Doing it the EASY way
There was a time when dancehall artistes in the business for over 20 years were considered old school. Sipping a chilled Cranberry drink at a Kingston nightclub, singjay Mr Easy looked anything but yesterday’s news.
The stocky entertainer is pitching Gone A Lead, his latest song produced by Notnice Records. Mr Easy is ready to hit the road, with spot dates set for the United States and Jamaica in April, followed by a tour of Europe.
Known for songs like Bashment Gal, Funny Man and Drives Me Crazy, he is aware that staying fresh in the dancehall is critical.
“Mi neva waan go out (on tour) wid di old catalogue; wi want do di new stuff too. It’s good to be on these riddims with all the hot artistes ’cause yuh have to reinvent yuhself,” he told Splash.
Bashment Gal and Funny Man were released in 1996 on producer Dave Kelly’s massive Joyride rhythm. It was Mr Easy’s breakthrough song and set the pace for Drives Me Crazy, which came out in 2004.
Now in his mid-40s, Mr Easy maintains a busy show schedule in the US, the Caribbean, Europe, and southern Africa. Fans, he notes, want to hear songs like Funny Man, along with new material. But audiences are generally receptive to artistes from the 1990s.
The current acts, he added, offer little in terms of variety.
“Most of dem follow each other. Everybody want to soun’ like, be like (Vybz) Kartel – image-wise, everything.”
He believes the biggest drawback for the new generation of dancehall artistes is an absence of mentorship. In the 1990s there was plenty of that going around.
“Dave Kelly was a guidance for us, Danny (Browne) was a guidance at Main Street. There’s nobody like that now. Yuh jus’ voice a song an’ hope it hit,” he reasoned.
Interestingly, Mr Easy (real name Ian Dyer) was into pop and hip hop growing up in Brooklyn, New York, where he migrated in the 1980s. He even did a pop album, Call Me Mr Easy, for Quincy Jones’ Qwest Records.
There was a change in course after linking with Kelly’s hot Madhouse label in the late 1990s. He and Baby Cham rode the Joyride riddim to chart success with Funny Man, which introduced him to dancehall fans.
According to Mr Easy, staying tuned with an evolving market keeps him in demand.
“If yuh go dancehall, my music fit in; pop, same thing. I’m current, still being played on radio an’ that’s key,” he said.