by SCOTT C

One of the most recognizable names to emerge from reggae music in the last 20 years doesn’t hail from the Jamaican back country and didn’t spend his adolescence growing up amid the rich musical history of Kingston. Alpha Blondy has crafted a solid career singing songs about struggle, revolution, peace, love and war, all rooted in life in his Ivory Coast homeland. A young Alpha Blondy (aka Seydou Koné) was expelled from college in 1972 and sent to neighboring Monrovia, Liberia, where he gradually learned to speak English. Attending a Burning Spear concert in 1977 while studying in New York City, he discovered reggae music for the first time and has been making it ever since. His latest album Merci is his first studio record in almost five years. The Mirror spoke with Alpha Blondy from his hotel room in Lima, Peru.

Mirror: I’m assuming that you don’t make a trip to Lima for some small affair. Was it a big show?

Alpha Blondy: Oh yes! I’m supposed to go back to New York tomorrow, but we just finished up here yesterday. People were really nice down here and I made a lot of new friends. We were invited to people’s houses, where we ate and talked and met their families. It’s something not everyone who travels like this gets to do. Yesterday, there were about 6, 000 people at the show where we performed, and it was lovely.

M: After making music for so long and seeing the world from stage to stage, have your political convictions changed at all over the years?

AB: No, not at all. I remain dedicated to peace, and anti-war. Perhaps I have gained some maturity about my stance, but it’s still the same. I will always speak out against inequality.

M: Do you believe that when these things come to pass in the world, and none of us can always see them coming, it’s an artist’s responsibility to address these things in their music?

AB: I believe that we all have a responsibility. We are all accountable for what we do on this planet. I have great concerns about the health of the Earth, and in the midst of war and hardships around the world, the Earth is often forgotten. It is very easy to forget about what it is you are fighting for sometimes.

M: Is it easy for you to write about these things?

AB: Yes. You’re a journalist. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper to know that something is wrong with the world. There is inspiration everywhere I look. There are two kinds of media, the media that works for the government in power, and then you have the media that is trying to keep us in reality. The two combined give us a choice. This is a choice that all of us have to make on a daily basis. It’s up to us to believe in what we want to believe.

With Kali Roots at Metropolis on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 8pm, $32, all ages

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