Richie Innocent

The 'ballad of an old Woman' was perhaps the turning point in the story of a young man's life, a young man who could not read up to grade four. He is Richard 'Richie Innocent' Robinson, the 'DJ Poet' from Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth.

Born in Kingston at Victoria Jubilee Hospital in 1973, he attended Chettolah Park Primary and St Anne's Secondary schools in the Corporate Area. Shortly after entering St Anne's, he migrated to St Elizabeth, where he attended Santa Cruz All-Age and Lacovia Secondary schools, and St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS). However, up to age 10, he couldn't read.

"I didn't know how to read, I just didn't know how to read, but I could write," he said. This was proving to be quite embarrassing to Richard, so he found a way to keep his illiteracy to himself. He recalled: "Whenever time they would say reading after lunch time, I would hide away from school, school would end for me; I said that I can't read, so after lunch I would leave, but my parents wouldn't know."

He loved poems; could recite, but couldn't read them. However, somewhere between grades four and five, he "discovered reading (and) that's when the writing took off".

He explained: "I was hearing the poems and loving the poems, and then, when I discovered I could read, I started writing for myself."

Popular poem

Always having a passion for spoken words, he was influenced by Louise Bennett Coverley and Evan Jones ('Song of the Banana Man'). So it came to him naturally when, in grade eight at STETHS, a teacher, Mrs Cornwall, challenged the class to put music to the very popular poem, Ballad of an Old Woman. Richard's classmates tried, but it was when he did his rendition that Mrs Cornwall was most impressed.

"I started deejaying it, then the entire class started beating the desks, and then the teacher now left that class, went to all the other eight grades, and told them that this student in her class put song to it, so everyone in all those eight grades came to my class to see the deejay doing the poem," he remembered.

That was the beginning of his journey to where he is today. He has combined his knack for writing poems with his ability to put them to music. deejay poetry is the performance of poems set to dancehall rhythms. Thus, with this distinction, he doesn't see himself as another run-of-the-mill deejay, writing tunes with no enduring lyrics. While mediocrity is the norm for some, it isn't for him, so he takes time to come up with different concepts, with an emphasis on finding a solution for the issue at hand.

So, instead of writing lyrics for popular, but short-lived dancehall tunes, he has opted to write poetry and set them to music, the writing coming first and the rhythm after. In this way, he said, the inspiration comes from deep within and, with that also comes the message. Lyrics for popular deejay tunes are so easy to write, he argued, but are they wholesome and long-lasting?

Recently, Robinson released his first single, Drugs fi Gun, inspired by the so-called drugs-for-guns trade between elements in Jamaica and Haiti. The song, recorded on the Addiction rhythm for Flava Squad Entertainment, is getting a significant amount of airplay on some local radio stations and on at least one in New York.

The feedback from the public is great so far, though the song has a different focus and sound. He wants this song to go to people's hearts, to bring about behavioural changes. The thrust, therefore, of his poems is to give a voice to 'the voiceless'. He writes about people's plights, and empathises with them.

Prior to Drugs fi Gun, he had a combination with Lorna Bennett - of Breakfast in Bed fame - called Chapel of Doubt, and with a few others. He has performed at many stage shows, notably GT Taylor's Christmas Extravaganza, from 2003-2005 and, more recently, at Yasus Afari's 'Pomedy' at STETHS. A major aspect of his outreach modus operandi is school concerts, where he goes to 'teach' via deejay poetry.

National finals

Over the years Richie Innocent has copped several awards, including a gold medal for speech at the 2000 Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) St Elizabeth parish finals; a JCDC bronze medal in 2003 for dub poetry. He was also a 1992 JCDC Pop and Variety Contest winner, and represented St Elizabeth at the national finals.

What does Richie Innocent say to himself and other youths who might want to venture into this 'uncommon' genre of music?

"Stay the course, regardless of what may seem to be the norm, and seem to be drowning what you are doing and what you are saying, because the time will present it for you to be able to say what you want to say and, in the meantime, you can say what you are saying. It doesn't matter how small the audience is."

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com