Chronixx has been pigeonholed to

reggae revival over the past five years, and his releases since fall 2019 are

proof that he’s over it. The singer, who has often rejected the leadership role

of the reggae revival movement, has taken off the industry cap and replaced it

with pure artistry, a move he said was inspired by Koffee.

The fellow Spanish Town native

has had a meteoric career, from signing to a major international label to

winning a Grammy when she was just 19, and she achieved these with genre-defying

music.

For background, artistes come in

the business with their passion-driven, tear-jerking, artistic ideas, but the

music industry also has a long-established modus operandi, prioritising profit

instead of art. To get a taste of crossover glory, many acts comply.

Doing it the industry way,

Chronixx made his 2017 debut album (Chronology)

to fit the aesthetic of this reggae revival sound he was tied to, did the

promotional run across The United States and Europe, yet in the end, didn’t get

the Grammy award for the best reggae album (Damian Marley won with Stony Hill).

Two years later, Koffee comes

along, defies the industry’s obsession with genre classification, and later

earns a Grammy and then some. There are, of course, other considerations like

the benefits of Koffee’s Columbia label-backing, but the limitless range of her

music was enough of a lightbulb to give Chronixx new lens.

“Koffee really made me a

more exciting person musically…” Chronixx said during a recent interview

with Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning.“After seeing how she approach her creativity, it was just like a breathof fresh air. Whenever people used to tell me my music is such a breath offresh air, it’s the first time I got to experience it from a artiste that was afew years younger than me… before now it was just the artistes older thanmyself or the more experienced artiste that I get such a heavy inspiration frombut it’s such a beautiful thing to see it come from a young artiste in mytime.”

Enter Cool As the Breeze/Friday.

Chronixx’s newest release is a genre-bending track, fusing elements of African sounds thanks to British producer Pantha.

“It’s a cool song, is just

like me exploring the full scope of what we’re doing…” he said. “As

an artist, the best place to create from is the place where it’s all one music

cause then you’re never limited to anything having to do with industry

limitation and I’m really enjoying that. It’s a nice place to be in as an

artiste.”

The track will form part of his

upcoming album, Dela Splash, which

he said is “going more into the festive side of music. Let’s make a music

that everyone can understand and dance to.”

The album is slated for release

later this year, and will add to his other releases showing this “festive

side” (title track included), like his jam with The Free Nationals, Eternal Light.

He also revealed he has

unreleased music with Afro-fusion star, WizKid.