Most of his career has heard Tony Roots rail against Babylon and espouse black consciousness. While those themes still dominate his songs, the veteran singer is just as comfortable doing ballads like How Much Longer, his latest single.

Released in September, he co-produced it along with Melbourne “Dusty” Miller, drummer of the Firehouse Crew, and his son Jahbari Miller.

Roots songs are usually based on troubling global and social events which inspire artistes like Tony Roots to express their thoughts. For a ballad, it’s a different method.

“The theme of a song kinda dictates the mood or approach taken when writing. So, yes…when writing ballads the mindset is different…and I would say a milder approach is taken, and this will also become apparent in the final presentation,” he explained.

Tony Roots grew up in Manchester listening to sound systems which would showcase the giants of lovers’ rock including his heroes Dennis Brown and Pat Kelly. The Firehouse Crew, best known for their long association with producer Philip “Fattis” Burrell’s Xterminator Records, backed him on How Much Longer?

They were also on board for his previous songs, the hard-hitting Let Me Breathe and Digi-Human.

Born Anthony Stultz, Tony Roots migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1980s and gradually established himself in that country’s receptive roots scene. Most of his songs and albums were recorded for independent companies such as Jet Star Records.

Grow Your Natty Dread Locks and Hola Zion are two of the songs that earned him a fan base in the UK and Europe.

Though it is not his forte, Tony Roots is just as comfortable “singing for the empresses”.

“I have gotten more support from the roots-reggae dub community over the years. I have also recorded more roots culture songs which can also be seen as love songs. In other words, I don’t record hate songs,” he said.