Gentleman explores sanity in ‘Mad World’

Gentleman is the artiste who brought German reggae to the international stage. For 30 years, the Cologne native has been writing music history and enjoying worldwide success as an authentic reggae musician.

“Reggae unites people,” said Gentleman when asked why he still believes in this music genre from the small Caribbean island of Jamaica. “There’s something very fundamental in reggae that everyone understands straight away. On top of that, reggae and dancehall have influenced all of pop music so profoundly that a lot of it now has a similar sound. But this realness, this authenticity, can only come about if you feel the music on a spiritual level.”

With a new studio album, Mad World, he marks another milestone, taking him back to his musical roots, all while forging ahead with his life’s work. Released on December 2, the 12-track album marks his return from his linguistic detour and is sung entirely in English.

“The songs in German were important and necessary and defined me more strongly as an artiste,” said Gentleman of his work on German-language album Blaue Stunde from 2020.

He added, “English speaks to people all over the world, and the message in my music and songs is universal, too. So it was only logical for me to continue in English.”

Mad World, as an album title, describes the increasingly chaotic state of society from an observer’s point of view, but for the artiste, it also presents “something of a cure for this crazy world, a form of musical therapy, lifting you up from the lows to reach the next high”.

As an artiste and musician, Gentleman cannot be neutral or apolitical but sees it as his mission to name problems and provide a way out.

“Reggae has never lost its rebellious nature. It’s part of its DNA to address uncomfortable things and at the same time, to give hope that you can overcome them,” Gentleman opined.

He taps Etana and Stonebwoy for the only two collabs on the project, and some of the songs are Things Will be Greater, Island Breeze (featuring Etana), Can’t Lock the Dance (featuring Stonebwoy), Stick to the Topic, Defining Love, Far From the Rage and the title track.

Self-determination and confidence have always been the core of reggae’s philosophy for him. This was true back in the early ‘90s when as a hip-hop fan, he noticed that Jamaican dancehall acts had more and more controversial things to say, and their MC styles were more drastic and extreme than those of the more successful and commercialised US rappers.

The same holds true today as dancehall and Afrobeats pulse through the charts worldwide and Gentleman redefines the message of his reggae for himself. In doing so, he resists being forced into the confines of political parties or fixed political views but stands as always for his own philosophy of a better world for all.

Mad World was created during a phase in Gentleman’s life in which he escaped the frenetic but superficial big-city life and relocated to the inspiring landscape of Mallorca. Organic food, a self-sufficient lifestyle, less digital distraction, more connection with nature are the hallmarks of his everyday life now.

This paring back of complexity is also reflected in the songs: the solutions to an increasingly complicated world lie in simplicity and in the belief that in the end, good will triumph — be it in the big picture or in the small, personal one. The songs are characterised by an all-encompassing love that seeks to understand everything while also recoiling in horror from the world outside. Nevertheless, the light of hope always triumphs in the end — a recurring theme perhaps stemming from his Christian upbringing as a pastor’s son.