There will be two firsts at Studio 38 on Sunday. It will mark the first time a foreign act will perform at the popular venue for which weekly live music is a staple. And it will be the first local appearance for Senegalese Meta Dia of Meta and the Cornerstones.

Reggae being the root of his musical inspiration, Dia (which is pronounced as Jah in Senegal) aims is to fuse Afro pop, hip hop, rock and soul along with a mixture of French, English, Wolof and Fulani vocals with the Jamaican sound.

It’s a bid to organically grow his fanbase in the birthplace of reggae.

“We are going to share the stage with Bushman and I am honoured and excited to be playing in Jamaica,” said Meta Dia in a Splash interview regarding his performance at Kingston Rock on Sunday at Studio 38 in New Kingston.

He made key contacts on his first trip: “I was fortunate enough to meet Damian and Julian Marley on my first trip to Jamaica… I want to continue to strengthen the link between Africa and Jamaica.”

“Definitely, I want to make the connection between Jamaica and Africa,” affirmed the Brooklyn, New York-based entertainer. “When I was in Senegal growing up, my mom used to play a lot of reggae, a lot of Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, Steele Pulse and stuff like that,” he said, while explaining that when he was going to school, hip hop was introduced to his country and he started out doing rap.

Meta Dia said at the time he didn’t speak English, but whenever he heard reggae he would still feel connected. After he moved to the US, and learned English, he was even more inspired listening to reggae. “I could always feel the vibes when I heard reggae.”

The inspiration of reggae led him to start looking up to the Jamaican artistes and then start writing songs. “So pretty much the inspiration is from here (Jamaica). I wanted to come to Jamaica a long time. It was pretty much like a dream,” he exuded.

In 2002, while in New York, he met Sydney Mills from Steel Pulse to whom he expressed the desire to come to Jamaica to do his next album. “I was telling him, ‘Sydney, the next album I want to do, I really want to go to Jamaica. I want to discover it, I want to find the musicians, to catch that feel.’ So that’s what ended up bringing me here,” Meta Dia told the Splash.

This is his second such project. His first album Forward Music, which he recorded in New York, with his band The Cornerstones came out in 2008. The set he is working on will be called Ancient Power, because he said everything started in Africa. It will feature musicians such as the New York-based Jamaican percussionist, Larry McDonald, U Roy (whom he said is one of his inspirations), Capleton, Julian Marley (with whom he did a combination of the elder Marley’s Concrete Jungle) and Sydney Mills, who is also the producer of Ancient Power which is independently produced.

“The whole project that we are working on now is this album that I am doing. I am trying to do the link between the artistes here, because I believe that Africa needs reggae… I am trying to reconnect Africa and Jamaica. Because definitely I appreciate conscious music and coming to Jamaica. I am seeing how Jamaicans love Africa and have this big respect for Africa. Sometimes I wish Africans over there could see it. But a lot of the times you have to get out of your country to see the picture. And coming here I see the picture moreso. It’s like a pleasure and a honour,” said the 29-year-old.

Meta Dia explained that he and others are continuing the struggle left by the late Lucky Dube, seen as the leader of the African reggae movement.

“We have a few leading reggae artistes in Africa. Tiken Jah Fahkoly, and Alpha Blondy. As for myself, I don’t consider rankings. Coming from Senegal I am grateful that I was influenced by Bob Marley amongst other reggae artistes, and that I am able to be a part of this reggae movement,” he said.