For aspiring artistes like Ijah Pure, there was no better place to learn the dancehall ropes than Olympic Way, the tough Kingston community that was one of the genre’s hot spots during the 1980s.

The Florida-based singjay/producer has operated Tuff Links Records since 2019. Its latest projects are the songs Reggae Still Alive by Lukie D and Too Fly, by Kantus, Ijah Pure’s son.

Tuff Links Records has also produced two ‘riddim’ albums — the Mind And Soul which came out in 2019 and the Sydonnie which was released last year.

Lukie D, Norris Man, Fyah George, Anthony B and Ijah Pure contributed songs to those compilation albums.

“What wi trying fi do is bring back a certain quality to di music, a certain vibes because di sound change. Wi want to bring back dat live feel,” said Ijah Pure

The Mind And Soul has songs like Bless Me by Lukie D and Mr Government, done by Ijah Pure, who began recording songs during the 1990s.

With Tuff Link Records, he is keen to revive the live feel of dances he attended as a youth in Olympic Way by sound systems such as Explosion and Stur Gav.

Ijah Pure’s recording career started with Name Brand Things, a song produced by Sly and Robbie. He did other songs such as A Coulda weh me Do for Sugar Minott and Dem A Watch Me for Hon’y Comb Records.

He started the latter company in 2012, with Michael “Rasta Mikey” Kerr. Among its projects were the Bitter Heart and Wicked Heart rhythms.

Ijah Pure (real name Christo Roswell) is determined to produce songs with staying power.

“WI neva stop do music an’ wi always want to do songs dat mek a difference,” he said.

Howard Campbell