On the brink of retirement — Tifa releases debut album

Last year was a rough one for LaTifa Brown, better known as the feisty recording artiste Tifa.

Nevertheless, she appears to be making the best of the tumult with the release of her debut album, Curry Goat & Champagne. Last Friday night, the dancehall star gathered close friends and music industry players for a private listening session, where she revealed that she was considering leaving the music business behind forever.

"Two thousand and seventeen was the darkest part of my career. There were so many negative things happening: lock up inna Supreme Court wid big case; big lawyer; bag a money a spend. Everything negative happening to me was because of the music. That was the whole purpose of me doing an album. Last year, I announced that I would be retiring, but if I should go, at least I know that I left a piece of me," Tifa said.

The listening party took place at Epican, the recently opened marijuana dispensary in Marketplace, Constant Spring Road. The deck was laid out with Ludo games and Dominoes and invited guests, who took their own bottles to accompany chasers provided on the house. Keeping the relaxed vibe, Tifa sat atop the bar, where she explained the album's title and sang along to some of the tracks as they played.

"The curry goat side is my Jamaican side, and the champagne side is my international side," she explained. Status aside, Tifa's selections demonstrated a capacity to communicate with her local contemporary musical audience as well as to the palates of consumers of the hip hop or rap genres.

The listening began with the album's opener (Intro) Retirement, a passionate telling of the back and forth the artiste is still battling with does she stay in the music business, or does she go? From the album, Tifa also presented Weh Yuh Feel Like, a song about an ex-boyfriend, produced by Andre 'Suku' Gray of Ward 21 fame. She also played through I'm Da Man, a collaboration with Agent Sasco, which puts both artistes' lyrical finesse at the fore. Other notable collaborations on the project are with dancehall enigma Tanto Blacks and the similarly enigmatic producer Teetimus.

Still, the Spell-It-Out singer has not fully settled on if this will be her first or final full body of work. "Towards the end of 2017, me decide seh mi a guh give it up. It's been nine years. Mi do all of what mi can do. Tiyad, cyaa bodda fight nuh more. But if I was a bank teller, there would be a fight. If I was a teacher, there would be a fight. It's still up in the air. I'm still in the middle about it. We'll see how it goes."

She told The Gleaner: "Im working on it. I started falling back in love with the music, with the writing, the studio process. It feels weird, and it feels good."

As she mulls over the future of her musical career, Tifa is still working to promote her album while putting her ducks in a row. There are plans to launch two business venture, but she was tight-lipped on those details. She did divulge her intention to have these businesses up and running between this year and next.