After 11 years recording indigenous songs, Sasco de Dancehall Chaplain wanted to step outside his comfort zone while maintaining the heritage of Sierra Leone, his homeland.

Day Off, a song he released in April, blends the Afro sound synonymous with West Africa and Jamaican dancehall.

“We only had some creativity which hailed from an initial thought of mine, imagining how we could mix Afro and dancehall to produce something, somehow different and unique. I told Sticks, the producer, about it [and] I think the following day or some other day he went to the studio where I spent the night, woke me up from sleep and told me that we were going to work on it,” Sasco De Dancehall Chaplain recalled in an interview with the Jamaica Observer. “Immediately, he got everything set and started playing something. And then in the process, I tried deejaying on the riddim which ended up to be Day Off as it is today all by God’s perfect grace.”

Sticks (real name Sahr James) is one of the top music producers in Sierra Leone, a country that borders Liberia and Guinea. He is also Sasco De Dancehall Chaplain’s cousin.

Both were reared on diverse sounds played by the various ethnic groups in Sierra Leone. Afrobeat, a horn-driven sound fashioned over 40 years ago by Nigerian Fela Kuti, was a major influence.

Afrobeat spawned Afrobeats which is the rage throughout Africa and major pop markets in the United States and United Kingdom.

Sasco De Dancehall Chaplain, whose influences include Konshens, Demarco and Sean Paul, says Jamaican music is also popular among youth in Sierra Leone.

“Reggae/dancehall has been a trending genre over a decade-and-half in Sierra Leone. It’s one genre among others that’s been consistently accepted by music listeners and lovers in Sierra Leone. Of course, they are being played on radio and in clubs seriously,” he disclosed.

Born Sahr Thomas Lebbie, Sasco De Dancehall Chaplain is from Freetown, his country’s capital. Some of his previous songs, such as Freetown and Ring The Alarm, are dancehall-inspired.