Ras Michael is a serious Rastaman who creates music to live by.
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Ras Michael learned the methods of African burra and
kumina hand drumming used to call prayer meetings and social gatherings held by the
African people in Jamaica. This ancient order goes back to the
practices of the priests and elders in Lalibela, Ethiopia and has made Ras
Michael one of the most important conveyors of the Nyahinghi sound in Reggae Music and an
international legend in his own time. Since the mid 1960’s Ras Michael has held his
royal position as the Nya Man, the Congo Man and says that the word
Nyahinghi means, righteous vibrations stretching all the way back to the Motherland.
He has performed with the highest order of Reggae musicians including the great Peter
Tosh, Burning Spear and the dynamic duo, Sly Dunbar & Robbie
Shakespeare and has even lent his talents to performances with the great Stevie
Wonder and Roberta Flack. Probably, his most historic musical event was his
performance at the 1978 One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica with Bob Marley
who later commented about Ras Michael by saying, "Ras Michael is a Roots Master
and a Nyabinghi specialist. He tells it like it is." A statement that has rang
true for Ras Michael who continues to perform his mind expanding music to a new generation
of fans around the world.
I was honored to spend a little time with Ras Michael in a telephone
interview conducted on September 1, 2004 as the featured artists for this month’s
Reggae Review and in preparation for his upcoming performance at the 9th Annual
Monterey Bay Reggae Festival in Monterey, California where he will perform on Sunday,
September 6, 2004.
Livonn: Ras Michael, where does the inspiration for your songs spring
from?
Ras Michael: My inspiration comes
first thorough the inspiration of the
Father and then He connects
my spirit also with the surroundings and spirituality of his powers and his might, you
know, and his love and kindness towards us and the blessings to the people and everything
that he does for the whole universe. It is such a wonderful thing to know that there is a
power and all powers are subject to that higher power and that higher power is the
inspirator and life giver for all mankind. I am inspired through this ever flowing
presence that is in man in these time, it can be my people and my life.
Livonn: When you write your songs, does the spirit take
you over?
Ras Michael: It is a spiritual thing for
me, that’s why I feel it from my own self, going from my own self, going to the
artists and the people and when I go into the studio, it’s the same thing I feel,
because its not like just a songwriting thing, its an inspirational presence, the music,
the people, the spirit, the way it makes me feel, its like I know thorough myself that the
people feel it because its from the heart.
Livonn: Can you talk about your lecture engagements,
specifically on the topic of Jamaican Music with an African Identity that you spoke
about at the California Institute of Arts?
Ras Michael: You see, in this country, arts
and culture means a lot for it inspires other people to know about each other in all
different areas of life. My music on a whole, or Jamaican music and the identity of the
African foundation is to show them that music is an international language. Although our
fore parents were brought into the West as slaves, the identity of our music and our
African traditions was beaten out of us. We always have that tradition of inspiration of
our own selves, Mother Africa and our music. Therefore, if you go to Jamaica you
hear
the Pocomania and Kumia and you have different kinds, you have Calypso. The Pocomania is a
spiritual togetherness, like a church thing and the Kumia is that spiritual frenzy, sing
about God and beat dem drums so its an ancient traditions from before I born, it’s a
traditional thing with these Africans that were brought to these islands we all have our
different styles and we used these drums also for our social and religious gatherings. And
Calypso, you know you hear me sing a song about "Sweet Jamaica" about the
different people. Out of Many Come One, our motto. The African traditions and the
Honorable Marcus Garvey (organizer for the UNIA and H.I.M. pick up it up and start the
E.W.F or Ethiopian World Federation), Leonard Howell (known as the first Rasta), Mortimo
Planner (Mortimer Planner or Mortimo Planno as he has come to be known was born in
Kingston, Jamaica in 1920) all those great brothers and people that deal with the back to
Africa movement. So, it’s a tradition but we are very proud of ourselves and our
Motherland, its not like the way our people look 'pon Africa like a jungle and there are
people naked and heathens, they don’t look at it like a culture…there are things
we should know, Africa is the country where gold, platinum and all these things come
from…"
Livonn: You are known also as the Ambassador of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church, what are your responsibilities as
Ambassador?
Ras Michael: Well, as a Rastafarian from a
youth man, we use to read too much about the Ethiopian church because before it was set up
in Jamaica, I use to speak of the Ethiopian 
Orthodox Church because we use to have a
magazine that use to come and my brother use to have dem, and we see them and we use to
talk about Ethiopia and the church, so we always think of the Ethiopia as a church until
when His Majesty visit Jamaica and set up the church there…and in my work I use to
work along with the priest that go around and help set up branches of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church in Jamaica, not me alone but other brothers that have that fullness and
love for the church, the good things, the fullness of the Father. The priest made me an
evangelist so that I can go anywhere to outreach. In Jamaica we were and are still very
God fearing people, we love the Father, you know? We in Ethiopian have one of the oldest
versions of the Bible. The Bible is the rallying point for all humanity. Some people may
tell you something else but the truth swims like oil it stays on top. That allows me to be
able to see each and everyone through the eyes of love and compassion.
Livonn: Speaking of love now, your favorite Ethiopian
word is "Wadada"?
Ras Michael: Yes! It means love! Love, the
fullness of love, "Wadada". What can I really say, its just love, its wonderful.
Livonn: You were dubbed the Roots Master and
Nyahbinghi Specialist by brother Bob Marley.
Ras Michael: (Laughing) Yes Bob Marley,
when he was in Paris, they asked him about me and he said, "Ras Michael is the Roots
Master and Nyahbinghi Specialist, he tells you like it is." The other day when we
were playing at Cisco Grove, the people were so caught up in the music, you could feel it,
this is what the music is missing that spiritual love. Why? Because there is a vacuum in
the music industry that is leaving out and then the people go wild and crazy because the
people don’t have anything really to hold and to bring them to a standard of
consciousness.
Livonn: Yes! That leads up to my next question. How do
you feel about the trends in Reggae music today?
Ras Michael: Well, the foundation music, as
Bob would say, ‘when it hits you, you feel no pain.’ But its like Bob was always
like a politically singer and player, that was him. Its like, we came with the music to
uplift and straighten people, not music to downgrade and make them unconscious. That is
the trend I’m hoping to see the youth pick up and try to get more conscious and bring
this whole world to be a better place of consciousness, you know, that people can really
live and some people can live again. That is what the real reggae music is all about.
Livonn: Yes Ras! And when you hear your music, you know
that it is a spiritual music, a conscious music because as the drums beat and you sing
your song, your being comes alive and you can feel your breath, your heart beat…you
really feel that you are alive! Its an incredible experience and it makes me recall when I
saw people in the church jumping around in a frenzy and I could not overstand what they
were feeling until I experienced your music, then all became clear. Finally, I found
something that I could feel too.
Ras Michael: Its like this brother said,
‘I want a love I can feel’ and that’s my kind of music. True love what you
can feel, the reality, brother, sister…say love, love, love! Because my music is from
my heart, it’s not a pretend situation; I’m not an actor…
Livonn: Yes, it can be confusing as you listen to some
of the music, especially when you hear wisdom in the words and folly in the works of some.
I can’t help but remember when my father use to say, ‘Don’t do as they
do, but do as they say’.
Ras Michael: How powerful the
words…I was reasoning with some brothers and we were talking and it was a thought,
but the Satan he is a demon and he has no body, he is smoke without fire…but if you
allow him to come cause he always ready to come to perform his weird works, so we have to
be careful. As your father say, you don’t do as dem do, but do as dem say which is
right is the whole fullness because the body you know.
Livonn: I must say that your music truly calms the spirit and opens the
heart.
Ras Michael: That’s wonderful. Music
is an international language and they use to have a saying that, all things shall perish
from under the sun, but music alone shall live and never die.
Livonn: Tell me about the idea for the title of your
latest release, A Weh Dem A Go Do Wid It.
Ras Michael: You see people prefer money
more than people, they prefer material things and when they get all these material things,
they can’t carry one thing with dem. They can’t carry dem big bag of money, dem
can’t carry dem big pretty house, dem can’t carry dem big cars when dem have
been buried and if dem bury dem with it, some man will go dig it out (laughing) like the
archeologist.
Livonn: Yes, though the Egyptians mummified themselves
and had their riches buried with them. Perhaps, in hopes that they would return?
Ras Michael: Reincarnation of the spirit is
controlled by the Father, for he is the life giver and as they tell us of the river that
flows in the midst of the garden, the river of life in Revelations and they said there
will be no sun like the sun that shine here, because he himself will be the light so
everything is left to the fate of the individual in the thoughts and the realms of the
Almighty God. So everything is just left to how the individual choose about the Father and
put his trust and his faith in him. The Father says that the streets are paved with gold
in Zion.
Livonn: Are you working on any new projects now?
Ras Michael: I’m working now to open a
culture center up in the Hollywood area and we would also like to open up branches in
Northern California called, Rasta International Marcus Garvey Culture Center. The name has
already been registered with the government and our non-profit status has been
established.
Livonn: Are you working on any musical recordings that
we can look forward to hearing soon?
Ras Michael: Yes, my next album, we are
completing the mixing and will be available soon is called Rainbow and I’m working
towards a Grammy on my next album which is a special one and we are just working on the
songs themselves now.
Livonn: If you could speak to all the people of the
world collectively and you had their ear and knew they are really listening, what would be
the most important thought you could impart to them?
Ras Michael: Well, in my simple and humble
way, I would say to them: We are all children of the Most High. The Almighty is our Father
and we are his children and we must love one another for that is the commandment of love,
upon the commandment of love and all laws and prophets. If we love one another we will
have no fuss no fight no quarrel, no discrimination against each other. And I would tell
them this too, the whole world, remember, the whole world, the people of the whole world
and the whole world is a garden and all the people in it are its flowers and we all
beautify this garden with all our different colors. So love, love ye one to another for he
that loveth is of God. Jah!
Give Thanks and Praises to Ras Michael for his wonderful words of
wisdom.
