Empress Minott working on sophomore set
TORONTO-BASED reggae singer Empress Minott is currently working on her 15-track, yet-to-be-titled sophomore album. The set is a follow-up to her debut 10-track Natural Healer in 2011.
“I want fans to look for more positive lyrics. The set will boast some collabs with Louie Culture and an emerging act Vision. A date is to be set for its release,” she told the Jamaica Observer at her old haunt on the banks of the Spanish River in Portland recently.
“When I come here I get to think, meditate, and the lyrics just flow for me. I love coming here by the river as it’s an inspiration; the flow the water the calmness and I give thanks. Living this way it comes easy. Our mother used to go to the river and wash clothes. When the children are in there either we catching janga, bussu or we just swimming and having a good time, that’s my fondest memory growing up in Swift River,” she continued.
Empress Minott (given name Elecia Minott) hails from Eden in Portland. After graduating from Titchfield High School, she migrated to Canada in 2006. While in the Land of the Maple Leaf, Empress Minott recorded Natural Healer. A local release for that set was held in Negril. She also penned Empress Minott’s Inspirational Quotes.
“I was writing R&B music and I found that I wasn’t connected to it. So, in 2007, I came to Jamaica and I wrote my first song Stumbling Block… The song, a single from Natural Healer, was used in the television series Da Kink In My Hair for the whole year,” she said.
She said Stumbling Block did well on the charts in that country.
Empress Minott said music is in her lineage, therefore, a career in that field was inevitable. She is a cousin of Jolly Boys’ lead singer Albert Minott and late reggae singer Sugar Minott.
“Music is something I have been doing since I was here, I was singing at churches, choirs, community functions, and when I migrated to Canada I just kept singing,” she said.
— Everard Owen