Iotosh’s ‘Fill my Cup’ overflows with consciousness
Published:Tuesday | May 9, 2023 | 12:52 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
There is something Freddie McGregor-esque about Iotosh’s just-released single, Fill my Cup, and while the similarity to the Big Ship captain is not intentional, the up-and-coming singer is quite happy at the comparison.
“It’s the first song in which I am singing ... not deejaying ... and I am also being very lyrical,” Iotosh explained.
For those who are spiritual, there are surely biblical connotations in this plea encased in the title of the song, and as Iotosh shared, it was written at a time when he was feeling the pinch of depression.
“I began writing it two years ago in the pandemic. I had a lot of questions around my career at that point, and I was dealing with a couple of personal things in my life. I was feeling pretty depressed and this song was sent to me. The words were like me reassuring myself. The lyrics are great, and it is technically impressive. What I really wanted was a song to resonate with people. It is the perfect song to step out with,” the Munro College old boy said.
In Fill my Cup, Iotosh sings in the chorus, “ That’s how we feeling, really up, up, up. Jah Jah blessings fill the cup, up, up. So every day we showing love ‘cause love will never fail.”
This 20-something-year-old has already made a name as a producer of worth, and to prove that, he has three Grammy nominations under his belt, the most recent for his productions on both Protoje and Koffee’s 2022 Grammy-nominated albums. Fill my Cup is his first personal release since his newest decoration, and in addition to singing and writing it, he is also the producer, he did the engineering, he mixed and mastered it and then released the song on his own Sound Ting label. The only thing he didn’t do was record.
“In my relatively short career, I have achieved a lot and I give thanks for that. I want to spread good energy ... focusing more on my music rather than other people’s,” he shared, adding that Fill my Cup will be one of the songs on his debut EP, set to be released towards the end of the year.
It is also his best-performing song in terms of the critical numbers and playlist games. In a totally organic way, without the assistance of any major label or marketing gurus, the song has secured a presence on the official playlist of most of the major streaming services. Disc jocks from Europe to Africa have been spinning it, and Iotosh has been inundated with positive messages.
As a person who is totally involved in the music business, and who represented his generation quite well as a panellist at the Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS) Business of Music Seminar in February, Iotosh is unapologetically flying the flag high for “good music”. He knows only too well the complaints that “conscious music nah sell, so we haffi choose the other route”, but it is not an argument that he supports.
“I think that people really want positive music,” Iotosh emphasised. “People love a good song. If they didn’t, then why is it that Bob Marley still has a career after all these years? I’m a conscious person, and I can’t see how you would want to live a life without being conscious. I try to project that in my music,” he said.
Fill my Cup is dubbed “a conscious and feel-good reggae anthem for the ages and offers compassion and hope to every listener who experiences the ups and downs of life while reminding us of the timeless message that love will never fail.