Not At All, says Bryka
As Jamaica grapples with a rising murder rate and rampaging criminals, dancehall artiste Bryka has stepped forward in support of the several states of emergency (SOEs) announced by the Government across the island.
“I’m in support of the SOE because it helps to reduce crimes in the hot spot areas. It is not the perfect solution to all our problems but I believe it saves lives, and that’s important for me,” he said.
Last week, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced SOEs in the police divisions of St James, Westmoreland and Hanover, and in the Corporate Area in the St Andrew South, the Kingston West, the Kingston Central and the Kingston East Police Divisions.
Holness said all of these divisions have seen increases in crime ranging from 16 per cent to 57 per cent.
In the meantime, Bryka is promoting his latest single Not At All on the Red Rum rhythm. The single, released on the Shatess Records music label, will be available on all digital download platforms on November 26.
The song has gained traction recently because it appears to be addressing recent developments in dancehall.
“Some people feel that the song was done to address the noise in dancehall which ignited debates between artistes about people’s sexuality, but this is just a normal everyday topic that is sang about all the time in dancehall,” he said.
The Red Rum project features 18 tracks with heavyweight names like Jahvillani, Gyptian, Jahvinci, Munga Honorebel, Teejay, Wasp, and Bryka. Other artistes include Maino Marley, De Alpha and Ricky Flex.
He said the timing of the project is a mere coincidence.
“The song release date was set a long time ago before all this noise about this and that, so I’d say it is most definitely a coincidence. I don’t incite violence in my music,” he said.
Bryka, born Daniel Anthony Rose, is the nephew of dancehall legend Buju Banton. He showed interest in music developed at an early age while he was a member of the choir at Beulah Missionary Church of God in Golden Spring. After his grandmother died, he decided to do music professionally.
He has worked with production houses such as Konsequence Music, Good Good Productions and Pay Day Music. In July 2016, Bryka performed on Reggae Sumfest in Montego Bay, an experience he says has been one of the highlights of his career thus far.
He is best known for the popular single I’ll Be That Man on the Life to Live rhythm, which has racked up over 100,000 views on YouTube.