jah Jah great, HIM nah go left we lonely 

Cah when di world tumble down on me

Jah Jah ease di pressure and take di pain for me

You better achieve your goal, nuh seh you caan dweet

Jah busy but HIM nah sleep!

Food haffi run and every man waan eat

Jah busy but HIM nah sleep!

Conquer your fears, tell  yuh go ahead and achieve

Jah busy but HIM nah sleep!

Tell yuh seh Jah busy but HIM nah sleep"

-'Jah Nah Sleep'

Perhaps it is similar to the situation as I believe it to be with the great Ras Batch. Batch is also someone who makes a very straight-forward brand of music, but he does it in a way in which, as I’ve personally experienced, seems to almost always have a time-delayed approach and I'm convinced that long after his own recording days have concluded that Batch will be celebrated as an artist much, much more than he was during his prime years. Of course should that happen, it would answer my question, but I don't see it as being so. The differences between the two, as writers, is that Batch will introduce concepts with more complexities than will Lutan Fyah, who almost seems to go out of his way to streamline his ideas at times, but both definitely exhibit a great amount of passion for the actual skill of writing lyrics. 

"How di guns get so prevalent?

Inna di ghetto our life was so diligent

Mi no si di sense - fi a man ah kill him brother over dividends

DEM GREATEST FEAR IS GHETTO YOUTHS WITH INTELLIGENCE

I wanna know who is di supplier 

Cause fi dem I got this burning fire

Dem yah youth can't afford a good lawyer

Every year dem fast without prayer"

-'Streetside Ghetto'

Whatever the actual set of circumstances  - it will be extremely interesting to see how history treats the legacy of Lutan Fyah. However, fans of today like ME and YOU are not ready to turn him over just yet as he continues to be simply one of the most impressive wordsmiths Reggae music has ever seen.

Also, be sure to check out a new mixtape from Lutan Fyah, "From Then To Now" (which is apparently the first of a wicked and all-encompassing series of releases charting the entire career of the chanter) courtesy of our old friend Zalemmm from Bass Culture and the Reggae-Unite Blog. BOOM!