Reggae crooner Tony Rebel’s latest song ‘I Can’t Recall’, is already a hit even though it is yet to be officially released. The song is about the happenings at the recently concluded Manatt-Dudus enquiry that captivated the nation of Jamaica and certain parts of the world for more than 40 days. The song is hilarious and pokes fun at government in a creative, satirical manner.
The song was written, voiced and mixed over a three-day period last week, and was played for the first time on Irie FM and Hitz 92 last Friday by Ron Muschette and Jenny Jenny, respectively, Rebel revealed. Since then, Rebel said, the response has been unprecedented.
“It’s been a little overwhelming. I knew it would capture the imagination, but within a few days it has surpassed expectation,” he said. “My phone has been ringing 24/7. People want the song,” he tells The Gleaner.
“People have been calling from all over the world, my email is crowded and my BBM crowded.”
The song has also been spreading like wildfire in the social media via a fan-created video on YouTube that eventually made its way onto Facebook. “Pandemonium,” is how the song’s producer Donovan Germaine has described what I Can’t Recall has been creating since last Friday.
no release date yet
Germaine says no release date has been set, but what the song has been doing since last Friday has demonstrated that there is hope for the local music industry if artistes start writing about relevant social issues once more.
That being said, he is awestruck by how well the song has been received. “I never expected this,” he said.
Rebel tells The Gleaner that Germaine suggested that he write something about the enquiry, since he had been spending so much time watching it each day.
The singer, who just a couple years ago released Another Bill Again, said he too had been thinking of writing about it.
“It was good to see our politicians being grilled, it was interesting to see K.D. Knight, who we just saw as another politician, but had no idea was so sharp, Frank Phipps who is over 80 years old, but so sharp,” Rebel revealed.
He also said that he didn’t hear the answers to many things that were asked during the enquiry, but the experience was riveting.
Rebel describes himself as a true Rasta man and a social commentator who has done songs like Sweet Jamaica, and the aforementioned Another Bill Again.
He said he went about this song as he has all others of a similar nature. “I talk about this with balance, fairness and truth,” he said.
SOURCE: Jamaica Gleaner
