Kenyatta takes up Culture’s inquiry
Four years ago while Kenyatta Hill was in London’s Jazz Cafe with his mother, he heard a song being played by the sound system. The singer’s voice was familiar.
“A sey, ‘Mommy, dat soun’ like Daddy’. So, I went over to the selector an’ he told me the song was by Joseph Hill. I never heard the song before so I checked out who the producer was an’ found out it was Blackbeard,” Hill told the Sunday Observer.
‘Daddy’ is Joseph Hill of Culture fame. The mystery song, Policeman, was recorded in 1980 but never released. When Joseph Hill died in 2006, London-based Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell put out a limited edition.
Recently, his son recorded Policeman with Puma Ptah and Akae Beka (aka Vaughn Benjamin of the Midnite band) for Honest Music, an independent company out of Washington DC. It was released on May 27.
“I told Blackbeard it had a quick mix an’ didn’t sound good. I said I would love to do it over and do my father justice,” Kenyatta Hill recalled.
The gangly Hill, a trained audio engineer, got the green light from Blackbeard. He mixed his version of Policeman which addresses police brutality in Jamaica 36 years ago.
Joseph Hill and Culture had a hit song in 1978 with Natty Never Get Weary, inspired by his confrontation with a police officer over him smoking a ganja ‘spliff’.
Kenyatta Hill believes both songs are ahead of their time.
“They’re talking about police brutality at a time when there was really none in Jamaica. He (his father) was foreseeing the future,” he said.
The 37-year-old Hill has carried the Joseph Hill/Culture banner since 2006. He had prior road experience, having toured the world with his ‘old man’ as a sound engineer.
Since then, he has recorded three albums, but admits fans at his shows cry out for the Culture songs.
“They want to hear Two Sevens Clash, ‘Weary’, Stop This Fussing And Fighting, Zion Gate, International Herb..my set is half my songs an’ half Daddy’s,” he explained.
Kenyatta Hill plans to include Policeman in his set during upcoming summer tours of the United States, Europe and South America.
