While on a school tour across Jamaica earlier this year, deejay Shaka Pow pitched the importance of a sound education to students in high, primary and basic schools.

Beating the books is the message behind Fully Bright and Back to School, his latest songs which were released before the 2023-24 school year began.

Fully Bright was partially inspired by a hit song from one of dancehall’s hottest acts.

“It’s done in response to Valiant’s Dunce Cheque, to counter encouraging leaving school with no subjects and depending on unorthodox means to acquire wealth. It’s not geared at the artiste but the ideologies and the impact it could have on impressionable minds,” said Shaka Pow.

His ‘Fully Bright School Tour’ started in March and ended in July. Shaka Pow addressed students at prominent Corporate Area high schools such as Kingston College, Wolmer’s Boys and Meadowbrook, St John’s Primary in St Catherine, and Park Hall Primary and Infant School in Clarendon.

A father of two sons, Shaka Pow said he grasped the power of education from early. Professionally, he is Dr Garth McDonald, an obstetrician/gynaecologist who attended St Catherine High School and transferred in fourth form to Kingston College, where he completed his secondary education.

As Shaka Pow, he began recording in 1996. His first song, Hello Hello, was a collaboration with Cee Dee, a fellow medical student at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

— Howard Campbell