PREACH - Out This Week
This week Rooftop Records begins the releases of Jaygun, a hip-hop and rap artists we began working with back in 2011.
Jaygun began his career at the early age of ten as a street dancer, break-dancing to the sounds of The Soul Sonic Funk Force, Lisa Lisa, Herby Hancock, Gregory Issacs, Sly Dunbar and a long line of emerging artists. By the age of twelve, Jaygun had found his rap and rhyme “voice” and began to free-style across London. In 2011 Jaygun began to collaborate with and was soon signed to Rooftop Records. In this 8 year period of song writing, production and arrangement the collaboration resulted in an outpouring of songs, lyrics, styles that embraced a huge range of musical genres while testing boundaries.
Much of the inspiration in the upcoming releases begin on the 11th of August, 2011. Carl Falck and Julie Strickland were in the studio co-writing a song called Angel when the news of the London Riots broke. Jaygun was on the phone to Carl and Julie at this time and was eager to get his voice out. This lit a fire inside about the power of words as your weapon against political upheaval, civil unrest and unnecessary violence that was rampant at this time.
With the death of Mark Duggan, an uprising amongst young black people began concerning the way we are policed, the way the government enforces law, the over use and abuse of stop and search and the breach of human rights. The lack of transparency deeply affected communities, peaceful protest were shoved aside, the representation by parents was ignored and once again civil disturbances could have been resolved by simply engaging with the community. The words of the song Riot, starting from what was to be Angel, looked at the conditions in which the society rebels and takes a stand. Those who represented these communities simply did not acknowledge the needs and voice of the people. We wrote a number of songs around social unrest, political upheaval and ethical mentors that stood for fairness, equality, peace and those who would under pin the global statute of human rights.
As we look to the mentors who paved the way, and on this day celebrating Martin Luther King Jr, we are proud to release the full video of Preach. MLK stood for and fought for the values , ethics and morals with the Civil Rights Movement from 1963 until his death. We should not be, still, asking for equal rights based on colour, religion or gender. Today, 45 years later, we should be working as one humanity and using the power of our voice to PREACH. We have to use our voice, not violence, to awaken our communities and leaders. Both MLK and Nelson Mandela have shown us that a single voice can be heard and can make a difference.
Following Preach, each month we will be releasing a song, each with a focus on the power of words, voice and music to fight for what we should already have - Transparency, equality, community, fairness and the full statute of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
The release dates and songs will be as follows:
Preach - Releasing January 25th - Full Video Out Today
The Strings - Releasing February 28th - Teaser Video Out
Soul Power - Releasing March 28th
My Life - Releasing April 25th
Riot - Releasing May 30th