adminI was going to ask, have you ever considered re-singing that song? Never. If you Google me you’ll see this little Marga skinny girl, I looked like Kermit the Frog singing Africa We Want To Go.When you next see Neil Fraser the Mad Professor, could you tell him I asked if you could sing that song together?There was a great cut at Channel One by Stephanie Samuels and I think the time is ripe for you both to it again.
(laughs) Don’t worry I will. If it’s anything like Inna Mi Blood with those drums man, it should be the bomb!
Sorry, let’s get back to being signed to Tuff Gong.
I don’t remember the specific date of the talent contest but a couple of days after we went to Tuff Gong. And when I went to Tuff Gong, there was Mr Marley! I’ll never forget that day. It was so indelible in my mind. I remember Diane Jobson, Bob’s attorney, with her big natty and her big car! She took me around and said “Bob! See the lickle girl here!” And there was Bob smiling down at me! I’ll never forget that. Bob was beaming to meet me when I was introduced to him. I have to admit I never understood how profound that moment was. I was a kid so I was more interested that I’d just passed Common Entrance to go into High School and was more absorbed by being accepted. I really was just a little child. I looked like seven. I was one of those whingey whiney little girls, I looked so tiny. And there was Bob. Then after that they orchestrated and got a songwriter for me. I had to go to Tuff Gong almost every single weekend and they taught me my little song (sings) “Starvation on the land!” which you can get on YouTube.
I’m proud to own it on 56 Hope Road 45.
There you go! So I would practise until there was the big day! My first studio gig ever! I was so excited but I think my father was more excited. Every time I speak that story I still get emotional because it’s so far [back] but it’s such a beautiful story. There I was, totally excited, the first thing with professional musicians. I didn’t know they were professional musicians. I was just a little girl and everybody was excited.
They called me, they put me there and there was this microphone and I was like (sings) “Ooh yeah yeah yeah” and who burst in? It was Bob who burst in and he was like (kisses teeth) “What you doing? Put ‘pon the stool man” I couldn’t even reach the mic! So they put me on the stool which gave me a little more length. “Mek her siddung”. They had these stool that were kind of high. They were made for adults.
They placed me on the stool and I was like (sings) “Starvation on the land” and Bob said “Alright” and then he went around the console. I had no clue what was happening. (move up) He came in and was like “Yeah man”. I know I have the mindspace and the musicians went (sings bass line) “doom-doogoo-doogoo-doogoo-doom” and Bob saw that and he went (sings rhythm guitar) “check-eh check-eh” and he was telling the musicians. If you listen to Starvation you hear a Wailers feel because Bob was directing the music. (big sigh) Oh God! It was just such an incredible story.
Throughout your life you have never neglected your education while pursuing music. Was that something your parents instilled in you?
Totally instilled. Actually academic-wise I was not… I was kind of bright. It wasn’t really encouraged in terms of how some people always say… you grow up with a narrative that you are artistic. So I did ok in high school. I did better at the university because I totally took that narrative out of my head.
My family is a big family and there are many voices. My father was accountable to his sisters and there was a group of people who insisted “give her the basic education”. Because at that time my high school that I went to, St Andrew High School, is a very prominent high school in Jamaica. It’s an all-girls school and it still is one of the top, so to get into that high school alone was an achievement. So I had to go through. My father was insistent that I get my High School education. —Reggaeville
What did your mother and father do for a living?
He was a taxi man. We weren’t rich people but I don’t know about sufferation. I can’t speak about that because my father was a very productive man. He bought his land in Above Rocks. He had his own house. He was a very constructive thinker in terms of his future. He bought his house when he was 33. He was not a rich man but he really was grown from the usual Jamaican rural kind of mentality where you have to try to make your life and work! We poor but we full of dignity! That was the kind of mind-set that my family was grown on. I guess in some sense I kind of have that foundation because I love to work! (laughs)
My mother… I am what we call a Barrel Child. She left when I was 12 to go to the States. We still communicated, the family was still there but it was kind of broken because she was away. But she still spoke into my life. Everybody eventually lived back together but I’m the typical Jamaican, not rich person story. My father wasn’t like a lawyer or doctor and my mother wasn’t like the struggling people.
As I said, I don’t know poverty. I can’t really speak about hungry belly because that was not my reality but I was not living in posh-ness or prosperity. I was provided for but I knew the value. People who were trying to make their lives. People who were just trying to move their lives from one level to another. That was their story.
Where does the music come from in your family in terms of lineage?
Two sides. My mother back in the days, you have to understand the age group and now studying culture I understand why my mother would [sing] (imitates opera singing) that European kind of singing. She was great, my mother. She doesn’t practise but I remember my mother singing with this kind of voice. My mother was also very artistic. She could draw and she was a good artist. My father was a good singer.
He said to me that during the Wailers time he went to audition with this group as a harmony singer although I don’t remember the name of the group. So both of them had incredible voices. The singing was not one side. I got it double dosage.
So when you joined Tuff Gong you said Starvation On The Land was written for you?.
It was Sangie’s song. At the time Starvation was written there was a new social phenomenon that was happening in Jamaica. We had all these young men cleaning car windows at the stop light, you see them all the time now but at that time it was new. It was really “Lord, look where we a come to!”
What impact did those lyrics make on you at age 11?
I swear to God, I’m not going to tell you any wonderful hifalutin story. I was 11. I sang it and I danced it but I was not able to process it. I was not a conscious sister at 11. I was a kid who could sing and dance and get this material and deliver it.
And at the same time you were absorbed in high school. I started high school. I love this little story. St Andrew High School was everybody from every social echelon. It had more of an upper middle class, upper class thing there. I was probably one of the poorer students. I remember standing in a class and going “My name is Nadine and I am an amateur singer” and everybody chuckled. By the time Tastee came and Tuff Gong I was like “Seeeeee you allllllll! Look at me!” (laughs) I was like “Amateur singer? No amateur singer! PRO-fessional!” But they were just being girls.
My school is extremely supportive of me. The women I went to school and even the women beneath us and before us, it is a great institution to stand on the shoulders of.
For contributions on reggae/dancehall music and latest news contact Ras Libz Kartel on 0773 219 891.
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