Masego continues ‘Studying Abroad’ as he strengthens J’can connections

He sings that he could “talk himself into sacred places”, and in fact, this silver-tongued devil of a musician, who goes by the name Masego, did just that with the collaboration with dancehall pop princess Shenseea, spitting lyrics as smoothly as he played the saxophone.

He is part of the dynamic collective of musicians, who, though even having migrated in their childhood, still manage to connect with their ancestries, which, in his interview, Masego explained has always been a root cause for his experimentation with the reggae and dancehall genres.

“I’m always making music. I’m in tune with musicians and get along easily with them because we share a certain bond through the music, and in my recent visit, I got to interact with live musicians in Kingston and Spanish Town. Across the world, that’s my community. It’s as simple as that. There are also outliers in Jamaica, (so) I felt at home with that, and very welcomed even though my patois isn’t real fly or anything like that. I have been working with Jamaican musicians from I was around 16 years old,” Masego shared.

But for the Virginia-raised virtuoso, returning to Jamaica wasn’t only about making connections, he told The Gleaner, “I feel like it’s important to fill in that part of my history. My father shared a lot of the things he learnt while growing up in Waterhouse and around Kingston. His upbringing was definitely different from mine. As far as where I was brought up, it was not about having to work but choosing to work … Jamaica and the US are like night and day.”

He added: “We had a photoshoot downtown where I watched men doing carpentry on the streets. I saw the market, and he [my father] used to tell me of my grandmother being in the same market selling whatever from dresses to little knick-knacks. I don’t know, I guess you could describe the feeling as nostalgia.”

SILVER TONGUE DEVIL

The Silver Tongue Devil collaboration with Shenseea is on its way to garnering three million streams on Spotify, contributing to Masego’s over six million monthly listeners, but the entertainer was nonchalant about it, as he said, “I don’t care any less or more about the number of streams. That is for my team, but YouTube is a big platform in Jamaica, so eventually, it should reflect who is listening. I care about the people that are tweeting and posting videos, dancing to the music,” taking note that Jamaica is not a major streaming audience. The visuals, which premiered on YouTube on Thursday, October 29, with more than 226,000 views and held a position as one of the top 10 trending for nearly a month, is up to 755,571 and 1.9 million views on his and Shenseea’s channels, respectively.

Masego shared, “Any musician, should be on the road to undeniability, which means studying your craft to a very high level. I think that will give you the best shot to the fame, fortune, and discovery. I feel like if you really become undeniable to your craft music or art, [or] whatever study, with whatever resources are available then your gift will make way for you".

Masego released his Studying Abroad EP last month, the follow-up to the 2018 debut album Lady Lady that positioned him on the map as a multiinstrumentalist, singer, and songwriter and afforded countless opportunities to tour across the seven seas to headline shows and to work with a heterogeneous collective of producers and musicians – some of these either descendants of Jamaicans or from Jamaica. Izybeats, given name Andron Cross who is responsible for Silver Tongue Devil, which is one of six tracks on Studying Abroad, is one such producer, and another Jamaica-born emergent producer is Jean-Andre Lowell Lawrence, better known as JLL, who worked on Navajo, Masego’s second-highest streamed single, released approximately three years ago. Navajo has received over 74 million streams according to the artiste’s Spotify, though not featured on the albums mentioned.

SOME DANCEHALL FAVOURITES

In revealing that he had recently listened to 1970s reggae group The Congos’ Fisherman record, Masego also named a few dancehall favourites.

“As far as dancehall, it’s nothing that is going to surprise you. I listen to Vybz Kartel and Dexta Daps … I love that Breaking News track, and I don’t even know what you categorise that artiste as,” he said. It is important to note that the music that the 'saxy' star creates is not categorised as reggae and dancehall. And he isn’t trying to copy it either. Referred to as traphouse jazz, it blends several genres.

“Reggae music is very inviting. The artistes or creators of the genre want you to sing along to it, with the call and response nature of it. That is a big part of my performance style and is in some of my songs as well. It is about the approach for me and the energy of the dancehall music. That is an element in some of my songs as well,” Masego noted

“I feel like if people listen to my entire discography, it will answer any questions they have about me,” he continued, adding that, “there’s no mystery to me. At least I don’t think so. I just make music about what I know.”

Working with several Jamaican artistes and producers since establishing a name in the business served as a musical rite of passage for Masego, and he is looking to work with many more as he widens his catalogue and, ultimately, his reach.

“I made a lot of music with Protoje, trying to get in with Chronixx, and always like to work with a lot of the musicians in Jamaica as I said before. So there’s bound to be a lot more. I will return perhaps after the pandemic as I would like for it to be a smooth travel. In the meantime, people can keep on ‘studying abroad’ until they get tired of it,” he said.

stephanie.lyew@gleanerjm.com