#UpNext: Ron-Ric ready to take over dancehall
For Ronique Richards, being a dancehall artiste meant taking time to understand the industry and the work that goes into having a successful career in a sector that often changes with current trends.
The 30-year-old told OBSERVER ONLINE, that after releasing his first song, he took 12 years before being ready to send his message out into the world. With a barrage of music set for release, Richards is eager to jump-start his music journey.
Here are eight questions with up-and-coming artiste Ron-Ric:
1. Why did you choose to pursue a career in music?
Music is something that I love. I think the first song that I recorded was like 12 years ago called ‘Fling it Pon Me’ and I am just always singing or making music or doing something, so why not follow what you love?!
2. What has the journey been like so far?
If I am being very honest, my musical journey has been a lot of just sitting back and listening, doing my own research and seeing what gets the people out, what kind of vibes they like. Figuring out what I can do to enhance the craft, and understanding where music is. I released a song last year called ‘Times Like These’. Leading up to that, I was being introduced to people, and I think I understand the music better.
3. The music industry is very saturated at the moment, how do you plan to stand out and get noticed?
I would like to tell you that I am just being real and talking about real-life experiences, but I will tell you that all of them (artistes) doing real-life experiences. But I think that if I carry the journey that I have been on into my music, everybody can relate to it better instead of some of the fantasy that a lot of artistes sing about. I think this will help me to do the right thing.
4. Do you think use of artificial intelligence (AI) affects the quality of music being released now?
Yes, because sometimes an artiste might can’t find a word or a phrase to put somewhere and when you hear it, you recognise and say ‘ah him couldn’t find anything else to put there’. But with AI, it helps because you can probably rearrange that sentence to say what you want and have it fit back with the beat. You cannot rely on it 100 per cent but it does help.
5. What does a future in music look like for you?
I see maybe 50 music videos in my future, that’s what I would really like. But I just want to get out there on a bigger stage and have more people listen to my music, get feedback from more people, and see what it can do. As I said it is something that I just love so when I go somewhere and I have a friend at a party and I give a song and you hear a man say ‘yow!’ and the crowd rail up, you know say yeah people ago enjoy this.
6. What have you taken from watching other artistes and applied to your life and music?
Many different styles, flows and lyrics have shown me how to thrive in the industry, but consistency and humility are what keep the longevity and continuous effect that many artistes have done to stay hot, hype and trending. That is what I have applied in my lifestyle and within my career.
7. What message do you want to bring across with your music?
The image of dancehall is what I would want to reflect. Dancehall music and being an artiste is about feeding from influences in our culture added with my own style. My music is a mix of my personality, what I do, see and hear will be delivered. I am a product of my environment and I am nothing but a messenger of such.
8. Any upcoming projects in the works for Ron-Ric?
I will be releasing ‘Help Me Jah’ soon and for ‘Times Like These’ I will be releasing the video for that shortly, maybe within the next month.
Ron-Ric’s music can be found on all streaming platforms.